Por Susan Radcliffe

Hay un montón de lugares en el Reino Unido, donde se puede tomar un descanso de la vida. Cada parte del país cuenta con balnearios y hoteles rurales, pero si quieres algo más de su viaje puede elegir un retiro espiritual. Hay propiedades a cargo de muchos grupos religiosos diferentes y de acuerdo a diferentes sistemas de creencias, y la mayoría están abiertos al público de cualquier fe. Esta es una selección de todo el Reino Unido.

San Cuthman de

Cowfold Road, Coolham, West Sussex, Inglaterra RH13 8QL

Este retiro ofrece un lugar para la paz y la reflexión. Es propiedad de la Diócesis Católica de Arundel y Brighton, pero está abierto a todas las creencias y las de ninguno. La casa de campo eduardiana tiene características preciosas de época como vigas de madera y los paneles y no hay alojamiento para parejas o personas en las habitaciones, decoradas de manera cálida y sencilla. No hay programa a seguir y usted puede elegir para comer en silencio en el comedor, o en una conversación con otros huéspedes, en el conservatorio. Tiempo de silencio también se puede tener en la capilla o en la biblioteca bien surtida. Fuera, hay unos cuantos acres de lagos y 20 de jardines, bosques y praderas, donde se puede encontrar un lugar apartado para la contemplación o la observación de aves, ya que esta es un área designada del Reino Unido la naturaleza.

Seren Retiro

Bryncoch Granja, Gower, Swansea, Gales SA2 7LB

Este es un refugio para el Ayurveda, el yoga y la limpieza. El programa diario incluye una sesión de trabajo corporal ayurvédica, el yoga y la instrucción de la meditación, comidas saludables ayurvédicos y demostraciones de cocina, con productos procedentes de la huerta orgánica. Usted puede tomar un paseo por los 23 acres de motivos o de calmar su estrés en la bañera de hidromasaje y sauna. El alojamiento es de 4 estrellas y desayuno estándar. Hay 4 dormitorios, que pueden ser de doble o dos camas individuales y camas supletorias se pueden poner para acomodar a las familias. También hay una zona de juegos para niños.

Dhanakosa

Balquhidder, Lochearnhead, Escocia FK19 8PQ

Se trata de un retiro budista ubicado dentro del parque nacional de Trossachs, en las orillas del lago Voil. Usted puede explorar las cascadas y los bosques en sus 16 hectáreas de terreno. Una amplia gama de programas están en oferta, junto con la enseñanza de la meditación introductoria, incluyendo yoga, el senderismo, el Tai Chi, las Artes y las terapias alternativas. También hay cursos de meditación más avanzados. El alojamiento en la casa de campo es un poco básico, pero que volvería a elegir este lugar para apreciar la belleza de la naturaleza que lo rodea y concentrarse en su vida interior.

Launde Abadía

Launde Abadía, Oriente Norton, Leicester, Inglaterra LE7 9XB

Este es un refugio Anglicana de gestión y se puede asistir a las liturgias en la hermosa capilla del siglo 12 de la Abadía. Es, sin embargo, abierta a cualquier persona que quiera ir en un viaje espiritual. El retiro está ubicado en 450 hectáreas de zonas verdes y tiene un jardín victoriano vallado, donde gran parte de la comida para los invitados se cultiva. Hay 45 habitaciones en la casa principal, algunas de cuyas partes datan del siglo 16. Está lleno de características históricas, chimeneas y antigüedades. Hay varios campos diferentes para elegir, incluyendo retiros de forma individual con guía en la que toman parte en la reflexión personal, junto con sesiones diarias con un guía espiritual, o de otros cursos que incluyen actividades como la pintura, la oración o grupos de discusión.

Escrito por Bio

Susan Radcliffe es un escritor británico e investigador de la televisión, con conexiones a varios pueblos y ciudades de todo el Reino Unido. Ella tiene ascendencia irlandesa del Norte y había nacido en Escocia. Después vivió en York y Sheffield antes de establecerse en Londres. Le encanta viajar y explorar los muchos lugares hermosos de todo el Reino Unido y el extranjero. Le gusta compartir sus descubrimientos y ser capaz de recomendar hoteles y alojamientos, lugares de interés turístico y lugares de interés para otros visitantes. En la actualidad escribe para sletoH.com , un sitio de comparación de precios donde podrá reservar hoteles en el Reino Unido , así como hoteles en varios otros países.

