Signs and Secrets of the Glastonbury Zodiac promo

SIGNS & SECR ETS
OF THE
GL ASTON BU RY ZODI AC
is an anthology created by a diverse group of
multi-talented enthusiasts, inspired by the classic,
Anthony Roberts-edited compilation,
Glastonbury: Ancient Avalon, New Jerusalem.
As above, so below.
“Our land is the image of heaven.”
Corpus Hermeticum. Asclepius.
A psychogeographical Arthurian Grail extravaganza.
Features
Investigations into a mysterious past, intimations of an inspirational future.
History, poetry, magic, mysticism, myth, music, art.
Astrological gnosis. Personal transformation.
Includes
Previously unpublished article by Katharine Maltwood,
discoverer of the Somerset terrestrial zodiac.
Incredible roots of Andrew Collins’ Giza cave discovery in his
visionary star temple quest.
The revelation of the Melkarth landscape alignment,
and its relationship to Glastonbury.
Sumptuous illustrations, maps and diagrams,
by artist-researcher Yuri Leitch.
Honours the lineage
John Dee, Frederick Bligh Bond, Mary Caine,
Elizabeth Leader, Oliver Reiser, Robert Coon and others.
www.facebook.com/AvalonianAeonPublications
ISBN 978-0-9557696-3-4

£24.99
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signs & secr ets of the glaston bu ry zodiac

From the Publisher
This anthology celebrates the diversity of its contributors and their perspectives.
There is no ‘house style’ or policy on what the so-called Glastonbury Zodiac can
be said to be, or not be. All information has been submitted in good faith but the
Publisher cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies of fact. To respect
the integrity of individual styles, which in turn are an expression of the
personalities of the authors, minimal editing has been imposed.

* * *

Dedication page v
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements xii
Foreword - Paul Weston xiv
Introduction - Yuri Leitch 1

history
1 K atharine M altwood and the Origins of the
Glastonbury Z odiac - Anthony Thorley 7
2 S omerset Before S omerset Was - Alan Royce 27
3 Langport’s Royal Secret: The Rose, the Portcullis and the
K atherine Wheel - Shirley Whitton 33
4 The M altwood Legend: Tragedy and Hope - Hank Harrison 51
5 M ary Caine - Shirley Whitton 59
6 The Secret of the L ord: Elizabeth Leader and the
Glastonbury Z odiac - Tim & Sophie Knock 69
7 Anthony Roberts - Jan Roberts & Shirley Whitton 77
8 Robert Coon and Oliver R eiser: Elliptical Navigations
towards the Omega Point and World Sensorium - Paul Weston 81
9 Aegypt: the Star Temple and the Giza Plateau.
The work of Andrew Collins - Paul Weston 91

vi


introduction

M YSTERY
10 M altwood’s Triangle, the Michael Line
and the Parallelogram - Yuri Leitch 109
11 The Discovery of the Melkarth Line - Yuri Leitch 119
12 The Pre-M altwood Z odiacs of Glastonbury - Alan Royce 147
13 Bligh B ond’s Rose Stone Vigil - Alan Royce 159
14 The Mystery of the High History - Paul Weston 169
15 The L amb of Street, S omerset - Katharine Maltwood 183
16
K atharine M altwood’s ‘The L amb of Street’:
A Commentary - Anthony Thorley 185
17 The John Dee Enigma - Yuri Leitch 191
18 Star M ap on the Earth - Loné Bang 201
19 Gwena: G oddess of the Summer L ands - Yuri Leitch 211
20
The Faery Initiations of the Thirteen Dreamers
and the Fairy Oath of Friendship - Coleston Brown 221

i n s pi r at i o n
21 The Z odiac Memory Theatre - John Wadsworth 233
22 Sacred S ong of the Landscape - Bahli Mans-Morris 245
23 ‘She Who Whispers Your Name’ - Casey Jon 253
24
The S omerset Star Temple:
The R eturn to Holy L and - Emma Stow 259
25 Composing the Glastonbury Zodiac - Francesca LaFae 269
26 A Journey of Healing in the Glastonbury Zodiac - Vicki Burke 277
27 The Gateway to the Temple of the Stars:
The Royal Secret and the Guardian Hound - David Hatfield 287
28 Weaving Heaven and E arth - Celia Thomas 295
29 Astro-A ligments of Avalon: Pisces - Gail Cornwell 299
30 Sacred Springs, Wells and Prayer R ibbons - Beth Heatley 305
31 Contemplating Z odiacal Dreamtime - Anthony Thorley 309

List of Contributors 329

  

vii



L ist of I llustrations

Most of the illustrations were supplied to our designer, Bernard Chandler, in full colour.
Bernard had to convert each image to black and white, adjusting tone and contrast to bring
out the best of each picture – 122 images, a great task.

Abbr ev iations
Wiki Commons – images from Wikimedia Commons are ‘free use’, which means that they
are public domain and copyright free (image titles given in this book may not be the same
titles as given on the Wikimedia Commons website – file names change).
Nikki Sanders – Nikki Sanders was once the warden of Chilton Priory (she is now retired).
In 2001 she gave Yuri Leitch a number of photographs that she had acquired during her
own research into Katharine Maltwood.
Royce & Leitch – illustrations and diagrams drawn by Alan Royce (often on café napkins),
shaded, enhanced and text-embedded by Yuri Leitch.

Katharine Maltwood’s Temple of the Stars and the Three Drops of Blood
upon the centre of the Table of the Graal – drawing by Yuri Leitch page xiii
Katharine Maltwood – Nikki Sanders 3
Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky – Wiki Commons 8
Orion and the Zodiac Ecliptic – drawing by Yuri Leitch 14
Katharine Maltwood and her hospital staff, circa 1915 – Nikki Sanders 18
Katharine Maltwood, by Nico Jungman, 1905 – Wiki Commons 21
Detail of Katharine Maltwood’s Arthurian Map – endpiece from the 1929 edition of
The High History of the Holy Graal, published by J. M. Dent 23
Map of Celtic Somerset – Royce & Leitch 29
The Sign of the Langport Arms – photograph by Yuri Leitch 34
Arms of Edward IV on The George & Pilgrim, Glastonbury – photograph by Yuri Leitch 34
The Beaufort Family Tree – drawing by Yuri Leitch 35
Margaret Beaufort – photograph by Yuri Leitch 42
Elizabeth Woodville – Wiki Commons 44
Katharine Maltwood’s Magna Mater, sculpted in 1910 – Wiki Commons 52
Inside Katharine Maltwood’s Hospital, circa 1915 – Nikki Sanders 53
The Entrance to the Tower of Chilton Priory – photograph by Yuri Leitch 54
A Casting of ‘Magna Mater’, still in situ, in the tower of Chilton Priory –
photograph by Yuri Leitch 56
The Kingston Zodiac – by Mary Caine 60
Glastonbury Tor – drawing by Mary Caine 65
Mary Caine – Shirley Whitton’s archive 67

