Nexus - 0606 - New Times Magazine-pages

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REALM THE THE RING LORDS To maintain its persecution of the Grail dynasts and heretics, the Church made sure it subverted the stories that would keep the true Grail legacy alive among the people. Part 2 of 2 hat the bishops did, however, at the 1545 Council of Trento in northern Italy, was they formally blacklisted and outlawed the prophecies of Merlin, withdrawing all related material from the public domain. Eventually, in order to weigh the literary balance in the Church's favour, a new breed of writing was born, and it came into its own as Gothic Romance. The premise behind these tales was not so much about saving victims, but rather more about destroying the enemies of contrived "churchianity"—with crucifixes galore and gal- lons of holy water being the essential weapons in the dreaded undertaking against the sin- ister "evil ones". Then, in time, the Christian movement had a wonderful idea for its own Merlin com- petitor: not a wizard as such, but an early Church bishop with canonised status. But, what a very strange choice they made! Back in AD 325, one of the characters at Emperor Constantine's Council of Nicaea was a certain Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. At this Church conference the bishops were debating the nature of the Holy Trinity and of how Jesus was not simply the Son of God but was also God incarnate. The ageing Libyan priest, Arius of Alexandria, was not at all happy about this new concept and decided to make his feelings known. But when he rose to speak, Nicholas of Myra immediately punched him in the face! This, of course, brought the debate firmly back onto the required track—subsequent to which, the violent protagonist was rewarded for his effort and duly became Saint Nicholas. This titular name was later corrupted in parts of Europe to become Sinterklaas or Sintniklaus, and then, in the English-speaking countries, to Santa Claus. Now, by virtue of a good deal of strategic propaganda, he is lovingly revered by children as the jolly, gift-bearing Father Christmas—a far cry from the original vindictive bishop of his- torical record. Within the Celtic Church of the Dark Ages (in the days of Taliesin and the Merlin seers to the kings), there had been some very prominent adepts of the old wisdom: abbots and culdees such as St David, St Patrick and St Columba, all of whom were denounced in their day by the Roman Church for their so-called wizardry and pagan beliefs. Even the later papal establishment regarded them all as necromancers and sorcerers, but this is not the way things are currently portrayed. Although the Merlin prophecies were expressly banned by the Council of Trento, the teachings of David, Patrick and Columba were so firmly cemented in society that the Church pursued a different strategy of incorporation. A thousand years after the lifetimes of these Druidic Magi, the Vatican elected to bring them into the orthodox saintly fold so that the real truth of their Celtic environment would be overshadowed. Then, only a couple of years ago, the British Post Office and the Anglican Church joined forces to promote the gentle St Columba of the Celts alongside his bitter Catholic rival, St Augustine of Rome, who came to England with an express papal brief to destroy the Columban movement immediately after Columba's death in 597. Notwithstanding this historical fact, however, the anniversary postage stamps and sub- stantially hyped propagandist material of 1997 portrayed these two arch-enemies as if they had been blood brothers in a common cause—proving beyond doubt that new myths of "churchianity" are still being created to this day. With regard to the werewolves, who were said to manifest at the height of the full moon, the definition of were is, quite simply, "man" (hence, "werewolf" is "man-wolf"), but it comes rather more precisely from an ancient High Druidic caste of Wood Lords (called Weres or Wallans). Their totem animal was the wolf—just as other tribes were by Sir Laurence Gardner, Kt St Gm, KCD, KT St A From a lecture presented at the 1999 NEXUS Conference, Sydney Transcript © Sir Laurence Gardner 1999 by Sir Laurence Gardner, Kt St Gm, KCD, KT St A From a lecture presented at the 1999 NEXUS Conference, Sydney NEXUS - 43 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 1999