Sunday 8th June 2003 (plus photos)
"A few years ago whilst reading a book called
"Celtic Wisdom" I came across the following paragraphs which read :-
"There is no clear evidence
for the existence of incubation temples in Britain or Ireland, but one site at
Lydney, Gloucestershire has caused more than one commentator to suggest that
it may of been put to such use - the inference being that if one such temple
were operative in this country others may well have existed of which we have
no current knowledge. The site is of Romano-British provenance and
was built between AD 364 and 367 It was excavated by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in
the 1940,s and found to possess a building consisting of several small
cubicles. It was then noticed that the ground plan of the temple complex bore
a marked resemblance to the layout of the Asklepion at Epidavros including
bath-house and dormitories.
All this led Wheeler to suggest
that:-
Here, then, we seem to have a
recurrent feature of some of the principal classical shrines of healing and we
may provisionally regard the Lydney building as part of this series. On this
line of thought it may be that the Long Building was indeed an “abaton”,
used to supplement the “chapels” in the temple itself for the purpose of
that temple-sleep through which the healing god and his priest hood were wont
to work.
The early Christian churches were built on
special sites to make use of the crossing underground streams and earth-energy
lines. This “Roman-Temple” was placed here for a similar purpose.
Although before visiting the site I had come
across certain energy lines which seemed to occur in the vicinity of “Holy
Wells & Springs“. This site appeared to be the centre of a hub radiating
out these lines in all directions. ( I personally identify these lines as
having a blue & white colour when using the Mager wheel)
P.S. In 1928 a certain Mr. Tolkein (Yes the
author) stayed at Lydney Park, perhaps that’s where he got some of his
inspiration for his later writings."
