It is said that when Britain is in the direst peril and needs him the most, King Arthur will arise from his grave and return. We know this because we used to hear rhymes about it while still in the cradle – bardic poems that hail from of an age that Time forgot, when our ancestors carved stories about the Once and Future King in the green and pleasant hills of Avalon and then left them there for the salvation of mankind.
These esoteric dramas are as rich and fertile as the black peat laid down in the soil of those salt marshes and flower-filled meadows because they are threaded through with deep spiritual teachings that come from gentler, slower days …when both treasure and pleasure were measured by meaning and a man’s dreams were valued more than gold.
The deeper significance of these stories is only visible to those with the eyes to see, of which there are few today. Yet they are still faithfully acted out, every night, by colossal earthwork giants on a massive stage that is lit by stars shining down into an oft-flooded cauldron-shaped landscape reminiscent of the Holy Grail.
So let me use my skills as a shaman and mythologist to guide you along this winding pilgrimage which digs under all the religious and political glosses to excavate the esoteric messages that our earlier ancestors have enchanted and engineered into Avalon – a huge, royal diamond-shaped Merlin’s Precinct of more than 100 square miles.
The Holy Grail
In Stories in the Summerlands, I explain in simple terms how the Holy Grail is synonymous with the Philosopher’s Stone and the Vesica Piscis, and how local Somerset legends about Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea are actually vehicles for the secret codes of the Grailkeepers who, going back at least as far as the days of King Alfred the Great and the Knights Templars, have used this “land of the nobles” to underpin the spirit of Sovereignty.
It is no mere empty custom that every Christmas, Queen Elizabeth is sent a sprig of may blossoms from the Holy Thorn that grows on Wearyall Hill and that on Beltane and Samhain, the duel over the hand of the Queen of the May is celebrated by drumming and piping crowds escorting carved red and white dragons along lovage-lined lanes to Glastonbury Tor.
The ciphered messages of those custodians of the grail are still writ large in the art and architecture of the churches and cathedrals, keeping alive the wisdom of the Dragon Clans of old, despite the efforts of many a Christian bishop to eradicate it through the burning of abbey libraries, the dissolution of the monasteries and the grotesque execution of the last abbot of Glastonbury.
The Grailkeepers
You will also learn in Stories in the Summerlands about the Weavers and Keepers of the Grail Mysteries who, like the Old Norse Norns who used words, pictures and music to weave the weft and warp of Wyrd, which we call consensual reality. They are also the three fairies of the spinning wheel of the Sleeping Beauty, who guard and keep her safe while she dreams so that eventually her whole court can be awakened by the kiss of the Prince. In other words, they are the creators of the culture that underpins the values of our social fabric, the material of which is kept in good condition by the telling and re-telling of these metaphorical stories which have been impregnated and enchanted into the land of Avalon.
As Shelley wrote: “Poets are the secret legislators of the world.”
I will explain all of this, and more, as I walk alongside you on a real pilgrimage of the soul in which you will develop the ability to recognise the esoteric wonders impregnated into the secret places of the Summerlands of Avalon. And once the hidden knowledge of the initiates of the Mysteries is revealed to you, you will be able to enrich your own life experience because it will open your eyes to the magic in your own land.
You can buy Stories in the Summerlands here on Amazon US or Amazon UK, and many other well-known online bookstores.
Shaman of Avalon 