A Lady in Waiting: An explanation of the Avebury Complex

4,500 years ago at what is now known as Avebury in Wiltshire, Neolithic man erected a vast stone circle (the Great Circle) many times larger than the more publicised Stonehenge twenty miles to the south. Surrounding the outside of these 100 or so sarsen stones is a huge partly silted-up ditch some thirty feet deep thus classifying it today as a henge site. So big was the circle that much of the modern-day village of Avebury lays within its circumference of four-fifths of a mile. To say it is only impressive is to underestimate its grandeur.

Joined to the Great Circle were two double rows of standing stones known today as the West Kennet and Beckhampton Avenues. The West Kennet Avenue was nearly one and half miles in length but the now all but missing Beckhampton Avenue's termination point is presently unknown although believed to have been similar in length.

At the farthest end of the West Kennet Avenue and connected to it, is the site of a now destroyed set of stone and timber circles known as the Sanctuary and this lies on Overton Hill alongside the oldest and longest track-way in the British Isles – the Ridgeway Path.

Three quarters of a mile to the south of the Great Circle was built the enigmatic Silbury Hill, the largest man-made hill in Europe with a huge surrounding 20ft deep ditch now mainly silted up. Covering a ground area of five and a half acres it is 130ft high with some estimates claiming it took some 18 million man hours to build using nothing more than antler picks and the shoulder blades of Oxen and wooden tools. Running north to south from Avebury is the Avebury Winterbourne stream which merges with the River Kennet to the south of Silbury Hill.

Also just below Silbury Hill lie the Swallowhead Springs where the main River Kennet rises. A quarter of a mile further south on the top of rising ground is the West Kennet Long Barrow, a chambered Early Neolithic chambered burial tomb believed to have been in use some 1,000 years prior to the construction of the other megaliths in the area.

These combined man-made structures are known collectively as the Avebury Complex and it has been classified as a World Heritage Site such is its importance. However, even after many excavations have taken place at the Great Circle, the Avenues, the Sanctuary and Silbury Hill, no practical or tangible theories or understanding of why they were built and what they were used for on completion has been put forward – until now that is! They had remained as much a mystery as when the first known official excavation began back in the 17 ^th century.

After some 30 years investigating the Complex, stone circle researcher Roy Goutté has reached some amazing conclusions that he says will change our understanding of Neolithic man in Great Britain and their beliefs for ever if correct. No longer will the Great Circle at Avebury, or Stonehenge for that matter, be seen as 'stand alone' structures, but part of huge complexes. It is by reaching this understanding that we can now begin to decipher their true meaning.

Trabajar de forma sistemática a través de ocho piezas individuales creadas por el hombre o naturales del complejo de Avebury, como él lo ve, ahora se ha intrínsicamente ligado a para mostrar que estaban todos conectados entre sí para formar una gran desconocida hasta el momento la figura femenina la Tierra establecido a lo largo de cientos de hectáreas de la campiña de Wiltshire, y ha escrito un libro sobre sus descubrimientos. El trabajo se titula 'una dama de honor' y muestra claramente que esta figura fue diseñada y construida a finales del período neolítico. Roy Goutte cree firmemente que fue construido con un objetivo en mente ... para dirigir las almas de los muertos en su vida futura y sus guías de libros al lector a través de las diversas etapas de la transición del Neolítico a partir de este mundo en el que viene!

Contemporáneo con la construcción de la Gran Pirámide de Giza y la creencia egipcia en el Más Allá, Roy Goutte ha sido capaz de demostrar que no fue sólo la jerarquía de su tiempo que se benefició de la promesa de una vida futura en Avebury, pero todo el mundo, ya que considera que la figura de la Tierra fue construida por el pueblo y para el pueblo. How it functioned and how it all worked in the mindset of Neolithic man is clearly shown by the intricate layout of the figure and how it used the natural waterways which ran through the figure's body to bring it 'alive' to them by representing its Lifeblood.

