I’d like to share a gentle spiritual shift I experienced, so that we can reflect on it together. It was like a gentle return to a feeling of inner safety.
Maybe you’ve experienced a gentle spiritual shift too, even if you didn’t have language for it yet. Sometimes it’s just a feeling, like inner safety or softening.
A gentle spiritual shift in Glastonbury, UK
The very first part of the path from the foot of Glastonbury Tor is very dark in the night.
It is after midnight and I’ve decided to walk up. I’ve been staying up late for the last week so I don’t feel tired. Rather, I feel energized to once again visit one of my favorite places in the world.
I know this place, and I don’t mind the tree branches that overarch the inclined path, that make it hard to see where the steps start.
At the beginning of the path, the darkness seems to carry an echo of something.
Thoughts of shadows from the past surface, but my experience now is so different that it’s hard to relate to them.
At the time, I didn’t yet have intuitive language for what I was sensing.
Now, I feel different. I feel very comfortable with this part of the path. Even though it is dark (and it’s freezing), it is not unknown.
After a few more of the steps, I turn the path’s corner and get to the fence with the gate. On a clear night, I would see many stars right now. But tonight it’s cloudy, so I’ll just have to do with knowing that they are behind the clouds.
As if the Tor is pulling me in, I walk through the gate without a pause. I can see the path going up the Tor from here, until it reaches the mist. The path is slightly muddy and the grass next to it quite wet.
While I’m approaching, I’m already feeling the vibration of the center of the Tor. It’s the feeling of a familiar friend, and a tingling throughout my body.
I walk through the field and go through the second gate.
Just after this gate, there is a lovely bench in front of a sacred stone. One of my favorites. I am happy to slow down, and stop moving, and sit down, because there is a subtle tension in the air.
As I sit down, my gentle spiritual shift comes from realizing that a friend is already beside me, no matter what’s going on.
Explore this place
Would you like to visit a space for gentle orientation?