'Gemini' by Sandy Deluca

We will soon be entering the Gemini phase of the year, the sign of the two heavenly twins caught in a perpetual dialogue with each other. The Gemini season positively vibrates with energy through a variety of colour, scent, texture and sound, as the days extend and the sun rises to its zenith in the sky. The blossom of the Taurus phase has attracted bees and butterflies and the pollination cycle is now beginning in earnest, as the spirit of Gemini is carried on a wind of change. Like a true pollinator endlessly darting from flower to flower, the Gemini soul buzzes and flutters happily from one source of interest to another, spreading the news, stirring nature’s alchemical mix and announcing the immanent arrival of summer. It seems like everything is up for grabs in this hubbub of trade and exchange. Nature’s messengers are in full swing and the rich diversity of life is never more in evidence.

Pentecost

In the Christian calendar this seasonal transformation is echoed in the festival of Pentecost, or Whitsuntide, where the holy spirit comes as a rushing wind, carrying “wit” and “knowledge”, inspiring the apostles to spread the word far and wide, like pollinating bees. This is often considered to be the birth of the church – whereby the Holy Spirit enables the message of Christianity to be understood. The apostles even found themselves speaking in foreign languages, speaking in tongues.

Hermes / Mercury - Ruler of Gemini

According to an elder of the Dogon tribe of Mali, spoken language originates as a swirling garment of vapour and breath. This garment, which was draped around the earth, was stolen by a jackal. Since that time the movements of the jackal have disclosed to seers and diviners the prophetic speech of the world. In Greek mythology the gift of language is bestowed by Hermes, who is also the patron of storytelling, alchemy and double-speak. His rulership of the sign Gemini, our sun sign of the month, has much to teach about the power of language.

In old English, to “spell” was to recite a story, but with the spread of the Roman alphabet, it developed what we perceive today as a double meaning – to arrange letters in the correct order, on the one hand, and on the other a magical formula or charm, as in the casting of a spell. But are these meanings as radically different as we might suppose? We can all perhaps appreciate the way words have the power to enchant and manipulate perception, when they are delivered in a particular way and with a particular presence.

Modern western thought favours the structural linguistics of nominalism where words are effectively reduced to dead, quasi-mathematical units, which carry no sensuous or magical power. In the hands of a skilled poet or orator however, those same words are re-enlivened and re-animated. And how different it is when we address the world directly, than when we merely speak about it. We may all-too-easily forget that words do not simply label things that are already there, they also carry an incantative power which reverberates in the heavens and may echo back a confirmation through our daily experiences. This Gemini phase of the year always reminds me to choose my words, my thoughts, my prayers, my everyday mantras with more care – to remember that Hermes is listening and to remember where my words are coming from in the first place!

So in our Alchemical Journey workshop for Gemini this month we work with the alchemical power of words, symbols and stories, and reconnect to the web of language of which we all partake. Click here for more details…

The Dundon twin depicted as Orion holding up the Zodiac. Artist: Yuri Leitch

Our third adventure into the Zodiac on this year’s Alchemical Journey takes us to the twin peaks of Gemini and the giant baby of Dundon, drawn by two hills with their own very different character. This figure was first identified by Katharine Maltwood as the constellation Orion, and it has shape-shifted its way into different stellar images in typical Geminian fashion. It is one of the most striking figures in the zodiac wheel and once you’ve seen it from an overhead photograph (with its head pointing eastwards), you will always do so. Our effigy is distinctively marked out in the landscape, and is associated by many with the Christ figure. His head is tilted to one side, one arm reaches to his naval, the other outstretched above his head. Established by Mary Caine (and now accepted by most) as one of Gemini’s heavenly twins, this most capricious of characters longed for a sibling, and one has since emerged in the area of Etsome Bridge, just north of Somerton. The second twin remains the quieter, less distinguished of the pair, meditating cross-legged on a more gently sloping terrain.

