"...we should pass over all biographies of 'the good and the great,' while we search carefully the slight records of wretches who died in prison, in Bedlam, or upon the gallows."
~Edgar Allan Poe

Monday, November 17, 2014

The Ghostly Excavations of Frederick Bligh Bond



In 1907, the Church of England hired architect Frederick Bligh Bond to oversee the excavations taking place at Glastonbury Abbey. Bond would never have gotten the job if the Church had known he was not only intensely interested in spiritualism, but determined to make a novel experiment: He intended to try using the spirit world as uncredited assistants. He had already conceived a theory that Glastonbury was built according to the principles of sacred geometry, and he intended to prove it. He hoped, as well, to find evidence of the long tradition linking Joseph of Arimathea to the Abbey’s location.

Bond believed in what he called "the permanence and indestructibility of Mind, Memory, and Personality or Character, together with the independence of Mind and its direct action upon Matter." In other words, he pictured a "cosmic reservoir" of all human memories and emotions. "Man as an intellectual personality with a subliminal psychic stratum involved deeply in his being, is thus necessarily linked with all other intelligent personalities through the 'continuum' of the subconscious Mind and it is only through this medium that he can obtain genuine recognition of any personality other than his own."

He and a friend of his named John Bartlett, who had shown some mediumistic abilities, held séances every night. Their goal was to use “automatic writing” to contact the past residents of the Abbey to get tips on where to dig.

They soon received the message, “All knowledge is eternal and is available to mental sympathy…I was not in sympathy with monks--I cannot find a monk yet.” Soon enough, however, one found them: “Gulielmus Monachus”—William the Monk.

Other monastic spirits soon made themselves not only willing, but rather sadly eager to share their memories of the Abbey, a site they had loved and still did not want to leave. As one “helper,” Johannes, wrote: “Why cling I to that which is not? It is I, and it is not I, butt parte of me which dwelleth in the past and is bound to that whych my carnal self loved and called ‘home’ these many years. Yet I, Johannes, amm of many partes, and ye better parte doeth other things…only that part which remembereth clingeth like memory to what it seeth yet.” This shifting group of spirits, who communicated in a hodgepodge of old and modern English and Latin, called themselves “The Watchers,” or “the Company of Avalon.” Some of the locations for buildings the “Watchers” provided were extraordinarily accurate, but the fact that Glastonbury had had different buildings built on the same locations throughout its history sometimes created a certain amount of confusion.



The excavation of the Abbey was proving to be a brilliant success. Whether it was through Bond’s immense knowledge of church architecture or the aid of the spirit fraternity—or some combination of both--his work was giving the world a hitherto unknown insight into the architecture of the site during its long history. Bond’s séances also—to his satisfaction, at least—corroborated his theories of how Glastonbury was built. He obtained automatic writing calling the Abbey “a message in ye stones. In ye foundations and ye distances be a mystery…” (The spirit of one monk, “Patraic,” also confirmed to the architect that Joseph of Arimathea had built a church at the site, which he depicted as a circle of round huts.) Bond was happy, the Anglican hierarchy was happy, presumably William and Johannes and the rest were, in their spectral way, happy too. Then, Bond made a fatal mistake: He became too honest. In 1919, he published a book, “The Gate of Remembrance,” giving full credit for his archaeological discoveries to his troop of ghostly guides.

"William the Monk's" "spirit-tracing" of part of the Abbey.


Bond believed his experiment with what is now known as “psychic archaeology” had proved the existence of the spiritual world. His employers believed he had only proved he was a madman. In 1922, they unceremoniously gave him the boot, little caring that his methods—whatever they might have been—had worked greatly to their advantage.

One of Bond's "reconstructions" of the Abbey.


Bond, undeterred, continued his psychic researches. Until his death in 1945, he developed many pioneering theories about the relationship between spiritual forces and the geometry and location of ancient buildings—concepts we are still struggling to understand today.


