Bastards, bastards, bastards, bastards..

[Gob]

Kill whoever is responsible...

Standing proudly on the side of an English hill, its religious roots go back 2,000 years. But a single night of vandalism has left an ancient site of pilgrimage in splinters.

The Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury has been chopped down in what is being seen by some as a deliberately anti-Christian act.





A feature of the skyline surrounding the Somerset town, the tree has been visited by thousands retracing the steps said to have been taken by Joseph of Arimathea, who some say was Jesus’ great uncle.

Police tape surrounds the vandalised Holy Thorn tree on Wearyall Hill in Glastonbury as stunned locals look on. The branches were cut off overnight and a police investigation has been launched

The tree in all its glory before it was hacked apart. Legend says it sprang from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, the man who helped Jesus of the cross. To the right of the tree, in the distance, is Glastonbury Tor

According to legend, Saint Joseph travelled to the spot after Christ was crucified, taking with him the Holy Grail of Arthurian folklore.

He is said to have stuck his wooden staff – which had belonged to Jesus – into the ground on Wearyall Hill before he went to sleep. When he awoke it had sprouted into a thorn tree, which became a natural shrine for Christians across Europe.

To add to its sacred status, the tree ‘miraculously’ flowered twice a year – once at Christmas and once at Easter. It survived for hundreds of years before it was chopped down by puritans in the Civil War, but secret cuttings of the original were taken and planted around the town.

It is from one of the new plants that a replacement tree was planted in the original spot over 50 years ago.

Yesterday residents of Glastonbury wept as they surveyed the damage done to the tree on Wednesday night. Katherine Gorbing, curator of the town’s abbey, said: ‘The mindless vandals who have hacked down this tree have struck at the heart of Christianity.


Christian legend dictates that Jesus's great uncle, Joseph of Arimathea (pictured below) came to Britain after the crucifixion 2,000 years ago bearing the Holy Grail - the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper.
He visited Glastonbury and thrust his staff into Wearyall Hill, just below the Tor, planting a seed for the original thorn tree.

Roundheads felled the tree during the English Civil War, when forces led by Oliver Cromwell (pictured) waged a vicious battle against the Crown.
However, locals salvaged the roots of the original tree, hiding it in secret locations around Glastonbury.

It was then replanted on the hill in 1951. Other cuttings were also grown and placed around the town - including its famous Glastonbury Abbey.

Experts had verified that the tree - known as the Crategus Monogyna Bi Flora - originated from the Middle East.

A sprig of holy thorns was taken from the Thorn tree by Glastonbury's St Johns Church on Wednesday and sent to the Queen

The 100-year-old tradition will see the thorns sit on Her Majesty's dinner table on Christmas Day

‘It is the most significant of all the trees planted here and can be linked back to the origins of Christianity.

‘When I arrived at the Abbey this morning you could look over to the hill and see it was not there.

‘It’s a great shock to everyone in Glastonbury – the landscape of the town has changed overnight.’

Every winter a sprig of thorns from one of the town’s trees is sent to the Queen to be used as a table decoration on Christmas Day.

Glastonbury mayor John Coles, 66, took part in the annual cutting ceremony last week using the tree at St John’s Church.

Yesterday he recalled watching a tree being planted on Wearyall Hill in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. Although that specimen died, it was replaced the following year and stood firm until this week. Mr Coles said: ‘It’s the saddest thing I’ve seen in Glastonbury. Some of the main trunk is there but the branches have been sawn away. I am absolutely lost for words.’

Experts had verified that the tree – known as the Crategus Monogyna Bi Flora – originated from the Middle East.

Avon and Somerset police have begun an investigation but because there was no tree preservation order on the Holy Thorn, it means the vandals are unlikely to be prosecuted.

The land on which the Holy Thorn stood is owned by Edward James, who was arrested this week in connection with an investigation into failed currency exchange firm Crown Currency Exchange, of which he is a director.

According to the administrator’s report, Crown Currency collapsed owing £16million with little more than £3million in the bank. Last night there was speculation that the attack on the Holy Thorn may have been part of a vendetta against him.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z17gEwpZdA

[loCAtek]

Um Gob, other than it's religious significance, it's a tree right?

