Who is this Joseph of Arimathea?

And why is he important? Well, he was the rich fellow that was a follower of Jesus, but he didn't want anyone to know it, so they kept it quiet. Apparently, he had a line in tin mining which meant he quite likely visited Cornwall in his lifetime. It is said he took a young Jesus to South West England during those missing years. This places Christ in Britain before the main event and legend has it Glastonbury was one of the spots on the trip. Given the wonder of this person's time on earth, to imagine him having done nothing much of import in those missing years, to me, sounds a bit naive. The suggestion is he hung out with the druids at Glastonbury and learnt stuff.    Some people say Joseph of Arimathea was Jesus' uncle, coming from the fact that a body would have been placed in the tomb of relatives at that time in Jerusalem; and the Gospels do say that the dead body that the Christ had been using this time around was placed in a tomb nearby to Golgotha, which means the place of the skull, in the property of one Joseph of Arimathea.
    But more interestingly, perhaps, are the legends surrounding the visit of Joseph of Arimathea to Britain after the resurrection, having been given the task of spreading the best news ever to the widest-flung corners of the known world. In those days, the Somerset levels would have been covered by the sea, and it is said that Joseph sailed into Glastonbury and landed at Wearyall Hill; the name of the hill given due to the fact that Joseph and his companions were weary from the long journey. Legend states that Joseph brought to Glastonbury the Holy Grail, whatever that might be, and buried it under Glastonbury Tor from where flows the Chalice Well, a natural spring providing two types of water from underground, a red spring and a white spring.     He also brought his staff, grown from the Crown of Thorns, which he thrust into the ground at Wearyall Hill. It immediately took root and is still grown in Glastonbury today. Interestingly, the Glastonbury Thorn is of middle eastern origin and flowers twice a year, once at Easter and then again at Christmas. A sprig of blossomed Holy Thorn is sent to the Queen every Christmas. Understanding the energy of Glastonbury and being able to set aside historical references and scholarly effort, this story becomes more and more likely to me every day. Glastonbury is undoubtedly the spiritual centre of the British Isles and draws us towards it, to learn its mysteries and heal ourselves through our connections there. Glastonbury also miraculously finds itself within a giant landscape zodiac, re-discovered by Katherine Maltwood in the early 20th century. The tor and Glastonbury town itself is within the constellation of Aquarius. Interestingly, the site of the mass hedonism that takes place once a year in the area is outside of this zodiac landscape.

The zodiac found in the landscape around Glastonbury, which can only be seen properly from the air, is said to be the true Round Table of Arthurian legend. More recent events at Glastonbury include the spiritual effort in fighting the dark forces of of Nazism during World War II, when mass occultist meditations took place the length and breadth of Britain, with Glastonbury Tor as a focus. These healings were led by Dion Fortune who had a property on the slopes of the Tor, now the site of Berachah Guest House. She believed Glastonbury to be the spiritual centre of the nation. Why wouldn't Joseph (or even Jesus Christ himself) have come here given the relative easy of travel at the time, the potential connection with Cornish tin-mining and easy sea travel, and of course the spiritual significance of the place? And even if historically, literally, physically that didn't happen, it most certain did happen in a spiritual sense, as it is part of our collective mind-space stories. We can ask ourselves: What is more important - what happened in terms of looking back into time, gathering evidence and making assumptions inside the confines of the unhealed psychology of humanity as it is, or what happens now, outside of time?
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