The Chalice Journal Autumn 2022

COMPANIONS OF THE

Editorial Change and Continuity

On the front cover of this Chalice we have a photograph of Ark Redwood standing at the top of the flowform a few weeks ago and on the back cover we have a photograph taken in the 1920’s of Alice Buckton’s gardener, Mr Mills, standing in roughly the same position. By comparing the photographs we can see the changes brought about by human co-operation with the Chalice Well blueprint. Many, many folks have passed through this garden over the centuries and some have played a larger role in this alchemical journey than others. When you stay for over twenty years tending the garden, as Ark has chosen to do, then one can see the total flow of change and continuity that expresses itself through the land here.

The teaching of impermanence is one of the main teachings of Buddhism; that ‘everything changes and nothing lasts forever.’ At Chalice Well we have on several occasions in the last twenty years witnessed Buddhist monks spending days creating a sand mandala of incredible beauty and power and then calmly pouring it into the red waters to flow out into the world. The rational mind, observing this, thinks ‘how can they destroy something so painstakingly assembled over several days?’ In 2019 I watched the astonished expressions on the children’s faces who were closely observing the monks. They were witnessing the concept of anitya (impermanence) in action. In living, it is inescapable, sometimes painful and yet is a true consequence of being alive on this earth.

I’ve often thought that the blessing one receives from the continuous flow of the Chalice Well waters is a wonderful example of this ever-changing impermanence. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus from Ephesus, who believed in the unity of opposites, wrote in around 500 BC :

‘No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.’

Time passes, everything changes; and we can bear witness to the constant change and flux at the Well while it constantly flows forth its waters. Yet that mysterious quality that many of us call ‘energy’ continues to draw the pilgrims and visitors and spirit-seekers. For the first time since summer solstice 2019 I attended the autumn equinox celebration in September and the golden autumn day provided a wonderful atmosphere for the approximately 400 people who attended. All ages, all types, engaging in community friendship and companionship, all bathing in the holy mystery of this valley, participating in profound silence and sounding the sacred ‘Om’.

Now, as you will read in this issue, Ark is moving on and by spring there will be a new gardener tending the gardens, just as Stephen George did before Ark. Just as Mr Mills did for Alice all those years ago. Everything changes and nothing lasts forever.

So let us through these pages send the garden, the waters and all who tend her the Vedic mantram of the Gayatri:

‘O Thou Who givest sustenance in the universe,

From Whom all things proceed.

To Whom all things return.

Unveil to us the face of the true spiritual Sun, Hidden by a disk of golden light, That we may know the truth and do our whole duty, As we journey to Thy sacred Feet. Om.

Paul Fletcher

Front Cover: Ark Redwood above the Flowform and Vesica Pool.

Photo credit: Caroline Glazebrook

Back Cover: Photo of Mr Mills, Alice Buckton’s gardener (Chalice Well Archive)

Caption on Cover: “Here and now I draw on the fountain of life” (from Notes on Healing by Wellesley Tudor Pole)

Other photos in this issue by Caroline Glazebrook and Casey Jon unless otherwise credited

The Chalice Well Trust is a registered charity, founded in 1959 by Wellesley Tudor Pole and a group of friends. It is dedicated to preserving the ancient spring and surrounding gardens as a living sanctuary for everyone to visit and experience the quiet healing peace of this sacred place.

The Trust welcomes donations to maintain Chalice Well and gardens including Little St. Michaels retreat house, and to further its work. Voluntary contributions towards upkeep are therefore greatly appreciated. Any person who wishes to support the Trust’s purpose by making an annual subscription may be registered as a Companion of the Well.

For further information contact:

The Chalice Well, Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 8DD UK 01458 831154 • info@chalicewell.org.uk • www.chalicewell.org.uk

Registered Charity No: 1147343 Published by The Chalice Well Trust, Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 8DD, UK

From the Chair

Dear Companions,

As autumn approaches rapidly I am so pleased to report that Chalice Well has had a very busy and successful summer and welcomed many visitors, old and new and from near and afar, to our sacred sanctuary. It has not been without its challenges with high levels of staff absence due to sickness and the need to continue to be attentive to our financial outlay, but all have pulled together to make this a summer of rest and recuperation for those who visited.

This edition of The Chalice is to include the speeches made by two of our trustees at the first Companions Day since 2019 which was such a delight to be a part of – a joyful and heart centred July day. I feel that my speech on that day will also be of interest to many of you who were unable to attend as it gives a precis of all the travail that has taken place over these last difficult years plus our continued adherence to the core ethos of Chalice Well, which is of course “Many Paths Once Source” and underpinning this, the highest vibration: LOVE. Consequently, please find below my full speech and I hope it will help you to feel a part of that beautiful day.

“Welcome everyone – finally – to this Companions Day. It’s been a long time coming and a hard road for all of us I think; and not least for Chalice Well.

Where to start? Well, I guess many of you are wondering where I came from and how I came to be Chair of this blessed place, so I will begin there.

Some 20 years’ ago I woke up one beautiful summer’s day and instead of driving to Wiltshire to a homeopathic conference as planned, I decided for absolutely no reason I could fathom to come to Glastonbury. I had driven through for many years, but never stopped here. Well, I did all the usual things – sat in the Abbey Grounds, explored the extraordinary shops, sat in a café and people watched and then walked up to Bove Town and over to the Tor. On the way back to town I passed the sign to Chalice Well and remembered that a friend of mine had mentioned the place several years previously.

So I came in – and experienced what I am sure so many of you, if not all, have felt: as I walked towards the Guardian Yews I was wrapped in love.

And so it began……

I started coming to Glastonbury on a regular basis for courses and the like and came to two “Heart of the Well Retreats” here at Chalice Well which absolutely blew me away. I decided I wanted to move here, again for no apparent reason that I could fathom, and in May 2018 put our house on the market; a home I had thought that I would never leave. It sold to the first viewers in the first week of June. I had previously arranged to come to Companions Day that Saturday with a friend and almost cancelled it as I desperately needed to house hunt, but she persuaded me not to and it was here, on that day, that I was approached to be a trustee. Why? Well you will need to ask the Board at that time I guess. I was thrilled and thought “how lovely”. Little did I know what was just around the corner.

In 2019, just after our last Companions Day, Paul Fletcher who most of you will know, and the Chair at that time, was taken seriously ill and at our next Board Meeting I became Chair. Merely, I have to say, by default rather than design! As most of you will know, Paul has made a good recovery and is now our treasured Archivist.

Over the next months I recruited new trustees with specific skills who would help us to take this amazing place forward in a hopefully calm and steady manner, and we now have myself and six trustees, all of them new apart from Sophie Knock, who again so many of you will know from her long association and dedication to Chalice Well. I do hope that you will have time to talk to us all over the course of the day. We have labels!!! During this time we sadly said goodbye to two other trustees, Gill Venn and Peter Derbyshire. Peter, in particular, having dedicated many years to financial oversight of the Well for which we are truly grateful. We then commissioned an independent review into the workings of this place and how to combine the deep spiritual commitment with the day to day demands of a busy charity. And so we began to re-structure and initiate a strategic plan for the next five years which incorporated not only the business side of things but also our core ethos of “Many Paths One Source”.

And then Covid came over the horizon!

In the first lockdown we were compelled to completely shut down and although this was, I felt, terribly sad for those who still needed to visit and find solace, the garden itself seemed to flourish during those quiet months with just a few trusty staff tending its spring blossoming. Thankfully, all other lockdowns excluded outside spaces so the garden came into its own thereafter as a calm and healing space for all who wished to come.

Many of our staff were furloughed during this time and things looked a little bleak over the whole of 2020, but we continued to plan ahead. The next step was to recruit Steve Hawkins, our MC for today, as our part time Executive Director to begin the process of re-organising and re-structuring Chalice Well into a more cohesive and hopefully effective organisation.

We all know that 2020 and 2021 were times of huge uncertainty and, for many, fear. We kept as open and available to all as we could during that time despite repeated lockdowns, constant changes of “the rules” and a severe lack of staff; partly due to furlough, partly to illness and self-isolating and partly to a deliberate reduction given the huge uncertainty for the future. And I have to say that currently we are still suffering from a general lack of staff due to positive covid tests, so please bear with us as we navigate this hurdle.

As many of you will know, we made a large deficit in 2020/21 and we, the trustees, and all who value Chalice Well, owe previous trustees, management and staff much gratitude for building up and holding reserves which, unlike so many other charities got us through that time. Accounts for 2021/22 are not yet finalised but it is anticipated that they will be much better and this current financial year is so far looking extremely encouraging. Although, I have to say, that I always feel that Chalice Well will survive whatever occurs – maybe not in the same form, with the same people, but always as a place of healing and comfort. And for that reason I do not fear for the future of this blessed sanctuary; a future which at this time has probably never been less predictable.

Change is never easy and we lost some staff members over this time which is sad, but I always put my trust in the Well which seems in some way to guide the progress of the people who serve here. We are grateful to all who left for the part that they played in bringing Chalice Well safely to where we are today. But many staff stayed over this difficult period and enthusiastically joined in the complete refurbishment of the office, the reorganisation of virtually all office systems and, from this year, the maintenance of many outside and indoor structures and buildings which were starting to show signs of wear. This work is ongoing and will be for some considerable time and we are also hoping to incorporate more independent systems of energy and water into these maintenance plans.

It was during this time that Nicola Green, our new Office Services Manager, arrived to what must have appeared total confusion and began to work her magic and turn chaos into order with the help of office staff, old and new. This time also automatically promoted our online shop and it, together with the physical shop, are an integral and lucrative part of Chalice Well, seamlessly overseen by Caroline Glazebrook and her team. My only complaint is that I keep finding things in the shop that I just have to buy; not least our own Chalice Well Essences which play such an important role in allowing visitors to take away the spirit of this place.

