Home from my writing retreat on Avalon!

Just back from my writing retreat, Writing, Creativity and Ritual, a Retreat for Women in Glastonbury, England. It was an intense, enlivening, challenging and transforming dance of creativity. Such a gift and inspiration to spend a week in a circle of women writers. And what better place for us to meet in such a circle than Glastonbury, which is thought to be the ancient isle of women: Avalon.

Glastonbury Tor. If you look closely, you can see the outline of a labyrinth that encircles this hill. The word "Tor" means hill. There are many "tors" in England, but Glastonbury Tor is one of the most famous. Some say that inside Glastonbury Tor is a labyrinth that was the site of ancient rituals.


We stayed in the Abbey House, which is on the grounds of ruins of the once great Glastonbury Abbey. And there we wrote, shared, explored, ate, drank, risked, laughed, danced, talked, alone and together, embraced our joys, faced our fears, each of us brave warriors of creativity in a glorious circle on the sacred ground.

I learned so much on this retreat as I walked a path that was sometimes filled with light, sometimes dark and shaded. Then, too, there was the labyrinth on the grounds of the Abbey House. This we walked as a group, slowly, purposefully ... Time and again I return to the labyrinth walk as the image for the journey that brought us slowly, insistently and ultimately gloriously to the center! This I embrace, then release, with the knowing that the image of the labyrinth is as ever-changing as the glorious mists on Glastonbury/Avalon's Tor. And then I return to the labyrinth, with its twists and turns, its path that is never the same. I look into it and see a meditation. I look into it, calmed by the knowing that the journey deepens, transforms and I can hardly wait to write again. As I write this, I am yet too tired yet to pick up the pages of my book; instead, I settle into the expectation and allow the hunger to grow, the hunger for my writing, my characters and the mystery of all that lies ahead.


Have you ever walked a labyrinth?

If you have, you will most likely respond to the following, that was part of our closing ritual.

If not, find a labyrinth to walk, if only in your imagination!



Walking the Labyrinth

I walk the labyrinth and I am _____

I walk the labyrinth and I leave behind _____

I walk the labyrinth and I see _____

I walk the labyrinth and I am _____

As I step into the center of myself I find _____


Next year Emily's Retreat goes to Costa Rica. www.awritersretreat.com