The Glastonbury Zodiac

Crazy and improbable as its existence might seem to many people, the Zodiac does seem to outline an energy-zone across the landscape. Living inside the zodiac area is different from living outside it – subtly, it's a different world from the rest of Somerset. The distribution of the zodiac signs was seen from in a vision by Katherine Maltwood and from the air before WW2, and a small band of dedicated followers has advocated for the Glastonbury Zodiac ever since – though there is some debate over the precise shapes, symbols and locations of the landscape zodiac signs, and some re-designs have been suggested over time.

It is traced out by field boundaries, old roads and landscape features in a 12ish-mile wide circle, centred on Park Wood, near Butleigh. The Tor, Stone Down and St Edmund's (Windmill) Hill form the sign Aquarius and Wearyall Hill forms half of Pisces – the other half being in Street. If only this were mere wishful thinking we could discount the idea of the Glastonbury Zodiac, yet there are interesting correspondences of atmosphere and zodiac sign around the landscape, and a large number of strange coincidences concerning place-names and landscape features – somehow the whole thing 'fits' very well. Katherine Maltwood [ averred that the Zodiac was designed by Sumerian Chaldeans, presumably around 3000 BCE, who allegedly settled in the Cary area around Cadbury Castle. While there is a slender rational basis for the existence of the Zodiac, there's nevertheless something about it which won't go away – it's an enduring idea.