Thursday, 19 October
2006
CYGNUS
DAY 2006
A Celebration of
the Mysteries of Cygnus
and the Goddess Brigit.
Obviously, I am giving a variation
of my Cygnus Mystery presentation at QuestCon06, but as usual I'll have
to talk quickly and speed up as my allotted 55 minutes looms ever nearer.
Never is there time to say what you really want to say, and so with
the help of Garath Mills, proprietor of Glastonbury's Speaking
Tree book shop and my publisher Duncan
Baird, we are creating a 'Cygnus Day 2006' in the new age capital.
This takes place on Sunday, 12 November at the Assembly
Rooms, a public venue accessed via an alleyway on the south side
of Glastonbury High Street. The event is dedicated to exploring the
mysteries of Cygnus and their relationship to the Goddess, especially
Brigit, female patron of Glastonbury. According to some, including goddess
expert Kathy
Jones, Brigit is personified in the local landscape by an enormous
swan - the goddess's primary totemic symbol - delineated by the hills
around the town, especially Wearyall Hill and Glastonbury Tor.
There was once a Bridgit chapel and holy spring close to the base of
Wearyall Hill, showing that as a Celtic saint she was venerated locally
from the dawn of the Christian era. Like so many other cosmic mothers
around the world, Brigit can be seen as a personification of the Milky
Way, with the Cygnus stars and Great Rift representing her womb/vulva.
I shall be giving a series of brief audio-visual presentations on all
aspects of the Cygnus saga in the hall between 1 and 6 pm, and I would
like to finish with a meditation on Brigit, Cygnus and the swan.
Among the topics under discussion will be:
- The significance of Avebury's axial alignment towards Deneb, the brightest
star in Cygnus, and other local sight-lines aimed in the same
direction, plus evidence of Avebury's cult of the swan.
- The mystery of Swan-upping on the River Thames, and its relationship
to Cygnus and London's Temple of Isis.
- Giza's clear relationship to the cult of Cygnus, through its connction
with Soker, Egypt's primeval god of death and the underworld.
- The Mysteries of Gobekli Tepe in SE Turkey, which German archaeologist
Klaus Schmidt said would provide answers to the myth of the Garden of
Eden, something I have been saying all along. Click here
for Sean Thomas's amazing news story.
- The mysteries of the Sabians, or Chaldeans, who were descended from
the builders of Gobekli Tepe and other proto-Neolithic structures in
SE Turkey. They saw the Primal Cause, God himself and the place of heaven,
as synonymous with the North Star, but not the one of their own epoch.
- The involvement of the Watchers and Nephilim of the Book of Enoch,
and their role in the evolution of human kind.
I ask also whether cosmic
rays from the Cygnus region really were responsible for changing human
DNA and causing the birth not only of religion but civilization itself.
There will be a Question
and Answer session towards the end.
And here's the good bit. It's totally free! Yes, free. All you
have to do is turn up in Glastonbury on Sunday, 12th November at 1pm
and enter the Assembly Rooms. First come, first serve.
Yet here's the slight problem. As you might know, Saturday, 11 November
is the date of Glastonbury's
annual carnival, which actually begins the night before, Friday,
10 November (Martinmas) in nearby Wells.
In addition to this, Sunday, 12 November is Remembrance Sunday, which
also involves a precession up Glastonbury High Street to St John's church.
1000s of people come to Glastonbury to witness both these events, which
means that all local B & Bs and guest houses will be full on the
Saturday
night. Indeed, Sue and I have arranged to stay in a friend's home in
Glastonbury over the weekend.
So if you want to try and make a weekend of it, then you will have to
book a B & B outside of the town. This is unfortunate, but hopefully
it
shouldn't spoil all the fun. Maybe you could combine it with a trip
to Avebury on the Saturday.
Books, obviously, will be available on the day, but note that these
will not include the special edition of the THE CYGNUS MYSTERY advertised
on the website. I can, of course, sign and dedicate copies bought, though.
These will be selling at a special discount price of £11.99, instead
of the usual £16.99.
I did think of changing the date, but karmically it was right for this
weekend, as Martinmas is part of the whole period connected to the
November cross quarter day, seen in the past as the end of one year
and the beginning of a new one. It was also the time when the dead were
thought to return to this world temporarily, and witches and spirits
were abroad in the night sky. Today this tradition is recalled in Hallowe'en,
All Saints Day (1 November), All Souls Dead or the Day of the Dead (2
November), Guy Fawkes Day (5 November, the actual date of the cross
quarter day), Martinmas (10 November) and Remembrance Sunday (the Sunday
closest to 11 November).
In THE CYGNUS MYSTERY I show that this was a period of the year of special
importance to the Avebury cycle, and that the return on moonlit nights
around this time of whooper swans and other migrating birds coming back
to Europe from their northerly breeding grounds, might well have figured
in this mythos. This seems especially so, since swans and grey-lag geese
were seen in European folklore as taking the souls of the dead towards
a northerly-placed heaven on their departure north shortly after the
time of Brigit's feast day at the beginning of February.
Anyway, should be a great day, and an informal one at that.