The Retreat House has a new Manager, Vanese Hawker, and has been fully re-decorated whilst maintaining its core element as a quiet and simple place to stay and rest and just “be” as well as a base for appropriate groups of retreatants. Our housekeeping team work tirelessly behind the scenes to maintain not only the cleanliness but also the serenity of Little St. Michaels, and this became far more complex during the “time of Covid”.

The garden, as you can see, is just beautiful and tended lovingly in all weathers by Ark Redwood and his team. You will be getting the opportunity to hear some of their secrets later on today when Martin Faulkner, our maintenance guru, and Ark are on this stage. We are now selling many Chalice Well reared plants together with our own, beautifully packaged seeds as a way of helping you to take some of the garden home with you.

And then, of course, we have our trusty volunteers, organised seamlessly by Tim Chidgey, many of whom returned as soon as they possibly could during Covid, and who continue to be such an integral and important part of Chalice Well. Their constant will to serve the Well is so hugely appreciated and indeed we could not fully function without them.

So many of these people who help to hold the space within the grounds of Chalice Well, whether paid or not, are filled only with the will to serve selflessly and bring love and joy to all who come. I thank all who play their part in this in these extraordinarily difficult times.

And underpinning all our endeavours, are you, our constant Companions. We honour you.

So there you have it, a brief resume of all the ongoing, practical activity over the past few years, which hopefully has put us in a position to adjust and adapt rapidly to whatever happens over the rather unpredictable future in these “interesting times”. But that, for me, and indeed for all of us I think, is merely a backdrop to the main purpose of this blessed place which continues constantly to offer itself as a sanctuary of comfort and of peace. Behind all the practical endeavours has remained a sincere desire to uphold all that is sacred at Chalice Well and this now comes to the fore as we begin to function in an organised manner and return, perhaps, to some form of normality.

Since Imbolc we have again been holding the Earth Festivals here in the garden as well as the “virtual” ones we held during the restricted times, and the joy and love generated by those who came, particularly at Beltane which was held amidst a constant downpour, was so heartfelt. This love is what, I believe, must always remain at the core of Chalice Well and all that we do and all that we are. In a time when we are constantly bombarded with reasons and topics to divide us it seems so very important that we come together as one –holding different opinions surely is not a reason to promote anger and fear?

We have all individually and also here as a charity experienced emotional imbalance from others and perhaps within ourselves due to the happenings of the past few years, but Chalice Well is here to heal that, to pull all these emotions back to the centre, the heart, and hold them there where they can flourish and regenerate with love. YES, essentially it all comes back to love and the need to hold steady in this rocky time in our world. Chalice Well is perhaps here for that very purpose, an anchor which sways in the winds of dissent but always returns to its centre and its heart.

“Many Paths, One Source” has never been a more relevant ethos as we navigate these unprecedented times. Let us all embrace it to the very core and accept our differences with good grace and love.

LOVE IS THE HIGHEST VIBRATION – LET IT BE OUR TOUCHSTONE.

There is a quote in Private Dowding, words channelled by Wellesley Tudor Pole in his book of the same name:

“The angel said that fear would be destroyed when love came into her own. He said the time was coming …..”

It is my deepest wish that Chalice Well can play its part in this.

Thank you all so much for being here. This day is a small token of our appreciation of your constant support.”

I do hope that we will see many of you at our next Companions Day in June 2023; a day that plays such an integral role in increasing and cementing your connection with the sacred space that is Chalice Well. For those who cannot attend, for whatever reason, please be assured that we hold all our Companions in our hearts and honour you for your continued and unwavering support.

And finally, I cannot finish this without paying tribute to our wonderful Head Gardener, Ark Redwood. He will be retiring in February 2023 after 23 years of devoted service. He is without doubt for many the “face of Chalice Well”. We will all miss him and thank him sincerely for his constant service and devotion over the years and his major role in creating the beautiful gardens we have today.

With heartfelt blessings

Lindsay Smith

From the CEO Steve Hawkins

It’s hard to believe that I’m writing this in autumn – the year has absolutely flown by here at the Well. It seems such a short time since we held our event at Imbolc, since when we’ve had some really great days including Spring Equinox, Beltane, Companions day and recently, the Autumn Equinox. It has been superb to hold events again this year after so long when we couldn’t due to Covid. I know from the lovely feedback that we’ve received how much our visitors enjoyed them – something which was definitely shared by the team and I too!

As you may have noticed we undertook a lot of maintenance and improvement within the house and gardens this year, and again the feedback which we have received has been very positive. We are now looking at a range of initiatives to make ourselves as energy independent and efficient as we possibly can, thereby improving our environmental credentials and ensuring that we can operate as cost-effectively as possible as we move forward. We have also been working to update many of our processes and systems during the year to make sure that we can manage the business of the Chalice Well effectively and efficiently, making this not only a great place to visit but also a great place to work.

Obviously, we find ourselves in the midst of a turbulent world right now. Domestically and internationally there are major issues and challenges. At the Chalice Well, our primary function is to provide a peaceful and beautiful environment in which people can find sanctuary and solace – both during the time that they spend here, but which can follow them as they go about their daily lives.

Change is a constant, and as you may know our Head Gardener of some 20 years standing will be retiring in February 2023. We will miss Ark tremendously, and are currently in the process of advertising for a replacement. Huge boots to fill, but I’m certain that we will find the right person who will be in a position to continue the great work that Ark has done.

Hopefully, you will get the chance to visit us soon. In the meantime I want to assure you the your whole team at the Well will continue to work hard to ensure that however long your visit or stay is, that you have the best possible experience and you get the most from your association with the Chalice Well.

Best wishes Steve

News From The Well

Caroline Glazebrook writes

What a wonderful Summer of gatherings at Chalice Well!

From Beltane to the Autumn Equinox, it has been a true privilege to welcome people to the garden to share in the energies and blessings as the wheel of the year turns.

Our livestream meditations on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheChaliceWell are becoming more and more popular as a way of bringing the beauty and love of Chalice Well to people all around the world, who can't be with us in person. The livestream meditations from the wellhead are at 9am on every wheel of the year gathering at Chalice Well.

Orit Ofir joins us at the Well through our livestreams and her heartfelt feedback expresses eloquently the vibrant, lovingand tangible connection possible through the livestreams with this living sanctuary:

“The livestreams are a way for me to connect with Chalice Well when I am in Israel. The Well is my favourite place in the world and I love to be there. When I watch the meditations, I pay attention to the words that you all say, and I hear the sounds of Nature that is so well looked after at Chalice Well, like the birds singing. And I feel like I am there. It is a place that anchors pure light and good.

“For me, Chalice Well is a symbol of Heaven on Earth.”

Orit Ofir

Sophie opening the Beltane fire ceremony for our gathering in the Cress Field. It was a day of joyous celebration despite the rain!

Photo: Ian Bursill

Nathan/Dora. Photo: Caroline Glazebrook

The Maypole

Photo: Caroline Glazebrook

Maypole dancing to songs and music from Nathan Lewis Williams and Dora Darling with performances by the Glastonbury Border Morris dancers

COMPANIONS DAY

After an absence of three years, it felt so good to see the marquee going up on the lower lawn in preparation for a superb Companions Day on 9 July. Everyone enjoyed the inspiring talks from our wonderful speakers and we had many requests to publish the talks given by Alistair and Sophie (see later in this issue) and exclusive time in the garden.

Save the date! Companions Day 2023 is Saturday 3 June

Chalice Well at the heart of community gatherings to celebrate the wheel of the year fire festivals

Speakers, from top-left: Alistair Jones; Steve Hawkins; Lindsay Smith; Sophie Knock; Ark Redwood and Martin Faulkner

Below: Companions in the marquee All photos by Ian Bursill

The incredible Carolyn Hillyer and Nigel Shaw performing after Companions Day. The melodies, harmonies and love for Chalice Well as they performed touched everyone's hearts.

Companion’s Day closing circle.

Photos by Ian Bursill

A day of sound bath healing sessions in the marquee at Chalice Well with planetary tuned gongs and Solfeggio frequencies, facilitated by sound healers Shannon and Trevor.

Offering the Chalice Well water imprinted with everyone's prayers and wishes to the Well, sharing in the blessings of abundance and coming together to honour the Lammas time.

Left: Welcoming everyone to our Autumn Equinox Gathering, around the wellhead

Below, left: Sophie and Lindsay lighting the flame for the candle for the well. Photo: Caroline Glazebrook

Below, right: the vibrant hues and blessings of abundance

“The more love we reflect and share with one another, the greater will be the supply available to us: a supply that is infinite, boundless, never failing and eternal. When the truth of this realisation is recognised and utilised we shall be on the first lap of the road leading to the arrival of “Heaven on Earth”

Wellesley Tudor Pole, from God is Love.

Save the date!

Winter Solstice Wednesday 21 December

The ancient tradition of welcoming back the light at the Winter Solstice is a time of reflecting on experiences and wisdom gained, while pausing to contemplate what aspects and opportunities you would like the returning light to shine upon for you, for your community and for humanity.

New sign at Entrance

It is always a pleasure to welcome visitors to Chalice Well and we have a new map of the garden at the gatehouse entrance to the garden. We hope you find it useful, informative and welcoming. It includes interesting facts and useful information about the Well, the Lion's Head, King Arthur's Court, Chalice Well Essences, our Meeting Room, the Retreat House, the Angel seat, our shop, our physic garden, the Holy Thorn and different ways to get involved and support this unique World Peace Garden and living sanctuary.

We are very grateful to our volunteer and photographer Ian Bursill for creating it for us.

Volunteers Party

Ian with his design for the new Chalice Well sign by the Gatehouse.

There was a wonderful evening in the gardens hosted by Tim, the volunteer co-ordinator. The weather was kind and long serving volunteers were given awards.

The

volunteers are welcomed by Tim Margaret Oakden receives her long service volunteer award

Bee Keeping

Our beekeeper Liz who took over from Tom Done when he retired is handing over bee responsibility to Linda Perfect. The hives have been going well this summer and jars of honey have appeared in the shop!

bees at work around the hive.

