The Myths of Avalon: Fact or Fiction?

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Jhenah Teylndru, author of Avalon Within, The Mythic Moons of Avalon, and the new Ninefold Way of Avalon.

Having been engaged with the work of Avalon for more than 35 years, I am often asked whether or not Avalon was ever a real place—and if it isn’t, if it is simply a literary setting from Arthurian legend, what then is the value or purpose of walking an Avalonian spiritual path? While it seems unlikely that the vision of Avalon that has journeyed down the Stream of Tradition to become the inheritance of today is a reflection of a physical place that existed outside of the realms of legend, this doesn’t necessarily make Avalon an untruth or something that isn’t real.

There isn’t much evidence for the existence of the Avalon of Arthurian tradition as a physical place. There are accounts placing it as far away as Mt. Etna in Italy, or somewhere in the northern Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd, or in the Burgundy region of France. While Avalon has had a very strong association with Glastonbury for almost a thousand years, scholars believe this to have been a deliberate conflation made for monetary and political purposes. Therefore, it is easy to dismiss Avalon as a purely literary creation—a fantastical setting found only in legend, without any historical relevance or archaeological proof of its existence.

Avalon’s connection to Arthurian Tradition has preserved the island’s memory, allowing it to be transmitted through time and into our modern-day keeping through the vehicle of story. By examining the various mythic currents that inform her stream of tradition—that of Otherworldly Islands, Vessels of Sovereignty, and Ninefold Sisterhoods—we can see that Avalon holds within her many aspects of things that are quantifiably real, whether as cultural perspectives, social institutions, or unconscious symbol sets arising to meet a collective need.

Legends are intangible artifacts that have both witnessed and preserved aspects of the cultural soul that birthed them. Like all offspring, they are the product of their lineage, inheriting traits from their forebears while also being able to shift in order to better reflect and adapt to the situation of the present. Tracing the cultural DNA of particular story traditions helps us to better understand the evolution of the narrative, as well as obtain a clearer sense of the time, location, and cultural circumstance of the story’s origin.

Avalon’s importance to modern spiritual paths is not contingent on whether or not it was once a “real” place, or if the ideas our modern culture holds about its priestesses represent a literal truth. Rather, by looking at the various streams of tradition that contribute to the vision of the Holy Isle we have inherited, we can obtain some insight into the cultural beliefs that both birthed and expanded the idea of Avalon. One example of the beliefs that have been preserved in legend and expressed through story are those that illustrate the importance of maintaining a balanced and respectful relationship between this word and the Otherworld—a threshold that is often mediated by an aspect or representative of the feminine principle.

Likewise, when we are able to identify and understand the commonalities that underlie the functions and roles of the Otherworldly women and priestesses that appear in various Celtic story traditions and Roman histories, we are then able to emulate aspects of practice. It is my belief that the primary the role of a priestess is to serve as bridge—to be a crosser of thresholds, and a guide through the Otherworld.

Avalon’s Stream of Tradition is a living elixir that holds within it several potent currents of consciousness. It is a reflection of the beliefs, perspectives, and deep rooted psycho-spiritual needs of the cultures (and individuals) through whose landscapes this stream of tradition has flowed since emerging from the Otherworld at its source.

Our thanks to Jhenah for her guest post! For more from Jhenah Telyndru, read her article “Seeking the Ninefold: The Path of the Avalonian Priestess.”