viii


l i s t i o f r l l u sc t ia t i o n s
nt i odu tr on

The Great Hound of the River Parrett – by Elizabeth Leader page 71
Elizabeth Leader at Chalice Well – Tim & Sophie Knock archive 73
Elizabeth Leader in 1973 – Hank Harrison archive 76
Glastonbury: Ancient Avalon, New Jerusalem – Jan Roberts, Zodiac House 78
Aquarian Phoenix – drawing by Chandira, from Avalonian Aeon by Paul Weston 87
Map of Planetary Chakra system – Copyright Robert Coon 89
Knight of Danbury Robert de St. Clere – drawing by Yuri Leitch,
from Avalonian Aeon by Paul Weston 93
St. Mary’s Chapel Geometry – drawing by Bernard Chandler,
from an original by Bernard G, from Avalonian Aeon by Paul Weston 95
Original Diagram by Bernard G, from his Notebook – Andrew Collins archive,
from Avalonian Aeon by Paul Weston 97
Priest and Cosmocrator at the entrance to the Giza Crystal Chambers – drawing
by Yuri Leitch from an original by Bernard G, from Avalonian Aeon by Paul Weston 100
Giza Crystal Chambers Plan – drawing by Bernard Chandler,
from an original by Bernard G, from Avalonian Aeon by Paul Weston 101
‘The Three Pillars of Light’, circa 1944 – drawing by Katharine Maltwood 110
‘Maltwood’s Triangle’ – drawing by Yuri Leitch 111
The St. Michael Line evolved from Maltwood’s Triangle – drawing by Yuri Leitch 111
The Somerset Parallelogram – drawing by Yuri Leitch 113
The Fire Signs at Stoke-sub-Hamdon church – photograph by Yuri Leitch 114
Hood Family Coat of Arms, Butleigh church – photograph by Yuri Leitch 115
The Head of Templecombe – photograph by Yuri Leitch 116
Knights Templar Zodiac Cross – drawing by Yuri Leitch 116
Dr John Dee’s Birth Chart – Wiki Commons 117
The Full Enclosure – drawing by Yuri Leitch 117
Detail of William Hole’s map of Somerset, from Drayton’s ‘Poly-Olbion’ –
Wiki Commons 121
The Effigy of Libra – drawing by Yuri Leitch 124
The Spring at Druly Hill - source of the River Brue – photograph by Yuri Leitch 125
Tree of Life, Hornblotton church – photograph by Yuri Leitch 126
Moses Striking the Rock, Hornblotton Church – photograph by Yuri Leitch 127
Maltwood’s Equinox Line – drawing by Yuri Leitch 128
Cover of the Temple of the Stars, First Edition – photographed by Yuri Leitch,
with geometric lines superimposed by Yuri Leitch 129
King Alfred’s Tower, near Stourhead – Wiki Commons 130
Nymph of the Grotto, Stourhead – photograph by Yuri Leitch 131
Theseus and the Labyrinth – drawing by Yuri Leitch 132
Bahli Mans-Morris at Stourhead – photograph by Yuri Leitch 133
Bow-shot – drawing by Yuri Leitch 134
The Melkarth Line – drawing by Yuri Leitch 137

ix



William Stradling’s quote about the Observatory at Chilton Priory –
photograph by Yuri Leitch page 139
Park Wood and the ‘Finger of God’ – drawing by Katharine Maltwood,
Hank Harrison archive 141
Firebird (unfinished) – painting by Yuri Leitch 144
Mercury and Rosmerta – drawing by Alan Royce 147
Sacred Valley of the Dobunnic Cult – Royce & Leitch 148
The Dobunnic Cauldron – Royce & Leitch 149
Dobunnic Coin and Jupiter Column – drawing by Alan Royce 150
Temple Locations around the Somerset Levels – Royce & Leitch 150
The Augur’s Compass – Royce & Leitch 151
The Pitney Villa Mosaic – Royce & Leitch 152
The Virtues and the Zodiac – Royce & Leitch 153
The Blue Bowl Pilgrimage Route – Royce & Leitch 154
Several Ways to Read the Layout of the Blue Bowl Pilgrimage Route – Royce & Leitch 154
Bligh Bond’s ‘Laura’ – Royce & Leitch 155
The Royal Stars at Dawn on 12th September – Royce & Leitch 155
All Three Zodiacs Interlaced – Royce & Leitch 156
The Two Heaver Descriptions – Royce & Leitch 157
The Wall Sculpture ‘Avallon’ by Katharine Maltwood, Chilton Priory –
The Golden Dawn Tarot Attributes – drawing by Alan Royce 162
A Mithraic Tauroctony – Wiki Commons 162
Moses and the Brazen Serpent, Hornblotton Church – photograph by Yuri Leitch 163
Saxon Rood Cross – Wiki Commons 163
Saxon Rood Cross as Royal Star Cross – Royce & Leitch 163
The Chalice Well Lid as a Zodiac – Royce & Leitch 164
The Holy Grail by Katharine Maltwood, 1922 – photograph by Anthony Thorley 165
Katharine Maltwood’s Avallon Wall Sculpture, Chilton Priory –
The Jewel of the 18th Degree of Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
Freemasonry – Wiki Commons 166
The Stars at Dawn on 13th September 1924 – drawing by Alan Royce 167
Mysterium Artorius – painting by Yuri Leitch, based on the original
frontispiece for the 1898 version of The High History of the Holy Graal 169
Henry de Blois, in the British Museum – Wiki Commons 177
The Lamb of Street – created by Anthony Thorley 184
Joseph of Arimathea by William Blake – Wiki Commons 188
Elias Ashmole – Wiki Commons 193
Edward Kelley, a Magician – Wiki Commons 194
Stained Glass Window of St. Dunstan – Wiki Commons 195

