PSYCHIC AVALON
In 1924, an English archaeologist interested in psychic
research was also in charge of the excavations at Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset,
England (claimed to be the original site of King Arthur's Avalon) and with the
help of two mediums using automatic writing techniques, he uncovered with great
accuracy the foundations of the Edgar Chapel at the far eastern end of the Abbey
ruins - he asked the monk who built it to tell him where to dig
In the course of receiving the many scripts, a great deal of material was
received that had no direct bearing on the particular task mentioned, much of it
to do with the life of the monks and the history of the Abbey itself. One such
script is referred to below. If we were to ask someone to give a description of
the essential unity of all life out of time this would be hard to
follow. What I find particularly interesting is that if the scenario portrayed
by "Johannes" is accurate - and who can say with any certainty that it is not
unless they too are dead - then the question that must be addressed is bound to
be, "What price reincarnation?"
The quote below is from The Company of Avalon by F. Bligh Bond,
F.R.I.B.A. and was published by Basil Blackwell in Broad Street, Oxford, in
1924. It is a scarce book to find. His other work on Glastonbury, The Gate
of Remembrance dealing with the discovery of the Edgar Chapel, published
also by Blackwell, is easier to find, and has been reprinted. It may even be
available somewhere right now.
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'In the script of J.A., published under the title The Return of
Johannes, the following significant passages occur. After stating that to
the "Company" of the brethren whose memories are communicated the Abbey still
stands perfect as it was in its prime, or rather, as it was in the minds of
those who conceived its design, we are led to infer that their united memory can
reproduce its entire history. By clothing themselves in the garment of
earth-recollection they can recall its history as one continuous whole.'
[Quote from script follows]:
"Each one, in his remembrance, is the link which makes for us all the faire
story of Glaston as one continuous whole. So I, being linked in the spirit with
Eawulf who comes from out the Danes in olden time, see with his eyes, hear with
his ears, and live in mine own spiritual life the life that he lived in his day.
. . . So does Eawulf, and so does Abbot Kent who loved the Mere and there took
his pleasaunce, goe with me and in me, and I in him to see the sunset imaged in
the waters and hear the tide ycoming in the sedges of Cock Lake ere it reached
me over dear Mere. So being united and yet separate - united in sympathy and yet
separate in that he is hym and I, Johannes - soe, I say, do we have and live a
hundred lives where once we lived but one. Thus are we. Is it not the Paradise
of Saints, and not the Purgatory of Sinners, in which we all dwell and praise
and rejoice as one?"
Alan Bain, 21 May 1996.