The Gemini weekend on The Alchemical Journey marks the pollination phase of our journey around the zodiac, and we imagine ourselves as butterflies and bees, actively engaged in the flutter and buzz of early summer. In Gemini, we let our curiosity guide us, and allow the youthful, playful spirit of the twins to inspire our imaginations, open up new pathways of connection and meaning. And there is plenty to keep us stimulated on this most alluring of our monthly walks. We begin at Meadway Hall, and our curiosity is first piqued by a mysterious old pilgrim’s path that runs from Trays Farm on the bull’s eye to St Andrew’s Church. We follow it to the base of Dundon Beacon, the first hill that we ascend, walking in silent meditation through its enchanted wood and pausing for reflection at its sacred spring, on the third eye point of the figure; a source that once served the village of Castlebrook below. When we reach its plateaued summit, we discover the most sublime meadow, full of wild flowers, once home to a hilltop community of several thousand people. From the top we can see the overlooked second twin, and we send some energy in his direction and promise that we really will pay him a visit this year!

Google Earth Image, created by Gail Cornwell

The Yew Tree at St Andrew's Church, Dundon

We descend on the other side and rejoin the pilgrim’s path, walking on to St Andrew’s Church, with its magnificent ancient yew. At 1700 years young (and still thriving), it is the oldest in Somerset and we pause for a while there; this old tree always puts things in perspective, a perfect counterbalance to the youthful excesses of Gemini. The church is full of little Geminian synchronicities, including a beautiful, yet bizarre stained-glass above the altar. From there we head past the Earth-Spirit Centre, on the effigy’s throat chakra, and walk up the bare, exposed Lollover Hill, which appears in stark contrast to the lushness of the Beacon. Again we are aware of the opposite-contradictory forces at play in this sign. Our climb is rewarded with a commanding view over the surrounding countryside. We return, stimulated in body and mind, taking one last draught of air from this most breathy of signs!

Click Here for More Details About Our Gemini Workshop & Walk on 27th May 2012 in Glastonbury

Enough Already
The Taurus phase teaches us the value of “enough”, the recognition that we may already have everything we need to live a happy and fulfilled life. In the current economic climate, our culture is having to face the realisation that stuffing our lives full of “more” isn’t sufficient for our sustenance and well-being. I remember Lynne Twist once saying that in our modern quest for abundance, we often sail right past the exquisite beauty of “enough” without even realising it – driven on by our scarcity-ridden belief that “more is better”. So one very valuable practice this month is to sense what is enough, to realise what we actually need to be secure and what we could happily and joyfully do without – and to celebrate that!

Authentic Ownership
I equate this practice of what I call “authentic ownership” with the experience of fully inhabiting my body, claiming a right to the ground that I walk upon, the air that I breathe, the interactions that give my life value and the sensuous delights of the present moment. To embrace this without attachment, without seeking to claim exclusive rights over any of these things frees me to be more fully present to the natural abundance of life.

Sufficiency & Sustainability
The manifestation / law of attraction books and films such as “The Secret” have offered us powerful keys to help us manifest our creative potential, and they include gratitude as an important component of that. However, I’d personally love to see them focussing more on the distinctions of sufficiency and sustainability as part of the context for manifestation, and less on the acquisition of monetary wealth and the accumulation of material things for their own sake. A celebratory appreciation of the resources that we already have, including money and material assets, as well as our own skills and abilities, can free us up to find more creative ways to express and channel that which we have blessed with. When we relax the anxiety that comes from thinking we need more of everything, a whole world of already existing riches opens up. We also become more powerful attractors in the process!

On April 1st this year, we will begin our new Alchemical Journey cycle with the fire sign Aries lighting the way.

This poem by Dorsha Hayes really captures the spirit of it.

Fire Hazard by Dorsha Hayes
“Filled with the clutter of unsorted stuff
A spark can set a man ablaze
What’s there heaped high among stored rubbish,
At a puff will burst into flame.
No man can be aware of how inflammable he is,
How prone to what can rage beyond control,
Unless the piled up litter of his life
Is known to him, and he is able to assess
What hazard he is in, what could ignite.
A man disordered and undisciplined
Lives in the peril of a panic flight
Before the onrush of a flaming wind.
Does it now seem I seek to be profound?
I stand on smoking ash and blackened ground.”

The adventure begins with a spark of fire and it confronts us with a very direct challenge at the first gateway of the zodiac. Aries confronts us with some very direct questions: What is burning in you? What fires your passion? What are you burning with desire for? What are you willing to sacrifice to the fire of transformation? The “Great Work” of the alchemist begins under the auspices of the Ram “whose fiery effluvia nurture the conception of the Opus”. The primary alchemical process is the calcinatio where, through repeated cooking, the base matter is burned to ash.

