Unique Publications - Independent Publishing in Glastonbury, UK
  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
  • News/Blog
  • River Brue Rehabilitation Board
  • Glastonbury Archive Material
  • Other Glastonbury Authors
  • Articles and Stories
  • Antonio Bivar
  • Local Resources
  • Unique Publications History
  • Contact
  • View Shopping Cart

The Source of the Brue and the Mouth of the Axe

20/10/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
It's been a very interesting week or so. Besides Andrew Kerr's memorial (which was great; Clare Hawkesbridge as celebrant did really well, and I loved the coffin, hand carved out of solid elm, with the pyramid logo and Andrew's family motto 'Sero Sed Serio' which was translated as 'Late, but in earnest') ... besides that I seem to have had something important happening more or less every day, including the showing of the film 'Aluna' at the Street Friends Meeting House followed by visits to mouth of the River Axe and the source of the River Brue.

When I first saw the film back in April I felt inspired to go to the mouth of the Axe and to find something that I could take to the source of the Brue as a 'payment.' If you've seen the film then you will probably understand what I am talking about; though you may not know that the Brue and the Axe used to be one river, until they were severed during the middle ages when the Glastonbury monks re-directed the Brue and effectively turned it into a canal. My impulse seemed to have something to do with making a kind of psychic re-connection between the two rivers.

Since then, over the summer I have been walking the rivers, and the space in between where the river used to flow, so that I had in fact got to know the while length from Brewham on the Mendips to Brean Down on the coast - except that I hadn't actually visited the mouth of the Axe or the source of the Brue. So last Thursday I went to Uphill, which is the site of a medieval harbour near the mouth of the Axe, with two friends who had each organised showings of the film. Also I took with me a 'medicine bundle' into which everyone at the showing last April had been invited to put their energy - and which now I had been asked to take with me to commit to the waters when I visited the place where the river meets the sea.

At low tide the mud is too dangerous to allow getting right down to the river, so I found a stone and tried to use it to weigh down the bundle so that I could throw it into the water and so that it would then be submerged. The stone just didn't fit, so I found a smaller one that was a bit flatter and that did the job. The first stone I put in my pocket and I felt that it wanted to come with me - this would be my 'payment' at the top of the hills where the Brue rises. We also found lots of beautiful little sea shells, all different colours, and I picked up a handful of them to take with me too.

On Sunday (yesterday) a group of us went up to the top of the hills above Bruton, parked up near Alfred's Tower and then walked the couple of miles through woodland to the place where the Brue rises. We found, with the help of a local walker who pointed out the place, a stone shelter within which was the spring that feeds the River Brue. Next to it was a rock with the date 1841 carved into it, and this little monument had apparently been made to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria - though it was a like a shrine to the River Goddess. I put the stone into the water next to the spring, and then each of us added a small handful of the sea shells.

It felt like a remarkably powerful thing to do. It seemed to be symbolic of the interconnectedness of everything, and of how humans have lost the plot as regards understanding that. We found ourselves standing in complete silence for  quite a while. I said a short piece about what we had done and a prayer that humanity could (soon) come to really understand this business of connection, and eventually we returned to normal chatty mode and walked back to the car park near Alfred's Tower. Some time next year I shall do the whole journey from the source to the mouth in one walk, which will take several days, and I shall take with me a payment from the source to deliver to the mouth.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.