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.