Aries is also that moment expressed so poignantly in the alchemical image of the initiate with the sword poised over the egg, ready to strike.  The initiate must seize the moment and recognise within himself that kairos of opportunity and match the passion and courage of the new born chick about to hatch with his own and dive full-blooded into the moment.

Only when imagination is alight with passion, enthused with desire, aflame with the inspiration of the moment can one know that the journey has begun. We see it expressed in the primal scream of the new-born, the irrepressible enthusiasm of youth, the war-cry of the warrior’s charge, the spiritual awakening that ignites our hearts. To begin our alchemical quest for divine union we must first know the experience of separation at its most intense and be ignited with a longing to return. This is the Aries way.

Mary Caine's Map of the Glastonbury Zodiac

The Girt Dog by Yuri Leitch

The first astrological sign that we encounter on our Zodiac trail is Aries, around the time of Spring Equinox, but before we enter this figure in the landscape, we first approach the guardian dog for his/her permission, and companionship on the journey. This so-called Girt Dog of Langport (who enjoys a notable mention in a Somerset wassailing carol) is the thirteenth figure in the Glastonbury Zodiac and we always like to invite the dog along as our trusty companion on our pilgrimage around the year. So the first stage of our adventure is to walk up Burrowbridge Mump, the enigmatic hill that rises mysteriously out of the Somerset levels. Like Glastonbury Tor, it has a ruined church dedicated to St Michael and lies on the famed St Michael leyline. It also marks the tip of the dog’s nose, and as we stand on its summit surveying the glorious view over the moors, we always sniff the air, as the prospective zodiac hounds that we are. For we are preparing ourselves to pick up the scent of enchantment and synchronicity that we will be exposed to as we journey together around this magical wheel.

The Girt Dog by Yuri Leitch

We then make our customary trip to the hamlet of Wagg, near Langport, on the dog’s tail, where we formalize our invitation to our canine friend through a beautiful ritual. Now our journey into the Zodiac proper can begin. A 20-minute drive and we find ourselves on Walton Hill on the foot of the Aries figure – not a ram, but a more traditional paschal lamb with its head reverted, a symbol long associated with Aries and Spring Equinox rites. From Walton Hill, we enjoy a lovely view of the twin hills of Gemini and the watery rhines of Cancer. We then walk across the animal’s rump to Walton, passing sheep fields that have helped to make this part of Somerset aptly famous for its lambswool. At Walton church we find two clear Arien references in the particularly bright and beautiful stained glass at its western end. First there is the story of Abraham and Isaac with the ram in the thicket – the ram who is sacrificed in Isaac’s place, and then there is Christ shown as the good shepherd holding a lamb. The paschal lamb of the Jewish Passover is also carved onto the font and I was particularly excited to find a dove, symbol of Libra (Aries’ opposite number) carved on its opposite side.

Aries Detail from Glastonbury Zodiac by Yuri Leitch

Next, we walk along the main road to Street, and then along its High St. Our Zodiac is predominatly a green and rustic paradise, but with this bustling retail centre comprising a large part of the Aries figure, we find ourselves on this occasion having to investigate shops and businesses to find our synchronicities. And as we look at our zodiac map, we notice how the high street actually demarcates the boundary between the Aries figure and one of the Piscean fish, and that on the Aries side of the street, we find all the lambswool shops, while on the Pisces side, we find all the Clarks shoe shops! Bearing in mind that Pisces rules the feet, of course. On the map, the fish seems to be leaping, like the fabled salmon of inspiration, out of the lamb’s head. It makes me think of the inspired idea that James Clark had one day in 1825, whilst working at the tannery among the sheepskin rugs. “Slippers!” exclaimed the budding entrepreneur in true Aries style, and so it was that the Clarks’ sheepskin slipper was born! And to cap it all for mysteriousness, from our 2009 Aries pilgrimage, we beheld a recently erected scaffold, with a bright red sign proudly displaying, just for us, “RAM Construction”! It’s a kind of magic…best left to the imagination.

Representation of Pisces in The Glastonbury Zodiac (Gail Cornwell)

Our final foray into The Glastonbury Zodiac, on this turn of the wheel, takes us into the deep imaginal waters of a landscape soaked in myth and legend. It is the legacy of Christ as Ichthus the fish, the chief inaugurator and overseer of the Piscean age, who is most obviously represented here. We are led up Fishers Hill to one of two fish identified by Katharine Maltwood, marked out by the contours of Wearyall Hill, renowned as the site where Joseph of Arimathea landed by boat with the grail cup. In Maltwood’s words, he laid “the sacred blood upon the altar of the fish”, before planting the staff that was to grow into the Holy Thorn. Among other things this has served as a calendar peg, marking the Vernal Equinox for the past 2000 years. The fate that has recently befallen the sacred tree could be seen as a symbolic indication that the equinox is preparing to point to a different sign.

