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Stonehenge was the first place I went after I landed in England.
I had networked with the Goddess community in England for six months before
I got on the airplane, so I was met at Heathrow by a lovely young woman
named Myfanwy Ashley, who became my sweet chauffeur and drove me from
Salisbury to Bath to Avebury to Glastonbury. (Not all on the same day.) But
it started raining on the way to Stonehenge. “Please, Goddess,” I prayed,
“make the rain stop. Let it be clear so I can see this monument.” And the
weather cleared up! I got rained on, by the way, every day I was in England;
for someone from southern California, getting rained on was
glorious. Myfanwy acted as my chauffeur for two lovely days. I can't
thank her enough.
I also visited Glastonbury (where I led a guided meditation during the Goddess Temple’s summer solstice ritual) and Oxford University. My friend Geraldine Charles and I spent a splendid afternoon in Stratford-Upon-Avon feeding the swans in the river. That evening, we saw a performance of Macbeth by the Royal Shakespeare Company that left me breathless, speechless, and with tears rolling down my cheeks. Now I really know what Aristotle meant by catharsis.
I spent part of a day at Oxford University, then in London, I went to the Atlantis Bookshop and stood on the same floor trod upon by William Butler Yeats. All I could do was take a deep breath and look down at the boards. What did I expect to see? I have no idea, but Yeats had really walked there. I was standing on a hallowed floor. I saw as much as of the British Museum as I could in one afternoon. I was fascinated by the library of George III with all his collections, including souvenirs of Dr. John Dee. Later in the week, I visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, the little Mithraic temple, and the Tower of London, which is huge. I got to talk to one of guards, and we had a little contest, naming the kings and queens of England (after 1066) in order. I lost. The guard reminded me that I'd forgotten Stephen. He also took me and my friend downstairs in a hidden elevator that was the size of a prison cell. Very small.
What still has me shaking my head in awe is
Poets' Corner in Westminster Cathedral. As in Stratford-upon-Avon
and the Atlantis Bookshop, I was standing on hallowed ground. Just
imagine—a life-long literature major greeting all those dead authors. My
son is a big fan of T.S. Eliot, so I went to his stone and said, "Tom,
your fan Charles says hello." Then I went around and said hello to every
other author and actor. Just standing in Poets' Corner and seeing the names
and memorial stones of authors I read all through school was one of the
peak experiences of my whole, entire life. (Note: this photo is copied,
with enormous thanks, from the Wikipedia article.)
While I was in London, I also saw two West End shows, Kismet (starring Michael Ball and Faith Prince) and The Drowsy Chaperone (starring Elaine Paige), which is hilarious. And I got to stand on the very spot in Covent Garden where Eliza Doolittle met Professor Henry Higgins.