The Avalon RoseChapel
Annabel Du Boulay founded The Glastonbury Gnostic Centre & Chapel at Beltane 2018 to provide a home for the Rose Lineage spiritual tradition in Avalon and to host events inspired by Gnosticism. Due to the pandemic, we were forced to close its premises and its services moved online under its new name of The Avalon Rose Chapel®.
The Glastonbury Gnostic Centre & Chapel was situated in St Dunstan’s House, Magdalene Street, as close as possible to the Lady Chapel of the Abbey which was built upon the site of the original church, referred to by William of Malmesbury as an “old Church built by the hands of the disciples of Christ”.
Many pilgrims believe that Joseph of Arimathea brought Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and her daughter Sarah to Glastonbury with a group of followers after the death of Yeshua, and that they built this church, the first in the British Isles.
The powerful ley lines of Archangel Michael and Mary cross near the High Altar in the Abbey, creating the Sacred Marriage of divine feminine and masculine energies, embodied in the alchemical mix of Red and White Spring waters within the Tor.
For two years, the Glastonbury Gnostic Centre & Chapel hosted a programme of events inspired by the Rose Lineage and Gnosticism, and was open to the public for prayer, run by a dedicated team of volunteer priestesses.
The Glastonbury Gnostic Chapel Ltd charitable company also hosted by-donation events such as its Mary Magdalene Feast Day to raise funds for charities like Unseen, which is working towards a world without slavery and exploitation.
Although the premises in Glastonbury are currently closed due to the pandemic, we have continued to share its by-donation events online such as the Resurrection Rites and Black Goddess Rites, facilitated by Chapel founder Annabel Du Boulay, as well as our Mary Magdalene Feast Day Celebration co-created by the Avalon Rose Priestesses, and to raise funds for charity via our new JustGiving Team Page.
Please sign up for our newsletter to keep informed on how The Avalon Rose Chapel® and its community of Priestesses and Practitioners are continuing to serve the international community online.
Teachings
The goal of The Avalon Rose Chapel® is to support people on their path of gnosis, or self-knowledge, through the archetypal descent of their Soul and its return to the Divine Child Self through the Sacred Marriage of the divine feminine and sacred masculine within the Self, a process Jung termed 'Individuation'. The Chapel’s teachings are inspired by Gnosticism and the Rose Lineage, including:
- The shamanic traditions of Ancient Mesopotamia and their worship of the Semitic goddesses Inanna, Ishtar, Asherah and Astarte, associated with the eight year cycle of the planet Venus
- Esoteric Judaism and Mount Sinai, the Shekinah, King Solomon’s Sophia and Asherah, the Kabbalah’s ‘Tree of Life’ and Astrology
- Ancient Egypt, the Isis-Osiris Mysteries, Hathor, Sekhmet and Sirius
- The Ancient Greco-Roman Goddesses Sophia, Athena-Minerva, Artemis-Diana, Aphrodite-Venus, Cybele and Philosophia
- The Hermeticists, the Alchemists, Hypnotism and Mesmerism (healing energy)
- Taoism, Tantra, Kundalini and the Chakras
- Yeshua and Mary Magdalene, the Black Madonna, the Gnostic Goddesses and the Early Christian Gnostics
- The Cathars, the Templars and the Freemasons
- The Tarot, the Arthurian Grail, the Celtic Grail, the Wheel of the Year and the Sacred Marriage
- Jung, Depth Psychology and the Path of Individuation
St Mary Magdalene of Glastonbury
The Avalon Rose Chapel icon is by Annabel Du Boulay’s icon tutor, John Coleman, and honours Mary Magdalene’s relationship to Glastonbury and the Holy Grail.
It dwelt for many years in St Margaret’s Chapel & Royal Magdalene Almshouses before John loaned it to us.
The Gospel of Philip
32. There were three who always walked with the Lord:
Mary, his mother; the sister of his mother; and Miriam of Magdala,
known as his companion [koinonos];
for him, Miriam is a sister, a mother, and a wife [koinonos].55. The Wisdom [Sophia] thought to be sterile [steira] is the mother of angels.
The companion [koinonos] of the Son is Miriam of Magdala.
