To be a pilgrim

The pilgrimage was organised by Primal Gathering and was led by Guy Hayward. We walked a circular route, starting and ending at Avebury and taking in West Kennet Long Barrow, West Kennet Avenue, The Sanctuary (the remains of a "woodhenge"), Silbury Hill, and Swallowhead Springs.

Some magical moments: I spotted a hare far in the distance close to the start and one of the great stones has the image of a hare in its natural formation... I was also wearing a hare T-shirt; I sat in the "chair" in one of the portal stones and felt myself being drawn in, when I rose, one woman said "You looked as if you were sinking into the stone"; my friend Annette had a great time; Santi, one of the organisers, is one of the most delightful souls I have met; all the people were wonderful; Guy's singing is enchanting.

The holes in the stones made me think of "the hollow places" and "making peace with the darkness". Then I read this in The Matter With Things:

The right hemisphere is better at accepting uncertainty and limits to knowledge. An understanding of the divine must rely on indirect and metaphorical expression, not direct and literal expression; it must tolerate ambiguity; and it has to be at ease with accepting that both of what, on the surface, appear to be contradictory elements might be true – in other words, it must be receptive to what we call paradox. It must see continuous processes, rather than a succession of isolated events, a process of becoming, not simply the fact of being; it must be able to apprehend ‘betweenness’, a web of relationships, not just an assemblage of entities – and that what is of primary importance in the web is the relationships, not the entities related. It involves appreciating a Gestalt, not a construction of parts; entering into an ‘I–Thou’, not just an ‘I–It’ relationship, with its subject; sustaining emotional depth; and seeing that spirit and body are not distinct, or opposed, but discernibly different aspects of the same being. In epistemological terms, it requires knowing in the sense of kennen more than wissen; valuing ‘active receptivity’, as well as not doing and not knowing. It involves sustaining attention, and stilling the inner voice, as in prayer and meditation. In ethical terms, it places a value on empathy; on the consensual rather than individualistic self; and on vulnerability. It must recognise, not deny, the dark side to human consciousness, and be capable of understanding that good may, despite everything, emerge from suffering. All of this (as only the reader who has accompanied me so far through the book will understand) in one way or another and to some degree suggests that the right hemisphere will play the key role. In this it is not different from other areas of life, since the proper relationship is always that of Master and emissary.

[...]

In one sermon Eckhart expands on the meaning of darkness. ‘You cannot do better than to place yourself in darkness and unknowing’, he says; and he imagines a bystander asking him: ‘But what is this darkness and unknowing? And what is its name?’ To this he replies: ‘I can only call it a loving and open receptiveness, which however in no way lacks being: it is a receptive potential by means of which all is accomplished.’ This suggests the fertility of union between a creative principle and a receptive womb-like space (female principle) in which something is to grow. In other words the darkness is not merely negative, but the active opening of a field of potential, what I have called active receptivity: the mode of the right hemisphere’s attention.

I had a message from Kairos while I was there. The message was "Come home." I did not experience that as saying go back to Northamptonshire or even to Devon, but home into who I am/should be, somehow.

After the walk, Annette and I sat and talked in the pub to Nicole and Santi from Primal Gathering, Sarah, whom I had picked up from the station with Annette, Guy and a guy called Tom who is "the fire keeper for all the Medicine Festivals". They are all deep, thoughtful people with vision and a strong desire to "make the world more habitable." Incidentally, I was told that everyone who goes to a Medicine Festival describes it as one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives.

This was the first song Guy sang, though here it's the songwriter Sam Lee performing. I heard this song and that already made the journey and the fee well worthwhile.