x


l i s t i o f r l l u sc t ia t i o n s
nt i odu tr on

Dr John Dee – Wiki Commons page 200
The Twelve Houses of the Star Temple – drawing by Yuri Leitch 202
Scorpionic Pew-End in Alford Church – photograph by Yuri Leitch 206
The Claw and the Dove – drawing by Yuri Leitch 208
Tyto Alba – drawing by Yuri Leitch 212
Blodeuwedd – painting by Yuri Leitch 218
Fairy Dream-Weaver – drawing by Jessie Skillen 224
The Effigy of Leo – drawing by Yuri Leitch 238
Zodiac Wizard’s Cloak – John Wadsworth’s archive 243
All Women – photograph by Casey Jon 246
Bahli – photograph by Celia Thomas 248
Seer – photograph by Bodhi Maia 258
The Chalice Well lid – photograph by Wiki Commons 260
The Hood Monument – photograph by Yuri Leitch 263
Members of the Maltwood Moot at the Great Yew in Park Wood –
King Arthur Meets Lady Guinevere, by Arthur Pyle – Wiki Commons 270
Queen Guinevere’s Maying, by John Collier – Wiki Commons 271
Camelot, by Gustave Doré – Wiki Commons 273
Aquarius – drawing by Yuri Leitch 280
Members of the Maltwood Moot, Lammas 2010 – photograph by Yuri Leitch 284
Vicki Burke – Vicki Burke archive 286
The Glastonbury Zodiac – drawing by Yuri Leitch 288
The Girt Dog’s Head – drawing by Yuri Leitch 289
The Hanging Chapel and Masonic Lodge, Langport – photograph by Yuri Leitch 290
David Hatfield’s Roundhouse, Wagg Drove – photograph by David Hatfield 293
Mary and Child, Stained Glass Window, St. Mary Magdalene’s Church,
Keinton Mandeville – photograph by Yuri Leitch 295
St. Mary Magdalene’s Church, Keinton Mandeville – photograph by Yuri Leitch 296
Rose Window in St. Mary Magdalene’s Church, Keinton Mandeville –
Glastonbury Tor within a Vesica-Piscis – Gail Cornwell archive 299
Pisces and the Equinoxes – Gail Cornwell archive 300
Mercator’s Pisces – Wiki Commons 301
Wearyall Hill and the Tor Vesica-Piscis – Gail Cornwell archive 302
The Queen Beech – photograph by Yuri Leitch 308
The Head of the Girt Dog of Langport – composite photograph by Katharine Maltwood 312

  

xi


introduction

Katharine Maltwood’s Temple of the Stars and the
Three Drops of Blood upon the centre of the Table of the Graal.

xiii



FOR EWOR D

T he first meeting of the Maltwood Moot, convened by Yuri Leitch
and dedicated to all matters pertaining to the controversial topic of the
Glastonbury Zodiac, occurred in January 2010. It soon became apparent that the
combination of diverse people and subject matter was generating excitement and
the feeling of something significant buzzing in the airwaves. It wasn’t long before
the idea of an anthology was born and a lot of writing began. The project went
through some interesting phases and seemed complete and ready for publication
by 2011 but the process stalled. I put it out of my mind as I had to give attention
to my own writing and had virtually forgotten it when I met Yuri in the street
in autumn 2012. I asked him in passing about the anthology and learnt that it
was still in suspended animation. Circumstances had considerably changed for
me. My mother, Iris Weston, had died earlier in the year and the complexities
of house-selling and probate had just been completed, leaving me in a position to
affirm that I could publish the work. For me personally, it would be a wonder-
ful way to help transmute the powerful emotions associated with her departure,
and have something surprising, new, and wonderful, to further remember her by.
As a result of this, the project was revitalised and took a fuller form than
originally envisaged. It was decided to honour all of the main contributors to
the subject of the Glastonbury Zodiac. Essays by myself, featuring the work
of Robert Coon, Oliver Reiser, and Andrew Collins are now included. The
template of the anthology was always the Anthony Roberts-edited Glastonbury:
Ancient Avalon, New Jerusalem, first published back in 1977. It is wonderful to
have a contribution from his wife, Janet, who had a piece in that work herself,
honouring her late husband. It has been a great pleasure to bring in Bernard
Chandler to work on production and layout. His extensive experience and
artistic sensibilities have been a perfect complement for Yuri Leitch to work with,
maximised as he was with a plethora of illustrations and diagrams.
This project was conceived in a spirit of inclusiveness, whereby sober research
and visionary effusions would feature together as an indication of the incredible
spectrum of response the landscape configurations have inspired.
After a number of wonderful meetings, including fine times in the heart of
the star temple at Park Wood, and much outpouring of expansive ideas into
written form, the Maltwood Moot has finally manifested Signs & Secrets of the
Glastonbury Zodiac.
Paul Weston.
Glastonbury.
New Moon in Capricorn.
January, 11th 2013.

xiv


introduction

Yuri Leitch

Of sacred temples – there was once a time when even
the great pyramids of Egypt were nothing more than a
vision in someone’s mind.

W
elcome to the first anthology created by the Maltwood Moot.
Here is a unique and inspiring collection of thought-provoking essays; brain
food packed with goodness. Drawn together by a passionate love for sacred
landscape, a deep appreciation of the wonders of life and the beauty of mystery,
the Maltwood Moot is a maverick collective of intellectuals, dreamers, historians, artists,
established authors, as yet unknown armchair enthusiasts, mystics and musicians.
A fascinating discovery was made, between the First and Second World Wars, by an
enigmatic visionary, within the beautiful mist-laden landscape of the Summer Lands.
Katharine Emma Maltwood’s Temple of the Stars, now familiarised as the Glastonbury
Zodiac, has been inspiring and intriguing people ever since. Some people believe absolutely
in its solid reality whilst others dismiss it as Katharine’s eccentric invention. The truth is it
does not matter. Whether you believe it to be thousands of years old or a twentieth-century
delusion, the Glastonbury Zodiac exists now and it isn’t going to go away.
Books have been written about it, films have been made, conferences and lectures have
been given and, for more than eighty years, ever-growing numbers of pilgrims and tourists
have been visiting Glastonbury each year to walk upon its sacred soil. Even if it is just an
invention, this enigma is already an antique. If nothing more than the dream of an imaginative
mind, it stands proud as a visionary work of pure genius, unequalled in its glorious audacity.
This vision is immense. Nature in all her beauty: soft rolling hills, secret little woods, ruined
and active churches, snaking rivers and mysterious weirs, hidden footbridges, ancient hill
forts, and the heavens mirrored on the ground in figures greater than the naked eye can
perceive. Swans, deer, badgers, cows, dragonflies, butterflies, bumblebees, wild flowers, nature
reserves, annoying midges and mud! It is Paradise.
The truth is that there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that this vision is not just
Katharine’s invention. Meaningful curiosities that support her discovery pre-date her own
lifetime. There is a long tradition of strange things going on in the Somerset landscape: Romano-
British temples upon hill-tops aligned with seasonal astronomical events; medieval church
builders erecting St. Michael churches across the land in a seemingly straight line; and, over
the centuries, different occultists and mystics casting their own vision of magic upon the land.
The essays presented to you here express a variety of thoughts and insights, ideas,
revelations, discoveries, facts and ponderings. Coming from such a rich range of sources, some

1



essays inevitably contradict others – as is only right. The Maltwood Moot is a collective of
free-thinking individuals and there is no dogma to which we are bound; we are supportive
friends and that is all that really matters. Some of us believe that the Elizabethan astrologer,
Dr John Dee, knew about the Glastonbury Zodiac and others do not. Some of us believe
that Joseph of Arimathea brought Christianity to Glastonbury in the first century whilst
others disagree. Within these pages many passionately argued, contentious, and sometimes
contradictory ideas are to be found. The true pilgrim’s path is one of self-discovery and only
you, dear reader, can choose which path through the woods to walk. Enjoy the journey.