Chalice Well and Ukraine

Some Companions will remember Hamish Miller who created the new Well lid with the heart early in this century. Hamish passed over a few years ago. Recently his widow, Ba Miller, sent us this photograph of Hamish in Kiev in March 1991 presenting the Chalice Well lid vesical piscis design to the then Bishop of Kiev with a vial of Chalice Well water attached. St Volodymyrs Cathedral is one of the oldest Christian centres, founded in 988AD. Ba is hoping one of her Ukranian friends will be able to visit the Cathedral soon to see if the lid is still on display.

The Global Silent Minute

This year the October full Moon on Sunday 9th coincided with the 9 o’clock Silent Minute and Dot Maver helped to arrange a worldwide Silent Minute Vigil for 15 minutes leading up to the hour. Watch out for details of the Winter Solstice Global Silent Minute on Wednesday December 21st at 9pm.

The

Our new beekeeper Linda Perfect

Hamish Miller presents the Bishop of Kiev with the Chalice Well lid design in 1991

News from the shop

After the seemingly endless days of hot summer sunshine, when the cooling well water running through the garden was so perfectly refreshing, we are now turning our attention to the winter months. The water is always 11°C regardless of the air and ground temperatures. This means that often on cold and frosty early mornings, we get to witness the amazing sight of vapour rising from the red spring. It seems quite magical!

Cashmere ponchos

We recommend our warming cashmere blend ponchos (£45) that stylishly go with anything and provide a welcome layer of comfort for meditations, for walks around the garden, for contemplation at the wellhead or in your favourite part of the garden.

Carolyn Hillyer books and oracle cards

Carolyn Hillyer books, music and oracle cards are available in the Chalice Well shop. For over 30 years Carolyn has been teaching a series of powerful workshop journeys for women that braid together ritual song, intuitive ceremony, ancient initiations and direct interaction with wild land. This wisdom and quest to find a resonant ancestral language led to publish HER BONE BUNDLE / si knâmi grendy. It is “a Book of Words curated and woven by Carolyn. Being a lyrical exploration into the mythic spirit of the Proto-Celtic ancestral mother tongue and her imaginative re-awakening for song, ceremony & celebration of the wild earth.” With accompanying CD album of songs and chants collated from previous original recordings in the ancient mother tongue. There is also a limited edition illustration from the book for use as a bookmark or postcard. Carolyn's Weavers’ Oracle 52 journey cards and travel guide have been created from thirty years of Carolyn’s paintings, mythic tales and work with women’s archetypal mysteries. It forms a wild alchemy of images and words that lay down original and inspiring trails into oracle lands. Beautifully printed, presented and packaged with wire bound book, cloth bag containing the cards and a fine-quality lidded storage box.

Mystique of Magdalene Oracle Cards

The long awaited new oracle deck from Cheryl Yambrach Rose has arrived! These cards are very beautiful and so inspiring. Evolving the sacred feminine and the potency of sacred sites, the Mystique of Magdalene cards are a joy to delve into. We sell them in the shop and also online: https://www.chalicewell. org.uk/webshop/

Caroline Glazebrook

Plant medicines books

Walking through the Physic Garden at Chalice Well, the medicinal herbs and wonderful dye plants are a beautiful reminder of the wisdom of Nature and the gifts of healing that so many plants offer us. We have several books in the shop and online about plant medicines and flower essences.

Among the most recent additions to our range are: Secret Medicines from your Garden explores ancient wisdom, mystical folklore and the many uses of flowers, trees, common weeds and ornamental plants for food, medicine, spiritual growth and magical rituals. Written by master herbalist Ellen Evert Hopman. In the Hedgerow Apothecary you can discover how to make delicious preserves, healing balms, soothing toddies and cures for colds with nature's jewels such as rose hips, elderberries and mugwort. Collated by Christine Iverson.

Lars Muhl Books

It is a pleasure to see so many people being inspired by the words and themes in some of Lars Muhl's books that we have available in the shop and also online. The Danish mystic and writer shares spiritual truths and wisdom, personal experience and enlightened insights, especially in his latest book, The Light Within the Human Heart. Other best-selling books are The O Manuscript and The Law of Light. https://www.chalicewell.org.uk/webshop/books

2023 Diaries and Calendars

We offer you a superb choice of diaries and calendars for 2023, that share artworks and inspirations from the land and the heavens.

These include: Astro Moon Diary, Earth Pathways Diary and Calendar, Moonology, Wendy Andrew's Painting Dreams https://www.chalicewell.org.uk/webshop/books

Christmas:

Our online shop offers a truly beautiful curated selection of gifts that are evocative of Chalice Well's energy, tranquility and love. Choosing a gift from the Well is a thoughtful way to help you as well as the ones you love, to feel connected with this place of peace and sanctuary. We can handwrite your message on a gift card, pack everything with love and deliver worldwide. This means that you can have gifts sent directly to your relatives and friends. You can browse our choice of gifts, crystals, jewellery, incense, books, journals, candles, aura sprays, chalices, dream-catchers and Chalice Well essences at www.chalicewell. org.uk/webshop

Chalice Well online shop can deliver your gifts to you, and to your friends and family

News From The Garden

What a summer this has been! Scorching temperatures for prolonged periods with no sight of rain for weeks and months on end, which brought back memories for many of us to the famous summer of 1976. Just like that legendary year the land turned from green to yellow, and in some places, brown, as the soil dried up and grass all but disappeared, the only green being in the patches of clover scattered within the lawn. When the rains did eventually fall it didn’t take too long for the grass to renew itself and become green once again.

Here at the Well, the garden certainly suffered as quite a few plants and shrubs gave up the ghost, and we gardeners had to spend a lot of time hose in hand, or placing sprinklers in strategic places. Mostly, our efforts paid off, but we still lost the likes of hydrangeas, mahonias and leycesteria, plus one or two roses. One large tree succumbed, the rowan growing near the entrance to the car park just seemed to die back almost overnight, so that will have to come down this winter. Such a shame.

However, other plants have been introduced this year. An Acer palmatum was planted in the centre of the Meadow; two Viburnum opulus ‘Compactum’ were planted in the bed to the right of the Lion’s Head, replacing a deceased mahonia; two Berberis thunbergii ‘Orange Rocket’ planted behind the newly-constructed Angel Pool on the Lower Lawn;

The scorching summer of ’22

The amazing pergola display

One long-standing wish of mine had been the rebuilding of the wall beds to the left of the vesica piscis which line the steps leading down to the Shop. The soil there was old and tired, and the only plants that seemed to like it was the abundant Red Valerian (Centranthus rubra) of which I was never a fan, despite its traditional cottage garden looks. Its seeds fly off in all directions and plants pop up all over the place, often on the tops of walls (often to their detriment). So instead, I have filled it up with topsoil and planted it up with aubrieta, which should start to trail over the edge in a couple of years creating a colourful cascade for several years to come.

Well, that’s it! My final news from this wonderful garden after twenty three years. It has been a joy to oversee the development of this rare and sacred patch of the planet. I have been heartened daily by words of encouragement from visitors and companions, and they have spurred me on to find other ways to enhance people’s perception of the special energies so very apparent in this ‘holiest of earth’.

two Convolvulus cneorum in the Pergola Area, as was a climbing Hydrangea anomala sub, petiolaris on one of the upright pillars; and finally a Clematis viticella ‘Polish Spirit) was planted at the top fence of the Main Borders.

Moving On

The time has come for me to shift focus and search out new horizons, other ways to grow, other roads to travel. After exactly twenty three years to the day I will be finally hanging up my trowel, and seeing what other delights await! My final day will be Tuesday 7th February next year.

On that date way back in 2000 I turned up for my first day at the Well eager to make my mark within this renowned sanctuary. A long time has passed since those halcyon days, and quite a few marks have been made! Not least a deliberate transition to a more naturalistic style within the garden planting, which I think has worked well. Also, over the years we have progressed from a strictly organic approach to a more cruelty free veganic system (so no animal manure, or fertilisers such as blood, fish and bone, mostly by-products of exploitative industries). This approach, I am sure, has added to the energies within the garden. Compassion knows no boundaries.

I clearly remember the moment during my first week here when a visitor told me I ‘must have the best job in the world’. The number of times somebody has said that to me are countless! It was then that I realized I really was in a special place. Chalice Well holds such power and poignancy in peoples’ lives. Those of us fortunate enough to work here never forget this fact, and it colours our days.

It certainly has coloured mine! It has given me the green canvas to paint a garden, and the time within which to do it. I knew when I arrived that I was here for keeps. In fact, it appears that I have spent half of my working life here, and almost a third of my whole life. The relationships with everyone I have worked with over the years have been precious, and I leave a gardening department in good heart and cherished memories.

It is a verity that everything is impermanent. Things arise, they stay awhile, and then they fade away, even head gardeners!

Ark Redwood

As we move into the soft deeper months of the year, it is a joy to slow down and reflect on what we have harvested and achieved over the past months. These are the seasons where the goldenness of nature offers to fill our hearts in readiness for the winter months. The deep rich reds and oranges remind us of the fires we’ll be lighting soon and snuggling down to read and to delve into our bear like caves. It is this turning of the year that asks us to go within and nurture our creativity and to honour what needs deeper understanding giving it the extra time and care needed.

We follow the seasons wheel with the Flower and Vibrational Practitioner Training and have completed another year of teaching. It has been such a delight to share the Chalice Well Essences journey with this year’s participants. We feel truly blessed and look forward to welcoming this year’s group to our expanding Flower Essence family.

During the course we have co-created a vibrational essence in the divinely wild Cress Field and the flower essence Dierama or ‘Angels fishing rods’ that sway above the Vesica Pool. Both were utterly magical and we’re looking forward to incorporating and weaving them into a new range of essences that we’re dreaming into being.