The Holy Thorn - still thriving in Feb 2010

Wearyall Hill is said to be the burial place of a gigantic sacred salmon, and this is easy to imagine when viewed from the Tor, and it is not the only salmon in town. On our annual Pisces walk on The Alchemical Journey, we first tread the Beckery Salmon, first mentioned around 1900 before Maltwood ever dreamed the zodiac into being. It is here that we find Bride’s (or Brigid’s) Mound, one of the most meaningful sacred sites in The Glastonbury Zodiac. Walking up Porchestall Road to Cradle Bridge, we meet the River Brue, and following Alice Buckton’s route, we come upon the “tree of sorrows’; once a willow, now a hawthorn, and we leave our cares there as we prepare to honour the sacred feminine. Nearby is Bride’s Well, where Chalice Well’s mysterious blue bowl was discovered in 1905 through the visions of Wellesley Tudor Pole. From here it is a short walk across the field to Bride’s Mound, the site of St Brigid’s Chapel (no longer extant), part of an earlier Saxon monastery dedicated to Mary Magdalene. This hallowed place was once the traditional disembarking place for boats, and is where Magdalene is said to have landed when she came to these isles.

Our own Piscean pilgrimage continues on to Wearyall Hill via Pomparles Bridge on the main A39 road. It is from this bridge, the legend goes, that King Arthur cast Excalibur into the river, before entering Avalon, an act of surrender that is certainly fitting for this sign of Pisces, in which we must relinquish our attachments, let go of our sense of personal distinction and prepare to merge back into the great cosmic ocean.

So our journey has come full circle through the twelve signs of the Zodiac; a hero’s quest from birth to maturity, to the doorway of death and the uncertain passage through the underworld, to rise again, initiated and prepared to serve the kingdom. And only now at the final gateway of Pisces, through realising the wound of the Fisher King and entering the eternal song of Orpheus, might we dissolve back into unity, and the bliss of pure being. It is in this spirit that we conclude our zodiacal round with the final workshop of the series: “Pisces: The Alchemy of Bliss” on Sunday 4th March 2012.

It has always seemed entirely appropriate to me that the figures of both Aquarius and Pisces in the Zodiac should be drawn to ground in Glastonbury, placing the Isle of Avalon perfectly on the cusp of the astrological ages. The Pisces figure extends to Avalon’s western boundary, one of its fish shaped by Wearyall Hill, where the fabled Arimathaean staff was once planted. I have often stood on Wearyall Hill, looking out toward the Tor and reflecting on the shift from the mystical fish of Christianity, so often misrepresented through the dualistic struggle for transcendence, to the rainbow waters of Aquarius with its potential to manifest unity in diversity.

Aquarius by Katharine Maltwood

Aquarius can give us flight, it can lift us out of the deep water we find ourselves in. The constellation is a representation in the heavens of Ganymede, a beautiful youth plucked from his earthly existence by Zeus, in eagle form, and carried to Mount Olympus, high above the world, to became cup bearer to the gods. Knowing Ganymede’s story offers a way of understanding why an eagle-like bird (perhaps a phoenix) emerges in the landscape as the Aquarius figure, and why an eagle is the very highest symbol represented in the Glastonbury Zodiac, carved in stone high up on St Michael’s Tower.

The sign of Aquarius allows us to glimpse the interconnected web of relationships that underpin manifest existence, the sacred geometry of life, the ideal formulations of number, shape and pattern. It can put us in touch with our highest human potential, our capacity to work cooperatively within a community for the good of the whole. Aquarius also allows us to witness the blueprint for the Zodiac itself, a template for twelve perspectives which can come together in the round and create a whole infinitely more powerful than the sum of its parts. If the Glastonbury Zodiac is indeed a portal or a gateway to a “higher” dimension of experience, then Glastonbury itself is the focalizer (folkalizer) of that transformation.