‘All magic is based on the law of sympathy – that is, the assumption that things
act on one another at a distance because of their being secretly linked together by
invisible bonds which would account for the laying out of the star effigies on earth.
I have no doubt, when conceived, this Paradise Garden was indeed heaven on earth;
even now, those who understand its import cannot but be filled with wonder, awe and
reverence, for it is the cradle of the Holy Grail, the inspiration of true knighthood,
“a magic casement opening on the foam of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn”.’
K atharine E mma M altwood
The Enchantments of Britain

Katharine Maltwood was a magical lady, literally, an occultist and a mystic. She was
very charismatic. She was the inspiration for an esoteric novel (The House of Fulfilment by
Lily Adams Beck) and she consciously used her London studio as a temple/shrine to inspire
higher consciousness within her audience. She was well read and intelligent; her books are
jam-packed with many references to ancient Mystery Traditions and their revivalism. She
used symbolism from Druidic, Theosophical, Masonic, Mithraic, Babylonian, Egyptian, Old
Testament and many other traditions. She wove all of these influences together and veiled
these esoteric concepts inside the garments of Arthurian Romance. Her Temple of the Stars
conceals brilliant, complex geometry; as well as many other things. To dismiss her Zodiac,
without admiring her genius, is to throw the baby out with the bath water – and in so doing,
to deliberately ignore great Art, Vision, Culture, Inspiration, Magic and Wonder.
May this book help you to make a profound connection with our sacred land. Essay
Thirty, ‘Sacred Springs, Wells and Prayer Ribbons’ by Beth Heatley, although not directly
referenced to Glastonbury or the Zodiac, is specifically included to guide the reader into the
symbiotic process of self and environmental healing. Enjoy these essays, written by brave souls
who have been happy to throw caution to the wind and to dive into the weir of all possibilities.
Be inspired.

Yuri Leitch, Glastonbury, 2012

  

2


introduction

Katharine Maltwood.

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e s say on e
k at h a r i n e m a lt wo o d a n d t h e o r ig i n s o f t h e z o di ac

Anthony Thorley

K
atharine emma maltwood (1878–1961), artist, sculptor and mystical scholar,
made no public statement about her discovery of the Glastonbury Zodiac before 1935,
when she anonymously published A Guide to Glastonbury’s Temple of the Stars.1 Two
years later, using the name K. E. Maltwood, she broke her anonymity and in 1937
published the Air View Supplement to her Guide.2 However, many sources report her working
on the Somerset Zodiac in the 1920s, so two questions must be asked: when did Maltwood
actually first discover the Glastonbury Zodiac? And what factors led to that discovery?
Although a number of intriguing sources – evidence from stories of West Country saints,
local history, legends and folklore – point to the possibility of a landscape zodiac in Somerset,
there is no published account regarding the certain existence of landscape zodiacs before 1888,
when Madame Blavatsky first described their existence in The Secret Doctrine.3 So we can say
that in the absence of any earlier descriptions than 1888, the concept of a landscape zodiac has
to be considered a modern idea.4
However, before turning to the thoughts and contribution of Madame Blavatsky, it is
useful to clarify a consistently recurring misrepresentation regarding Elizabeth I’s astrologer,
the infamous Dr John Dee (1527–1609). It was the late Anthony Roberts (1940–1990),
writer, esotericist and committed Glastonian, who first quoted an account of Dr Dee which
appeared in a biography of Dee by Richard Deacon in 1968.5 Deacon seems to indicate that
the Glastonbury Zodiac was known in the sixteenth century, informing us that ‘[c]ertainly
there is evidence that Dee mapped some of the zodiacal effigies in this district, though the puzzle
is how he found the key or code to locate them’.6

1 Anonymous (Katharine Emma Maltwood), A Guide to Glastonbury’s Temple of the Stars (John M. Watkins,
London: 1935).
2 Maltwood, K. E., Air View Supplement to A Guide to Glastonbury’s Temple of the Stars (John M. Watkins, London: 1937).
3 Blavatsky, H. P., The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (Theosophical University
Press, Pasadena, California: 1974 [1888]).
4 The concept of the landscape zodiac may be a modern idea, but many of the zodiacs themselves have
convincing features which suggest centuries of coherent development before their modern recognition.
The basis for this accumulating coherence and evidence for an apparent early presence of zodiacal features in
the landscape are issues being addressed by the author in his current postgraduate research.
5 Roberts, A., Atlantean Traditions of Ancient Britain (Unicorn Bookshop, Camarthen: 1974) p.15
6 Deacon, R., John Dee: Scientist, Geographer, Astrologer and Secret Agent to Elizabeth I (Frederick Muller,
London: 1968) p.174

7



Deacon then tells us that Dee had himself made a map of the district on which he had
noted that:

The starres which agree with their reproductions on the ground do lye onlie on the
celestial path of the Sonne, moon and planets, with the notable exception of Orion
and Hercules… all the greater starres of Sagittarius fall in the hinde quarters of the
horse, while Altair, Tarazed and Alschain from Aquilla do fall on its cheste… thus is
astrologie and astronomie carefullie and exactly married and measured in a scientific
reproduction of the heavens which shews that the ancients understode all which today
the lerned know to be factes 7

Identification of Dee’s map or the actual source of his words has proved to be elusive. The
late Mary Caine (1916–2008) pursued the basis of the quotation through correspondence with
Deacon, but no original documentary evidence was ever forthcoming, and as she never received
satisfactory answers to her queries, she came to the conclusion that the map did not exist and
that the quotation was a hoax,8 although it continues to be referenced in respected books.9
Invention does seem to be the most likely explanation as the words ‘all the greater starres of
Sagittarius fall on the hinde quarters of the
horse, while Altair, Tarazed and Alschain
from Aquilla do fall on its cheste’ seem
unerringly to echo Katharine Maltwood’s
original 1935 account, which, although long
out of print, was accessible to Deacon in
the 1964 reprint.10 Maltwood’s actual words
are: ‘All the greater stars of Sagittarius fall
on the hind quarters of the horse. On its
chest fall Altair, Tarazed and Alschain
from Aquila…’ 11 Why Deacon, whose book
was otherwise unconnected with landscape
zodiacs, should apparently plagiarise
Maltwood and create this clumsy pastiche
of sixteenth-century literary style in order
to link Dr Dee to the Glastonbury Zodiac
must remain to this day one of the many
unsolved mysteries of zodiac studies.
In 1877, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
(1831–1891), the indefatigable driving force Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.

7 Deacon, R., John Dee, pp.131–132
8 Caine, M., Pers. Comm. Conversation with the author on 30.3.01.
9 For example in Mann, N. R., The Isle of Avalon: Sacred Mysteries of Arthur and Glastonbury (Green Magic,
London: 2001) pp.94–95
10 Maltwood, K. E., A Guide to Glastonbury’s Temple of the Stars (James Clarke, London: 1964).
11 Maltwood, K. E., A Guide (1935) p.10

8


k at h a r i n e m a lt wo o d a n d t h e o r ig i n s o f t h e z o di ac

and primary energy behind the founding of Theosophy,12 presented to the world Isis Unveiled,
her huge two-volume account of the role of ancient mystery traditions in the development,
past, present and future, of mankind.13
In this first major outing of her radical ideas, Blavatsky dismays the critical reader, as she
appears to pursue her subject with encyclopaedic erudition but actually displays less a reasoned
analysis and more of a constructive conflation of ideas that justify the means to present her
conclusions. Nonetheless, however critically we might view her output nearly a century and a
half later, we cannot deny her creative drive in raising many new ideas and connections, flawed
though they might be. In this vast work, there are only a few references to astrology and the
zodiac, and she tends to take a rather understated and reserved position on these subjects, as
if she privately acknowledges their universal importance but is also holding the most inner
mysteries and significance of these areas close to her chest: the enduring esoteric!

