The Only Way is Glastonbury
An old hippy once said to me “Glastonbury is a strange town. It reveals itself to you over a number of years.” This is a notion that since then I have found to be very true indeed. As a tourist visiting, there is a fluffy surface layer that you will first encounter but if you stay a little longer, there are people and places that take a little more time and persistence to discover. As a born and bred local of 45 years it still never ceases to amaze me when I find a new angle of the tor, or when I meet some wise old elder that has somehow crawled out of the woodwork. As an acupuncturist in this town for nearly 15 years I have met some truly weird and wonderful folk. Most of them have come from somewhere else in the country, sometimes even from abroad, drawn by the magical pull of this town and weirdly, quite often I am the first local that they have ever met.
The nature of the acupuncture consultation is such that I have to make a detailed enquiry into a person’s well-being and life story. Whilst listening to some of these incredible stories I have often thought to myself, ‘I wish I could record this, this is absolute gold’. I have often dreamed of creating my own podcast, one particularly focusing on the ‘magic’ that Glastonbury can bring in to people’s lives. Unfortunately, whilst I quite enjoy writing, talking has never been one of my strong points and having to listen to my Somerset tones quickly puts me off the idea.
Another wise old Oracle once said to me “there is a healer for everyone in this town”. Another notion that is clearly true – whether you prefer to head to the local surgery or to try out your luck with a unicorn shaman, Glastonbury has always got you covered. My own acupuncturist/healer/therapist/coach/psychic witch, lives a little away from town but she has been here enough to know exactly where I am coming from. In a recent session we were spontaneously transported in to what was seemingly a past life of mine. I was some sort of wandering Coptic Christian in the highlands of Ethiopia in the 1940s and in this scene I was brutally murdered by the invading Italian military as I was trying to preach on some street corner. ‘Ah’ she said, ‘this is where your reluctance to speak comes from.’ As she said this every hair on body stood up on end, various parts of my current life fell in to place and rushes went up and down my spine that can only be called, ‘the shivers of confirmation’.
Whether or not this was an actual life of mine, or some kind elaborate creation of the imagination, I guess we will never know for certain. But what is important is the outcome of the session in which the energetic chords to this event were dissolved. Since then, slowly slowly, I keep coming back to this idea of interviewing people about how they found themselves here in Glastonbury and how it has influenced their lives. I have a particular interest in hearing about anything that is deemed supernatural, as being an acupuncturist I see things that can’t yet be explained by science on an almost daily basis.
It is with all this in mind that I have finally decided to start the podcast which will be called ‘The Only Way is Glastonbury’. With a cheeky nod to our Essex counterparts, as well as Taoism, I hope to create a relaxed chat type show, where people can come on and tell of some of the truly amazing tales that usually only I get to hear. To do this I will really have to step out of my comfort zone but I am beginning to hope that my mumbling wurzel accent is in fact a sign of true Glastonbury authenticity!
If you have a great story and want to share it please feel free to contact me on the details below, and once I work out how to use all this new technology I’ve got, we shall be up and running. Watch this space for further future details.