The Swallowhead Springs were a representation of the birth canal with the New Life emerging from the womb which was itself represented by Silbury Hill with its water filled ditch symbolically representing the 'waters' around the unborn Spirit while awaiting its emergence into the Afterlife. The Stone Avenues were the arms of the Figure and the Sanctuary at the conclusion of the West Kennet Avenue the Gathering Hand alongside the Ridgeway Path where the burial ground, mortuary house and drying-out platforms were situated and from where the Afterlife journey began. The Ridgeway Path was the route that led directly to the Sanctuary and would have been witness to much sadness as dead or dying people were carried or walked to their last earthly resting place prior to beginning their journey into the Afterlife.

The Great Circle was of course the Head of the Figure and the two smaller stone circles within it the Eyes. It had a Mouth which ringed a Sacred Well that is still in evidence today.

In all it is an astounding discovery and the actual layout of the Figure showing all the relevant parts can quite clearly be seen on the overdrawn map within the book or on the Lady In Waiting website along with over 50 photographs of those component parts. In all, the book is innovative and groundbreaking and more importantly, very plausible if one reverts to a way of thinking not seen since Neolithic times.

Roy Goutté concludes his book with the words:-

'Nearly everything that should be there still is – the only things really missing are the people and their beliefs'.

Y tiene razón, y estoy seguro que después de leer este libro usted también va a pensar de nuevo sobre el verdadero significado del complejo de Avebury.

Más detalles sobre el libro se puede encontrar en el sitio web de dama de compañía: - http://aveburyaladyinwaiting.co.uk/

Sobre el autor

Roy Goutte nació en la isla de Jersey, pero ahora vive en Cornualles en el borde de Bodmin Moor con su esposa y sus dos hijos.

Su interés por el pasado que comenzó como un niño cuando crece en el sur-este de la isla, donde muchos de sus primeros días de infancia los pasó jugando esos sitios tan importantes como los dólmenes de La Hougue Bie en la parroquia de Grouville, La Pouquelaye de Faldouet en la parroquia de San Martín; Mont Ube en San Clemente y la galería de la tumba de Le Dolmen du Couperon en San Martín. En el momento no eran más que lugares para divertirse en el día, pero a medida que maduraba, comenzó a tomar más interés en ellos por lo que realmente eran y no sólo como campos de juego.

Después de salir de New Jersey se convirtió en un asiduo visitante de Stonehenge y Avebury, como su interés se había trasladado a la investigación, principalmente círculos de piedra. Access to Stonehenge then became so limited that he felt it restricted his investigations there, so he concentrated solely on Avebury. He had been working on a theory that both Stonehenge and Avebury were not 'stand-alone' sites like many thought, but part of huge complexes, so this gave him good reason to investigate Avebury fully and without distraction.

Working alone, his dedicated research into the Avebury Complex has resulted in this – A Lady In Waiting - his first archaeological style book investigating an ancient wonder that has captured the imagination of people since the days of such notable antiquaries as John Aubrey in the 17 ^th century and William Stukeley in the 18th.

Roy Goutté is also the author of eight previously published books in the Principal Lines series on the bloodlines of the Border Collie in various disciplines – and an Obedience dog training book – Get It Right .

by Carol Ohmart Behan

The tradition of pilgrimage has been a time-honored practice in virtually all cultures beyond recorded history, its popularity undiminished to this day. Regardless of the goal,

a basic purpose of a pilgrimage is to make a special journey to a site that offers a unique connection with the sacred, the supernatural, the mysterious or the extraordinary in some way. The journey's destination brings the pilgrim to a place “where the physical world meets the spiritual world.”

Religious pilgrimage is no doubt the most familiar kind and nearly all faiths encourage their followers in such journeys. For millennia Christians have aspired to visit the Holy Land of Jerusalem or places where Christian saints lived and performed their deeds. The annual Muslim pilgrimage, the Hajj, calls pilgrims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to circle the Ka'Ba, the square, black-shrouded structure that houses the sacred Black Stone. The veneration of this sacred stone, thought now to be a meteorite, actually predates the formation of Islam. Hindus travel to the Ganges River in India seeking spiritual purification and believe life is incomplete without bathing at least once in its waters. In their eyes the river is a goddess, Ganga ma, (mother Ganga) who offers renewal and salvation.

