. . . the winds will bring you news and knowledge if you ask them properly. The Trees of the Wood will give you power, and the waters of the sea will give you patience and omniscience, since the Sea is a womb that contains a memory of all things.
Sacred Well
In a temporary respite from his fevered wanderings, Merlin is to be found at the top of a mountain in a grove of hazel trees. Hazel is associated with magick. The wands of this tree and eating of the nuts are said to confer wisdom. It is the beginning of the end of suffering for Merlin. Soon he will have his power restored. Magick will never desert the magician. He might feel that he has been abandoned by Thoth, the great god of magick, but this is never so. It is only in the conscious mind that despair racks him. Upon the Inner Planes, Merlin still retains, as always, his power and strength. The conscious mind may be affected by the tides of the unconscious, but what appears to be happening on that plane is merely the stuff of illusion. Music is the most transcendental of the arts and it is the sound of the lyre that soothes Merlin’s troubled soul. A minstrel plays to him on the mountain top and calms his soul. The lyre is associated with Mercury, as we have learned, and he is also the god of magick. In its power to affect and alter the inner vision through the emotions, music is akin to magick.
Calmed by music, Merlin is then either told, or senses himself, the whereabouts of a sacred spring whose waters will cure him. He bathes his fevered head in these waters and his reason returns, his mind immediately becoming clear once more. It is almost as if that quality of reflection, which is the nature of water, forces Merlin to confront his true self. Water, the negative/yin element, has cooled the raging fire in Merlin’s brain. Merlin immediately comes down from the mountain in a gesture that symbolizes his return to the world. But no longer is he the mentor of kings or a trusted adviser at court. He has become the true wild wizard of nature. Now he is a magnificent figure, and all are in awe of his magick.
Wells have always been associated with regeneration and rebirth. In old German, well and origin are the same word. Springs are lunar and sacred to the Goddess. In the Celtic tradition their protector is Epona, ‘The Divine Horse’ or ‘The Great Mare’. When depicted in human form she has a horse at each side of her. The goddess Bride will be her successor. The spirit of Imbolc, she has her own well at Bride’s Mound near Glastonbury. In another tradition, Ishtar is the ruler of springs; she is a fierce but sensual goddess, a feisty daughter of Venus. She raises the kundalini from the well, and the Great Serpent winds its coils about the entrance.
In a long poem, Taliesin, the Celtic bard, describes all the sacred springs of the world that he has known. The waters at some of them are beneficial while at others they may carry a curse. He mentions a spring in the region of Campania that is reputed to cure barrenness and to take away madness. Merlin’s affliction was certainly that, a wasting of the mind. In the Prophecies, the sayings often attributed to him, Merlin speaks of a time when Britain undergoes purification through the ministries of the Goddess. As one who personifies the hidden magick of that country, he has been purified by the Goddess. We too must decide whether or not we have conquered our innermost fears and undergone purification. If we have truly succeeded in doing this then we have made the self subservient to the magickal will. Conscience is relevant here, a word derived from consciousness and science—to know the truth and the Divine Will simultaneously. To act according to one’s conscience is to agree to let one’s will be ruled by the highest powers.
Initiation
Merlin has been transformed by his experience. He accepts that the magickal consciousness is his only reality. With the realization that existence is wholly temporal, one concludes that the universe was not created simply for the convenience of humanity. The cosmos cannot be defined; neither can they be controlled. Their real nature will always defy reason and science. All the great thinkers resigned themselves to admitting that they knew nothing. Perhaps they are grateful that they cannot find the answers to what others consider to be important questions. Debate upon the meaning of life or the nature of God is, while diverting, no longer the path to wisdom. We should be aware that what we know of ourselves is only one version of how we really are. The inner being knows far more about the reasons that we are attracted or repelled by individuals. Employing the power of intuition always makes life easier; it links humanity with the Divine. We should cultivate our rapport with the Otherworld as often as we are able to do so. Surrendering to its might is essential for any magickal development. Our goal should be to develop a technique to slip effortlessly between these two worlds.
