Glastonbury

My housemate and I visited Glastonbury today. The main attraction of this Somerset town is the Tor of Glastonbury, which is a tower on  a hill with panoramic vistas. But, Glastonbury is more famous as an  abode for paganism and witchcraft. We visited a few shops which sold pagan merchandise, which mostly consists of books, incense, clothes and household decorative items. It was like stepping into another world, and I was struck by how elaborate it was. It is one thing to create what the world would call an alternate reality, but it is another to build it up with such attention to detail. These people were not garden-variety hippies, who are a dime-a-dozen in Bristol. They have their own traditions, practices and myths--their own world, which co-exists with the "real" world. Of course, that they can immerse themselves in this alternate world while continuing to exist in the "real" world is puzzling. These are not monks in a remote monastery nor are they members of a persecuted sect. They are mostly white, and judging by the prices of the merchandise, quite well-to-do. Sects or cults which are populated by the well-to-do are seldom persecuted.
But, who am I to judge it or dismiss it as consumerism masquerading as mysticism and otherworldliness. There are far worse ways of spending money and if this lifestyle helps some people sleep better at night, more power to them.