Pilgrimage journeys are often undertaken for purposes of healing, be it of body, mind, or spirit. The destination may be humanmade such as the shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre in a little Canadian town of the same name just outside of Quebec. The miraculous healings that have occurred there for several hundred years attract more than a million people every year. People stand in awe before ancient monuments such as Stonehenge in England, its towering, silent stones erected by our ancestors. It attracts over 800,000 visitors per year and several thousand gather on the summer solstice to watch the sunrise at this ancient and mystical site. Visitors from a variety of religious backgrounds have reported a strong sense of mystery and spiritual energy there.

On every continent Earth's natural wonders also are points of pilgrimage offering their stunning beauties and grandeurs as balm for the spirit. A very few to mention are the Grand Canyon, the towering plume of Old Faithful's geyser in Yellowstone National Park, and sacred mountains such as Mt. Fuji in Japan and Mt. Shasta in northern California. Ayers Rock in Australia, its native name, Uluru, like Mt. Shasta is considered a place of mystical power by native peoples and New Age practitioners alike. And circling all the continents is the Ocean herself, a source of inspiration and renewal for those of us who dwell inland.

On a smaller scale, a labyrinth is very much a place “where the physical world meets the spiritual world.” The labyrinth's gently curved path leads the walker on a quiet, contemplative journey to its center. In my work with labyrinth I have witnessed people utilizing the labyrinth's pathway for something that can well be described as an “inner pilgrimage”. So much of modern life urges us to focus on the outer world, but more and more people are seeking ways to explore “inner landscapes”. In my view, this yearning accounts in part for the resurgence of interest in the labyrinth, an ancient spiritual resource. I invite you to read my article on this at www.GoldenSpiralJourney.com

Other means to pursue a personal pilgrimage of our vast and unexplored inner world can be through meditation, journal or poetry writing, and seeking places of quiet and silence where “we can hear the soul speaking”.

Pilgrimage has always been and is still “work of the soul” from the planning, to the traveling, to reaching the journey's destination. If you do not come from a religious or cultural tradition of pilgrimage, the call is sometimes more subtle. The poet Mary Oliver poses the question, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” There is an ever-increasing desire to live our lives from a deeper place, to spend more of our time “being” and less in “doing.” Oliver's question beckons us to step outside the confines of our consumer focused, ego-driven culture. For those seeking this more conscious and spiritually-focused way of living, a pilgrimage journey offers abundant support in searching out this larger, more holistic life.

My own experience of pilgrimage came when I entered my fifth decade, wondering what I might do with “the rest of my life”. Some truly marvelous synchronicities (a good sign you're on the right path) brought me to Glastonbury, England, and to its evocative and mystical energies. It has been a place of pilgrimage for a thousand years and more as early peoples came to drink and bathe in the healing waters of the two springs issuing from beneath the brooding hill or “Tor”. Of Glastonbury's many myths, one is that the Holy Grail was brought here by Joseph of Arimatheia who is said to have founded the first Christian church in England. It grew into a fabulous and famous Abbey that drew devout pilgrims for hundreds of years. The legend of the Grail grew to encompass the mythical life of King Arthur and Guinevere, the energies of that story woven into all the rest. Down through the centuries, the Chalice Well at the “red spring”, sacred to the Divine Feminine, maintained its presence not far beyond the Abbey walls. In the summer of 2001, just another New Age pilgrim, I set foot on Glastonbury's streets and climbed the Tor to find my own revelations.

The Chalice Well, set within its beautiful and peace-filled Garden, continues to draw people from all over the world in quest of the healing energies of its red-tinged waters, rising ever rising from its deep hidden source. During a visit there one summer afternoon, I saw a Spanish pilgrimage group clad in white outfits performing a healing ritual in the shallow bathing pool. Observing them, I was struck by how timeless this scene was and how all of us in the Garden that day were following in the footsteps of countless generations of pilgrims.

What one finds on a pilgrimage is often ineffable, and while I can only speak for myself, beyond a doubt my annual pilgrimages to Glastonbury continue to enlarge my life. I invite you to explore this ages-old pilgrimage destination by visiting my website. And since one article cannot possibly cover this tremendously large topic, I encourage you to explore further. Wonderful resources are just a mouse-click away on the World Wide Web. Enjoy your journey and Bright Blessings!

Carol Ohmart-Behan is a certified labyrinth-facilitator, pilgrimage leader, and published novelist. Details of her annual pilgrimages to Glastonbury and Southwest England (as well as information on her other work) can be found at www.GoldenSpiralJourney.com and www.MagdaleneGrailCircle.com