12 The Theosophical Society was co-founded by Blavatsky in 1875.
13 Blavatsky, H. P., Isis Unveiled: A Master-key of the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and

Theology (J. W. Bouton, New York: 1887 [1877]).

9


e s say t wo
s o m e r s e t b e f o r e s o m e r s e t wa s

Alan Royce

A
strange title, you may say, but I will explain. Somerset derives from the Saxon
name Someresaetas, meaning Summer Settlers (People of the Summer Lands), yet
our interest is in a time before any Saxon had set foot on these moors and hills.
While Jesus lived in far off Judea these lands had their own life, and it is this life I
want to outline in preparation for the ideas put forth in this book.
How can we picture this Somerset that was not Somerset in the time of Christ? Let’s just
take it layer by layer. First, the basis of it all:

T he L and

The higher areas were laid out much as they are now, but the rivers and the coastline were
noticeably different. Much of the land was tidal creeks and salt marsh, and the river courses
were primarily natural, unmodified by man. Some land was being reclaimed in various places
for settlement, but this was not a major feature of the landscape. The large area of raised peat
bog between Wedmore and the Poldens, from Burtle to Meare, forced the River Brue to flow
north towards the Bleadney Gap to join the Axe, which at that time was a tidal estuary called
Isca (Fish). This early Brue was sluggish and meandering, and flooded seasonally, surrounding
the Glastonbury peninsula with shallow lakes. Glastonbury is from Saxon, Glaestinges-burg,
‘the ditched and palisaded enclosure of the people of Glaest’. Glaest may be a clan name but is
more likely to be a reference to the winter lakes derived from Glas, meaning, blue/green/shiny.
Settlements tended to be small and dispersed, and sited where they could make best
use of the different resources around them – places within walking distance of good water-
sources, raised land for small fields, access to the moors for winter fishing and bird-catching,
and summer pasturage when the floods had subsided. Timber came from the woods on
otherwise unusable slopes and from the water-loving willow and alder on the wetland edges.
The area as a whole was remarkably fertile and productive and probably supported quite
a large population with ease.

• • •

27



L ife

The way of life was reasonably peaceful and not vastly different in technology from village life
in the Middle Ages. However, social structure was probably based around extended families
and relatives, and perhaps slaves, all living in hedged compounds with roundhouses, granaries,
cattle pens and the like. This might have been more reminiscent of a Zulu kraal than an
English village.
Laid over this mesh of basic settlements, connecting tracks and cattle droves were larger
structures. Some parts of the Levels, for instance, may have been a royal hunting preserve,
complete with ditched and banked assembly enclosures dedicated to the winter hunting god
Cunomaglos (Prince Hound or Prince of Hounds – linked by the Romans to their Apollo)
at the entry points on its boundaries. Places like Glastonbury, Dundon Beacon, Lamyatt and
Brean Down seem to have been border shrines, the former representing the two tribes in the
area, the latter defining the ends of the Mendips as another great royal hunting preserve and
a metal trade route.
Roman-style temple buildings were added to these sites some time after the Roman
invasion, although not always exactly on the original sacred enclosure. At Lamyatt, for
example, the original site is a simple banked area to the northwest.
The ditched and banked enclosures on hills that we now call ‘hill-forts’ were by no means
just that. Some were certainly defended spaces (important perhaps to minor kings), although
they were just as likely to guard grain-stores or valuable herds of cattle as serve as fortresses.
Many were more religious in function, defined precincts of a certain god or goddess perhaps,
or places where folk assembled for particular seasonal rites which might be combined with
games, fairs and political councils. Also, as with the Sidhe, the royal courts moved from
enclosure to enclosure through the year, partly for reasons of religion, and in part so as not
to overly deplete any one area. There were no towns as such (towns were a continental idea
which were only just beginning to cross the Channel further east), merely stable sites at which
a temporary township might be set up when desired, almost like a modern music festival.overnments

28


s o m e r s e t b e f o r e s o m e r s e t wa s

Map of Celtic Somerset.

29


e s say t h r e e
l a ngport ’ s roya l sec r et

T H E R O S E , T H E P O R T C U L L I S and
T H E K AT H E R I N E W H E E L

Shirley Whitton

‘Yet men say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but had
by the will of our Lord Jesus into another place [sic], and men say that he shall come
again…I will not say it shall be so, but rather will I say that here in this world he
changed his life. But many men say there is written upon his tomb this verse:
“Hic jacet Arturus, Rex quondam, Rexque futurus.”’

S
o wrote sir thomas malory in his famous work, Le Morte d’Arthur,
written around the year 1470 and published later by William Caxton. But is Arthur
really buried in Glastonbury or are the thousands of pilgrims who come each
year in search of him merely perpetuating a myth created by medieval kings who
chose to claim him as their own? It is an intriguing fact that, even today, every first-born son
of an English monarch is likely to have Arthur in his name. Equally fascinating, though
less well-known however, is their line of descent from a seed sewn in Somerset soil several
centuries ago.
A few miles to the south-west of Glastonbury lies the mellow old town of Langport. The
guidebooks tell us it is the gateway to the Somerset Levels, but Langport is far more than that.
It is a town of many secrets, a place where two worlds meet. On the sign of the Langport Arms
(shielded and protected by a portcullis) is an unusual but lovely representation of the five-
petalled Tudor Rose created by England’s first Tudor king, Henry vii , to celebrate his victory
over Richard iii at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, bringing to an end the turbulent era
in English history now known as the Wars of the Roses. The Tudor Rose encompasses the
triumph of Henry’s red dragon over Richard’s white boar as well as the union of the two
warring houses of York and Lancaster (represented by the white and red roses respectively),
but why is it here in a remote corner of the Somerset Levels? Its colour symbolism – the
blending of the white and the red – hides yet another rose, the so-called ‘rose of alchemy’, born
of the sacred bonding of the Red King with the White Queen, an ideal which underpinned
Henry’s subsequent marriage to Elizabeth of York. Without her dowry, the powerful legacy
left by her father, Edward iv (Richard’s elder brother and England’s first Yorkist king),

