BucketList. Paris. Tick

I took a couple of days to look around Paris, mostly because I wanted to see the Louvre :-)

Not much to tell really, I wasn't here long enough to get a real feel for life in Paris but it certainly is a beautiful city :-)

Here are a few pics.

Notre Dame

Sigh, I miss my scooter..

Obelisk :-)

Parisian police - coolest job ever :-)

Wandering around the ancient Egypt exhibit. This made me very happy

Large footpath garden with lots of edibles :-)

Ladies be warned, the men here are not afraid chat you up, even if they are old enough to be your father...ewww!

In other news, I'm still super tired from all this travel and am taking this next week off to spend do a shamanic retreat in nature. Should be awesome and will be back online in a week or so :-)

Lourdes, France

Lourdes is a beautiful part of the world, located in the south-west of France. This is a major Catholic pilgrimage site based around the local sacred spring, said to hold healing powers. Given my recent experience with the holy wells in England I thought it would be relevant to visit here also.

Cathedral on the river.

Although this place was beautiful, and situated on an amazing yin earth energy, I found it to be quite a spectacle. There are something like 5 million pilgrims here every year. The town itself is full of hotels and shops selling cheap trinkets etc. Many people come here hoping to be healed (there have been something like 70 verifiable miraculous healings, really, the odds aren't great). This is turned into a public event where ill people are wheeled out on stretchers in front of video cameras etc :-/

The major reason for this place being sacred is based on a girl (later Saint Bernadette) who saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary, whom appeared to her 18 times. The cynic in me thinks it is fortunate she referred to her as the Virgin Mary rather than any other feminine or earth spirit, which may have landed her in hot water, as opposed to sainthood.

Sacred grotto

I found the most amazing energy here on the mountain, in a cave (which is fenced off). The hill itself is dedicated to a walk entailing a series of statues portraying the crucifixion of Jesus. While I understand this is sacred to many Catholics and I respect that, I was surprised to see this request to climb these stone stairs on one's knees. Are the elderly or ill visitors supposed to partake in this? Hmm, possibly a lack of understanding on my part.

Go up on knees??

Anyway, I digress. I did meet some lovely people here, but given my lack of knowledge, understanding and exposure to Catholicism I found it all a bit overwhelming.

I found myself thinking of all the neglected local sacred wells I had just visited as I watched the spectacle at the fountains where people were queued several deep, filling many containers of water. I wonder what benefits can be found from reviving and utilising these local ancient sites, rather than pilgrim-aging across the world to this one location?

I am aware that there is a level of irony and hypocrisy in my saying that given my travels, but I feel there is a benefit in reviving, tapping into, and ultimately respecting these local resources ;-)

While I think of it, for anyone considering collecting local spring water, this site is a great resource. Alternatively for UK-centric ancient holy wells try megalithic :-)

Glastonbury

Glastonbury. The new-age, hippy centre of the UK. This place is awesome. Walking down High St is almost like a scene from Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. Wherever you look there are plenty of shops catering for pagans, new-age books, crystals, psychic readings etc. People are dressed as anything from fairy, pagan, hippy, king, queen, you name it. I even stayed across from a shop called 'The psychic piglet'...lol :-)

Why does Glastonbury attract so many new-agey types you may ask? This is reknown as a powerful energetic centre, with many sacred sites nearby and within town. It is also not far from Stonehenge, Avebury etc. Certainly walking around town I noticed an amazing energy. Generally people are cheerful here, but it also seems to accentuate emotions. People either seem to be either very happy, or angry/upset/disturbed, but mostly there is a very positive vibe going on here.

As a result, much of the energy work around Cornwall and Devon culminated in Glastonbury. Refreshingly, it seems completely the norm here to meditate (or whatever) in public. On arriving I spent a beautiful afternoon in the ruins of the Glastonbury abbey. This is the 'heart chakra' of the town and I felt very happy and peaceful here :-)

Glastonbury Abbey

The Abbey - resting place of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere

What Abbey would be complete without a herb garden? :-)

After the Abbey, I headed to the Tor to watch the sun go down. Being Glastonbury there were quite a few people doing the same.

The Glastonbury Tor

Sunset from the Tor

The following day I spent some time up at Wearyall Hill, the 'throat' chakra of the town :-)
The legend surrounding this tree is that it is supposedly the descendant of a thorn tree planted by Joseph of Arimathea.

Wearyall Hill

Later on I spent an amazing afternoon at the Chalice Well. Wow! Beautiful :-)

The vesica pool

The healing pool

The Lion's head. This well is safe to drink, but relatively high in iron.