The teacher loved her more than all the disciples;
he often kissed her on the mouth.110. Whoever has knowledge [gnosis] of the truth is free [eleutheros]; the free human being is righteous.
Those who transgress are the slaves of transgression.
Truth is our mother; knowledge [gnosis] is the promise of our union with her.
Those who do not go astray are called free by the world;
the knowledge of truth lifts their heart,
making them free of all bonds;
it is love which makes them act.
Those who have become free through knowledge
become loving servants of those who do not yet have this
knowledge and freedom.
Knowledge [gnosis] makes them capable of this
because they are free, even of their freedom.
Love refuses nothing, and takes nothing;
it is the highest and vastest freedom.
All exists through love.
It does not say “this is mine,” but “this is yours.”from The Gospel of Philip, translated by Jean-Yves Leloup
St Hildegard of Bingen
Many years ago, Annabel bought an old print in an antique shop. As she was founding The Glastonbury Gnostic Centre & Chapel, she glanced at the name on the print – Bingen on the Rhine.
Trusting that nothing ever happens by chance, Annabel researched the name to find that it was a drawing of the Abbey founded by St Hildegard of Bingen.
St Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was an extraordinary woman and mystic, a philosopher, healer, medicinal herbalist, visionary, artist and composer, who fought for the recognition of the Divine Feminine and the emancipation of women.
She was a true Gnostic who believed that we were all born into ‘original wisdom’ and that it is our Soul’s journey to return to this wisdom through the challenges of life, and to then use both our wisdom and experience for the good of all.
Hildegard’s whole philosophy was founded on Lady Wisdom, Sophia, the Divine Feminine, and she believed that Mary is “the ground of all being”, like the ancient Mother Goddess.
The Avalon Rose Chapel® honours St Hildegard of Bingen and her life’s work, which Annabel studies and which informs many of her teachings and practices.
“I heard a voice speaking to me: ‘The young woman whom you see is Love. She has her tent in eternity…It was love which was the source of this creation…As though in the blinking of an eye, the whole creation was formed through love. The young woman is radiant in such a clear, lightning-like brilliance of countenance that you can’t fully look at her…She holds the sun and moon in her right hand and embraces them tenderly…The whole of creation calls this maiden ‘Lady’. For it was from her that all of creation proceeded, since Love was the first. She made everything…Love was in eternity and brought forth…all creatures…’”
Love speaks: “I am the fiery life of divine substance, I blaze above the beauty of the fields, I shine in the waters, I burn in sun, moon and stars. And I awaken all to life with every wind of the air, as with invisible life that sustains everything. For the air lives in greens and fecundity. The waters flow as though they are alive. The sun also lives in its own light, and when the moon has waned it is rekindled by the light of the sun and thus lives again; and the stars shine out in their own light as though they are alive. Thus I am concealed in things as fiery energy. They are ablaze through me, like the breath that ceaselessly enlivens the human being, or like the wind-tossed flame in a fire. All these things live in their essence, and there is no death in them, for I am life. I also am rationality, who holds the breath of the resonant word by which the whole of creation was created and I have breathed life into everything, so that nothing by its nature may be mortal, for I am life.”
The Healing Womb
The Glastonbury Gnostic Centre & Chapel also housed Annabel Du Boulay’s art installation with paintings of
- Hecate – Mother of Loss – Earth (Child Loss)
- Lilith – Mother of Solitude – Air (Childlessness)
- Brigit – Mother of Healing – Fire (Parenting Special Needs Children)
- Kuan Yin – Mother of Compassion – Water (Pregnancy Termination)
The Avalon Rose Chapel® continues to offer funded online workshops for women suffering with these issues
- Such an amazing opportunity to journey so deeply and to feel so encouraged and held by Annabel.Helen Rideout, The Healing Womb
- A very safe space where I could journey into the depths and feel totally held…incredibly powerful.Heloise Pilkington, The Healing Womb
- I was able to forgive myself, to find peace, compassion, acceptance and healing.Rachel Bass, The Healing Womb
Healing Womb Workshops
13.11.21Hecate – Mother of Loss – Earth
An online workshop funded by The Avalon Rose Chapel to support women who have lost children, including through miscarriage and stillbirth
22.01.22Lilith – Mother of Solitude – Air
An online workshop funded by The Avalon Rose Chapel to support women who are childless due to infertility, miscarriage or circumstance
26.03.22Brigit – Mother of Healing – Fire
An online workshop funded by The Avalon Rose Chapel to support women who are caring for children with special needs or disabilities
An online workshop funded by The Avalon Rose Chapel to support women who have experienced Pregnancy Termination
The Santo Nino de Atocha Chapel
Santuario de Chimayo, New Mexico
Santo Nino is a manifestation of the Christ or Divine Child who is believed to have performed many miracles in Spain and Mexico. The original chapel was built in 1856 and has since been renovated as a Children’s Chapel.
