GLASTONBURY, England – The Glastonbury Goddess Temple has opened the doors on its latest offering to the public: The Goddess House. This facility is a spiritual and educational place of healing, dedicated to promoting Goddess awareness.The Goddess Temple organization and its affiliated ventures support the vision of Motherworld, a society that places Mother Earth, mothers and the values of mothering – love, care and support for each other – at society’s centre rather than at its periphery.

The Goddess House is located in the market town of Glastonbury, Somerset, England on Magdalene Street, directly across from the historic ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. The house itself is a large and impressive Georgian building complete with treatment rooms, workshop space and other group-use rooms. The Goddess House offers a large menu of natural healing options, provided by therapists and other professionals, including several types of massage, spiritual consults, counseling, yoga, tarot and meditation training.

The original Goddess Temple space, located in the Glastonbury Experience Courtyard, at 2-4 High Street, was opened on Imbolc 2002. The following year, the space was recognized officially as a Place of Worship, and is believed to be the first such place to receive official recognition like this in the UK for 1500 years.

Then, in 2008, The Goddess Hall, located on nearby Benedict Street, was opened. It offers more space for larger gatherings and educational offerings. Additionally, the organization runs Goddess Temple Gifts, also located in the Glastonbury Experience. The store provides financial support to the Temple and features a range of Goddess themed items for sale.

The newly opened Goddess House, with its many opportunities for healing of the body, mind and spirit, will expand the outreach of the Goddess Temple organization to the immediate community and even beyond. Kathy Jones, teacher, Priestess and co-founder of the Goddess Temple, described the community effort to make the Goddess House a reality. She said:

Over the last few weeks we have been painting and decorating this lovely house. Lots of people are helping, each person offering their skills and creativity to this Motherworld venture. Something very beautiful happens when people come together to put their love and energy towards a good cause, in this case the creation of a Healing Temple, which will offer healing therapies of many different kinds to people in need. Lots of people have helped to clear out wires left by the previous tenants, filled holes, sanded down and painted the many walls of the building. We have also received generous gifts of chairs, tables, carpets, kitchen equipment, cups, plates, pots and pans, as well as images and statues of Goddess. This is a big venture and we are very blessed.

On March 28, the Goddess House hosted an open day, featuring mini-workshops, tours and opportunities to sample some of the services available. Free talks on a range of topics were given, such as Soul Healing, Ecstatic Pregnancy, Goddess Yoga and Herbal Medicine. These talks ran every 30 minutes from 11:00 until 4:00 pm. In effort to remain accessible to the community, a fundraiser was held Apr. 12. An outreach stall was set up, and donations were collected for the Anam Cara Counseling fund, which provides free counseling to people in need.

Glastonbury is a town with a population of just under 9,000 residents, and its economy is strongly affected by religious and spiritual tourism. Seekers come from around the world to explore the unique landscape that includes the dramatic Glastonbury Tor, Chalice Well Gardens and the White Spring. The High Street is an occult/new age/metaphysical shopping mecca offering specialty bookstores, occult paraphernalia, crystals, herbs, incense and magical supplies, not to mention interesting restaurants and historic pubs.

This reality makes it an ideal location to successfully support the four busy Goddess Temple establishments and related events. This success is also thanks to the dedicated Priestesses and Priests of the Temple, as well as the Melissae, or volunteers, who attend to the two temples and the Madrons, who support Temple work through financial donations.

Priestess Healer Kathy Jones and (I) got to know each other as (we) worked together with others on the special Ceremonial Healing days held by Glastonbury’s Goddess Temple. On these healing days healers and melissae create a dynamic healing space, in which several healers work with one patient, in ways that have benefited many people. We recognised each other as priestess healers of old who had worked together before in different times and places. Healing is so needed in the world and we decided to create a new holistic Goddess Healing and Educational Centre, which can be open to the public everyday. We began to look for suitable buildings and it quickly became clear that the vision of a Goddess Healing Centre was going to manifest! After viewing several buildings on the High Street, we found our new venue. It felt right as soon as we walked in the door. It is called Goddess House and is set over 4 floors combining healing and treatments rooms with educational and workshop spaces.

The need for healing in the world and a place to focus such healing work brought Kathy Jones and Angie Twydall together to launch the Goddess House. Twydall said:

We asked both Twydall and Jones what it meant to be a part of something as meaningful as the Goddess House. Twydall said, “I feel it is part of my soul’s path to put my energy and passion into co-creating something of beauty, something for everyone, where we come for renewal, re-birth of our physical and spiritual selves. It is an opportunity in this lifetime to serve, to heal, to love and share sacred space of Goddess with others.”

Jones responded, “As a priestess it is part of my soul’s calling to bring healing to as many people as I can. I am a Soul Healer and a teacher of healers. I believe in the power of healing to help us become whole.”

In the few short weeks the Goddess House has been open, it has already provided comfort, healing and awareness to visitors. Twydall added, “Everyone who enters Goddess House loves it. There are tears of joy, smiles, gratitude. People sense it is a Temple space and they begin to relax and feel safe. In a short time we have welcomed many new visitors to Glastonbury, who may not have been to anything relating to Goddess before. Goddess House is opening new doorways to Goddess and to Motherworld.”

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[Editor’s Note: The Wild Hunt welcomes writer and filmmmaker Dodie Graham McKay to its weekly news team. For nearly two years, Dodie has been providing commentary from a Canadian Pagan perspective for our monthly Around the World column, and her hard work has been a welcome addition to the team. Now, she will be joining us more regularly as a dedicated news correspondent and journalist, reporting on both Canadian and world news.]