We will be offering our Flower and Vibrational Practitioner Training next year, if you feel drawn to connect with the beautiful energies, plants and waters of the ancient Chalice Well and Garden please feel free to contact us.

For more information on our Flower Essence Practitioner course please visit our website https://www.chalicewell.org. uk/webshop/essences-workshops/ or telephone our office on 01458 831154

Making an essence in the Cress field

Chalice Well Essence ‘Light’ from the Heaven on Earth range.

The ‘Light’ Chalice Well vibrational essence is for times when we need support to find true clarity, remind ourselves of who we are and be grounded and anchored in light during times of challenge and change.

Love and Power synergise in this combined Essence to birth Light. In taking this Essence we take in light as organised particles of energy, photons that encode us to resonate with the Source. We become the Christ, the Divine Mother and Father in perfect balance. We take our place as true co-creators with the Divine, offering that which benefits all beings and aspects of Life, made with the good of the whole in mind. We create peace. We return to the garden. We become the servers of humanity. We co-create a new paradigm built on the truth of our innate Divinity and Oneness with all.

Available from the shop: ~ https://www.chalicewell.org.uk/webshop/chalice-well-essences/heaven-on-earth/ chalice-well-essence-light/

Chalice Well Vibrational Essence ‘Pacem’ from the New Dawn range.

Pacem offers the gift of peace to our minds and our being.

It supports us to find Peace within and to maintain a quiet heart. Pacem teaches us that Peace is something we can choose and shows us how we can best make that choice. Choosing peace enables us to find a way to peaceful action supporting change in ourselves and our lives. This essence was co-created on UN World Peace Day and hundreds gathered at the Chalice Well to focus their intent on Peace. The essence was made at midday at the ringing of the ‘Silent Minute’ bell and its sonorous call for Peace imprinted upon the water held in a crystal bowl underneath.

Available from the shop: https://www.chalicewell.org.uk/webshop/chalice-well-essences/ new-dawn/chalice-well-essence-pacem-peace/

Choosing Your Essence

Settle into a quiet space, then sense, feel or see which essence or quality you would like to experience, to welcome into your life.

These Essences are most effective when worked with consciously. We suggest calling upon the Spirit of the Well and asking that you may receive all that you need at this time. We recommend that you take 7 drops, under the tongue or added to water, twice a day, or as intuitively guided.

talk given by Trustee Alistair Jones

One Hundred Years of Love, Light and Wisdom at Chalice Well

1922 is rather an odd place to start when talking about the history of Chalice Well - 1913 the year Alice purchased the site would perhaps make more sense. However, my original thinking being that this was the point that Alice helped to produce and direct the film Glastonbury: Past and Present. The film was a pioneering project, celebrating the history of Glastonbury across several key historical moments, taking us from prehistory and the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea up to the then present day, with footage of the Glastonbury pageant and midsummer fair. It was the last major project Alice was engaged with in the town. Nearly two years ago, when I was asked to join the Board of Trustees at Chalice Well, I felt honoured and humbled. I recall rereading Story of a Living Sanctuary and feeling awestruck by the people that had preceded me and the great acts of service they had performed for this sacred place. The range of people touched by the energy of Chalice Well is astonishing. I do not feel qualified to talk about the individual contributions of every trustee, volunteer, companion or member of staff that has served the Well over the past century, suffice it to say that the old maxim “Standing on the shoulders of Giants” summarises my feelings aptly. One thing that binds us is a sense of service, we know we are but passing through, safeguarding this spiritual centre to the best of our abilities for all people of goodwill for the time we are here. When I view Alice Buckton during the opening frames of Glastonbury Past and Present, standing by the old wall near the herb garden, I am struck by the sense of service and devotion she projects – less than ten years earlier she and Annet Schepel, at the behest of Archdeacon Basil Wilberforce, had sold everything in order to purchase and safeguard this important spiritual jewel. When I think of Chalice Well - when I read the testimonies of those involved here over the past century, I often notice three words permeating them: ‘Love, Light and Wisdom’. But what is that drove two successful and pioneering educationalists to sell everything and set up home here in Somerset? What is it that led the founder of the Trust, Wellesley Tudor Pole, through two world wars, a dangerous quest for 1st century documents in Constantinople and the creation of the Silent Minute, to the setting up of a Trust to preserve this site as a place of pilgrimage and healing for all for evermore? I can’t answer this. Even if I could I doubt that I would be able to do it justice. Suffice to say whatever it is, it is the same reason that we have gathered here today.

What I shall do, is to give an opinion – my own opinion. I claim no authority and indeed, what I present is for you to decide about in your own time and place. I do not in any way view myself as a seer, a spiritual expert or psychic. I am a teacher by profession, but in my role here at the Chalice Well, I am very much a student. A student of the love, light and the wisdom surrounding the waters that rise in this green valley.

“One of the strange characteristics of water is that however far a sample of it is removed from its source, a strong but invisible link continues to exist between the water in question and the spring or well from which it was drawn…the same living affinity has been found to exist between a spot of blood and its parent stream, irrespective of the distance between the two.”

(WTP 1965: 98).

Nearly twenty years ago, I visited a remote site in the desert; a well that had been in continuous use for 2000 years. It was surrounded by Ziziphus spina-christi or as my professor pointed out to me ‘Christ Thorn’ trees – thorns native to the middle east that in some traditions were those from which the crown of thorns was made. Locally they were seen to be protected by benevolent spirits or saints. Near to the well were the remains of a Roman Fort, on the slopes of the mountainsides stood cells and small buildings used by 3rd century monastic desert fathers. It was an atmospheric place, which despite my naturally cynical and empirical mind, led to a change in consciousness, almost an alteration of vision. Locally this site was known as the valley of djinn. Certainly, as the sun set and the desert wind arose, one felt as though the veils were thin here. The water in this oasis would have been drunk for millennia, by saints, soldiers, brigands and nomads. It was surrounded by Bedouin burials and an air of sanctity. Around the same period, I visited the Chalice Well for the first time – the feeling of sanctity if anything more powerful here than in that valley close to the holy lands.

“I believe in our return to this earth on more than one occasion as an integral part of the evolutionary process. It is only here that we can receive certain training and experience which would be unavailable to us on other levels of consciousness. I believe in the eternal existence of Love and Wisdom.”

(WTP 1965: 21).

The Chalice Well can provide a metaphor for the journey of the soul as it travels the spiritual path. When we look into the waters as they flow at their more or less constant rate, we see a beautiful interplay of Love, Light and Wisdom. We watch those water molecules rise from a deep parent source and flow through ever changing cascades, pools and rills. They pass through the Lion’s Head, the guardian of Aquarius, and tumble into Arthur’s Courtyard before flowing past the roots of ancient yew trees and out into the wider world. Some are captured in bottles or cupped in hands, some rise into vapour and are carried on the four winds. 10,000 years ago the water was drunk by hunter gatherers, and used to wash hands tired and cut from knapping flints. 2000 years ago they were collected in Roman pots and perhaps used to wash the feet of weary travellers from Jerusalem. Later, some say they succoured Arthurian knights when their adventures were over. A few hundred years ago they cured the asthma of Matthew Chancellor. A hundred and fifty years ago they filled the cruets and cups of Catholic priests. A hundred years ago they watered the students and guests of Alice Buckton’s women’s college and hostel. They have also served as a swimming pool for school boys. Since the creation of the Chalice Well Trust in 1959, they have been the cause of countless healings and inspiration. They have blended with the waters of the Jordan and been carried to the corners of the earth. Theirs is an eternal journey, much like our own. Water is mentioned more frequently than faith, hope, prayer and worship in the bible, it is mentioned numerous times in the Quran, it is symbolic of life in the Torah and in Buddhism; in the Upanishads it is used as a metaphor for the attainment of spiritual liberation, a droplet returning to the ocean. Abdul Baha said that:

"Water is the cause of life, and when Christ speaks of water, He is symbolizing that which is the cause of Everlasting Life.

"This life-giving water of which He speaks is like unto fire, for it is none other than the Love of God, and this love means life to our souls." (`Abdu'l-Bahá, Paris Talks, page 82)

During her time at Chalice Well, Alice Buckton wrote: “Daybreak! Tell it in the valleys! Tell it on the hills! Who is it calls?

“One who has kept the last watch.”

I hear the sound of running waters!

“It is the Water-Bearer at the Wheel. She fills the pitchers through the night.”

“I, too, have a Pitcher!” “Bring it ! that the seven may be fulfilled!”

She infers that the water of the well can fill us with inspiration; with Light and Love. In another poem she draws inspiration from William Sharp:

“Ye have supped from the Pools of Sorrow, Ye shall drink from the Wells of Joy!”

Sir George Trevelyan told the audience of Companions Day in 1980 that “something is flowing from this magical spot!”.

WTP reminds us that “water can be the carrier or channel of healing energy but is not the source itself.”, going on to discuss that the river Jordan’s waters only became imbued with restorative properties after being blessed. Much like us, these water molecules become carriers of spiritual energy by virtue of what they encounter on the path; a droplet returning to the source.

Wellesley Tudor Pole felt that Chalice Well had a role to play as a platform from which an important message would be conveyed, a spiritual teaching of Love, Light and Wisdom. In this, one can view Chalice Well as a metaphor for the journey of the soul on the spiritual path, but also as the flow of the waters of spirit, as a focus for this teaching, this blended ray, as we transition to a new era of peace and unity. This is echoed in the words of others who have been involved at this sacred site over the last hundred years.