33



he would have been unable to unite the two
warring Houses and claim his title as England’s
next ‘Once and Future King’.1
Carved into the outer wall of the fifteenth-
century George and Pilgrim Inn at Glastonbury
is Edward’s coat of arms, supported by the Black
Bull of Clare (representing his Plantagenet line
from Edward iii) together with the White Lion of
Mortimer (his descent from the Welsh Princes)
topped by a sunburst with his White Rose of
York blooming at the side. The inn was founded
during Edward’s reign to shelter weary pilgrims
who had travelled many miles to Glastonbury,
then a major pilgrimage centre. At the slipper
The sign of the Langport Arms.
chapel (now called Jacoby Cottage), their
worn-out shoes were exchanged for a pair of soft felt slippers to ease their way as they paid
homage, not just to their God, but to that other great king, Arthur himself, said to have
been buried within the confines of the Abbey walls. There are many versions of the supposed
inscription on his grave, but perhaps the most famous is Sir Thomas Malory’s: Hic jacet
Arturus, Rex quondam, Rexque futurus – ‘Here lies Arthur, King once and King to be’.
Much of the speculation surrounding his legend has been inspired by Malory’s Le Morte
d’Arthur, written under Edward’s gaze and fostering a now-familiar image of the ancient
Sun King that seems to have preserved him forever against the backdrop of the Middle Ages.
The only English monarch
ever to have lost and regained his
throne, Edward was a generous
patron of Glastonbury Abbey. He
set up his court as a new Camelot
and adopted Arthur as a role
model, but his twenty-two-year
reign (1461–1483) has been
overshadowed by the bitter battles
he fought to achieve it and eclipsed
by the might of the Tudor dynasty
that followed it. After the defeat of
his successor and younger brother,
Richard iii, the White Rose
Arms of Edward iv on the front of the
George and Pilgrim, Glastonbury. of York and the Red Rose of
Lancaster were fused into the now
familiar Tudor Rose which became the emblem of England. A truly alchemical rose, however,
is said to be red within and white without, and Henry chose to reverse this process, creating a
rose that is white within and red without and the story of how this came about is hidden
behind the portcullis that jealously guards his Tudor Rose on the sign of the Langport Arms.

34


e s say f our
t h e m a lt wo o d l e g e n d

Hank Harrison

A
ny discussion of k. e. maltwood must cover several points if there is
ever to be a chance of agreement. First, we can all agree Maltwood was a genius and
a bit eccentric, but we also need to discuss her extraordinary set of circumstances,
her marriage, and her societal position as a liberated woman in an era when the
majority of women were still not allowed to vote.
Secondly, we need to discuss her husband, John Maltwood, because in all my years
covering the Maltwood research I have never heard anything but clichés about him. When I
first began looking into the Maltwoods I was fortunate enough to speak to several people who
knew more about them than most. I was privileged to interview Janette Jackson (who had
known Katharine Maltwood) in her flat in Hammersmith, and I was more than gratified to
join rilko [Research Into Lost Knowledge Organisation] and speak to Elizabeth Leader on
several occasions over a full decade. These conversations were taped. After I began work in
Glastonbury I met and interviewed Mary Caine, and finally I was fortunate enough to meet
a woman who once worked as a housekeeper for the Maltwoods. All of these women had
nothing but nice things to say about Mrs Maltwood but they were not all so supportive of her
husband and all of them, to one degree or another, claimed John’s chauvinism was oppressive.
This is in contrast to the comments found on-line in support of the Maltwood Museum and
Library at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, so after long inner debate I must
assume the truth lies somewhere between. Thirdly we need to discuss the impact of Katharine’s
extraordinary discoveries and how they have played out now that we are over one decade into
the 21st century; that is, nearly a full century after her initial discoveries were made.
Katharine and John Maltwood are well covered in Wikipedia and elsewhere, but hardly
anyone understood Katharine’s true degree of enlightenment or, conversely, her deep sadness…
or perhaps I should refer to her emotional state, especially before her death, and her sense of
alienation and loneliness.
The fabulous portrait of her as a young woman by Nico Jungman, a Dutch painter who
became a British citizen and close friend in the Arts and Crafts movement, shows us how she
looked in 1896 when she astonished her peers with her personality and beauty at the Slade
School at the University of London, where she studied sculpture and was known as Katharine
Sapsworth, the daughter of a wealthy leather merchant with offices near the Tanners Guild.
Like most students of that first New Age, she was enthralled with Buddhism, yoga, Theosophy

51



and above all Egyptianism in the wake of the Tut discoveries, and all of these things inspired
her art. But also like most Victorian women, a good marriage was important to her.
The Maltwoods had no children and we have very few details regarding just how
Katharine met her husband, but there may have been an element of Masonic prearrangement
to it through her father’s contacts in the tanning industry. The official story goes that they
were childhood sweethearts and that they carried on a ‘whirlwind romance’, ending in a small
wedding witnessed by her father and her mother on April 2nd 1901, but all was not as it seems.

52


e smsa a y c afi n e e
r y iv

Shirley Whitton

O
n the 15th of february 2008, in the charming old Norman church
of St. Nicholas at Thames Ditton in Surrey, a group of people gathered to
say goodbye to an old friend, Mary Caine, who had died at the end of January
aged 91.Mary is best known for her books, The Glastonbury Zodiac: Key to the
Mysteries of Britain, in which she built on the pioneering work of Katharine Maltwood;
Celtic Saints and the Glastonbury Zodiac; and of course The Kingston Zodiac, the
corresponding landscape temple which she herself so uniquely identified.
Slightly larger (at some sixteen miles across), the zodiacal constellations fall on Kingston’s
earthly effigies in much the same way as Glastonbury’s and, as Mary always said, ‘similar
coincidences still attend those who search within it’. Her home town of Kingston sits at
the hub of this great wheel and Mary (who had built up an intimate relationship with its
contours over many years) was always most at home within its boundaries. The Zodiac itself,
she believed, was the graphic illustration of the divine laws, its pattern secretly implied in both
the Old and New Testaments. ‘Are these zodiacs not the thumbprint of the Creator?’ she
wrote; ‘as with all great art, the very style betrays the artist.’
And she too had her own unique style. A gifted artist and inspiring teacher, she could also
write – moreover she was a storyteller in the true bardic tradition. Wonderful tales are woven
into the pages of her books, books that are alive with the wisdom, the wit and the charm that
made her such a joy to be with. I picked up an early version of The Kingston Zodiac in 1978,
its year of publication, and I have it still although it was to be many more years before I got to
know her really well.
‘A zodiac around Kingston – too much!’ she remarked at the outset. ‘Can it compare
with Glastonbury as a Mecca for Grail questers? Long-haired idealists don’t play guitars in
Richmond Park or wash their jeans in Coombe Springs.’ Well, some of us did actually – and
years later a few long-haired relics from that bygone era (still trying to adjust to the modern
world) were more than keen to rediscover that landscape with Mary (now in her eighties)
at the helm. Her little ‘Zodiac Group’ (the reforming of an earlier one) began in 2002 after
Sue Sheridan, then chairman of The Gatekeeper Trust, had invited Mary to speak at their
spring conference: As Above So Below: Zodiacs in the Landscape. ‘She spoke with such lucidity,
giving us expert information on a subject about which she was not only passionate, but
to which she had devoted her life,’ said Sue. I myself was especially interested to hear her

59


mary caine

describe how she had first heard of the idea of a zodiac around Glastonbury in 1961 and,
fascinated, had written immediately to Mrs Maltwood, who by then had moved to Canada.
A few months later she received a letter from Maltwood’s husband informing her that his
wife had died at almost exactly the time Mary had written. ‘It seemed like fate,’ she said,
knowing she had to take up the baton and carry on with the work (though Mary has
always been diffident about her own discoveries, saying always that she was using information
gleaned by others).

