Glastonbury was one of the most spiritually significant places in Britain; now we can be sure that it is one place from which a renewal of spirit is excluded.
The town was first corrupted from a great Christian site into a seedy maelstrom of evasive, collaborative New Age mutual exploitation. Then the Festival usurped the town; and then the BBC usurped the Festival.
Glastonbury now exemplifies everything that is most wrong with Britain - the confluence of finance, bureaucracy and the mass media; wrapped in fake robes fashioned from past greatness.
For my holidays in 2008 I spent a week in Glstonbury followed by a week at Pluscarden Abbey in the north of Scotland. The first place felt scattered; the second centred.
ReplyDeleteGlastonbury has the virtue of being very close to Wells though. I've been privileged to visit many English Cathedrals but Wells tops the list for me. Lovely town as well.
My feeling is that if there is to be an English spiritual renaissance it will begin somewhere unheralded and unfashionable - Derby or Middlesborough, say. Definitely not Glasto!
@John - Agreed: http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/glastonbury-versus-wells.html
ReplyDeletefwiw a personal anecdote - I visited Glastonbury a few years ago and the most surprising - and unsettling - thing happened to me....
ReplyDeleteAfter walking around the ruined abbey, I cursed (in my mind) Henry VIII and the dissolution of monasteries and made a heartfelt prayer for the restoration of Christian faith to that place. I was standing in the street and suddenly felt a deep unease come over me and then I tripped and fell onto the ground. There was no one around and I *honestly* swear that it felt as if I was pushed. People may think I'm crazy, but I sincerely believe there are malevolent spiritual forces in that town.