Alchemical Journey Pilgrimage 2009

The Aquarius figure encompasses most of the places that the Glastonbury pilgrim is already familiar with; Glastonbury Abbey, the Tor, Chalice Hill, the white and red springs. The ancient oaks of Gog and Magog lie on one of the bird’s wings, St Edmund’s Hill on the other. As we walk between these hallowed places we help to resurrect the phoenix, as it ascends into the heavens out of its own flaming destruction. Glastonbury has a way of confronting the seeker with some kind of crisis, it searches us out, often putting an unusually intense pressure on relationships, bringing dark shadows to the surface. This experience is commonly recognised and even articulated on a poster at the Pilgrim Centre. It is characteristic of the Zodiac’s capricious charm that it offers both an underworld journey and a template for paradise. So as you stand on the Tor looking around for orientation, remember to contemplate the round table of zodiac signs laid out around you, and take a moment to get that Aquarian overview of where you are in your own journey, as you pour out a little more nectar for the gods.

Our Aquarius Workshop is on Sunday 5th February. Click here for more details.

“To make a difference, we must be different”.  Aquarian Abraham Lincoln said something along those lines – having the willingness to stand out, go against the grain, dance like no-one is watching, and love like it’s never going to hurt.  Aquarians seem to have a way of being themselves regardless of what others think of them.  And as we enter the mystery of this zodiacal perspective, our work is to release that freedom of expression that flies in the face of social convention and throws a spanner of works of the rules of etiquette and decorum.  Yes, free-spirited Aquarius gives us the wings to fly into a future of our own choosing.  Yet the goal for Aquarius is an impersonal one.  Unlike heart-centred Leo with his proud individualism, the water-bearer pours forth the waters of life for humanity as a whole, as a community as network of interconnected beings.  So we remove our own ego from the centre of the play and become “just” another member of the troupe.  The trick is to do that without losing our individual expression!

The Aquarian perspective seems to elevate our consciousness to a higher plane and lifts us above the fluctuating contingencies of feelings and passions, to a cooler, more detached realm of ideas and ideals.  It puts us in in touch with the humanity that we share in common with one another, and by adopting this perspective we can begin to glimpse the possibility of how we might live together in a community of shared values and principles.

The sign of the water bearer holds the tension of sameness and difference and can help bring us together as diverse communities. Through accepting that we originate from a common source, it teaches us to release our need to protect only our own clan, as we learn to accept our differences, embrace the myriad expressions of life.  It’s rainbow colours remind us that any form of meaningful unity can only ever be achieved through preserving and encouraging its diversity, and allowing that to emerge organically from its grass roots.  Indeed this is really the great tension that exists in Aquarius, for it is so much the sign of ideals, and marvellous plans and schemes that seem to work perfectly on paper yet can prove a disaster in practice if they (all too easily) overlook the contingencies inherent in the creative unfolding of life.  On our Aquarius workshop in the past, we have looked at Living Systems Theory, and one of the things that has always really struck a chord with me about that was the life never unfolds just according to the plan, but always with an element of innovation and surprise.  The key to evolution, according to Fritjof Capra is not adaptation, as Darwin had it, but creativity.  This is so evident in the human beings evolve their understanding, but equally it is a key component of how living systems evolve also.

Walking the Glastonbury Zodiac with John Wadsworth:
Part 10 – Capricorn

When one approaches the Capricorn figure, the northernmost point in the landscape temple, it seems important to do so with a particular degree of reverence and respect. Capricorn stands for initiation, correct alignment, and the hard-earned rite of one’s own spiritual authority. As the cardinal earth sign, though, it also manifests as greed, material ambition and corporate hierarchy, often inducing melancholy in its more spiritually inclined candidates, who may sense that their life has a higher purpose, but struggle to accept the integrity of the paths laid before them. As we process through the gateway of Capricorn, embodied through the rising of the Winter Solstice Sun, it is important that we make some kind of stand, in service of a greater destiny, and be willing to sacrifice those egoic attachments that prevent such a stand from manifesting in our lives. The lunar eclipse on the Solstice sunrise (just passed) reinforces that demand perhaps more than ever before.

The Capricorn effigy stretches from Havyatt at the head/horn to its hind-quarters at Launcherley in the Pennard Hills, and the image portrayed in it is multi-layered with meaning. Through one mode of seeing, we imagine Pan, the goat-foot god of wild hills and wooded glens, famed for his sexual powers, and who, in his fish-tail form, was placed in the heavens as the constellation of Capricorn. This connects him with the Sumerian Oannes, an amphibian God who rose out of the sea in half-fish form and gave wisdom to mankind. Also known as Ea, Oannes is often linked to Merlin, who takes his place in Glastonbury’s Arthurian Round here in this sign.

