Merlin and the Grail Tradition

Merlin and the Grail Tradition by Gareth Knight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Merlyn is the archetypical wizard, who much like Gandalf is of another worldly character who has the job of preparing mankind for its ultimate enlightenment and evolution. Once he does his job he then fades away to the background. Merlyn like the rest of Arthurian legend is surrounded in mystery with many layers to peel back.
His origins are almost unknown. What is gleaned is that his mother was a nun and that his father was an elf or angelic being depending on which source you read. Merlyn in fact may also be of royal blood. Vortigern a usurping king was trying to build his tower but it kept on collapsing. Merlyn was supposed to be a sacrifice to bless the land. When the land was cursed it was said a sacrifice of royal b lood would get rid of the problem. He informed Vortigern about the dragon fighting underneath. Later on Merlyn would help the Pendragon’s regain the throne and he would raise Arthur.
Where did all this stuff come from ? Many would posit the land of Wales. After all the famous work “Mabinogian” came from their and it mentions King Arthur and versions of other characters in Arthurian legend. In fact Troyes DeChetain and Thomas Mallory may have used a common source coming from Wales. In the land of Wales there is a ring of stones much like Stonehenge. The stones themselves have a source that is far away and no one knows just how they got there.
Merlyn had a job and he carried it out in a variety of way. We all know about raising Arthur but there is more. It supposed that Merlyn may have had faery blood and atlantean blood flowing threw his veins. His job was to help craft and ultimate king or a superior bloodline. Ygraine who Pendragon deduced with Merlyn’s help may have had Atlantean blood, uther was Celtic royalty. Once Arthur was born the next step was to bring in the faery blood and Gwenifar may have been faery.
The book does not deal with archaeology but rather using Arthurian legend as a tool for spiritual growth. In the stories that are examined it is women who act as a civilizing force for mankind. They are the intiatior of knight and seekers into the forest realm of mystery. At the books end there is a ritual that one can do as well a guided meditation.
The teaching of Gareth Knight are based on those of his mentor Dion Fortune and Dion Fortune herself based them off of Blavatskies Theopsophy. According this paradigm Arhturian legend did not migrate from the Eastern regions as is currently thought but rather they came from the west. To the West of Britain was the island of Atlantis that submerged in the ocean. It was Atlanteans who brought the spiritual teachings forward.
Dion Fortune differs from Blavatski in that she also subscribes to Christian mysticism as a layer of Arthurian myustery. She had three rays. The first bein green pertained to nature and the paganism, the second wheel dealt with Hermetic philosophy and the creation of mental maps. The third dealt with Christian mystery.
One wizard who was also discussed was John Dee. Mystic, sorcerer, spy and scholar. It was ohn Dee working behind the scenes who caused massive change in Britian and world wide.


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