The Chalice as receptacle for Love and Light

WTP suggested in 1966 that one of his life’s purposes was to turn attention away from the Cross of pain and suffering to the understanding of the Chalice or Cup from which all can drink in unity and harmony – the Cup being the symbol of the new age when all philosophies will be merged in the Light of a new understanding of the

meaning and purpose of Life, with Love at its very heart. Indeed, one may argue that the Chalice or Cup represents humanity as a vessel waiting to be filled by the light and love of the waters of the spirit – the very waters and energies that flow strongly here at Chalice Well. He and others felt that Chalice Well was to act as a platform through which the message of the coming time, the Keynote for the age waiting to be born, would be struck. Following a period of deep meditation, Francis Nuttall (a great friend of Chalice Well) wrote the ‘Prayer of the Chalice’ in 1962. The copyright for this, alongside strict printing instructions, was transferred to The Chalice Well Trust twenty years later. In this she wrote: “to thee I raise my whole being – a vessel emptied of self…and so fill me with the Thyself – Thy Light, Thy Love, Thy Life – that these Thy precious Gifts may radiate through me and overflow the chalice of my heart into the hearts of all with whom I come in contact this day, revealing unto them the beauty of Thy Joy and Wholeness and the serenity of Thy Peace which nothing can destroy.” (Francis Nuttall 1962).

In the third Chalice Well Messenger of 1962, Francis wrote:

“In company with the Watchers on the Other Side, and as Companions of the Chalice Well Trust, we have the Divine Symbol of the Chalice which it is said was brought here by Joseph of Arimathea…to us comes the challenge: ‘Prepare ye the Way”. This is our quest of the Holy Grail, that eternal symbol of Love-Wisdom within the Heart of God”. Here the symbolism of the cup or chalice becomes linked to that of the Grail and the eternal question ‘to whom serveth the grail?”. In the case of the Well, I would argue that this would be humanity – so long as we are willing to give freely of our own service. Again, if we picture ourselves as vessels ‘emptied of self’ then the Light and Love carried in the waters of spirit are offered in plentiful supply here at Chalice Well. Margaret Thornley, WTP’s old friend wrote:

“Ye Wells! Cherished by a faithful few and pouring forth a shimmering fragrant aura of Benediction…the saints of old chose their hills of vision and their holy wells because earth held poignant powers and water sweet healing in these places. Once re-awakened a centre will quicken others…”

The importance of service, of Love in act and deed, is evident in the way in which Tudor Pole came to hear of the sale of Chalice Well in 1958. Margret Salmon, also an acquaintance of Margaret Thornley, wrote about this in the first Chalice Well Messenger. It is worth quoting in detail. If we return once more to the analogy of water representing the flow of life, then here we have three souls converging in the same stream, imbuing one another with inspiration and Light, underpinned by a deep sense of service:

“The time was morning in April 1958, as we were about to drive home to Devon; the place, by a gate in Wellhouse Lane, outside Tor School Glastonbury. A man came out from the house and said “Good morning”. He chatted for a moment and then, unexpectedly and without preliminaries, he said he was troubled concerning the property of the Tor School. He told us he was the Headmaster, shortly to retire; he was anxious lest the property fall into the hands of those who had no reverence for the grounds in which lay the Chalice Well; he seemed seeking advice. My husband said, “Do you really want to be put in touch with the right man who can advise you?” “Yes,”

Pole.”

A short while later, after a talk at the Headmaster’s house, we drove away. I was at the wheel, and we were silent. It was then I saw the “vision” not with physical eyes, but with an inner perception. I saw them coming, the future pilgrims to Chalice Well, continuing the long chain of pilgrims of past centuries. They were coming from all quarters to a centre of healing of body, mind and soul. Presently I said, “I have glimpsed as it were a ‘vision’ of a healing and spiritual Centre.”

My husband said, “So have I.”…”

This giving, this passing of the cup of unity, is reiterated in Tudor Pole’s words: “Darkness cannot overwhelm the world so long as Light continues to radiate by reflection from the hearts and minds of all those who dedicate themselves to his high purpose. Learn also to reflect the Light from each holy place to which your pilgrim steps are led.” (WTP 1951).

Sir George Trevelyan, friend to WTP, stated in a Vision for the Aquarian Age that:

“One will …see the soul as undergoing a form of allegorical pilgrimage, a journey of the kind so often symbolised in myth. It must submit to trial and ordeals, all of which are tests designed to strengthen it so that, when its course is run, it may return to the realms of light.”

(Sir George Trevelyan 1977: 10-11).

As regards Chalice Well, we can look to other sources to gain an understanding of just why TP was tasked with safeguarding it as part of his own ‘allegorical pilgrimage’.

Major Oliver G. Villiers, a close friend and author of the ‘Appreciation’ booklet of WTP, said that:

“Those who had the privilege of knowing Wellesley Tudor realised he came back into the world to accomplish a special mission for which he had been previously trained…I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that this spiritual and ancient ground at Chalice Well was pre-ordained aeons and aeons ago by the Archangel Michael and the Elders, who must have known that it had a great purpose to fulfil through many cycles of what we call time. Thus it has come about in recent years that a new spiritual factor has entered into the human consciousness of those prepared to receive it as… the Blended Ray. It is likewise necessary for this Ray to revitalise the kingdoms of this world and the elements, earth, fire and water. In order to fulfil this purpose, the Chalice Well Trust came into its own.”

(cited in Paul Fletcher 2015: 257).

The Chalice Well, perhaps, was seen by TP as the receptacle or platform from which we could best receive this divine outpouring of energy and reflect its light, love and wisdom to the world. It would be the task of the newly formed Trust to preserve this place, to hold steady this Chalice or platform for the proclamation of the keynote for the new age. To allow it to be filled by this outpouring, ready to be received within the silence of the citadel of our own being. An invocation of the light, streaming forth into the minds of all humanity, for all faiths whether or not they believed in a particular world view or ideal of

“I think I can do that for you, I can contact Major W. Tudor

truth. An inflow of healing energy; of love streaming into the hearts of humanity, soothing the harshness of the world. A blended outpouring of light and love in service to all in order to bring about peace, unity and a new age for the human family.

WTP wrote in 1946 that “this Blended Ray has manifested itself in a particular potent manner to inspire and prepare the way for the Dawn of a new dispensation for the human race, an era of Goodwill, Brotherhood and Peace.” He went on to speak of reservoirs within stations or light centres that would be prepared to receive and store the potency generated through the Blended Ray so that such potency can be released gently, slowly and as suitable occasions offer. Sir George stated: “Surely the ethereal centres in a country must be of importance for the expression of the being of the Nation. Such a centre is Chalice Well…”

One can feel the potency of this Blended Ray being gently released all around us within the environs and the waters of this sacred place.

In 2012, this blended ray was physically represented when the Buddha relics visited Chalice Well. They were exhibited in the valley at the foot of Chalice Hill a place long associated with Joseph of Arimathea, and through his nephew, the Christ. That day, the line of pilgrims stretched all the way down Chilkwell Street.

As TP said 66 years earlier: “Each pilgrim on the way can become a Light Bearer and should draw strength and inspiration from the Love/Wisdom principle now so freely available through the Blended Ray. There is recompense for the added responsibilities because each awakened soul can draw freely from this wonderful gift, provided in our times through the united Will of the Buddha and the Christ working in close harmony with the Celestial Council as a whole.” Indeed, on that day in 2012, the Will of the Buddha and the Christ were symbolically united in the Cress field, creating a particularly potent spiritual blending of Light and Love. That same year, Steve Nation, member of the Council of the Spiritual Caucus at the United Nations spoke at the Unity conference organised by the Trust:

“Thinking about the atmosphere here we can see that the beauty of the gardens, buildings and symbolic objects meshes with the beauty of the care and the love and the labour put into the creation of gardens by generations of gardeners, craftspeople, trustees, custodians, volunteers and Companions. One senses that the ones who cared for this centre in earlier times have now passed over to the other side are also very present in the special atmosphere of this place…I am thinking especially of the inner richness of the life of WTP, his affiliation with the Forces of Light; his impact on the world.”

(Steve Nation cited in Chalice Well Trust 2013: 14)

Wisdom

Having talked in depth of the principles of Light and Love embedded here at the Chalice Well, let us finish by talking about wisdom, another aspect that permeates the work of those involved here over the past century and more. As a teacher, I am well aware that knowledge and skills are the cornerstone of the modern education system, often at the expense of wisdom. Wisdom is different to knowledge; it is built slowly over a lifetime or many lifetimes. A desire for wisdom lies at the heart of all who travel the spiritual path. For Alice Bailey, true education had three major objectives:

1. To create intelligent citizens capable of contributing to the work of the world, able to live peaceably and helpfully and in harmony with their neighbours.

2. To enable humanity to bridge the gap between the various aspects of their own mental nature – the receptive, individualised and illuminating aspects of the mind.

3. The bridging of the gap between the lower mind and the soul.

Chalice Well supports all of these aspects of education, aspects often overlooked within the curricula of the 21st Century.

In 2012, at the Unity conference, Glennie Kindred reminded the audience that we are all part of an interconnected web of life, encouraging participants to go on an inner journey to meet an oak tree and to rest in a moment of love and unity with this member of the natural world. Indeed, the wisdom that can be drawn from the nature kingdoms represents another key facet of Chalice Well, one espoused by the creation of the Chalice Well essences project by Joanna Laxton and Sophie Knock.

In 1918, upon looking at a rose in a winter garden, Alice Buckton exclaimed: “Brave flower, you kept your secret well About your golden heart!”

In 1965, WTP noted how wrong and sad it is that we human beings have allowed ourselves to become so entirely out of communion with life in the natural worlds around us. Visitor books from the early days of the well show that Dorothy Maclean visited the Well. In her memoir, she wrote:

“I stayed at the Chalice Well Trust house and met Tudor Pole…he was definitely a Master.”

Like TP, Dorothy new well the wisdom and intelligence to be gained from the natural world. In 1962, she received the following inner message:

“To those who have insight into life everything has meaning. The forces of nature are something to be felt into, to be stretched out to, and one of the jobs for you is to feel into nature forces such as the wind, feel its essence and purpose for Me, and be positive and harmonise with that essence…All the forces are to be felt into, even the sun, the moon, the sea, the trees, the very grass. All are part of My life. All is one life…these beings are of the Light…they can teach you, help you.”