Now, Merlin has discovered once more the poetry of life, and this has bestowed upon him a new vision. He has felt anew the humanity inherent in the world and cast aside the persona of the beast. His mind is clear, his vision pure. Why should we not view his revelations with the detachment of a scientist? We can then define the fundamental difference between illumination and illusion. True visions reflect beauty, particularly transcendent beauty. The saint sees with ‘the eyes of the soul’. Mere gazing at the material world gains us nothing; we might as well be lost in a fog. Merlin’s progress towards the greater wisdom is of one who desires to see, not as a wild man but as a sober one.
When we approach death, it is not always the cessation of life that causes us the greatest anxiety, but the preparation for our going. Before his end, a Catholic will request the Last Rites to be administered by a priest. This final Holy Communion is known as the Viaticum, literally ‘provision for the journey’. Similar preparations, though with an entirely different philosophy, are set out in great detail in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. This fascinating work sets out instructions for the soul as it experiences forty-nine days of changing phenomena until the time for its reincarnation. The Christian yearns to enter a state of grace, the Buddhist to gain ‘Clear Light’, and even the humblest soul longs for an everlasting peace at ‘the going down of the sun’.
Undergoing death as a sacrifice is a spiritual theme common to many cultures. The notion of gaining knowledge as a result of sacrifice features prominently in Teutonic mythology. Odin (or Woden) gains the secret of the runes as a result of hanging upside down from Yggdrasil, the World Tree, the Norse conception of the force which sustains Heaven and Earth. This ritual death lasts nine days, nine being significant as it is the square of three. This Trinity appears to feature often in mythology, as it does in Christianity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), the triune deity of the Egyptians (Osiris, Isis, and Horus), and the Brahman, Vishnu, and Shiva of the Hindus.
The Spear of Destiny is not exclusive to the West, occurring as it does in Eastern culture and in the Christian tradition. As a seer, Merlin is renowned for his magickal staff, which sometimes gives him the appearance of The Hermit in the Tarot. The staff has an equal power to the wand, and both have been a badge of office since ancient times. Hermes owns the Caduceus, while the loop of the Ankh is held by the gods of ancient Egypt and is the symbol of life. It represents too the combined power of Isis and Osiris, the womb and lingam combined. Thoth, the god of magick, holds his staff with the same authority that Merlin will come to do in another era. There is much to link these two figures, as we have discovered. They both represent the will made manifest tempered by the presence of the universe.
Stargazer
In our own times the science of astrology has fallen into some disrepute. It is regarded as merely another column in a newspaper or with contempt by those who consider themselves to be ‘rational’. It is hard to believe that, along with alchemy, astrology was once considered to be one of the great mysteries. John Dee, astrologer to Elizabeth I and her court, decided when her coronation should take place. Only when a favourable horoscope had been plotted did the queen agree to her crowning. The celebrated English scientist Sir Isaac Newton was also a devotee of astrology. When chided about his interest by his contemporaries, Newton replied, ‘I have studied the subject, sir, you have not’. William Blake, encouraged by his contemporary John Varley, an eccentric astrologer, also held the science in high regard. Their mutual interest produced
A Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy, with a text by Varley and engravings by Blake.
For Merlin, astrology/astronomy was an important tool, as is evident when he requests his sister Ganieda to have an observatory built at a high point in the forest. This episode is taken to mean that Merlin has left his frenzied ways behind and has returned to reason in the way of investigating the Heavens. We must not assume that the kind of stellar research Merlin followed would be in any way identical to our own understanding. As always, Merlin adheres to his own idiosyncratic methods, and he may have incorporated the Arabic and Egyptian influences with which he was familiar. Yet he still embraces the fundamental tenet of astrology—events on Earth are reflected in the Heavens.