Annabel became aware of the chapel on a buying trip for her Shop, which supports Native American artisans from the pueblos of New Mexico.
She made a pilgrimage to the chapel on Good Friday 2015, and then took her daughters in July 2015, to give thanks for the survival and healing of her three children, two of whom were born with life-threatening syndromes and multiple disabilities.
She took a pair of her disabled son’s newborn shoes as an offering to Santo Nino and brought back the sacred water and sand – ‘tierra bendita’ – to which the many miraculous healings are attributed.
Inspired by the Santo Nino de Atocha Chapel, we invite parents and carers to leave a comment on our Prayer Request Page so that we may pray for the soul of your child, alive or in spirit.
The Story of Santo Nino de Atocha
In the 7th century, a statue of Mother Mary with a detachable Divine Child was found in a field in Atocha, Spain.
In the 13th century, the men were imprisoned by the Moors and only children were allowed to bring the prisoners food and water. The women prayed to Our Lady of Atocha for help.
The children spoke of an unknown boy carrying water and bread to the prisoners, whilst the shoes of the statue of the Divine Child became worn and dirty. He became known as Santo Nino (Holy Child) de Atocha.
A Spanish general brought the statue of Our Lady of Atocha to Plateros, Mexico. After an explosion in a mine there, the women prayed to Her to save the trapped men. The detachable statue of the Divine Child disappeared, only to reappear with its clothes and shoes torn and dirty, whilst the freed miners spoke of a child who rescued them.
Following a pilgrimage to Plateros, Severiano Medina built a chapel near El Santuario de Chimayo in New Mexico, dedicated to Santo Nino de Atocha in 1856.
Every year on Good Friday, tens of thousands of pilgrims walk to the Chapel. Inside a small room with a statue of Santo Nino, pilgrims leave pairs of children’s shoes and photographs with their prayers of gratitude or for healing.
(from an article by Richard L. Rieckenberg on www.elsantuariochimayo.us)
Philosophia
Our word ‘philosophy’ comes from the ancient Greek word ‘philosophia’ meaning ‘a love of wisdom’, Sophia being the Greek and Gnostic Goddess of Wisdom. Philosophia is the term Annabel uses for all her teachings she shares on Gnosticism and the Rose Lineage.
The Story of Santo Nino de Atocha
In the 7th century, a statue of Mother Mary with a detachable Divine Child was found in a field in Atocha, Spain.
In the 13th century, the men were imprisoned by the Moors and only children were allowed to bring the prisoners food and water. The women prayed to Our Lady of Atocha for help.
The children spoke of an unknown boy carrying water and bread to the prisoners, whilst the shoes of the statue of the Divine Child became worn and dirty. He became known as Santo Nino (Holy Child) de Atocha.
A Spanish general brought the statue of Our Lady of Atocha to Plateros, Mexico. After an explosion in a mine there, the women prayed to Her to save the trapped men. The detachable statue of the Divine Child disappeared, only to reappear with its clothes and shoes torn and dirty, whilst the freed miners spoke of a child who rescued them.
Following a pilgrimage to Plateros, Severiano Medina built a chapel near El Santuario de Chimayo in New Mexico, dedicated to Santo Nino de Atocha in 1856.
Every year on Good Friday, tens of thousands of pilgrims walk to the Chapel. Inside a small room with a statue of Santo Nino, pilgrims leave pairs of children’s shoes and photographs with their prayers of gratitude or for healing.
(from an article by Richard L. Rieckenberg on www.elsantuariochimayo.us)
