Susan Radcliffe

Det er nok av steder i Storbritannia, hvor du kan ta en pause fra livet. Hver del av landet har spas og herregårdshoteller, men hvis du ønsker noe mer ut av turen kan du velge en åndelig retrett. Det er egenskaper som drives av mange ulike religiøse grupper og i henhold til ulike trossystemer, og de fleste er åpne for besøkende med en annen tro. Her er et utvalg fra hele Storbritannia.

St Cuthman s

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

Dette tilfluktsstedet tilbyr et sted for fred og ettertanke. Det er eid av den katolske bispedømmet Arundel og Brighton, men det er åpent for alle trosretninger og de av ingen. The Edwardian Country House har nydelig stilelementer som trebjelker og panel, og det er rom for par eller enkeltpersoner i soverommene, som er innredet i en varm og enkel måte. Det er ingen program å følge, og du kan velge å spise i taushet i spisesalen, eller i samtale med andre gjester, i vinterhagen. Quiet tid kan også være hadde i kapellet eller den velfylte bibliotek. Utenfor er det en innsjø og 20 hektar med hager, skog og enger, hvor du kan finne en bortgjemt sted for kontemplasjon eller fugletitting, da dette er et utpekt britisk naturområde.

Seren Retreat

Bryncoch Farm, Gower, Swansea, Wales SA2 7LB

Dette er et fristed for Ayurveda, yoga og rensing. Den daglige Programmet omfatter en ayurvedisk karosseri sesjon, yoga og meditasjon instruksjon, sunne ayurvediske måltider og matlaging demonstrasjoner, med råvarer som kommer fra økologisk hage. Du kan ta en spasertur i de 23 acre begrunnelse eller berolige bort stress i badestamp og badstue. Boligen er 4 stjernes B & B standard. Det er 4 soverom, som kan være dobbelt-eller tomannsrom, og ekstra senger kan settes inn for å innkvartere familier. Det finnes også en lekeplass for barn.

Dhanakosa

Balquhidder, Lochearnhead, Skottland FK19 8PQ

Dette er en buddhistisk fristed som ligger innenfor nasjonalparken Trossachs, ved bredden av Loch Voil. Du kan utforske fossene og skogsområder i sine 16 hektar stort område. Et bredt spekter av programmer er på tilbud sammen med innledende meditasjon undervisning, deriblant yoga, fjellturer, Tai Chi, kunst og alternative behandlingsformer. Det finnes også mer avanserte meditasjon kurs. Boligen i våningshuset er litt basic, men du ville velge dette stedet å sette pris på skjønnheten i naturen og å konsentrere seg om ditt indre liv.

Launde Abbey

Launde Abbey, East Norton, Leicester, England LE7 9XB

Dette er en anglikansk-run retrett, og du kan delta på liturgier i Abbey vakre 12. århundre kapellet. Det er imidlertid åpen for alle som ønsker å gå på en åndelig reise. Tilbaketrekningen ligger i 450 hektar med parklandskap og har et viktoriansk inngjerdet hage hvor mye av maten for gjestene dyrkes. Det finnes 45 rom i hovedhuset, deler av som dateres tilbake til det 16. århundre. Den er fylt med historiske særpreg, peiser og antikviteter. Det finnes flere forskjellige baner å velge mellom, inkludert individuelt guidede retreater hvor du deltar i personlig refleksjon sammen med daglige økter med en åndelig guide, eller andre kurs som inkluderer aktiviteter som maling, bønn eller diskusjonsgrupper.

Writer Bio

Susan Radcliffe er en britisk forfatter og TV forsker, med forbindelser til flere byer og tettsteder rundt om i Storbritannia. Hun har Nord-irske herkomst og ble født i Skottland. Hun bodde i York og Sheffield før han bosatte seg i London. Hun elsker å reise og å utforske de mange vakre steder rundt om i Storbritannia og i utlandet. Hun nyter å dele sine funn og å kunne anbefale hotell og overnatting, severdigheter og attraksjoner til andre besøkende. Hun skriver for tiden for sletoH.com , en pris sammenligning nettsted hvor du kan bestille britiske hoteller samt hoteller i flere andre land.

En Lady in Waiting: En forklaring av Avebury Complex

4.500 år siden på det som nå er kjent som Avebury i Wiltshire, reist Neolithic mann en enorm stein sirkel (the Great Circle) mange ganger større enn de mer omtalte Stonehenge tjue miles mot sør. Rundt utsiden av disse 100 eller så sarsen steiner er en stor delvis silted-up grøft rundt tretti meter dyp dermed klassifisere det i dag som en Henge område. Så stor var den sirkelen at mye av dagens landsbyen Avebury ligger innenfor dens omkrets av fire femdeler av en kilometer. Å si det er bare imponerende, er å undervurdere dens storhet.

