Glastonbury Global Peace Gathering — 8.8.08

So there I was, up to my elbows in bubbles, listening for guidance, asking, "What now?"

Suddenly and quite clearly I heard the words "Glastonbury Tor, Glastonbury Tor"... I whipped off my rubber gloves, went into my living room and sat down, and just listened. Glastonbury? I had been to England, but never to Glastonbury and actually knew next to nothing about it.

I have a book with images of sacred places from around the world called The Sacred Landscape, written and compiled by my friend Fredric Lehrman. This book contains photographs of sacred sites near the village of Glastonbury. I quickly found it and opened to the beautiful image of Chalice Hill, directly adjacent to Glastonbury Tor—another ancient site which has been recognized as a holy hill for millennia.

Clearly something numinous was happening. That day I went into meditation questioning and open to what answers might come. I knew Glastonbury was to somehow be connected with my peace journey. When I closed my eyes I could see the lush countryside, and got a very clear idea of a peaceful gathering of people from all walks of life and with every possible culture and belief system represented. We would form an image in the landscape together. But what image?

That answer was to come in layers of information, from paintings I had done and sacred geometry, which was clearly foreign to me prior to this time but came through effortlessly.

The intention became crystal clear: to create a sacred and universal symbol for peace and the healing of our planet somewhere in the landscape around Glastonbury Tor; we were to hold that sacred image for 24 hours in prayer and meditation for peace to reign on Earth.

When? was the next question, and the clear answer that came was August 8, 2008... 8.8.08. It was exactly nine months away. Not much time to pull together a gathering so far away! After talking to various people with connections to Glastonbury, I found out that the power of this remarkable place, so steeped in history and ancient mythology, often kept folks in the area for a duration of nine months. Just enough time to give birth to whatever transformation needed to take place in their lives.

Within three days I had learned a great deal about Glastonbury and its profoundly moving and mystical history. What a perfect place to hold a Global Peace Gathering!

The symbol was created using black and white cloth and photographed from various parts of the Garden and from Glastonbury Tor. (Tor is a local Celtic word meaning "conical hill." The Tor rises 528 feet above the Chalice Well Garden Meadow.) Both the Chalice Well Garden and Glastonbury Tor—with St. Michael's Tower at the top—have been pilgrimage sites for millenia. Together we held the vision and vigil for World PEACE and the HEALING OF OUR PLANET throughout the day on 8.8.08. The gathering and image was open for visitors, who joined us from near and far. This event proved to be a profound experience on a personal and planetary level. Though originally intended to last only 24 hours, the kind trustees and staff of the Chalice Well Gardens allowed us to leave the image in the meadow for a full week to allow more visitors to witness it.

We at the Peace Planet Project invited simultaneous vigils to take place around the world from 12:00 am 8.8.08 until 12:00 am 8.9.08 (UT-Universal Time/GMT-Greenwich Mean Time). For obvious environmental reasons, we did not ask large numbers of people to travel to England. Rather, we encouraged people to create their own very personal peace vigil which honors the place they inhabit. We did, however, have a few spontaneous visitors from distant places—from Australia to Venezuela—who were drawn to come to the sacred site, sometimes not even knowing why, until they arrived!

Stories and pictures from these simultaneous events on 8.8.08 will be gathered on this website. We would love to have you participate. Please share your peace-building efforts with us from wherever your corner of the world happens to be! See our Contact page to communicate with us. We are so grateful for your support, and our intention is also to support the efforts of other individuals and organizations who work toward a new era of Peace and the well-being of our planet.

Please join us! Together we are making a conscious shift in our direction as a planet toward PEACE NOW.