An Avalon Reader: Part One
Exploring the personalities and mythologies of Glastonbury & Avalon through 23 essential books
Hundreds of books have been written about Glastonbury and its archetypal alter-ego, Avalon, which undoubtedly attests to the occultural significance of the place. But for anyone wanting to explore its complex geomythologies, it’s hard to know where to start. So here’s a reading list of 23 books on the subject that I think provides ‘full spectrum’ coverage of all its key topics. It’s somewhat subjective, but I don’t think too many key works have been omitted. If you disagree, let me know in the comments.
There are some heavy-hitters in part one and they are, perhaps, obvious choices. But these personalities have been (and still are) extremely influential in shaping Glastonbury’s evolving mythopoeia. Also, if you’re planning to read my book Avalon Working, then these works will function as foundational texts.
Glastonbury: Avalon of the Heart by Dion Fortune (Red Wheel/Weiser)
This short 98-page love letter to Glastonbury by the renowned 20th century esotericist, magician and author is essential reading, being both a succinct summary of Avalonian themes, and an invocation of its intense otherworldliness:
… Avalon lives its quiet life, invisible save to those who have the key of the gates of vision… [It’s atmosphere] is like a fugue with a thread of many tunes running through it… For Avalon cannot be claimed by any sect as their private sanctuary… All have their part in Avalon, and none can deny the rest.
Fortune places Glastonbury at the centre of the Western Mystery Tradition, as a wellspring of power, myth and spiritual continuity. Her own experiences of it were profound. It was at Glastonbury that she received Inner Plane contact from the ‘Watchers of Avalon’ and, later, certain Ascended Masters and messengers from the Elemental Kingdoms. Glastonbury also became a centre for her pseudo-Theosophical society the ‘Community of the Inner Light’ and, in fact, Avalon of the Heart is a compilation of articles taken from the society’s Inner Light magazine.
Aside from dubious and outdated references to racial groupings (a standard Theosophical trope) Avalon of the Heart is an ideal primer from arguably Britain’s most influential occultist after Crowley, and provides a critical context for her work in forging an Avalonian interpretation of the Western Mysteries.
Other worthwhile Fortune works include: The Magical Battle of Britain, and The Cosmic Doctrine, a work channelled from the afore-mentioned Ascended Masters. The latter is hard going, but John Michael Greer has provided a handy step-by-step guide and commentary.
New Light on the Ancient Mystery of Glastonbury by John Michell (Gothic Image)
If John Michell is the latter-day prophet of Glastonbury’s esoteric destiny, then New Light must be one of the most significant works in its ever-evolving mythopoeia.
Michell was born in 1933 into an upper-middle class family, was educated at Eton and thereafter spent a short period in the Royal Navy, before studying at Trinity College Cambridge. However, in the 1960s he discovered cannabis and LSD, and began increasingly to embrace the decade’s counterculture. In his own words, ‘a new kind of energy seemed to flow in.’[1] He was especially drawn the numinous qualities of the land, and realities that lay beyond what he saw as the vulgar and everyday. This pursuit of what would become a lifelong philosophy manifested first in the book The Flying Saucer Vision: the Holy Grail Restored.
Michell was a revivalist of what he called ‘ancient science’. He believed that modern society is in a state of decadence, fallen from a lost Golden Age. His role, as he saw it, was to communicate a perennially recurrent, unifying vision of harmony, underpinned by a belief that the ‘dimensions of this paradise’ could be distilled into concepts expressed solely by numbers, creating a kind of esoteric, celestial music.
For Michell, Glastonbury was an English Jerusalem, the traditional and preordained centre for the resurrection of this lost universal science. The groundwork for this assertion was laid in his second book, The View Over Atlantis, published in 1969. He posited a theory expanding on Alfred Watkins’s ley concept, proposing that leys were conduits for earth energy, part of a global network formed by an ancient Atlantean religious-scientific elite, in order to channel and direct the energy for the good of humanity and the planet. Further evidence of this ancient science could be found in the complex gematria and metrology underpinning the architecture of the Pyramids, Stonehenge and St Mary’s Chapel at Glastonbury Abbey.
New Light weaves all his theories into a coherent whole, with Glastonbury functioning as its nexus and omphalos. In Michell’s view, its status as an earthly Elysium, the mysteries of the Tor, its Druidic and Arthurian legacy, the Michael Line, the Glastonbury Zodiac, the Twelve Hides and the twelve-fold arrangement of its first Christian settlement, all provide ample evidence for a lost universal science where cosmic order was writ into the land.