Ble til Great Circle var to doble rader av Bautasteiner kjent i dag som West Kennet og Beckhampton Avenues. Vesten Kennet Avenue var nesten en og en halv miles i lengde, men nå er alt, men mangler Beckhampton Avenue terminering poeng er for øyeblikket ukjent selv antas å ha vært lik i lengde.

På den ytterste enden av West Kennet Avenue og koblet til det, er stedet for en nå ødelagt sett av stein og tømmer sirkler kjent som Sanctuary og dette ligger på Overton Hill langs den eldste og lengste spor-vei på De britiske øyer - Ridgeway bane.

Tre fjerdedeler av en kilometer sør for den store Circle ble bygget den gåtefulle Silbury Hill, den største menneskeskapte ås i Europa med et stort rundt 20ft dyp grøft nå hovedsakelig silted opp. Dekker en grunnflate på fem og en halv hektar det er 130ft høy med noen anslag som hevder at det tok cirka 18 millioner arbeidstimer timer å bygge bruke noe mer enn antler plukker og skulderbladene okser og tre verktøy. Kjører nord til sør fra Avebury er Avebury Winterbourne bekk som fusjonerer med elven Kennet sør for Silbury Hill.

Også i underkant Silbury Hill ligger de Swallowhead Springs der elven Main Kennet stiger. En fjerdedel av en kilometer lenger sør på toppen av stigende terreng er det West Kennet Long Barrow, mente en kammer tidlig neolittisk kammer begravelse grav å ha vært i bruk noen tusen år før byggingen av de andre megalittene i området.

Disse kombinerte menneskeskapte strukturer er kjent kollektivt som Avebury Complex og det har blitt klassifisert som en World Heritage Site slik er dens betydning. Imidlertid har selv etter mange utgravninger funnet sted på den store sirkelen, Avenues, The Sanctuary og Silbury Hill, ingen praktiske eller materielle teorier eller forståelse av hvorfor de ble bygget og hva de ble brukt til ved ferdigstillelse er satt frem - til nå som er! De hadde vært like mye et mysterium som da den første kjente offisielle utgraving begynte tilbake i det 17 ^århundre.

Etter noen 30 år etterforsker Complex, har steinsirkelen forsker Roy Goutte kommet noen fantastiske konklusjoner som han sier vil endre vår forståelse av neolittiske mann i Storbritannia og deres tro for alltid hvis den er riktig. Ikke lenger vil den store sirkelen i Avebury, eller Stonehenge for den saks skyld, bli sett som "stand alone" strukturer, men en del av store komplekser. Det er ved å nå denne forståelsen at vi nå kan begynne å tyde sin sanne mening.

Arbeide systematisk gjennom åtte individuelle menneskeskapte eller naturlige deler av Avebury Complex som han ser det, har han nå egentlig knyttet dem til å vise at de var alle sammen for å danne et stort hittil ukjente Kvinne Earth Figur lagt ut over hundre dekar på Wiltshire landsbygda og har skrevet en bok om sine oppdagelser. The Work har tittelen «A Lady In Waiting 'og tydelig viser at dette tallet ble designet og bygget i slutten av steinalderen. Roy Goutte tror sterkt det ble bygget med ett mål i tankene ... å lede sjelene til de døde i deres Afterlife og hans bok guider leseren gjennom de ulike stadiene i neolittisk overgangen fra denne verden til den neste!

Contemporary with the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza and the Egyptian belief in the Afterlife, Roy Goutté has been able to show that it wasn't just the hierarchy of its time that benefitted from the promise of an Afterlife at Avebury, but everybody, for he believes that the Earth Figure was built by the people, for the people . 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'.

And he's right and I'm sure that after reading this book you too will think again about the true meaning of the Avebury Complex.

More details about the book can be found at the Lady In Waiting website:- http://aveburyaladyinwaiting.co.uk/

About the Author

Roy Goutté was born in the Channel Island of Jersey, but now lives in Cornwall on the edge of Bodmin Moor with his wife and their two sons.

His interest in the past began as a child when growing up in the south-east of the island where many of his early boyhood days were spent playing around such important sites as the passage graves at La Hougue Bie in the parish of Grouville; La Pouquelaye de Faldouet in the parish of St Martin; Mont Ubé at St Clement and the gallery grave Le Dolmen du Couperon at St Martin. At the time they were just places to have fun in on days out, but as he matured he began to take more interest in them for what they really were and not just as playgrounds.

After leaving Jersey he became a regular visitor to Stonehenge and Avebury as his interest had moved to mainly investigating stone circles. 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