61


mary caine

Bibliogr aphy
Caine, M., The Glastonbury Zodiac – Key to the Mysteries of Britain. 25 Kingston Hill, Surrey, 1978.
Caine, M., Celtic Saints and the Glastonbury Zodiac. Capal Bann, 1998.
Caine, M., The Kingston Zodiac. Capal Bann, 2000.
DVD s of the Glastonbury and Kingston Zodiacs are available from the Gatekeeper Trust
(Email: secretary@gatekeeper.org.uk).

  

67


e s say s i x
the secret of the lord

ELIZABETH LEADER AND THE
GL A STON BU RY ZODI AC

Tim & Sophie Knock

E
lizabeth leader was recently described (by Anthony Thorley, no less), as the
third of the ‘three great ladies of the Glastonbury Zodiac’. Though nothing like as
well known as Katharine Maltwood and Mary Caine, Elizabeth dedicated the best
part of 70 years of her life to the subject and was greatly respected in esoteric circles.
Elizabeth was born in Somerset on 1st May 1908. She grew up immersed in local folklore,
and, having been introduced to the idea of the Zodiac by an article in The Lady magazine,
studied Glastonbury and specifically the Glastonbury Zodiac right up until her death in the
summer of 1998. She was convinced that Mrs Maltwood had rediscovered one of Britain’s
great treasures and that further study of the Zodiac was vital and would prove most rewarding.
Along with her personal esoteric studies, Elizabeth was instrumental in setting up
the Research Into Lost Knowledge Organisation (RILKO) in 1969, an organisation providing
an influential platform for the dissemination of hidden knowledge incorporated in myth and
legend, number and geometry, art and music, and she remained an active RILKO member for
the rest of her life.
On a personal level, we first met Elizabeth in 1996, shortly after our own initiation into the
energies of Avalon (but that’s another story). We were told about her by a friend who had
attended one of her infrequent talks, and calling her out of the blue, she immediately invited us
over. At that time we were living in London and Elizabeth was based in a small (and somewhat
decrepit) flat in Chelsea, which she shared with her small Yorkshire Terrier called Pepper (and
soon known affectionately to us as the Stink Pig). She was a striking lady, with sharply piercing
blue eyes, a wonderful shock of spiky, white hair and a gently eccentric, playful demeanour.
Meeting her, it was easy to imagine that she was part of a long line of druids, witches, magicians,
and mystics helping to keep safe the esoteric secrets of this land through the ages.
We quickly became firm friends and regular visitors to her flat each Tuesday afternoon,
with a definite sense that Elizabeth was passing on some of her valuable information and
wisdom to us. Over tea and biscuits, she would range across a variety of subjects from recent
radio plays to the theatre of her youth, with us constantly trying to bring her back to more
overtly spiritual matters – and especially to the mysteries of Glastonbury. On this, she was
rarely disappointing. Well read, intellectually rigorous, a (to coin her own phrase) ‘careful
worker’ – the afternoons would race by and we would leave inspired with fresh ideas and a
renewed sense of connection and purpose.

69


e n t haoy y s o bv retn
a s s n re e s

Jan Roberts & Shirley Whitton

I
n 1969 Anthony Roberts founded Zodiac House Publications in collaboration with his
wife Jan. In 1976 under the name of Zodiac House, he published Glastonbury: Ancient
Avalon, New Jerusalem, an anthology of the landscape geomancy around Glastonbury.
This very influential book of essays was taken up by the large publishing house Rider &
Company in 1978, and has been an enigmatic presence in Glastonbury bookshops ever since.
1978 was also the year that Tony’s close spiritual friend Mary Caine published her Glastonbury
Zodiac, Key to the Mysteries of Britain.
Anthony offered up his anthology as a ‘beginning... a mystical tool for the individual seeker’.
Amongst its twelve contributors, each putting forward their own suggestions as to why
Glastonbury possesses such a magical potency, were Mary herself, Tony’s wife Jan and other
visionary notables such as John Michell and Nigel Pennick plus an afterword by Colin Wilson. Mary
wrote specifically about Katharine Maltwood’s Glastonbury Zodiac, describing it as ‘the secret
source of Avalon’s mystique... the bubbling fount of all the Glastonbury legends’.
Mary and Tony were trailblazers, opening the way for new generations of seekers
prepared to carry on the work. Signs & Secrets of the Glastonbury Zodiac is just one step in that
direction and is the first anthology (thirty-four years later) to follow Anthony’s original.
Shirley Whitton

J an R oberts e x plains how the
first G lastonbury anthology began

In 1972 the phone rang at our flat in Fulham. It was Mary Caine who wanted to know all about
my husband, Anthony Roberts. She was very direct and I asked her her business. “Atlantean”
was her reply. Many years later she told me that she had heard me tell Tony, “You’ve got a right
one here!” and of course he had, but so had she. She had heard about Tony’s Atlantean
Traditions in Ancient Britain and she came round immediately, spiritually interrogated us
and bought all his booklets. She did not leave our flat for hours. She and Tony burned with
ancient remembrance, arguing out ideas and interpretations that made sense only to them.
We visited her at her Kingston Hill house where great ‘eureka’ moments followed after
copious amounts of home-made wine tastings had been the order of the afternoon, followed
by sing-songs round the grand piano.

77


e s say e ig ht
r o b e r t c o o n & o l i v e r r e i s n e r : e l l i p t i c a l n av i g a t i o n s

Paul Weston

I
n ‘voyage to avalon ’ Robert Coon described himself as ‘an immortalist
philosopher who has been initiated into all major World Religions and has unified
Cabalistic Invocation, ley-line and earth chakra research, and astrology into the Magickal
Art of Celestial Alchemy.’ His visionary work has placed the Somerset star temple
within a global mystical context, providing a perspective that has been hugely influential in
terms of how Glastonbury is seen as a sacred site and an acceptance of the bewildering
blend of influences it seems to comfortably accommodate.
Coon is a lineal descendent of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, famously visited by an
angelic being named Moroni who led him to uncover inscribed tablets. By some mystical
process Smith was able to decipher the script and thereby create the Book of Mormon. It told
the wild tale of the lost tribes of Israel going walkabout and crossing the Atlantic to settle in
the Americas. Much scorn has been heaped on the idea but it seems to broadcast across the
psychic airwaves in a manner suggestive of a weird truth.
This family heritage proved useful on July 1st 1967, at the peak of the Summer of Love,
when Robert Coon was living in Boulder, Colorado. In Voyage to Avalon he recalled how, just
after midnight, ‘a Physically Immortal human from the Realm of Shambhala instantly and
fully materialised within my room. He was not a shimmering vision, but rather a rock solid,
Clear human being as real as you or me. This man wore a white robe, held a wooden staff in
one hand, had long white hair and beard. He looked incredibly ancient – yet had the radiant
Flesh of Eternal Youth.’ This being was none other than the Prophet Elijah, who has apparently
also manifested as Merlin, Hermes Trismegistus, and Enoch.
Coon affirmed that this event served to initiate him into the Melchizedek Priesthood. He
was also allegedly empowered to reactivate Aleister Crowley’s magickal order, the AA
(Argenteum Astrum), which he referred to as the Omega Point Foundation.
An enormous cosmic download was communicated that was to be released to the world in
astrologically determined stages over the coming decades until 1993. What rapidly developed
was a vision of the birth of the Aquarian Age from a location in Southern England. The “global
heart chakra” would open there and an “Omega Point” be activated that would lead to the

