Recent British media coverage of the (more or less) annual 4-day Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts revealed 170,000 revellers of all ages happily frolicking and wallowing in hectares of farmland mud near the famous Tor.
One week before these boisterous festivities, a brief return visit to the ancient town (which over 40 years appears to have become the New Age capital of Europe) provided interesting evidence of an ever-increasing range of commercial spiritual and ‘alternative’ services on offer to the many thousands of eager seekers who flock to the town which many believe to have connections with King Arthur, The Holy Grail and Joseph of Arimathea.
The monthly “unique free Guide to Holistic Glastonbury”, The Oracle , contains 20 pages of ads (costing practitioners from ₤140 for a full page to ₤12 for one sixteenth of a page). In addition to the more or less familiar offerings of Ayurveda, Hatha and Bhakti Yogas, Psychotherapy, Reiki Healing, Aromatherapy Massage, Kinesiology, Crystal Healing, Psychic Readings, etc., the visitor is bombarded with offers of an extraordinary variety of special treatments, many of which clamour for attention by indicating novel or enigmatic approaches to various basic alternative therapies:
Atlantis Reborn
Atlantis Reborn Tantra for Women (“Sacred Bliss. One day workshop. ₤58. No sexual contact.”)
Vinyasa Krama Yoga
Horses as Teachers
Greenbreath – Plant Spirit Medicine
Humanity under Attack. It’s all in the Cards!
The 2012 Earth Changes and the Plan of Spiritual Evolution
Full Moon Ceremony of the Presence of the Lady of Avalon
Experience the 8th Wonder of the World – Damantur
Munay-Ki Rites and Mentoring
Labyrinths for Inspiration
Alchemy of Becoming
Goddess Wisdom and Healing Day
Priestess of Rhiannon. One year Training
Biodanza
Crystal Singing Bowls Sound Bathing
Alchemy of the Mind (Hypnotherapy)
Emotional Freedom Techniques: (Emotional Freedom ‘Light’ Techniques and Matrix Reimprinting)
The No Hands ‘Signature’ Massage
Hopi Ear Candle Treatment
Lifepath and Soul Purpose Readings
Intuitive Tarot Readings [Are these a refinement of ordinary Tarot readings?]
Indigo Holistics
Past Life Regressions & Hypnotherapy
and
Ho O Pono Pono
For a more rewarding description of Glastonbury by an outsider, see Roland Howard, Shopping for God. A Sceptic’s Search for Value in Britain’s Spiritual Marketplace (Chapter 8, ‘Magical Mystery Tor’, pp. 106-122).
Brian Steel's Soapbox 