His desire for re-enchantment, for the restoration of a Blakean Earthly paradise is evident in his writing, which displays a depth of intuition, power and commitment.
He was said to be child-like, eccentric, puckish and gentlemanly, provocative, naïve, unorthodox, iconoclastic, otherworldy, and nocturnal for most of his adult life; a Platonist with a fascination for Shakespeare and a hatred of metrication.
My favourite John Michell anecdote is this, retold by his younger brother Charles:
John was coming to stay with us in Suffolk. We couldn’t find out which train he was catching, or whether he was coming by train at all; nor could we discover his expected arrival time. [So] we left a note on the door and went off… On the way home we took a scenic route leading through deep Suffolk countryside and drove down a gritty, unpopulated road. Rounding a bend we saw a familiar figure walking briskly, holdall in hand, heading in roughly the right direction but still with many miles to go… We drew up alongside him. John’s face showed no surprise at all. ‘Ah, there you are’ he said… How John had arrived at this spot we never discovered.[2]
Glastonbury: Ancient Avalon, New Jerusalem edited by Anthony Roberts (Rider & Co)
Anthony Roberts, writer, geomant and researcher, was a passionate evangelist for Glastonbury, always asserting its status as Britain’s spiritual omphalos. Not shy of controversy or criticism, throughout the 1980s he was the self-proclaimed guardian of the Avalonian spirit, and its legacy. Outspoken and vociferous, he locked horns with combatants as diverse as Paul Devereux and Glastonbury’s feminist community. On February 9th 1990, aged 49, he died of a heart attack upon Glastonbury Tor. Significantly, it was both the day of a full moon eclipse and John Michell’s birthday. In Michell’s words:
It was not only the feeling of loss that moved us, but a certain pride that Tony had put such a typically magnificent ending to the last chapter of his life.[3]
And to quote Robert Coon:
Anthony Roberts… Is solidly rooted within the Tor… We now have a very powerful spiritual ally for this Great Work operating from the inner heart of Avalon.[4]
The metaphorical guardian of Glastonbury had become its literal sentinel.
Two oak trees were planted on the lower slopes of the Tor in Anthony’s memory, flanking the southwestern pathway to its summit.
Published in 1976, Glastonbury: Ancient Avalon, New Jerusalem contains twelve essays to reflect Glastonbury’s twelve hides, and the twelve zodiacal stations of Katherine Maltwood’s Temple of the Stars. Focussing primarily on geomantic topics from luminaries such as John Michell and Nigel Pennick, the book was, and remains, an important compilation. It is notable for its afterword by occult philosopher and critic Colin Wilson.
Other works by Anthony Roberts include: The Dark Gods, and Atlantean Traditions in Ancient Britain.
Avalonian Aeon by Paul Weston (Avalonian Aeon)
Where to begin with Paul Weston? Author, lecturer, researcher and tour guide and, in common with many personalities on this list, a long-time and devoted advocate for Glastonbury as an active, evolving sacred centre. Paul seems to have a prodigious talent for ingesting vast quantities of information, synthesising them in new and novel ways, and transmitting them back in the form of – primarily – hugely entertaining and insightful books. Of the eleven or so currently available, Avalonian Aeon is the recommended entry-point, detailing in its first autobiographical section Paul’s introduction to Glastonbury (the festival and the town), and his awakening through engagement with its Mysteries (and with strong psychedelics.) As he becomes educated in Avalonian lore and the wider teachings of the world’s various Mystery Traditions, descending further into a magickal rabbit hole, so too do we, the reader, become illuminated by proxy.
The second section extends previously unpublished material from renowned esotericist and researcher Andrew Collins, including the entire story of the seven swords of Meonia, part of which incorporates an extensive psychic quest around the Glastonbury zodiac, revealing further insights into the Avalonian legendarium. Weston multiplexes a diverse range of personalities, occult traditions, books, music, earth mysteries, secret teachings, ideas, myths, legends and folklore into a single narrative, resulting in a wild and entertaining ride. This, and his other books, including: Mysterium Artorius, The Michael Line, The Glastonbury Zodiac, The Occult Battle of Britain, Aleister Crowley, and Glastonia Aegyptiacus are all highly recommended.
[1] Michellany: A John Michell Reader; Michellany Editions (2010) pg 33
[2] Ibid pg 90-91
[3] From Atlantis to Avalon and Beyond; Zodiac Press (1990) pg 1
[4] Ibid pg 20