Continuing the reasons a bit more............. A fortuitous set of circumstance, or something more?

So, lets explain things a bit further, not only to allow the Seeker who is reading this to understand more, but also for myself to work through the experiences and see what comes from my pondering upon them!

Sometimes this blog will be in the form of a diary, sometimes it will be more of a place to air my thoughts, a kind of personal journal covering numerous aspects of my life, both spiritaul and mundane, sometimes merely somewhere to come and rant n rave, and at other times a place to share my more creative work, my hopes are that it will be somewhere others may find inspiration and that I can work through my thoughts, anyhows, we will see how it goes!

So the start of the blog, the resumption of my writing and hopefully some other aspects of our Crooked Path all come from our recent trip to Glastonbury (we got home last night), which was booked by Lee as a surprise Wedding Anniversary treat (10 years married on Samhain!) We stayed at a BnB on a smallholding, about 10 miles outside Glastonbury (as we would both love to have a smallholding Lee thought it would be a good idea to visit one, which it was), travelling down on Saturday and going straight to Glastonbury before we went to the BnB later on. Our plans were to visit Glastonbury on the Saturday, possibly return on the Sunday for another look around, then explore some of the local area and possibly try and do some photography!

I didnt manage to stop and get a piccy of how it looked in the rain, with the storm lashing down, but this borrowed piccy shows something similar, but no where near as heavy a downpour as we were greeted with!

The Lady had other plans for us though! We had a good trip down in bright sunshine, about 3 1/2 hours from Manchester to Glastonbury, via Bristol (the Sat Nav told us there was a hold up on the lower M5 so took us through Bristol and onto the A and B roads, the upshot of which was we were treated to a fab view of the Tor as we came over the hills towards Wells!) As the Tor came into view it was shrouded in black clouds, with a heavy downpour falling. As we reached the Car Park in Glastonbury the clouds cleared, the rain stopped and we were bathed in sunlight once more, a fortuitous start!

Stock image of the High St, I didnt manage to get the cameras out once whilst we were down at Glastonbury, so please forgive my blatant use of images from the web, its not normal for me to neglect the camera, but this weekend wasnt about photography, even though we thought it may well have been, it was about something else entirely!

Making our way into the High St we started to look around the many shops, as it was our first trip to Glastonbury we didnt quite know what to expect, but having been practitioners for many years and having been into many Pagan shops before, we thought we'd be fine.......... but the sheer volume of choice, the different environments and the incense, added together with the general energy of the Tor (a definite place of power) meant we were reeling by the time we'd been in 3 or 4 shops, overdosing the senses with all manner of good things!

We had an enjoyable time looking in all the wonderful shops, soaking up the atmosphere and generally playing 'spot the xtian' instead of the usual spot the pagan! Some purchases were made, and some heartfelt longings for other items put into our hearts, a fantastic day! By 4pm we were completely sensory overloaded, so decided to head off to the BnB, check in, relax and go for a meal to mull over our experiences.

Hill View Farm, another 'borrowed' picture!

We Stayed at Hill View Farm, a lovely 4 star BnB on a smallholding about 7 miles from Glastonbury itself in Wedmore, Ashton, a good base for exploring the locality, lovely and quiet, with lovely people running it. On arrival it was to find we'd been upgraded to a larger room and that there was a lovely slice of cake and mug of tea waiting for us, definitely a place we'd stay at again! Staying outside of Glastonbury was Lee's idea, as we both really would like to have a smallholding ourselves his thoughts were to get to see what they were like locally, and I have to say, not only did we do that, but also having the separation from Glastonbury itself worked well for us, we were able to visit when we wanted, but were able to escape and put some distance between us and the atmosphere if we wanted or needed it.

After a lovely meal at the Lamb Inn at Weare (great wholesome food, tasty, hot and plenty of it for a very good price) we returned to the BnB and popped Lee's laptop on, to check Facebook (dont ask me why, but we were 'told' to do so) On posting a status update saying we were in Glastonbury it was to find a pretty quick reply from a dear friend and Coven sister, Heathwitch, our former HPS, who was also in Glastonbury!! We hadnt seen H for 2 years to the day, the last time we met was at her Samhain party and Rite in 2008 (when she wore a fab 'Wicked Witch outfit, complete with full green bodypaint), and she immediately asked if we'd like to meet up? Lol, well, synchronicity such as this is something that doesnt happen often, it felt to us all that there was more to it, a message that we were receiving loud and clear from the Lady, 'I'll knock you're heads together if you don't LISTEN!'

We had planned to explore a bit more of the area on Sunday, before returning again to Glastonbury on the Monday to make some additional purchases before we came home (Man, Myth & Magick, The Goddess and Green Man, Lilith, StarChild,so many lovely shops with soo much lovely Pagan orientated things, I could spend an absolute fortune if I wasnt careful!), but after hearing H was in the area our plans changed, it was time to meet up! We posted back to H our mobile numbers, then said we were planning on going to the Chalice Well Gardens that morning and possibly staying for the lunchtime Samhain Rite, but didnt get a reply from her, so set off anyway and hoped that H would ring us and we could then arrange where to meet!

Borrowed picture of the Meadow at Chalice Well Gardens

We arrived early at the Chalice Well Gardens, to find that it was free entry before 12am (as it was Samhain), so after making a donation we made our way first to the meadow where we sat and absorbed the atmosphere and spent some time communing.

Borrowed Picture of the View of the Tor from the Chalice Well Gardens Meadow

 I started to hear the whispers of a voice touching my mind as we gazed at the view or the Tor from some of the seats placed there for meditation. The whisper was that of The Lady, making contact with me for the first time in a while, I got the distinct impression She was glad that we were here, in the place that is Her home!

Borrowed Picture of the Exit from the Meadow and the walk through the bower of trees.

As we walked away from the Meadow towards a walk under a Bower of trees I got a strong message, images and voices, overlapping one another, I shall recount them for you here to draw your own message from them!

'I am the Mother, from whom all that exists flows, for without Me there is nothing, Fear me for I am the destroyer, Love Me for I am the provider, I nourish and nurture, I bring change and growth but also death and decay! Worship Me in all My Glory and Might, Cower before My awesome power, Take comfort in My dark embrace, Draw Power from Me when you have a need, but never ignore Me!'

'I am the Horned One, I plant the seed from which all grows, for without me the Mother is barren and life cannot exist! I am the Hunter, the protector and the Horned One of the Forests and green places, I am He who is cut down so that all life may continue!'

 I shall stop at this point now, and continue the tale later, thanks for visiting Seeker, thanks for reading so far and bearing with my poor ramblings!
Dark Dreams
Suzanne