Merlin confides to Ganieda that he will spend the summer close to nature and in the winter take up residence in the observatory. In esoteric lore the Winter Solstice is considered to be the time to remove any part of the personality that is not essential to the Higher Self. Merlin observes the Heavens at the Winter Solstice, aware that the souls of the ancients are with him. It is possible that some stone circles are aligned specifically to study the constellations at that particular season. Merlin’s observatory with its ‘seventy doors and seventy windows’ has similarities to a stone circle, particularly if the doors represent the spaces between individual stones. The number seventy may be aligned to the seven planets, which are in turn linked to the seven psychic centres, or chakras, of the body. Whatever the numerical basis of Merlin’s astrology, it reflects the workings of his mind and his determination to understand and subsequently to control the natural forces of nature.
It is not surprising that the appearance of great stars in the Heavens brought great trepidation to those who observed them in the Dark Ages. One such, observed as Uther was riding out to do battle with the Saxons, seems a case in point. Even allowing for a certain amount of lyrical licence, the sight must have been quite startling, as this contemporary description demonstrates. The star was apparently:
. . . of marvellous bigness and brightness, stretching forth one ray whereon was a ball of fire spreading forth in the likeness of a dragon and from the mouth of the dragon issued forth two rays, whereof the one was of such great length as that it did seem to reach beyond the regions of Gaul and the other, verging toward the Irish sea, did end in seven lesser rays.[1]
Merlin, when called upon to interpret this phenomenon, confidently announced that it foretold the death of Aurelius and the coming of Arthur. The seven-rayed element of the heavenly light, he maintained, was certain to signify some future dynasty.
Saturn, which traditionally rules both Capricorn and Aquarius—respectively the dark and light sides of this planet, casts its baleful presence over the winter months. It commences to do this at the Winter Solstice. Given Merlin’s link with the planet Mercury, we may profitably investigate the link Merlin has with Mercurius, the alchemical personification of the prima material. Winter is the season of Earth, the North, and Midnight. All have the essence of stillness. The period also has within it the celebration of Christmas—the birth of the Messiah. Both Merlin and Mercurius have been compared to Christ and the Anti-Christ. Merlin’s studies of the Heavens are taking him into a higher realm of transcendence, beyond duality and into a symbiosis of nature, one that is the realm of the greater Truth.
The symbolism within the constellations was familiar to the tribes of Europe. To them, the Stag was a representation of the Sun. This animal features prominently in Merlin’s life, and Mercurius is known as the cervus fugitives—the fugitive stag. The constellation of Ursa Major lies in the North and indicates the position of Polaris, the North Star. The Bear, a representation of Arthur, is also to be found in this quarter of the Heavens. Of the planet Saturn, one final reference may be of value in its bearing upon the Quest for the Holy Grail: Merlin appears to Perceval carrying a sickle, a symbol of Saturn. The implication is that Perceval’s psyche is flawed, and therefore he is not worthy of succeeding in the Grail Quest.
