The Underworld Initiation of King Arthur by Morgan the Fae

As you can see, from spelling Morgan le Fay as Morgan the Fae, we immediately know who she is. She is Morrigan, the Celtic Dark Queen of the Fae, or the Faeries. And the presence of this Faery Queen as a key character in stories about Arthur tells us that when they were compiled by eoffrey of Monmouth for his !istory of "nglish #ings, they were not historical records but magical te$ts. At the time of the Druids, the ballads, folklore and faery stories recited and sung by wandering bards and storytellers contained subliminal keys which opened up new understanding and wisdom in the subconscious mind of the listener. %heir aim and purpose was & and is & not to record history, but to act as a teaching aid to reawaken the dreaming seed within the sleepers. %he Morrigan appeared in the magical te$ts as the terrifying Queen of the Fae, often spied on battlefields and, sometimes, in the form of crow. She often gets referred to as a goddess because scholars don't understand that the Fae are "arth spirits. She isn't a goddess. Scholars do better o(er the etymology of her name. %hey think that Mor may deri(e from an )ndo*"uropean root connoting terror or monstrousness, and that it is cognate with the +ld "nglish maere of ,nightmare'. -ightmare on "lf Street, you might say. .ut it is not /ust the presence of %he Morrigan in the old 0elsh and )rish tales that signal Arthur's mythological and not historical reality. #ing Arthur's raid on the 1nderworld, as told by the 0elsh bard %aleisin, in his Preiddeu Annwfyn, sits (ery comfortably alongside the stories of +rpheus's /ourney to the 1nderworld to rescue "uridyce, 2ersephone's capture and imprisonment by !ades in the 1nderworld, )shtar's descent into the 1nderworld through the se(en gates and the Deceased in the "gyptian Coming Forth by Day te$ts who meets with +siris in the 3udgement !all of Maat, in the 1nderworld. Orpheus and Euridyce by eorge Frederick 0atts

0e ne(er consider for one moment that +siris, 2ersephone, )shtar or +rpheus may ha(e been real people. So why do we insist on the historocity of Arthur4 And if he really was an ancient .ritish king, then where is this 1nderworld he also con5uered4 %he story of Arthur's raid on the 1nderworld, Preiddeu Annwyfyn, is one about the theft of wisdom. %his yells to me of a classic initiation story in which the adept has to undergo trials to win wisdom, /ust as 3ason o(ercomes the dragon to win the olden Fleece and %heseus o(ercomes the Minotaur. Arthur /ourneys through a number of 1nderworld fortresses arranged in circular fashion, and throughout we hear about the endless cycling of the seasons and the elements, the primal song that originates in the cauldron of inspiration and the mystery of the -ine Maidens. %hese are all classic initiatory themes. ) am renowned in fame6 the song was heard )n Caer 2edryfan, four times re(ol(ing. My original song stems from the cauldron, .y the breath of nine maidens was it kindled. 7 %he root word Arth translates as Bear, Pen meant Head and the highest ranked Druids were known as serpents or dragons. %herefore, Arthur 2en Dragon makes more sense as a Druid teacher than a military hero. !owe(er, ) doubt he was e(en that. .ecause if we add to the mi$ the fact that there was an enormously popular Cult of the .ear, whose acti(ities were aligned to the mo(ements of 1rsa Ma/or and Minor, throughout the whole of northern "urope in the late .C"s, another piece of the /igsaw falls into place. Arthur must ha(e been a central character in a mythological story based on stellar magic. %he late, great sacred geometrist 3ohn Michell's interesting disco(ery in the en(irons around lastonbury confirms this. !e found a group of hills or mounds which all had churches dedicated to St Michael on their summits. 0hen there's a St Michael church on a mound, it usually indicates that there was originally a pagan shrine there. %hese hills would ha(e been ,islands' when the land was underwater, before the 8e(els were drained by the monks in medie(al times. 3ohn Michel found that these churches formed the shape of the 8ittle .ear constellation 9also known as Arthur's 0ain or Arthur's Chariot by the Celts: and here is a diagram showing this arrangement in his own hand.

As you can see, the geometry across the hills and mounds is a little wobbly. .ut that's because there was a big earth5uake in the ;<th century, the same one that toppled the Michael church on top of lastonbury %or and also skewed the shape of the labyrinthine path that encircles it. 2erhaps ) can gi(e you a further e$ample of how this sort of astronomical metaphor works with an e$ample of another Celtic te$t used by eoffrey of Monmouth for his ,history', the 0elsh Mabinogian. ) say, astronomical 7 but it is not astronomy as the cold science as it is practised today. %o our ancestors, there was no difference between astronomy and astrology. %hey belie(ed that the position of the stars and planets when a .eing was born did not dictate the nature of that .eing, as we may understand astrology today. )t was almost the opposite. +nly a certain type of .eing could be born during certain con/unctions because, in a holographic, microcosmic=macrocosmic pattern, the .eing was of the e$act same nature as the con/unction. As > 3 Stewart says in his The nderwor!d "nitiation6 )n ancient, magical workings, specific planetary or stellar patterns were used to aid incarnation. %his was not that certain con/unctions caused certain .eings to appear in the physical world. >ather, the con/unction was identical to the nature of the .eing, enabling it to manifest in the womb at a harmoniously related place.