81



unfolding of the Planetary New Jerusalem and the widespread attainment of physical
immortality! Within a few months Robert had narrowed it down to the specific location of
Glastonbury, a place that he had never visited. The big event there was scheduled for 1984,
seventeen years in the future. There was much to be accomplished in the interim.
Robert Coon’s work was astrologically determined to an exceptional extent. He attached
considerable importance to what he called the Melchizedek cycle. This is a twelve-year phase
relating to Jupiter that begins with the one-year period that the planet is in Aries. In recent
years these have been, 1963, ’75, ’87, ’99, and 2011. It would be a major inner cycle in the
unfolding of his global magick. He came to believe that his work had been partly set up in
1963 when the Melchizedek immortals, Coon’s version of the Secret Chiefs, conferred to
set up three astrologically determined events at Mount Shasta. These triple culminations of
Pluto-Uranus in Virgo conjunctions ‘activated the New Age movement in California’.

82


e s say n i n e
A e g y p t: T h e s ta r t e m p l e a n d t h e G i z a p l at e au

THE WOR K OF A NDR EW COLLI NS

Paul Weston

T
he somerset star temple has inspired some remarkable inner journeys
and processes. Admittedly far from consensus co-ordinates and resisting
historical and archaeological investigation, it could at least be characterised as a
potent psychogeographical zone. We can grant poets and mystics the indulgence
of finding results satisfactory to them in its multitudinous aethyrs but are always aware of its
tenuous nature. Has anyone ever been directly led to something tangible by it? Something to
give us pause for thought? I believe the answer is yes and the particular result in question and
the path leading to it is in fact mind-bendingly spectacular.
Historical mysteries author Andrew Collins has produced a large corpus of distinct work
that has been controversial and often well received. From the Ashes of Angels, Gods of Eden,
Gateway to Atlantis, The Cygnus Mystery, and Beneath the Pyramids represent just some of
his output. It is the last named that concerns us here.
In Beneath the Pyramids Collins recounted his rediscovery of a cave system, forgotten by
modern archaeologists, underneath the Giza plateau. It was the culmination of a decades-long
interest in the subject of the fabled Hall of Records, an interest fully engaged whilst in the
middle of a unique journey around the Glastonbury Zodiac during the 1980s.
Collins was one of the originators of what he termed Psychic Questing. Historical
mysteries, usually with a mystical magical component of some kind, were investigated through
taking psychics out into the landscape and being open to all manner of intuitive processes.
There was a conscious suspension of disbelief in order to work with information from trance
states, dreams, omens, synchronicities, and so on. If historical research could show that
some of the material was accurate, and none of the details necessarily inaccurate, then it was
considered acceptable to take a gamble and work with it. The most controversial aspect of
questing concerned the apparent retrieval of physical artefacts from concealed locations as
detailed in Collins’ cult classics works The Black Alchemist and The Seventh Sword.
In early 1983 a number of clues from different psychics and a visionary experience of his
own drew Andrew Collins’ attention towards the area around Glastonbury and in particular
a place named Kingweston, which he discovered was situated in the vicinity of the Leo
effigy in the terrestrial Zodiac. Engaging with the clues and visiting the location triggered
what appeared to be a past-life saga in which Collins had been a medieval knight on a kind
of Grail Quest.

91


A e g y p t: T h e s ta r t e m p l e a n d t h e G i z a p l at e au

EAST

WEST

St. Mary’s Chapel geometry.

The twelve zodiacal spheres and central point were coloured gold by ochre tiles. The
outer circle in which the spheres were set was red terracotta as was the Maltese cross and
cardinal point triangles. Beaten lead lines marked the geometry of the design. Somehow the
whole thing was to be perceived as in motion. Each part of the levels of geometrical design
was revolving. The Maltese cross was moving at one speed, the triangles from the square at
another. A series of colours was produced by this that came to form one colour. The colours
also had sound correlations.
Robert de St. Clere and Phillip de Clara Vallis had travelled together to Somerset in
September 1285 and this prompted their apparent modern reincarnations to visit Glastonbury
for the first time together at the same time of year in 1984, almost 700 years later.

95


  

  


e s say t e n
m a lt wo o d ’ s t r i a n g l e : t h e m i c h a e l l i n e a n d t h e pa r a l l e l o g r a m

Yuri Leitch

I
t is my intention with this essay to explain some of the deliberately concealed
landscape secrets hidden within Katharine Maltwood’s A Guide to Glastonbury’s
Temple of the Stars. In the Introduction to her first book, Katharine made it quite
clear that her readers should be looking for hidden meanings within her skilfully
constructed paragraphs:

‘…these ancient landmarks should reveal more than one lost secret.’

The above statement is followed shortly afterwards by a line within a quote from
The High History of the Holy Graal:

‘…for the secret things of the sacrament ought none to tell openly…’

These subliminal statements should have been enough to kick the reader’s subconscious mind
into alertness and expectation of treasures waiting to be found. A little later on she writes:

‘This world being unworthy, the Graal was said to be removed, yet not hidden, for it
is always discernible by any one worthy or qualified to see it.’

Katharine then delivers her first blatant clue, an enigmatic statement about some local
landscape geometry, then she says nothing more about it as if she were deliberately daring the
reader to look deeper into the mystery for themselves; she writes:

‘Alfred’s Fort at Athelney and Camelot Castle of South Cadbury are both eleven miles
from the Isle of Avalon.’

‘Alfred’s Fort’ is an affectionate term for Burrowbridge Mump, which is the nose of the
Girt Dog of Langport. The Girt Dog is a landscape effigy, five miles long from nose to tail, that
guards the Glastonbury Zodiac. ‘Camelot Castle’ is the Iron Age hill-fort of South Cadbury,
and of course, by ‘Isle of Avalon’ she means Glastonbury Tor. Each location is a prominent hill
in the Somerset landscape – I refer to this as ‘Maltwood’s Triangle’.

109



The Three Pillars of Light by Katharine Maltwood, circa 1944.

110


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