The Chalice Well. THE most incredible energy here. A five minute stay recharges the batteries. Of course there were plenty of others there doing similar ;-)

The 'chocolate love temple'. With shops like this what's not to love about Glastonbury? ;-)

The Eden Project

During my travels through Cornwall, I stopped in at the Eden Project. This place is an amazing environmental education centre and a little piece of paradise in Cornwall. Check out the before and now shots;

Before - 1999 - and old mining quarry

Now :-)

Some of the recycled artworks;

The 'wee man' representing the 3+ tonnes of electrical waste each consumer disposes of over a lifetime.

How's this for a kitchen garden?

Outside the cafe

The tropical biodome

The Mediterranean biodome

Holy wells

Cornwall in the UK is home to many sacred wells or springs. In times of old, these were a place used by locals for healing, or pilgrimage. Unfortunately over the years, many have been destroyed or fallen into disrepair, however some are also beautifully maintained by enthusiastic volunteers.

I found traveling to these wells an interesting experience. Each one had it's own unique energy and properties. A few were very eerie, definitely did not feel alone there.

Here are a few that I visited.

St Keyne's Well - beautiful heart centred space :-)

St Cuby's well - just off the road but hard to see while driving ;-)

St Cleer's well

Dupath Well

St Neot's well - super cute town, and well is not located in a random cow paddock 5 miles away like the GPS said :-(

Scarlett's well

Sancreed well, complete with offerings. Super eerie. I swear there was something behind me...and breathing :-/

Glowing, phosphorescent moss growing in Sancreed Well. The water here has a relatively high radiation count.

St Piran's well - very neglected, but still lots of love here :-)

St Clether's Well Chapel - wow, beautifully maintained and a work of love from one lady.

Inside the St Clether's well chapel - original 2000yr old alter stones with water running underneath :-)

England's sacred sites

I had a pretty amazing 10 days driving around Devon and Cornwall, visiting some of the sacred sites in the British countryside (however there are many more!). After leaving Totnes, I picked a car in Torquay and spent some time acquainting myself to driving again, as opposed to getting around on two wheels. It's been years since I've driven a manual car and I started it in gear without the clutch a few times, oops ;-)

For much of this time the weather was awful, high winds, rain, cold etc. If it was Australia I'd be tucked up in bed, watching youtube etc (you get the picture). Even so, I was pretty determined and put up with rain, wind, copious amounts of cow poo and even falling in mud :-(

Many of the roads here are impossibly narrow. What would be a one-way street in Australia is two-way, and in two-way streets people park in one lane, rendering it a one-lane street. In the countryside, many of the 'roads' are tiny one-way lanes, or what we would probably call a footpath. Fortunately the locals are very proficient in reversing, much more so than me ;-)

The GPS was a godsend in navigating the countryside. I always thought these were for people who can't read maps, or remember where they're going, but I'm totally converted now. There were a few occassions however when it got sworn at, like the time I went on a 5 mile loop for no reason, or down a tiny, very muddy lane where I nearly got bogged.

Many of the sites I visited were off the beaten track, they aren't well known and there is no signage. There were many times when I found myself trekking through thick bush, moors or cow paddocks in wind, rain or both, wondering what on earth I was doing? Some sites I spent hours looking for, only to give up. Others were spontaneous finds along the way.

Here are a few of the places I visited;

Forest of ancient stunted oaks - Dartmoor

Stone circle near the Cheesewringers

The Cheesewringers - Bodmin Moor

Obelisk near Bodmin

St Michaels Mount

Ruins of Tintagel Castle - birthplace of King Arthur

Orbs - near St Nectan's Glen (unfortunately I couldn't get in to see the waterfall)

Launceston Castle

St Michael's Brentor Church - on top of this hill (I think I nearly blew away up there!)

Inside St Michaels Brentor church - super eerie, not another person in sight

Burrow Mump - another large hill/mound with a ruined church (dedicated to St Michael) on top.

Cadbury Castle

Stonehenge :-)

Saw this limestone horse while driving around :-)

Silbury Hill

Avebury

Cathedral dedicated to Mary Magdalene in Oxford - amazing earth energy here :-)

Canterbury Cathedral - again this sits on an awesome energy centre :-)

The Cerne Abbas giant - loved this place!!

Many of these places are on the Michael-Mary ley line running through the UK. Since this part of the trip I've been reading the fascinating work of Hamish Miller and Paul Broadcast who outlined their work dousing this ley line in 'The Sun and the Serpent'. It was good to see how much of what I found with my energy work at these sites matched with their findings. Sometimes it's nice to get some validation :-)

This was a really full on schedule, including the holy wells and Gastonbury. This is a really long post so I'll blog about those separately. I'd suggest to anyone doing this to allow more time. I'm still catching up on sleep, blog posts etc :-)