Our ancestors were fascinated by that formation of stars known as the Northern Cross. They knew it as ‘the goose’, while later generations would referred to as Cygnus—the swan. Perhaps this is a reference to its rider Cailleach, the crone, who rules the winter months. A symbol of the soul, the magnificent swan was revered by the Celts and the variations in its flight were the basis of their divinations. The swan is associated with both the Sun and Mercury. The notion that a swan flies in the air, swims in water, and nests upon the earth also makes it a metaphor for shapeshifting. In Celtic mythology the children of the sea god Lir were transformed into swans. The following correspondences may be of interest to our study. They represent my own view of zodiacal affinities based upon the individual characters in the Arthurian tales. Various Tarot correspondences are also included. It should be remembered that a neat table of attributions is almost impossible to compile, and in my view that is an affirmation of any esoteric system, not a weakness:
King Arthur: Aries/Leo/Capricorn (The Emperor/ Strength/The Sun)
Guinevere: Taurus (The Empress)
Merlin: Gemini/Virgo (The Magician/The Hermit)
The Fisher King: Pisces (The Hanged Man/The Moon)
The Lady of the Lake: Cancer (The High Priestess/ The Chariot/Justice)
Morgan le Fay: Scorpio (Death)
Elaine: Pisces/Virgo (The Hermit)
Lancelot: Scorpio/Capricorn (Death/The Devil)
Galahad: Sagittarius (Temperance)
Perceval: Aquarius/Pisces (The Star/The Hanged Man)
Seer
His time of trauma over, Merlin passes into the final phase of his life, that of sage and seer. His wisdom becomes legendary, his demeanour benign. Gone are the days when he might have dispatched the enemies of Arthur by casting a single spell. Certainly, he has caused the king to own Excalibur and thus provides the means for being victorious in battle. Merlin, as all magicians must, exists in a world that is not swayed by notions of good and evil. This does not mean he is amoral, far from it. The manner in which the magician regards a situation, and how he behaves, determines all. Our fate always hangs by the thinnest of threads. Few, if any of us, can accurately predict the future. Merlin is a seer—literally he has the gift of seeing. Not everyone upon the magickal path possesses the skill of Merlin. This wizard possesses more than mere psychism; he is the great prophet whose talent for prediction was once sought by kings.
Merlin is also aware that the world he has known for so long will soon disappear, in an apocalyptic end. Who knows how many worlds end just as dramatically as will the Kingdom of Logres? Merlin has the advantage of being the architect, Adam, and Archangel of his own Eden. It is also pertinent to speculate on the future incarnations that Merlin will enjoy. He first appears as Roger Bacon,
the thirteenth-century monk who believed, among other
notions, that the world was round when most of the population of the planet most emphatically did not. Bacon knew how to manufacture gunpowder but would not make his secret public for fear of the consequences. He predicted the invention of the hot air balloon, the flying machine, spectacles, the telescope, and the microscope.
Francis Bacon, who shared a surname with Roger Bacon, was one of the great thinkers of the sixteenth century and numbered among his friends Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Francis Bacon’s writings inspired Hobbes, Bentham, and Locke. He also invented modern cryptology and used this art to good effect in constructing codes which he employed when writing. These concealed, and revealed when decoded, the great political secrets of the day. Bacon foretold the settling of America in his treatise The New Atlantis, and his role in founding the New World was instrumental. He believed that the character of the United States of America, as it was to become, should embody a true spirit of freedom and enlightenment. As the founder of modern Freemasonry, Bacon inspired the men whose signatures are upon the Declaration of Independence. Of the fifty-six men who signed, all but three were Freemasons.
In his next incarnation Merlin was reborn as Saint Germain. That extraordinary figure had also been a citizen of Atlantis—The High Priest of the Violet Flame. Incarnated in the sixteenth century, he was one of the great figures of England and Europe. Proficient in the art of music, writing, languages, and painting, he was the personal friend of Voltaire and Rousseau. He founded Rosicrucianism and travelled extensively, perhaps reaching Tibet on his travels.
The breadth of the character of Merlin defies description. The songs attributed to Taliesin, variously described as the pupil or companion of Merlin, or even his alter ego, have a marvellous, otherworldly quality. They epitomize very succinctly, and far better than any prosaic description, the spirit of Merlin as a man of vision and transcendental experience:
I have been many shapes . . .
I have been a narrow blade of a sword;
I have been a drop in the air;
I have been a shining star;
I have been a light in a lantern . . .
I have journeyed as an eagle;
I have been a string of a harp;
I have been enchanted for a year on the foam of water;
There is nothing in which I have not been.
This amalgam of wonder, dream, and destiny is epitomized in our fairy stories, which often contain sorrow and failure, but always accompanying these elements is a fleeting glimpse of joy. We have come full circle, back to a world where the hat with stars on it and the bumbling, lovable figure beneath it shines eternally. But there is always a hint of Darth Vader’s dark side!
[1]. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Histories of the Kings of Britain, trans. by Sebastian Evans. (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1928), p. 143.