Spend some time sitting in quietude in the gardens here and you will soon sense the truism of this statement.

A major part of the dissemination of the wisdom of those involved with the Chalice Well, was the creation of Chalice Well Press in 2009. Within the pages of one of the key publications: Light Upon the Path, Paul Fletcher gives us an idea of one of the most vital teachings of Wellesley Tudor Pole, one of his underlying life purposes - to destroy the false belief that we can die or that life itself can ever be destroyed. In the book, a letter from WTP to one of the then trustees Chris Langlands, contains the following pearl of wisdom: “Life itself can never be extinguished. It is the fear of death that lies at the route of every materialistic philosophy and deadens progress.”

In his final book, Writing on the Ground, WTP further elaborates upon this teaching:

“In due course release from earth conditions brings a sense of freedom and security, never experienced before which in itself is a joyful foretaste of heaven. The realisation gradually dawns that Life is encompassed by Love and the pilgrim is able to go forward cheerfully on his destined way with deep thankfulness of spirit, mind and heart.”

When one sits in silence in the Upper Room, the sacred space based upon Tudor Pole’s vision of the room of the Last Supper, this teaching becomes ever more apparent. When meditating there he asks that we let our minds turn from the memory of the Last Supper towards the Breakfast that is destined to follow in its wake. In doing so, we acknowledge that life is everlasting, that we are but droplets of divinity flowing ever onwards to the source of omnipotent Light and Love at the centre of all creation, however that is expressed - just like the water we see flowing through these gardens.

And so as I conclude this study of one hundred years of Love, Light and Wisdom at Chalice Well, I ask, just as many have done before, for you, to “drink in the beauty and deep significance of your present surroundings, the Spring, the Garden, the Orchards, the Upper Room, all lying within the aura of this Chalice resting place” and in doing so reflect upon the outpouring of Love, Light and Wisdom that we receive here within this Living Sanctuary. Let us remember that light does not do anything to darkness, it simply shines and as it shines the darkness disappears. For, as WTP stated, we are engaged in rekindling a light here at Chalice Well, a lamp that will shine forth brilliantly from this Island and out into the world beyond.

On behalf of the Trust, I would like to thank you, as well as all that have come before me, for your continued support, particularly over the past few years, and for continuing to act as Lamplighters for the message of Love, Light and Wisdom and for the Keynote of Expectation, Joy, Unity and Service that radiates from here at Chalice Well. Long may the light of this lamp shine forth.

Thank you.

The Upper Room

There is nothing for you here, a nothing that is profound, no feeling of heat or cold, no texture of ground on which to stand, no hand to hold, no sound, no taste, no smell. There is nothing to be seen with outer or inner eye. The silence stretches deep into infinity. Darkness enfolds, extending beyond your boundaries. This is nowhere you have ever been. Yet there is everything here, all that you know, flowing through, a knowing, a deep dark steeped in wisdom’s showing of the heart’s truth from the Divine Spark, up, up, up in the Upper Room.

Do what you do with Love

Isa, who works in the shop, wrote this piece for the Chalice:

‘Do what you do with Love even if it is not the task itself it could have a far reaching effect. We are One looking after this sanctuary which is the end of a journey for some, the beginning of spirituality for others. Or a moment of peace, revelation, release. So different to different souls, but always touching. Looking after ourselves without losing sight of people around us, accepting different journeys without compromising our own boundaries. Always trying to be pure Love. Always serving the Well.’

Juliana Geer

Building the Flowform

A year ago in The Chalice we ran an article on the Flowform in the lower part of the garden. As so often happens at Chalice Well we were then sent a set of photographs of its construction.

Also in the first photo you can see Stephen George who oversaw this and who was the gardener before Ark.

And they provide an interesting mid-point between our front and back cover.

Co-creation at Chalice Well:

a look at the wider story of tuning to Nature through myth and history at Chalice Well Sophie Knock

Throughout history, initially through the myths and legends right up to now, the Well has been a very significant place where the intelligence or wisdom of the Nature Kingdoms has been keyed in to and held as sacred. Interestingly in modern chakra maps of the Earth, Glastonbury is often said to be the ‘Heart Centre’ (the heart centre of which must be Chalice Well!), so this is a place of the spiritual heart centre which attunes to Nature, which increases consciousness, expands awareness and deepens our connection to the Nature Kingdoms. In doing so it allows us to grow spiritually and to access our divine blueprints.

There is a beautiful cycle of virtue whereby the more we love Nature, the more we open our hearts the more we can love it, and so on. This is a holy Love and is sacred and precious. In fact it is an essential aspect for evolution and our spiritual journeys. It is what I think the Druids were learning here; what the Essenes were talking about; it informs the Grail quest and the Glastonbury Zodiac; and of course Wellesley Tudor Pole or TP, as we fondly call the founder of the Trust, he knew all about it! He knew that ‘the veil’ was thin here as he put it, so that the light could come through more easily, magnifying and carrying it further. It’s what we key in to with the Essences and what I’m sure all of you as Companions have felt here. Let’s have a look at how this connection with Nature has been experienced and expressed and suggested in this morphic field through the ages.

The first time I made Essences here, I knew that the ancient Celts, the Druids, had done the same thing and that this had been part of what they learnt here and how they learnt it. We know that within the oral tradition, in ancient times, Glastonbury was a key spiritual centre for the Druid Mysteries or the northern wisdom tradition, referred to in Hebrew and Greek sources. This ancient wisdom as expressed in The Timaeus by Plato, states that true morality springs from a harmony in the soul and that this reflects the Soul of the world. The cosmos itself was seen as God - the world became a living being endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God. This was the basis of the perennial wisdom, which informed the Druids and the early Christians. This living intelligence of Love and wisdom is what was and is manifest here through the waters and the Natural world.

TP, himself, expressed it two thousand years later as, “The conception of a Universal Intelligence, permeating the whole of Creation and through whom the principles of Life, Love and Wisdom manifest unceasingly.” (W.T.P. Booklet, “God is Love”)

Here was a natural place for a Druid College with the springs and the hills. In those times Chalice Well is said to have been an ancient Druid spring, orientated towards the midsummer sunrise. The stones, which form the chamber of the Well, according to the archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie, are of ancient Egyptian influence, while most modern

researchers date it to at least the Bronze Age (2000 BC). The Druids would face east toward the rising of the sun and would sing hymns and chant to the new-born Son of the Sun - Esus, or Iesa. We get the word east from his name. At dawn on the 25th day of December, the birth of the Sun God was celebrated, Iesa Crios, with his crown.

So this was after the Solstice when the sun seems to stand still on the Southern horizon for a few days around the winter solstice, when it seems to rise in exactly the same place, and by the 25th December the sun starts to rise a little bit north of its standstill point. The Light of the world has returned ~ later this became Christmas.

There are many correspondences between Druidism and early Christianity but the Druid crown was not of "thorns" but of roses. Regardless of the spelling Esa, Essa, Iesa, Hesu, Isa, Jeshua, etc, the archetype remains the same.

The Druid Culture which flourished in Britain at that time believed in a trinity and they also had a messianic tradition; the Celtic Messiah was known as Esus. It is remarkable how the theology of Druidism prepared the Britons for the acceptance of Christianity. The Druidic Trinity was depicted as three golden rays of light and this sign became the emblem of the Druids. Amongst the Druidic names for the Supreme God which they had in use before the introduction of Christianity were the terms: 'Distributor', 'Governor', 'The Mysterious One', 'The Wonderful', The Ancient of Days', all terms with Old Testament resonance.

Yesu or Esus was understood as the personification of God as Saviour. It was believed and taught that Yesu would descend to earth sometime in the future as the Saviour of mankind. Interestingly, the Hebrew Joshua when spoken in Aramaic (the language which Jesus spoke) becomes Yeshu or Yeshua . Consequently, later on, when Christianity preached Jesus as an aspect of God, it preached the most familiar name of its own Deity to Druidism; and in Welsh, the ancient British language, Jesus has never assumed its Greek, Latin or Hebrew form, but still remains the pure Druidic Yesu. The ancient Britons never changed the name of the God they worshipped, and have only ever worshipped the One God.

Druids taught that there were two habitations of the Deity - the soul, the invisible and the universe, the visible. The word 'temple,' in its primitive meaning, is simply a place cut off, enclosed, dedicated to sacred use. It seems clear that Chalice Well would have been such a focal point for teaching and worship.

Jesus is said to have stayed at Glastonbury (see Gordon Strachan’s book, ‘Jesus the Master Builder’ for a thorough appraisal of all the source material) for quiet study, prayer and meditation, in a small house of mud and wattles, near the Chalice Well. This was the time when he was preparing for his ministry and eventual crucifixion and resurrection. It is not surprising, given the resonances between his teachings and the Druid beliefs, that this would have been a very appropriate place to visit in order to continue his studies and meditation.

We know that Jesus also spent time with the Essene community as part of his preparation (the community whose very name derives from Essa – the same source as Jesus). His cousin, John the Baptist, was an Essene and in The Gospel of the Essenes, which emerged from the find at Qumran in 1946, we hear how, 'One day, Jesus sat amidst people who listened to his words with amazement. He said: "Seek not the Law in your scriptures, for the Law is life, whereas the scripture is dead. The Law is the living word of the living God to living prophets for

living men. In everything that is life, is the Law written. You find it in the grass, in the trees, in the river, in the mountain, in the birds of heaven, in the fishes of the sea, but seek it chiefly in yourselves. God did not write the Law in books, but in your heart and in your spirit."

The Essenes’ practice and theology were also very resonant with the Druidic. This is from the Essene Gospel of Peace by Edmund Szekely, “at dawn they communed with the Angels of the Earthly Mother, while at dusk they attuned to the cosmic energies of the Angels of the Heavenly Father. They recognised the Earth as a living sentient Being. They worked closely with the nature spirits and the angelic worlds, and all activity dedicated to the glory of God, and with joy in the heart.”

