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Ritual Astronomy
Sometime in the twelfth century — in locations like
Glastonbury Abbey, in Southwestern England, a place of
extreme mystery and one rumored resting place of the
Grail chalice — a form of raw visionary ecstasy, stimulated
by abstinence, sensory deprivation, fasting and the
constant hymns of one’s fellow monks and nuns, became
a hypnotic experience, not unlike a shaman’s trance
state. In this world the hermit might be transported into a
reverie while engaged in something as mundane as
scrubbing a floor or as profound as transcribing an
illuminated manuscript such as the Book of Kells or The
Lindisfarne Gospels. 26
The trance-inducing drum beats and chants as well as
the inspiration for many of the “Songs of Love,” performed
under the aegis of the troubadours might have
come, indirectly, from Shamanism. The poetry and song of
the Middle Ages in Brittany was transmitted orally from
very ancient sources, and many of the legends are linked
to the megaliths so it is possible that the rituals used to
demonstrate certain principles were equally as old. 27
The Star Temple Religion
Some six thousand years ago in Western Europe belief in
the projective force of the stars evolved into an abstraction.
Every totem animal owned a place in the star
clusters twinkling overhead. Each played a stellar role in
the sky legends. The animals, once feared, were no longer
depicted in representational art. Now, the legends of the
animals forming the constellations were directed into
ceremonies aimed at harmonizing the human being with
26Henry, Francoise ed. The Book Of Kells. London: Thames and Hudson,
1974. Also: Bale, J. Illustrium maioris Britanniae scriptorium summarium.
Being a summary of the major British illustrated scriptoria as of the Tudor
period. Ipswich: 1548. In mss.: Le Roux de Lincy Sur le Abbay de
Fecamp. vol. I p. 292. Bodliean Library, Oxford.
27 Kelly, Amy. Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings. New York:
Praeger, 1988. See next.
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