8 comments:

  1. I think I would have given him the boot, too. If you're excavating something as important as Glastonbury Abbey, you want credibility, as well as skill. Besides, what kind of monk doesn't want to go to Heaven? Quit hanging around the abbey. It's time you went.

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  2. The people who built the abbey and the people who lived there over the centuries had skill, AND they believed in God, in angels, in the intercessory ability of saints, in the power of relics, in miracles, etc. Many today would question THEIR "credibility", as did money grubbing 16th century "reformers" and a king who brought the abbey down for personal gain. Bond - who excavated the abbey professionally and with credibility in relation to that, wasn't "booted out" because he believed in a spirit world, he was booted out because HIS spirituality didn't mesh with that of the Church of England. The concept of a "reservoir" of collective human that survives physical death thought is no more ridiculous than those held officially, by mainstream churches. The spirits of the monks that Bond allegedly communicated with by the way weren't "hanging around the abbey". They were perceived as being in a spirit world, "heaven" if you will. One of them clearly stated that he was of "many parts", and that only a PART of him was still attached to the abbey, his BETTER PART being engaged in doing OTHER things.

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    1. Yes that is absolutely how i interpreted it. What a shame they kicked him out.. nothing has changed today. If you cured someone of a disease and they found out you'd used herbs or energy healing you'd be struck off...

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  3. While googling for the book Avernus, written by this gentleman's daughter, I stumbled upon this blog.
    Due to having arrived recently in Avalon area, from overseas Holland,interested in the history of it on mundane and spiritual levels, pun intended, I'm exploring Glastonbury area, in body and spirit both.
    It's a beautiful and mysterious place and when I noticed the silhouet of the Tor and its tower, from the garden where I live now, I was sure to be in the right place. I'm not idolizing Glastonbury, for in places of much Light, the Devil is present, grinning. And that's how it is, when duality is part of our present "common sense". Frederick Bligh Bond came into exploring the place, bringing his interest in sources of a peculiar spiritual nature, under those same conditions. Offering much food for thought and sparking further exploring.

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  4. Creativity comes from the Great Creator. When we create we give back to the Great Creator and he to us Human nature is all about creation and re-reaction. All manner of creative works are manifestations of God's will and all creations come from the Great Creator, through human nature. This is how anything is possible, through art, through faith. It takes he/she who is in close contact with, and acknowledges, their soul which is the true self. (Figure that one out! )

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  5. This sounds spookily like MR James' ghost story "A View from a Hill"...

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  6. This sounds spookily like MR James' story "A View from a Hill"

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  7. In September 2017, I too started receiving a 2,000 year old lost manuscript from one of the Company of Avalon that I am still channeling from the Spirit World in which Frederick Bligh Bond had developed his natural inherent psychic abilities to tap into like I. Mine is coming to me from St. Bartholomew the Disciple of Jesus and is an incredible document which I will be publishing for the world to return the Truths of Lord Jesus/Yeshua back into our time now, that have been twisted and manipulated so much by lazy undisciplined corrupt theologians and priests over the past 2,000 years, that they have been made pure narrative stories devoid of the deep spiritual teachings of our Lord given at that time, that the Disciples died to protect for humanity. They are so beautiful! Frederick Bligh Bond was a man far in advance of his time and from what I have seen, the Church of England clergy at Glastonbury Abbey are still as backward and closed minded to the real world of Spirit as they were 100 years ago. They need to study the Company of Avalon Disciples and Monks etheric template manuscripts that Henry VIII destroyed physically when he ransacked Glastonbury Abbey in 1549 to fill his own personal purse and huge ego. They would learn something then and start to be qualified for the salaries that they receive as the priests and modern day caretakers of this very ancient site. Bligh Bond was the best thing to hit Glastonbury Abbey in the past 100 years following my experiences with the Company of Avalon members that I have met in the past few weeks. (11 Oct 2017.)The knowledge they still hold is phenomenal!

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