Spiritual initiations are rebirths. So they would only be carried out on astronomically auspicious occasions ? that is, auspicious to the indi(idual but also to the tribe, and the place. )n other words, megalithic temples would be astronomically aligned to facilitate the rebirth initiations carried out within them. %he 0elsh collection of ancient Celtic myths known as Mabinogian is where Arthur's 1nderworld story comes from, and it@s ob(iously a te$t intended to aid such initiations, littered as it with stories about the Fae and the 1nderworld, along with magical beasts such as the hart and the hound and the pig. ) don't think there is one story in the Mabinogian which doesn't feature the 1nderworld or other magical worlds. So goodness knows what eoffrey of Monmouth was on if he thought they were historical records of a nation. The dual at Beltane %he story of Flower Face or .lodeuwedd is a (ery popular Mabinogian story, and it is (ery similar to another Mabinogian story, that of the Flower .ride, Creiddylad, daughter of 8lud, who has two husbands fighting o(er her e(ery MayDay.

F!ower Face

by Auri 8eith

)n the story of Creiddylad from the Mabinogian, we hear about the Summer #ing, wythyr,

fighting the 0inter #ing, wyn ap -udd, for the hand of the fair Flower .ride Creiddylad. )n the .lodeuwedd story from the Mabinogian, it is 8lew 8law yffes who fights oronwy 2e(r for the fair Flower Face .lodeuwedd. %he battles both take place because of a destiny directed straight from the actions of Arianrhod of the Sil(er 0heel, who li(ed in Caer Sidi, the glass re(ol(ing castle, which is thought to represent the Corona .orealis. %he stories are all set within the night skies of the .ritish )sles around B,CCC years ago, when the star lore showed that wyn ap -udd, the 8ord of the 1nderworld, dominated the hea(ens between -o(ember and May. %his constellation is the one known as +rion today 9or +siris to the "gyptians:.

"ach May Day, wyn ap -udd would fight a duel and lose with the Summer #ing, wythyr. wythyr represented Scorpius=+phiuchus, the constellation that would take o(er the night skies during the summer months. )n the Mabinogian, wythyr appears as !a(gan, the Summer #ing, and 2wyll has to fight with him in the guise of wyn ap -udd, the 0inter #ing. And later on, we ha(e #ing Arthur 91rsa Ma/or: fighting #ing Melwas o(er uine(ere. )t's the same story told time and time again, to illustrate not historical e(ents but astronomical e(ents. So if the two protagonists are represented by +rion on one side and on the other, by Scorpius=+phiuchus, what of the fair damsel4 0hich constellation was she4 %his puDDled

mythologists and archaeoastromers for some time until modern computer technology allowed them to reproduce the night skies o(er one of the main star obser(atories for the Celts in the south*west of "ngland around B,CCC years ago, which was lastonbury %or. Southern Cross as Vesica Piscis +(er the Chalice 0ell !ill around B,CCC years ago could be espied the Southern Cross, now only (isible in the southern hemisphere. .ut how is the Southern Cross like a beautiful woman4 As -icholas Mann and 2hilippa lasser e$plain in The #tar Temp!e of A$a!on6 "n the star temp!e of A$a!on % the recurring drama unfo!ding in the night s&y during the fourth mi!!ennium B'E wou!d ha$e had at its heart a particu!ar (ewe!) the #outhern 'ross, whose centra! importance wou!d ha$e been indicated by its re!ationship to the earthy feminine contours of the 'ha!ice Hi!!* +hen, in ,-.,, "ta!ian e/p!orer Amerigo 0espucci became one of the first Europeans to see the #outhern 'ross for se$era! thousand years, he did not identify it as a cross1 rather he described its pattern as a 2mandor!a3, that is, a!mond4shaped* As a mandor!a or a $esica, the conste!!ation can now be recognised as an ancient symbo! of the di$ine feminine 5at the centre of the $esica piscis*6 Did ear!y British astronomers a!so see it in this manner, identifying its four stars with 'reiddy!ad, perhaps en$isaging the hori7onta! band of the Mi!&y +ay as her star s&irt, or her go!den or si!$er hair, or possib!y e$en seeing the star4$esica as forming the goddess3 $u!$a, in the manner of the 'e!tic #hee!a4na4gig8

%he Celtic 1nderworld initiation stories came through the Druid Serpents and bards, who recited them in (erse and song. .ut e(en they were drawing on a (ery long oral tradition, going back into the mists of time, of stories which contained allegorical teachings reflecting a far deeper and far more long lasting truth than that of a mere historical e(ent. %his is as it should be. !istorical e(ents come and go, and the posturings and posings of men on the world stage don't amount to much. .ut the stars are always with us. And e(ery man and woman is a star.
Let Patience have her perfect work in Me.

I V!CATI! " !oly oddess Morrigan, Di(ine Maiden of the source of life, wife of the od Dagda, oddess of full ri(ers, the .lack Crow when the ri(ers di(ide, help us to face this initiationE