It is noticeable that the word “essence” is also derived from essa or esus, and that through this practise the same wisdom can be experienced. Flower Essences, such as we make at Chalice Well, are created with Sunlight and water. The subtle energetic storage properties of water and the pranic charging capabilities of sunlight provide a simple yet powerful method of receiving and recording key healing frequencies of nature.

Interestingly in a fragment from the Essene Gospel of John (also found at Qumran), speaking of the Essenes, he says, “it is said they did marvellous things, and healed the sick and afflicted with diverse grasses and wondrous uses of sunlight and water.” This is strikingly similar to an early Chalice Well guide that says, “Experts tell us it was associated in ancient times with rituals of sunlight and water.”

There is every reason why Joseph of Arimathea would later choose to return to Glastonbury after the crucifixion where the spiritual practices were so resonant with the original teachings of Christ. Within legend it is said that Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail (the cup from the last supper, or the cruets) to Glastonbury which had previously been used to catch the blood of Christ on the cross, and may have buried it in Chalice Hill – hence the story as to why Chalice Well’s waters run red and why for many centuries it was referred to as the Blood Spring.

So, the first wattle and daub church was founded by Joseph of Arimathea and built by the disciples in Glastonbury as the first Christian Church outside of the Middle East. It is said that the first baptisms took place at the Chalice Well around 38AD.

Frederick Bligh Bond, the archaeologist in charge of the excavation at Glastonbury Abbey, particularly of the Mary Chapel (the original church), was very interested in gematria and sacred geometry. He was chosen to design a lid for the Well in order to celebrate Peace in Europe after the First World War. He chose the vesica piscis (the interlocking circles) which he was convinced had formed the basis for the design of the original church. When giving his address to inaugurate the lid in 1919, it was reported in the paper of the time that he said, “Turning to Glastonbury, we find this sacred Well, known as the “Blood Spring”, its water containing that strange organic compound of iron which imparts a red stain to its channels and receptacles, providing us here with a natural symbol of a deeply mystic teaching, and thus serving as a type of the Holy Grail.”

William of Malmesbury and the Rev Lewis, vicar of Glastonbury in 1923 record that, “St. Joseph and his eleven companions lived round the sacred well, and hence the house, in whose grounds the well is, was known as the Anchorage, and later as the Anchor Inn.”

From early on the legend of the Grail becomes associated with Avalon and the Well, and from the twelfth century the Grail Romances and stories of King Arthur become popular. These also encoded the chivalric code through which morality or purity of spirit were embedded in spirituality, just like the ancient perennial wisdom, but now a Christian overlay came in. Humility was the key, this is in essence about being grounded and down to earth, which interestingly is also our key in co-creating with Nature and Essence Making. Humility comes from the root word humus which means earth in Latin and is also the root word for human. Humus is a nutrient, rich soil in which plants can take root, just like ideas and concepts for us humans when our minds are open and healthy.

The chivalric code embodied being in the heart and being of service, both of which the new Christ consciousness represented in its purest form; it is noticeable that within the grail romances the grail was a serving vessel and the key question which Parsifal had to ask was “whom does it serve”.

The Grail legend is contained within The Story of the Fisher King in Grail romances such as the High History of the Holy Grail by Chretien de Troyes. Here the knights go out on regular quests to try and recover the Grail. Only a young knight, Parsifal, or Percival in later editions, is pure enough to successfully complete the quest. He was brought up in a forest, surrounded by nature and is entirely innocent of worldly affairs until he comes upon some of the King’s knights out hunting one day and immediately presents himself at the court to become a knight.

In Arthurian legend the Fisher King is the last in a long line of those charged with taking care of the Holy Grail by Joseph of Arimathea. Notably, his castle has turrets and is set in a valley between two hills (just like Chalice Well!). The legend varies but he is always wounded in the groin (fertility) and his kingdom becomes a wasteland until someone who is pure enough, asks “whom does the grail serve?” Percival does not at first succeed in bringing fertility back to the land of the wounded Fisher King, as he does not want to offend the courtly codes of the time by asking too many questions. There are definitely parallels with how things are at the moment. He must first atone for his abandonment of his mother, or the feminine principle, also associated with the Earth.

In later writers the Grail becomes a Chalice, with the notion of regeneration. The Grail is a sustainer of life in Chrétien and a beacon of light in later continuations; the spiritual importance of the Grail quest, as well as the mystical nature of the Fisher King, is very significant.

Throughout the Middle Ages alchemy was also very popular; people were interested in transformation and in thirteenth century alchemical texts Christ’s blood was a symbol of his living essence (the spirit plus water). These thirteenth Century alchemical texts describe how the blood was looked upon as the mystical carrier of the soul and even the Holy Spirit. The seat of the soul is in the blood but the soul itself remained in the water (which also reminds us of the Blood Spring, the Essences and of the Heart centre which Chalice Well represents).

When Percival does finally ask the right questions he inherits the kingdom, fertility is restored and he becomes the next King and Grail Keeper. In the 19th century, the Celtic

origins of the story were looked into and just as we saw with the coming of Christianity, the Christian themes were grafted onto the Celtic themes such as the cauldron of regeneration akin to the grail, the salmon of wisdom as a precursor of the fish as the symbol of Christ (with the Fisher King associations). The Isle of apples also suggests the apple tree in the Garden of Eden and earlier myths as the tree of Knowledge. The holy thorn is another symbol of the continuum whereby the indigenous native thorn is used to graft the Holy Thorn which is said to have flowered from Joseph of Arimathea’s staff and is known to flower twice a year at Christmas and Easter, unlike its native sister which only flowers once but spectacularly in Spring.

The story of the Fisher King in many ways is describing an ancient fertility rite. Emma Jung, the wife of Carl Jung, was fascinated with the legend and within modern psychology she has also recognised it as being about rejuvenating the individual and integrating a fully realised human being. It portrays Love as the source of regeneration and the spiritual quest which ends when it is found. When we ask the right questions, are in our hearts and are suitably keyed in to Nature, then fertility returns to the land and the Christ consciousness is present, the individual can embody their divine blueprint. These are the keys of the New Jerusalem, which Blake recognised as Glastonbury, as Avalon. This is the time of Aquarius.

The Story of the High History of the Holy Grail was also central to the discovery of the Glastonbury Zodiac, an amazing aerial photo of which we have on the landing in Little St Michael’s. Katherine Maltwood was reading the ‘High History’ and contemplating the Knight’s quests when she discovered the zodiac as an ancient star temple whilst looking at an ordnance survey map of the area in the 1920s. Chalice Well is part of the phoenix, the sign of Aquarius. This is the time we are now in, represented by Perceval in the High History. The phoenix is to be seen drinking from the Well, yet again suggesting that there is spiritual sustenance for this Age to be gained here.

In the Legend of the Fisher King we see the correspondences between the people and the land; the symbolic opportunities which echo the soul’s growth and understanding. In working with the Essences and with the Wheel of the Year celebrations we are co-creating with Nature, we are listening to Nature, communing with the Nature Kingdoms and in this way ensuring the health of the land as our own consciousness is expanded and increased. In the same way, as our spiritual journey evolves, we journey ever deeper into our hearts through these interactions and our wisdom and understanding increases.

The founder of the Chalice Well Trust had a profound connection both with the holy story of the time of Christ and with Nature. In “A Man Seen Afar”, Conversation with a Copper Beech, TP describes how he had just crossed the Alpine frontier between Austria and Bavaria, when he felt the need to rest “beneath the aura and shelter of this lovely tree. After a while I was able to become keyed in consciousness to the language of the trees”, he goes on to describe a “sense of the ideas which passed between me and the spirit of the copper beech”. The tree told him how it would prefer to grow up with another tree as a companion, “not too close, but within wind whistling distance”. At the end TP thanked the tree and said he would plant two copper beeches in our Chalice Well orchard, in England’s Glastonbury.

“As I went away stimulated and refreshed, I could not help feeling how wrong and sad it is that we humans have allowed ourselves to become so entirely out of communion with life in the natural worlds around us.” He further recounts experiences of nature which “have strengthened my conviction that from the standpoint of evolution, life in all its

manifestations is indivisible; that is to say, interdependent, whether such life is being expressed in human form or otherwise…”

In A Message for the Coming Time booklet he describes how, “Each kingdom of Nature possesses its own guardians who are responsible for the welfare of the elemental life forces which carry on the rhythm in the mineral, the animal, the vegetable worlds, and also in the kingdoms of the air, fire and water. These guardians possess memories that go back right to the beginning of the time when life began to appear on this planet, and their memories also go forward far into the future.”

TP speaks about this holistic perception when he describes an experience of sitting alone on a sand dune in the African Sahara, “I found myself communing on equal terms with the spirit of the breeze and with the life of the sand, and I entered into friendly contact with them. All barriers had disappeared and for the time being I was united with the energies of Nature that surrounded me.” This is a very accurate description of the communion which takes place when our hearts and awareness are keyed in to Nature; when “coherence” is achieved in our heart rhythms and our consciousness is expanded; more light fills our light bodies; everything is amplified.

At this time at the Well, this “place of sanctity where heaven and earth can meet and where the visible can merge naturally into the unseen" we still celebrate the seasonal festivals and hold gatherings, which reawaken a sense of connectedness with the land and the deep roots in ancient wisdom reminding us that we are part of nature, all connected. This transformation and growth is reflected in the land and the seasons. The wheel of the year connects with the cycles of Nature and helps to ensure the continuity and the fertility of the land.

Recently we have all experienced a couple of years of not being able to gather for our seasonal celebrations of the Wheel of the Year, so it felt extra special when we were able to reconvene from Imbolc this year. We celebrated this by blending the Red and the White Springs to symbolise the Unity Consciousness and the unity of our community and everyone present was invited to send their love and blessings into the waters.

