Glastonbury - The White Spring

This year I have been to Glastonbury twice. The first time for one day and the second time I stayed for four days. I was going to write about my experience there in one post but then realised that I wanted to go deeper in some of the spaces. Here is my experience of the White Spring.

When my friend Lisa and I arrived, the first place I took her to see was the White Spring. It is one of my favourite places in Glastonbury.

I had been there for the first time in April with another friend. It was closed at the time but my friend and I hanged around anyway.

I was sitting at the door at some point when someone opened it and invited me in. I could not believe my luck. They are normally closed at that time but there had just been a ritual and the candles were all lit. I had the space all to myself but I felt very shy in there. I washed my hands and arms in the water and rushed to see all the altars. I was in awe of it all.

The space feels like a sort of womb. The sound of water flowing is ever present. There is an atmosphere and an energy that attracts me and I hope some day, maybe when a little bit warmer outside, I get to also bathe in those waters. There are candles lit everywhere but it is still very dark. There are altars to all sorts of representations of the Goddess in different corners of the space. There are many offerings in these altars. The energy of the Goddess and the heart feel very strong, not only in this space but in Glastonbury in general.

The first thing I was told by a women who started chatting to me outside the White Spring, was that to live in Glastonbury you need to surrender. I took this as advice from the Universe. I have been attempting to surrender more and more in my life, but often feel that it evades me as I try to grasp for things or situations and do not let them go.

I went twice during this second stay. The first time a couple of people were singing and I felt like joining them but told myself I did not know how to sing or have a good voice and left it at that.

I guess I must have been measuring it up the first time around, because in the second visit I felt somewhat freer and I went to one of the corners and sang to the black madonna figurine. I was just making sounds, like the OM sound but experimenting with different vowels and different openings of my mouth. I noticed that when voicing with my lips more closed than open, I felt it resonating in my heart. But when I open my mouth wider and in particular used the ‘a’ sound, I felt it resonating all along the front of my body to my womb. It was wonderful to experiment and even better to express myself in that way.

I notice that living in cities, I tend to restrain my expression when it comes to voicing, even when I feel a deep calling to do so. Feeling that I could do so at the White Spring, felt like a salve and it was very healing.

At some point, in one of my visits, I also felt called to make an offering. The only thing I had with me was a stone, I turned to the first altar I was closer to and as I put my stone down I notice that the Goddess representation I was putting my offering was a Venus of Willendorf figurine. If you have seen some of my art, I have done in the past a painting inspired in this figurine and which I call Earth Goddess. (Check my art page for some examples) This, together with a request from my friend Lisa, has inspired me to paint more of these Earth Goddesses in different colours as I think they would look perfect on altars, representing the feminine.

A lot can happen in short spaces of time. This is what I find for myself when visiting The White Spring, as well as other places in Glastonbury. The effects can be powerful and long lasting even when it feels like they were there for only seconds.

Have you visited Glastonbury? What is your favourite place to visit?