At each of the four turning points of the labyrinth, there are sculpted stone markers celebrating Glastonbury's spiritual heritage. Two of them celebrate holy women. The first stone is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and features Her symbolic rose:
The second stone is dedicated to Bridget and features a Celtic Cross. While Christian imagery is used for this saint, we all know that She is really also a much older pagan Goddess sacred to the area and its people:
Tomorrow's post will conclude with the holy men who are celebrated in this labyrinth.
[All photos by My Rare One.]
Are the four stones in the four directions (North,South, etc)? And if so, does that specific stone have any significance to that direction? Probably not, since I think that I see them in the overall photo, and while they are laid out in a square pattern, am curious as to the meaning of the curving path to get to each of them.
ReplyDeleteThe carved stones look much older than they are, and are quite beautiful!
Hi Suzie -- I'm not sure about any directional alignments of the stones. The labyrinth as a whole faces the direction of Glastonbury Tor which is probably deliberate. As for the significance of the labyrinth path, you can check out some of my earlier posts on labyrinths just by clicking on the "Labyrinths" label under the post. I hope that will answer your questions?
ReplyDeleteThe Bridget issue... Another example of how the early church [love 'em or hate 'em] used psychological smarts. They eased Pagans into the New thing, by co-opting Pagan Goddess's. Smart. Gotta' admit, they were smart [and sneaky of course]. ,-)
ReplyDeleteI love these stones. Would be nice to see them in person. Funny, I was just reading about Bridget's Flame this morning and the nuns there seemed pretty open-minded about her pagan past. Of course, I am going by what the author had to say.
ReplyDeleteMary
Did some map and satellite digging...the Tor itself seems to have a northwest alignment, the geographical hill seems to run on a Eastwest axis. In other words, the whole thing is catty corner!
ReplyDeleteWell, I love cats so that's just fine, hee hee! Thanks, Cameron.
ReplyDeleteInteresting history here Debra. Liked the fact that the whole community got involved to make this possible.
ReplyDeletei enjoy these posts so much
ReplyDeleteThe marker stones are exquisite, Debra...I particularly like the Celtic Cross. I love all your labyrinth posts but have particularly enjoyed these Glastonbury pieces...I so regret missing my chance to go there when in England. It must have been a lovely experience walking the labyrinth indeed!
ReplyDeleteLynette