Interpetation of Capricorn by Gail Cornwell - with added fishtail

We can perceive a unicorn too, her magical horn drawn by the ancient earthwork at Ponters Ball. This cornucopia of life-sustaining energy returns us full circle to goats and to Amalthea, the goat-nymph who nurtures Zeus during his childhood exile, the latter rewarding her with the magical horn of plenty. It emerges out of the landscape at the creature’s pineal gland (a point identified by Serena Roney-Dougal as the figure’s third eye) and stretches to the south-west for about two-thirds of a mile. This raised earthwork delineates the boundary of (and entrance to) the sacred enclosure of Avalon, demarcating it as holy ground. The name Havyatt was originally hagyatt, “hagy” meaning heaven or sacred place, and “yatt” meaning gateway. Thus is, indeed, the gateway to Paradise.

In “The Enchantments of Britain”, Katharine Maltwood takes a local tradition of Ponters Ball being a “golden coffin”, as a clue to the Sagittarian Sun King’s resting place. An experiential layer of this mystery revealed itself through a participant on last year’s Alchemical Journey when she was suddenly awestruck by the dewy sunlit blades of grass glimmering brightly in the setting solstice sun, angled perfectly so as to pave her way with gold. I took this as a powerful reminder of how local zodiacal legends often reveal themselves when we walk the figures at the appropriate time of the year. We also found that the sacred horn is being well guarded by Chronos/Saturn, Capricorn’s ruler, via the local landowner, a curmudgeonly old gatekeeper who prevented us from taking the short cut to rejoin the horn across the A361 (which cuts the horn close to its root) forcing us to take a longer way round. This reminded us that there are no short cuts to enlightenment!

Our next Alchemical Journey workshops is: Capricorn: The Alchemy of Vocation on 8th January 2012.

The horn of the goat, or in some representations, a unicorn, starts at the pineal gland in the head of the animal and then stretches to the south-west for about 2/3 of a mile, as Ponters Ball rises about 20ft in elevation.  The Capricorn figure itself ranges over an area of about four miles across north-eastwards in the direction of Shepton Mallett, stretching from Havyatt at the head/horn (closest to Glastonbury) to Launcherley Hill at his hind leg.  On our alchemical journey walk in December we focussed on the horn as being the potent symbol of initiation, the threshold between worlds, the experience of cornucopia (nature’s abundance), and the realisation of our true nature.

The raised earthwork of Ponters Ball marks the boundary of the sacred enclosure of Avalon, demarcating it as sacred, protecting it from unwelcome intruders, and signalling the appropriate way by which to enter it.  The name Havyatt was originally hagyatt, “hagy” meaning heaven or sacred place, and “yatt” meaning gateway.  So this is the gateway to Paradise (one of Glastonbury’s former names), and this indeed was certainly the traditional way that one would approach Avalon, which is olden times was surrounded on three sides by water.  Here’s a photo of Ponters Ball taken by Lone Bang, who has been taking groups around The Glastonbury Zodiac for several years.  Her website is:  http://www.zodiactours.co.uk

So, having parked our cars in a makeshift little parking bay off the A361, we crossed the road and walked through the field down to Norwood Farm on the nose of the goat and then back up through the head to the pineal gland gland, all the while blessed with the most stunning views of Glastonbury Tor.  The pineal gland at the base of the horn is also considered by Serena Roney-Dougall to be the third eye point of the Glastonbury figure.  Serena has identified third eye points for most of the zodiac figures and indeed most of them are water features in the landscape.  In the Capricorn figure a stream extends north-eastwards from the pineal gland and it is indeed a powerful spot.  From there we walked up toward the horn.  And here’s a shot of us walking along the horn.

A curmudgeonly old gatekeeper lives at the house by Ponters Ball where it crosses the A361 – a real Saturnian figure – and he prevented us from taking the short cut to rejoin the horn across the road, so we we had to take a roundabout route via the Baltonsborough road and cutting the across fields on the north side of the A361.  We then began our walk along the horn in ritual silence.  It was a deeply profound, moving experience and one I would highly recommend you do as and when you have the opportunity.  It seemed an entirely appropriate way to enter the new year.