Figure 5:

This map shows the Glastonbury landscape as interpreted by Katherine Maltwood and her successor, Mary Caine. The interrelationship of various topographical features, both natural and human constructed, in the formation of the perceived figures evokes the question of the degree to which they are endogenous to the landscape and the degree to which they are mental constructions of minds responding to associations evoked by the landscape.The question of imaginative perception in relation to these figures becomes graphically evident when one looks closely at these shapes, particularly since some of the Zodiacal forms have to be interpreted in terms of patterns different from their conventional Zodiacal attributions if the conception of a complete Zodiac is to be sustained (Janet and Colin Bord,1977,p.222-223).The Glastonbury Zodiac is pictured as forming a wheel, one of the characteristic forms of a mandala, the other being a square. At the top of the wheel is Glastonbury and enclosing the Tor (the hill crowned by the ruined tower of the church of St.Michael, perceived as the spiritual center of Glastonbury) is the sign of Aquarius, here a phoenix, rather than the conventional image of the water bearer, thereby suggesting spiritual regeneration, in relation to the act of regeneration implied by committing oneself to a spiritual path, as the knights who swore themselves to the quest for the Grail may be said to have done. One recalls also that Lancelot is reputed to have died on seeing the Grail. That death could be interpreted as a physical death but a spiritual rebirth since, in Christian terms, he had died in state of grace (Janet and Colin Bord, 1977,p. 218;Molyneux and Vitebsky,2000,p.35 ).