[Big RR]

The Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury

Not to make light of vandalism, but I really thought this was going to be something along the Monty Python Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. The story about Joseph and the blooming staff of Jesus and the biennial flowering to coincide with Christmas (which most scholars say is not the birth date of Jesus) and Easter (Roman I presume, not Eastern Orthodox) almost as fantastic. God tourist attraction, though, I guess, and maybe a signpost for grail hunters.

[Lord Jim]

Anyone know if EGlide's made a trip to the UK recently?

[Gob]

http://www.glastonburytor.org.uk/

It's no ordinary hill: people develop personal, profound relationships with it.

It has been recognised as a holy hill for millennia.

Watch people trogging up the hill, and then watch them coming down – singing, chatting, brightened and changed.

Glastonbury Tor is home to Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Fairies. In the human realm it is managed by The National Trust.

For the pilgrim the landscape of Avalon is a treasure trove where sacred sites abound. The most obvious to the visitor is Glastonbury Tor which can be seen from a great distance rising enigmatically above the flat Summerland meadows.

There are many myths and legends associated with the Tor – it is the home of Gwyn ap Nudd, the Lord of the Underworld and King of the Fairies, and a place where the fairy folk live.

In early-medieval times there was a small monks' retreat on top of the Tor, founded probably in the time of St Patrick in the mid-400s. This was followed in the early 1100s by a chapel, St Michael de Torre. This was destroyed in a powerful earthquake in 1275 and rebuilt in the early 1300s. The tower is all that remains today.
Glastonbury in 1948

In recent years there has been discussion about the significance of the terracing of the Tor. It was proposed first by Geoffrey Russell and then expanded on by Geoffrey Ashe, the well-known Arthurian scholar, that the terracing on the slopes of Glastonbury Tor is the remains of a great three-dimensional neolithic labyrinth, a ceremonial way dedicated to the ancient British Goddess.

Whether it will ever be proved that the labyrinth was constructed in the Neolithic era or not is a matter for future archaeology, but since it was first suggested many thousands of people have walked it in a sacred manner. And this is no mean feat since it takes from 4-6 hours and some physical exertion and inner focus to walk in and out of the labyrinth. It provides the perfect setting for a present day ceremonial journey, whether it was so or not in the past.

If the terraces were not built as a labyrinth, it does seem to have been built for ceremonial, sacred or geomantic reasons. The only remaining reason, agricultural terracing, makes little realistic sense, even though the National Trust and many archaeologists continue to believe it – Avalon had well enough land and sunny slopes for special crops such as grapes, and the terraces stretch around the sunless and at times very exposed side of the Tor, hardly suggesting farming use.

[dales]

Next up:

Tipping the stones at Stonehenge.

[Big RR]

Right after tipping the Holy Cows of Dehli.

[tyro]

Gob expressing respect and maybe even adoration on a religious shrub.


Will wonders never cease?










Or is it April 1st down under?

[loCAtek]

Now, he believes in fairies

[Gob]

Many writers tell that after his last battle at Camlann, the wounded King Arthur was laid in a barge and sailed to the Isle of Avalon for his wounds to heal. Some writers state that Arthur is still alive on the Isle of Avalon and will return to Britain to be their future king in the country's hour of need.

Geoffrey of Monmouth tells that King Arthur was mortally wounded and was carried off to the Isle of Avalon, so that his
wounds might be attended to. He handed the crown of Britain over to his cousin Constantine, the son of Cador Duke of Cornwall. On the Isle of Avalon, Arthur is looked after by Morgan

Glastonbury has been claimed as the Isle of Avalon. At that time Glastonbury Tor would have been an island in the fenland here. Glastonbury claims to be the Isle of Avalon, the site of King Arthur's, and the site to which the Holy Grail was borne to by Joseph of Arimethea. The claim appears to date back to some monks in the late twelfth century, who decided to cash in on the popular Arthurian legends circulating at that time. They claimed to have found the tomb of Arthur in 1190, with an inscription conveniently claiming Glastonbury to be Avalon.

[loCAtek]

Your faith is inspiring!

[Gob]

Russell proposed to connect the Tor and its maze with early Welsh poetic allusions to Caer Sidi, the 'turning' or spiral castle. This was a place in pre-Christian mythology which housed a magic cauldron. Caer Sidi was a point of contact with Annwn, a Celtic Otherworld sometimes pictured as underground. Its wonder-working vessel may have been the same as a cauldron of inspiration that belonged to the goddess Ceridwen.

