There are many ways to celebrate the Arthurian mysteries, and no two individuals or groups will be the same. Each and every one who hears the call of Arthur and the Grail and decides to follow this path will find their own way of working. The instructions in PART TWO of this book are not set in stone; they are there to help you discover your preferences and encourage you to read, study, and devise your own variations to the teachings outlined below. It is not necessary to have studied esoteric methods of working; however, some basic knowledge of visualization is certainly helpful and will help deepen the truths that emerge from working though this book. Instructions in 9 will show you how to create a sacred space in your home or outside that can become a focus for all your work with this material.
The knowledge papers contained in PART ONE are intended to provide background information for everyone who answers the call of Arthur. Along with the information and reading lists contained in Part Three, you should find everything you need to get started. If you are already a practitioner of the sacred arts or belong to a group or order, we hope you will find new and inspiring details in the book to further your practice. It is hoped you will follow your own course of reading (as many will already have done) and find yet more in the seemingly inexhaustible depths of the Arthuriad. The practical exercises in PART TWO, while they are arranged around the four seasons and grouped by theme, can in fact be worked in any order. You will also notice that they follow, broadly, the order of the knowledge papers in PART ONE. Again, these are not intended to be followed in strict rotation and can be adapted to suit each practitioner. Although this part of the book, “A Year in Camelot,” is intended to enable a twelve-month period of study, this may be extended to any period you wish; all studies of this kind should be taken at their own pace and certainly not rushed.
When we began our own writing and teaching programs over forty years ago, it was necessary to offer a considerable amount of explanation on such matters as how to meditate, how to behave in a ritual, etc. None of this is necessary now due to the greatly increased experience of practitioners and the vast number of books that cover these details. The notes that follow are offered as guidelines only and can be skipped by those whose training is advanced enough.
The Art of Meditation
The most important instruction for meditation is to make sure you are not going to be disturbed. Turn off your mobile phone, put away your tablet, hang up your house phone, and make sure that no one with whom you share your home will disturb you for as long as you need.
Next, be sure you are comfortable. An upright chair is always better than a couch or a bed as you might find yourself drifting off to sleep. Relax and take some deep breaths, clearing your mind of the background noise that accompanies us everywhere.
It is a good idea to read the texts first, either aloud or to yourself. If you have a recording device you might wish to read them into it so that you can play them back and allow the images to rise naturally, rather than having to see them while you are reading or immediately after.
Whichever method you adopt, the important thing is to be there, within the scenes described, as totally as possible. Remember that you are a part of these scenes and that you should be experiencing them yourself, not watching them happen on an inner TV screen.
The more you invest the scenes you are seeing with a sense of awareness—seeing the stones of the castle wall, feeling the breeze from the sea on your face or the grass beneath your feet, hearing the words that are addressed to you—the more you will gain from the experience. Your senses will enable you to build the scenes described in your imagination over time and take on a life of their own, often developing and leading you further in.
You will see that pauses (ellipses) are noted within each visualization to enable you to receive your own impressions. With a little practice you should be able to construct the scenes described in such a way that they possess tactile reality. Once this is achieved you can move easily from one reality to another. Remember that you can repeat any of the visualizations as often as you need if you do not receive any insights on the first occasion. Repetition is not just for beginners but for all practitioners—it allows our practice to be supported and to endure. If you should find yourself disturbed by anything you see, you can always return to your own place and time by simply blanking out the images and reasserting the solidity of your normal surroundings.
Finally, always write down your impressions or realizations immediately after your inner journey. Sometimes these may not seem very relevant at the time, but often later you may find yourself looking back on these records and discovering things you missed at the time. Indeed, keeping a magical diary, in which you can record the experiences you have when working with the Arthurian mysteries, is an important adjunct to your progress and insures you do not lose touch with your ongoing work.
The difference between meditation and mediation is something that is not often discussed and less often understood. Meditation, as discussed above, is a means of experiencing the other side of reality within the consciousness through the power of the imagination. In meditation we perceive with our interior senses the scenes and scenarios in which we partake. Several kinds of meditation exist, of course: passive, active, and mystical. In the passive kind, we merely receive impressions or come into a state of stillness; stillness brings us into a state of oneness and is a natural quieting of our being that should precede other forms of meditation. In the active kind, we move at will within the scenario that we are meditating upon, interacting and understanding; this may include elements of stillness and elements of mystical union. In mystical meditation, we draw closer to or merge with the sacred in its different forms, just as oil and water in a bottle can be shaken together; many spiritual traditions use this form to experience divine communion with their spiritual source.
Mediation is a form of reconciling heaven and earth, the spiritual and the physical, gods and humans. It is the breathing in and breathing out of the universe that we acknowledge so that all within the cosmos partakes. It is an essential circuit of the gift of life. (See also chapter 4 on the foundation of temple work with regard to this.) Mediation is one of the first requirements of any priest or priestess since they are not there for their own gratification but are rather in service. Mediation is their primary work, bringing needs before the Divine and mediating divine help or wisdom to earth. If any magical practitioner is unaware of this factor, then any ritual becomes just a sacred play script in which there is no dynamic interaction of heaven and earth.
For example, in a ritual a framework is created to make a container for sacred powers to be mediated: sometimes to the sacred powers from the earth, sometimes from the sacred powers to earth, often both. In a ritual that has been created to honor ancestors, the mediation of the ritual is towards the ancestors; in a ritual that has been made to accept a neophyte into a society, then the mediation is between the sacred powers of that society and the neophyte who is becoming an initiate of the society.
The concept and power of a ritual does not originate with its writer but comes from the otherworld and the powers, allies, and contacts with whom we work magically. We both receive and send forth the power of the ritual, getting ourselves out of the way. In this way, we share what has been received with the whole world. Thus, even if you do not actively participate in a ritual but read it as you might the rituals included in this book, you are still mediating the power that underpins the written word.
Mediation is an ongoing prayer with our contacts, allies, guides, and spiritual sources. Unless it is present in magical work, there is no circuit of power in a state of exchange: any magical work becomes a one-way street. Mediation is the factor that is missing from sorcery or dark magic, which are manipulative, coercive, and selfish in intent. Mediation is done while standing on the threshold between earth and sky and in the presence of the abiding otherworld, where manifestation meets the unmanifest between time and eternity. It is where we acknowledge the gifts we are given and return thanks from whence they came.
For most beginners, mediation is something that has to be learned: giving thanks, coming into stillness to experience divine powers, setting aside the self to perform the ritual or to receive the current of the meditation that they are doing. Any good mediation that has come from a contacted source will, after a while, take on its own life and begin to operate the mediator! This is where a sense of mediation is beginning to happen: communication and reciprocation take place. This doesn’t mean becoming an open channel for all and sundry to march through, but rather creating a path between the mediator and the guides and allies who enable the meditation. A dialogue begins that becomes natural, sustaining the soul and often shaping and guiding our actions.
For experienced practitioners, mediation becomes the predominant part of the work that they do. Whether you notice older people in church praying quietly every day in the same way or mature magicians who rarely speak but when they do, it is from a considered place, you are meeting the mediators. Those who practice mediation carry a truthfulness and integrity in them that is more aware of community than of self. They are listening more deeply.