Now part of a forthcoming book: Green Living, Sacred Life by Susan M Phillips and Tye Jamie Coxston
THE MYSTIC POWER OF HOLY HILLS
By Susan M. Phillips
Around the world hills and mountains are accorded great significance as places of power. Some are places of veneration; whilst others have legends of curses attached to them that visitors ignore at their peril.
GLASTONBURY TOR
Glastonbury Tor is said by some to be the site of the legendary Avalon. It is claimed that King Arthur and his queen Guinevere are buried here and that the mere at Pomparles Bridge near Glastonbury is the lake into which the dying king commanded Sir Bedevere to toss his sword Excalibur. There is also a suggestion that this was the place where King Melwas held Guinevere hostage. The Tor at that time was surrounded by floodwater and marshland, making it virtually an island, giving some credence to the legends.
The Chalice Well at the foot of the Tor was built by the Druids and its red water gives it its other name, Blood Spring. The Holy Grail was reputedly carried to Glastonbury and hidden in this well. According to legend Joseph of Arimathea landed at Wearyall Hill [Glastonbury Tor] by boat. He leaned on his staff to pray and it took root. It grew into the famous Glastonbury Thorn, which still flowers twice a year at Christmas and Easter in front of St John’s Church and in the Abbey grounds.
The Tor is a giant spiral maze topped by the ruin of St Michael’s Church, which was destroyed by earthquake. According to Pagan belief the Tor is an entrance to the fairy kingdom of Annwn, ruled over by Gwyn ap Nudd and cannot be Christianised. It is said that in the 6th century, St Collen went through a secret gateway to visit the fairy king where he found himself in a palace surrounded by temptations. He sprinkled holy water around him and found himself back on the Tor alone.
SILBURY HILL
Silbury Hill is not really a hill at all but the largest man made mound in Europe. It stands about a mile from the famous Avebury Stone Circle and looks rather like an inverted pudding bowl. The hill was constructed around 2750 bc and its purpose is not known, though it is believed to have had great ritual significance linked both to Avebury and Stonehenge as well as the nearby West Kennet Longbarrow, another ancient manmade hill whose purpose is a little clearer: tombs were constructed at the top of the barrow and were used for several hundred years before being emptied and abandoned.
CHARTRES
The Cathedral of Chartres in France stands on the site of a megalithic dolmen and a well within a mound thought to house a point of power. The dolmen was constructed of two or three unhewn stones, topped by a flat boulder and was tall enough for a man to pass through. The energies emanating from it changed with the seasons. Later the Druids revered the site and built a college at Chartres, an important centre of Druidic teaching.
A prophetic vision foretold that a virgin would give birth to a child and an image was carved from a pear tree of the virgin with the child on her lap. This was placed beside the well, the power point inside the dolmen and called the ‘Virgin Pariturae’ [The Virgin who will give birth to a child]. This was revered for hundreds of years until discovered by the first Christians in the third century. It was blackened with age and they worshipped her as the Black Virgin. The place became known as the ‘Druid’s Grotto’ it was set in the church crypt and the well became the ‘Well of the Strong’.
The cathedral is an odd mixture of Christian and Pagan with a maze on the floor of the nave. Pilgrims enter by the great west door and walk shoeless to this maze. They dance around its spiral path until they reach the centre where tradition has it that the light from three stained glass rose windows will bring about an alchemical charge, transmuting and transforming the pilgrim and refreshing the soul.
In the west aisle of the south transept a large rectangular flagstone is set diagonally in the floor. At midday on the Summer Solstice, the sun shines through a clear pane in the stained glass window of St Apollinaire onto a metal peg set in the flagstone.
T’AI SHAN
In China natural features were considered sacred. T’ai Shan is China’s most sacred mountain and the most revered of the five mountains of Taoism. From its summit the Yellow river can be seen to the north and to the south it is possible to see the province where the prophet Confucius was born. The seven thousand steps leading up to the Temple of the Jade Emperor have been trodden by pilgrims for thousands of years, some even climb each step on their knees. Along the path stand temples, sacred groves of pine and cypress and waterfalls. There are also wayside shrines where specially purchased paper money is burned to placate otherworldly officials so that the final journey of the soul to the underworld will be a smooth one. The most propitious time for pilgrimage is thought to be the springtime festival of Quing Ming.
The Emperor Shun was said to have climbed T’ai Shan to make the great sacrifices to Heaven and Earth almost four thousand years ago. Through the centuries other emperors continued the tradition and in the 11th Century the mountain was pronounced Equal of Heaven and presented with a magical slab of jade in 1736 by the Emperor Chien Lung.
EVEREST
To most westerners, Everest is simply the tallest mountain in the world, conquered in 1955 by Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Ten Sing. To the locals, its heights are a place of veneration where the powers of heaven, earth and water meet. They know it as Como-Lung-Ma [goddess mother of the universe] and Nanda Devi [mother of the Ganges]. Pilgrims of all ages climb its forbidding slopes to find the source of the Ganges, river and also goddess wife of Shiva.
SHAVING POINT
To the north east of Western Point in Victoria, Australia lie hills reputed to be inhabited by a creature made of living stone which no weapon can injure. A large rock in an area of these hills called Shaving Point is reputed to have once been men who had been fishing and were cooking their catch when a dog approached. They did not feed him and he became angry and called out to them ‘You have lots of fish, but give me none!’ With that, he turned them into the rock. In another version of the same legend, the women of the fishing party shouted ‘Yacka torn!’ [very good] and the dog replied ‘Yacka torn!’ the party were immediately changed into rocks. A local native living at the turn of the century named Toolabar claimed that when he was with his father he once heard a dog talk. They quickly ran away before they too became stones.
MAUNA LOA
Among the volcanoes of Hawaii stands Mauna Loa. Many holidaymakers visit the mountain. They are often warned by locals not to pick up any of the small rocks littering the ground, as souvenirs, as theft of her sacred stone will offend the goddess Pele who dwells there. Those who take the warning seriously leave in peace. For the less respectful who take the goddess’ stones; retribution is swift and harsh. In 1977, a family, from New York gathered rocks and took them home. Within a week, the children began to suffer broken bones and other serious injuries. The mother recalled being warned by a Hawaiian about the goddess so the family posted the stones to a friend on the island requesting that they be returned to the foot of the peak. Life settled down for the younger children but the fourteen-year-old continued to suffer. He gashed his thigh, dislocated his shoulder, and scalded his hand. When quizzed by his parents he admitted keeping three of the rocks hidden in his room. These were sent off to join their fellows and peace was restored to the household. Similar stories abound. The Hawaiian National Park Service receives a large number of packages from around the world, mostly of stones that have brought bad luck and these are all returned to the mountain.
MIND YOUR MANNERS
We should perhaps remember that mountains and hills are the greatest manifestors of earth energy. They carry a lot of power and generally have their own earth spirits. These are usually benign, but some will get extremely offended at rank bad manners on the part of visitors. Remember, if you visit a hill, that you are the guest and act accordingly. Never take anything without permission and never do damage, either by leaving litter or starting fires that could harm the flora and fauna of the area.
Honor the Earth.