Certainly the legends of Glastonbury link up with these themes. The cauldron, in one guise or another, is a factor in the making of the Grail story, and a very early Welsh poem tells how Arthur and his men went in quest of it. A tale about a visiting saint, Collen, shows that the Tor was regarded as an entrance to Annwn. Russell suggests that the Quest of the Grail has pre-Christian roots in a Celtic ritual which involved threading the Tor maze to the summit and, presumably, attaining a real or symbolic sacred vessel of otherworldly character.

However, while British Celts of the pagan Iron Age doubtless had notions about the Tor, and might even have made some use of its maze, they are unlikely to have done the original work. According to Philip Rahtz a probable date would lie in the second or third millennium B.C. As a religious structure comparable to Silbury, the maze, if confirmed, could have a bearing on the debate as to how far Neolithic religion was centred on the cult of a Great Goddess or Earth Mother. It has been pointed out that the Glastonbury hill-profile, viewed from a certain angle, evokes a recumbent female figure with the Tor forming the left breast. Early images of goddesses do occasionally have lines circling and meandering on their bodies.

The special Cretan maze-pattern in its complexity and wide distribution is an unsolved problem, though a ritual origin is agreed to be likely. Another relevant theme is that of the holy mountain. Several early Asian mythologies refer to a mountain where the gods dwelt. Hindus called it Mem, placed it at the world's centre, and sometimes - interestingly - made it septenary, with seven sides or levels. In Babylon the great Ziggurat or temple had seven tiers, and may have been intended as a model of the mount of the gods. The motif passed into Islamic legend, also into the poetry of Dante, who portrays Purgatory as a seven-tiered mountain. The ingredients for a combination of holy mountain and septenary maze certainly existed from ancient times. How or why such a grandiose work might have come to be undertaken in Britain is a further question.

[rubato]

Well that's a shame. Ugly old shrub but if people loved it it was wrong to cut it down. On the other hand it was only 50 years old, not even an antique, and they can plant another one. It can be the miraculously restored holy shrub of Glastonbury.

yrs,
rubato

[loCAtek]

Informative video, here's hoping the tree recovers ion the spring.

[BoSoxGal]

I just heard about this on NPR, and came looking to see if there had been a thread started on it.

The NPR story detailed the process of grafts being cultivated from what's left of the tree, and the high hopes that another will stand there within 10 years.

It is a terrible act of pointless cruelty - but it can be overcome, as it was in the past.

[Gob]

As a Christian symbol, it seems appropriate that its resurrection took place in time for Easter.

Glastonbury's Holy Thorn tree began to show new buds this week, three months after it was savagely cut down by vandals.

According to legend, Joseph of Arimathea – who some say was Jesus's great-uncle – travelled to Wearyall Hill after the Crucifixion and stuck a wooden staff belonging to Jesus into the ground before he went to sleep.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1HfGcNqyr

[MajGenl.Meade]

It's a shame about the tree - I liked it. Been to Glastonbury Tor twice or perhaps thrice in my life (thus far). But this:

The mindless vandals who have hacked down this tree have struck at the heart of Christianity.

is total bollocks. They've not affected Christianity one little bit.

Now down in the town all the pagan freakniks who outnumber Christians and sane people by about 2-to-1 are probably waving their crystals and soulcatchers in total despair as they gyrate in the streets annoying passersby.

Shame
Meade

[rubato]

How many symbols does Christianity get to keep?

They already had the cross, branding irons, the rack, hot pokers, eye gouges, ...

yrs,
rubato

[loCAtek]

Gracias a Dios.

[Gob]

Now down in the town all the pagan freakniks who outnumber Christians and sane people by about 2-to-1 are probably waving their crystals and soulcatchers in total despair as they gyrate in the streets annoying passersby.

Shame
Meade

The last time we were in Glasto, the Christians were having a parade around the Abbey to "reclaim Glastonbury for Christ," as the festival had been on the previous week, and apparently Christ isn't a fan of the Manic Street Preachers. (Which is odd, as he's inspired a few.)

That annoyed the bloody tourists I can tell you.