Recently the wonderful physicist Gerry Pollack has written a book on the fourth phase of water which he describes as living water. It is more viscous and more alkaline than regular water and it can hold energy or charge and deliver it. He studied and created this water in the lab using various surfaces to create what he calls Exclusion Zone water or the fourth phase of water, but what has become obvious in observing how Essences are made is that our consciousness and the spirit of co-creation can also create this water, which is why Essence water is more viscous when we make an Essence and how it can hold the imprint of the plant or energy we are recording.

I’ve recently been involved in “harmonising water” whereby love and light are sent into the water and it becomes the fourth phase and is then either drunk ~ as it has then become something between food and drink and is very nourishing to the body and the cells or is gifted back into a local water course where it carries that love and light as a homeopathic signature eventually around the world and helps to potentise the water with an increase of the vibrations of love and light in the world.

This is also what we are doing collectively when we send our love and light into the Well when we gather for our Wheel of the Year celebrations, we are potentising and nourishing the waters for them to flow out into the land to reinvigorate it for increased fertility, just as

our ancestors knew how to do. As Chalice Well is a landscape temple and microcosm, in this time of the phoenix or Aquarius, what happens here is significant; we are healing The Fisher King and restoring the Wasteland to heaven on earth which is our birthright, just as Parsifal does in the Grail legends. In honouring the Well with the Well Dressings and sending our love and light into the water in the celebrations, often through the universal sound of Om at the end of the meditation, we are mending the “Fairy Accord” in coming together as a community to raise the vibrations of love and light to flow out into the world.

These traditional systems of soul lore connect to the modern understanding of the evolution of the psyche; the potential for self-development and spiritual transformation. It is the paradigm of the mechanistic world-view to separate the mind and body or the land and spirit but Quantum Consciousness is Unity Consciousness; it is the many that is still the one. God/the Great Spirit is here in Nature, in our hearts, in each other. It is a consciousness, a knowing that we are one, we are connected in our hearts and understandings and throughout Nature, water encodes this consciousness and it is magnified in places like this and amplified here by people of like mind gathering together to increase the amount of love in the world and fertility in the land. The Wells are portals to the health and vitality of the land and the people and Chalice Well represents a living, flourishing beacon in this respect.

The Ancient Wisdom traditions of the Druids and the Essenes, the heart centred Christ Consciousness, the Fisher King and the Grail Quest which seeks the Divine Consciousness of Mankind, TP and the continuum of working with Nature as the embodiment of the Source through the Essences, the retreats, Ark’s Mindful Gardening, the Wheel of the year, harmonising water ~ all of our collective experiences represent a communion with the intelligence of Nature through our hearts which is the Holy Grail! It is all encoded in the past and present of the Well; the morphic field is strong here! The perennial wisdom of opening our hearts to the Nature Kingdoms, as we say in the Chalice Well Essence Invocation: “that we may assist in the evolution of consciousness, And that we may give and receive all that is needed at this time ~ Healing, Guidance, Support and Wisdom –That we may be our true Selves, Co-creating our lives’ journeys, And the fulfilment of our Souls’ purpose, with Love, Power and Light. We ask this for the Highest Good of all Beings, And give thanks for these Divine gifts.”

We close with the final word from TP at Companions Day 1966, "It has always been our intention that Chalice Well activities should give pride of place to the healing of mind and body through the agency of the Spirit with the co-operation of Nature. If we are willing to show friendliness and compassion toward those who control the Kingdoms of Nature, they in turn will help us to restore health and well-being to our minds and bodies and to harmonise the conditions which surround us."

May it be ever thus!

Remembering

Barry Taylor

Paul Fletcher

It was Roy Procter who invited Barry Taylor to be a Trustee of Chalice Well when Leonard and Willa Sleath were the Guardians, resident in Vine Cottage. Barry had come to Glastonbury from the City of London where he had worked for 17 years for an exportfinance company house and as a counsellor for ‘Relate.’ He was called to Glastonbury with a specific purpose to help the Abbey and the town flourish in an age of pilgrimage and development.

In his book ‘A Pilgrim in Glastonbury’ (Abbey Press 2010) Barry outlines his journey into the inner recesses of Avalon. He believed he was in touch with the Company of Avalon and the Watchers at the Well who he described as ‘infinitely more ancient than the monks of the Abbey!’ He found that ‘Chalice Well provided a vivid contrast between the Christian monkish energy and the ancient pagan energy’ he perceived at the Wellhead. He encouraged people to sense the energies of the Watchers.

Barry was involved in many of the town’s projects including The Glastonbury Experience, helping Helene Koppejan to put this on a sound financial footing, the Isle of Avalon Foundation, the Library of Avalon, the development of the Pilgrim’s Reception Centre (now Glastonbury Information Centre) and he was founding member of the Glaston Group. Barry remained a Trustee for several years from the end of Leonard and Willa’s time, through Fred and Colleen’s guardianship to the beginnings of Michael and Lynne Orchard in 1999.

His book on pilgrimage in Glastonbury ends:

‘We are on this earth, in this life, to learn, serve and enjoy life. In the service of the Call to Glaston positive assistance is given in helping us to find our true destiny and to flourish in all aspects of life. There is a feeling of great peace in being in the right place, at the right time and doing the right thing. It is a great privilege to be called to serve in this place.’

Many who arrived in Glastonbury during the last three decades would eventually find themselves meeting and talking with Barry on their journey into this future ‘city of revelation.’

Jeffrey Gale

Many Companions will remember Jeffrey from his enthusiastic attendance at Companions Day over the years. Talking with Jeffrey you would realise he was a gentle soul with a wry sense of humour and here was another person who had a vision for the future. In 2000 he had founded the World Peace Garden Network with an idea that beautiful peace gardens around the world could be networked, linked and publicised.

As you walk up under the pergola to enter the Chalice Well Garden you will notice the green sign marking Chalice Well out as a World Peace Garden. It was Jeffrey who suggested that Chalice Well should become a World Peace Garden in the early 2000’s and the Trustees and Guardians soon agreed. The first World Peace Garden was inaugurated at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in May 2000 and now there are over 80 members around the world including the Tulsi Trust Ayurvedic Peace Garden Courtyard designed by Jeffrey in Chhattisgarh, India and the World Peace Garden at the School for Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, also designed by Jeffrey. There are many more gardens listed on their website (worldpeacegardens.org) and lots of photographs and more information.

Jeffrey’s keynote belief was ‘make peace with the earth and each other.’ He believed that this would be the path to world peace and he was working on the latest garden addition in the last few years; the first in Africa in Algiers. Our photo shows Jeffrey as we love to remember him, joyously singing his heart out at our Celtic Festival a few years ago. (He is standing far left)

Words of wisdom from WTP

An Allegory

The Creator of the Universe plants a seed in the spiritual soil of Heaven. This seed grows up. It is you. In due course three are offered to you by the Deity: 1) the gift of eternal life; (2) the gift of intelligence of mind; (3) the gift of the capacity to draw upon the inexhaustible resources of Life, Love and Wisdom.

The primary use to which you could put the gift of intelligence when responding to the Divine declaration: ‘Because I am, Thou art’, is by replying ‘Because God is, I am’ – ‘In Him I live and move and have my being.’ This is Christ’s teaching.

What a complete change of outlook this involves, compared with the mundane habit of thinking and believing that ‘I live and move and have my being’ exclusively in my physical body!

Remember that you draw your very being from the eternal fountain of Life, your very being in God. From the wellspring of Love in order to reflect His Love in fellowship and service to others. From the source of Wisdom in order to understand the purpose of your life and to fulfil it.

A Living Spirit

To continue the allegory. You, having become living and spiritual, must needs go forth upon your Father’s business. Inevitably you will require a form in which to do this.

You, therefore, become clothed by the Grace of God in a garment which is your spiritual body. This garment being made of spiritual substance is indestructible, perfect and free from the dangers of decay. It is your real body which never changes but which may wear outer garments or ‘bodies’ which your spiritual identity uses in service when required.

The ‘I Am’ Which Is You

In the terms of this attempt allegorically to state a great truth, the ‘I am’ your spiritual self lives in the Mind, the Consciousness which is God, not only in some distant future, but here and always. You and I can think, speak and act from this standpoint, now, even whilst apparently hindered by the present veils of flesh surrounding us.

You and I have the right to declare eternally ‘I am spiritual and I worship God in Spirit and in Truth.’

The Value of a Change of Thought Direction

You may wonder what the value of such a complete change in your thinking as I have tried to describe may turn out to be. The full reply to this question is not for me to give, but in any case a stilling of the outer self in order that we may learn how to be ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord’, eases both mental and physical tensions and thus becomes an effective healing exercise.

Apart from this undoubted benefit, I can only suggest that it may be worthwhile to make such a method the basis of your prayers and for your periods of meditation.

It will not be easy at first. Experience shows that persistent effort is essential before valuable results can be expected.

On waking in the morning, begin by reaching up in thought toward the summit of your understanding. During the day, whenever you begin a new train of thought, start at the top. When faced by a problem rise above it and look down upon it. Refuse to descend to the point where you would become emerged in the perplexities of the problem and so lose the right perspective for solving it.

And when you are preparing to keep the Silent Minute at nine o’ clock each evening, bring back to mind what has already been written in these notes. Meditate awhile quietly on the meaning of –

Here and now I draw from the fountain of Life

To manifest my existence in God.

From the wellspring of Love so that I reflect His Love in fellowship and service to others.

From the source of Wisdom in order to understand The purpose of my life and fulfil it.

The time will come both for you and for me when as a result, a deep silence will descend upon us, a silent stillness filled with the love of God.

And out of this Silence a still small voice will make itself heard and the answer we seek will be both yours and mine.

When this happens how wonderful it will be to go our ways rejoicing and to be at Peace!

(taken from Notes on Healing by Wellesley Tudor Pole, published by Chalice Well Press. The full booklet is available from The Chalice Well Shop)