Mr Thomas Hickathrift (Lord of the Year)

William Palmer Robins, 'The Old Sun Inn, Saffron Walden', watercolour, 1941.

The legend of Tom Hickathrift was a central theme in Dave Hunt's quest for the many secrets and mysteries hidden within the ancient Essex landscape. For many years Dave tirelessly researched the towns and villages of north west Essex, and in this very early article, published originally in ASH magazine No. 1 Autumn 1988, he explains some of the legends surrounding the East Anglian folk hero Tom Hickathrift. This research eventually led Dave to rediscover the legendary Essex Landscape Zodiac. One day I hope that those folk who now hold this research will allow it to be published for all to read. So without further ado, here is Mr Thomas Hickathrift (Lord of the Year) by Dave Hunt.

Mr Thomas Hickathrift (Lord of the Year)

Part 1: The Legend
by Dave Hunt

In Castle St, Saffron Walden, stands what was once the old "Sun" Inn, now an antique shop. This splendid half-timbered building has on it some exquisite examples of pargetting, or plaster moulding, an art much practiced in the Essex of long ago.

Among the fascinating designs are portrayed the images of Tom Hickathrift, giant and giant killer, and his one time adversary, the Wisbech giant. The pargetting is probably 17th or 18th century, but the secret it contains is much older.


Tom, the stories say, was born at the time of William the Conqueror, the son of a Cambridgeshire labourer. By the age of ten, Tom was already six feet tall, and proved stupid at school. Tom's father tragically died, leaving his mother to support him. He lazed by the fireside while she worked hard, and when mealtimes came, he ate as much as five fully grown men.

A Wisbech farmer, taking pity on Tom's mother, offered her two bales of straw, on condition that someone collected them. After much pleading, she prevailed on Tom to fetch the bundles. And so he set off, taking only a length of rope to secure them.

The farmer offered Tom as much straw as he could carry, but was horrified when he laid the rope on the ground and piled on enough to fill a wagon! Then he tied it up, hoisted it onto his back as if it was a bag of corn, and carried it home.

To prevent (so he thought) a similar occurrence on Tom's next visit, the farmer hid two huge boulders amongst the straw, all to no avail. When Tom arrived for the second bundle, he carried it off as if it was as light as the first! The boulders fell out as Tom walked home, so he resolved to have words with the farmer about cleaning his straw properly.


News of Tom's exploits quickly spread around East Anglia and more and more people wanted him to work for them. One such was a brewer in Kings Lynn who wanted beer delivered to Wisbech, a round trip of some twenty miles. For each trip Tom would receive as much food and drink as he wanted, plus a new set of clothes. Tom discovered, after a few journeys, that he could halve the distance by cutting across the territory of a fierce giant in the locality. The giant however, did not take kindly to trespassers, and as soon as Tom set foot on the land, he (the giant) came roaring out of his cave, threatening to knock Tom's head off and hang it on a large tree, which was gruesomely festooned with the heads of previous interlopers.

At this, Ton, being naturally somewhat annoyed, challenged the giant to a fight to the death, and while the giant went into his cave to fetch a huge club, Tom removed a cartwheel to use as a shield, and the axle for a weapon.

The duel began and for a time they were evenly matched. Eventually the giant, being out of condition, began to flag, until. streaming with blood and sweat, he fell to his knees and begged for mercy. Tom's answer was to batter his head clean off his shoulders. In the Giant's cave, Tom found enough treasure to make him rich for the rest of his life.

This deed made Tom a hero throughout East Anglia, and, with other exploits, including driving away a fierce band of highwaymen and even fighting the devil in the church year at Walpole St Peters in Norfolk, he soon became a highly respected citizen, to the extent that people referred to him as Mr Thomas Hickathrift.

This is the most famous legend of Tom, but there is another, less-well-known, but more pertinent to this investigation. It goes thus.

The inhabitants of a certain district were being abused by a dictatorial Baron, who confiscated all their food and cattle, leaving them to starve. At a meeting of local leaders, it was decided to ask Mr Thomas Hickathrift for assistance.

Tom duly arrived on his cart, which carried an enormous club, by now Tom's favourite weapon. As with the Wisbech giant, Tom. after some argument, challenged the Baron to combat and defeated him at the gate of the castle, knocking his head from his shoulders. As a result, Tom was able to restore to the people their livelihood.

Contained in these two stories we find elements of, naturally, the triumph of good over evil, but also evidence that Tom was more than just a local hero. The cartwheel used as a shield, is a solar symbol, as in the Catherine Wheel. The axle represents the pivot around which the months turn and these two symbols alone, being used by Tom to defeat the Wisbech giant (as winter destroyed by the year cycle) and the wicked Baron (more obviously the Lord of winter and deprivation) suggests that he was in fact the Lord of the sun, bringing back prosperity to the land.

There are many other clues to be revealed in future episodes, but one deserves a mention now.

Between the two figures on the Sun Inn pargetting, there is depicted a large circle. Until comparatively recent times, this was divided into twelve segments, surely a representation of the months, or even the zodiac, being fought over by Tom, the summer Lord and the Wisbech giant, the dark bringer of winter.

In the next episode I shall reveal more pieces in the jigsaw that finally portrays Ogma Sunface, Celtic god of the sun, Lord of the Zodiac, bringer of knowledge and eloquence, and inventor of the Ogham alphabet.

In Memorium

Dave Hunt
1941 - 2009

Friend and mentor across time and space.
A tribute by Alex Langstone.

It is with great sadness that I can report the death of ASH magazine founder Dave Hunt. Dave was a stalwart of the Earth Mysteries and Occult communities in the south-east and his encyclopedic knowledge of folklore and mythology was outstanding. He spent many years researching landscape mysteries and legends around Essex, a county he loved.

Dave was born in 1941 in Mevagissey, Cornwall and he always loved exploring the British landscape. Indeed in 1993, we spent time researching an alignment of ancient sites across south-west England, which was eventually written up as The Eucharist of Osiris, and published in The Lighthouse volume 2 number 1.

But it was in 1985 that I first met Dave. I was a keen and enthusiastic 20 year old, wet behind the ears, but fascinated by esoteric subjects and eager to learn. Dave took me under his wing, and over the months and years that followed I learned much. Dave had a great way of passing on knowledge, and I shall always remember with affection, the years we studied together, and the way Dave always encouraged and supported me. He was the key player in the publication of my book Bega and the Sacred Ring, and without his valuable support I doubt if it would ever have been published!

His esoteric legacy spreads far and wide. Dave worked alongside many within the esoteric community. He was a student of 20th century occultist extraordinaire William G. Gray and was an adept of the Craft of Cunning. Dave worked with Andrew Collins during the early Earthquest group, where he helped Andrew research the Running Well Mystery. He later helped Andrew again in the search for the seven swords, by finding the sixth Meonia sword in Tintagel, Cornwall. This episode has been immortalised in chapter 45 of Andrew Collins' psychic questing classic The Seventh Sword. The chapter is entitled Morgana Awakes and absolutely sums up how I will always remember Dave.

Dave Hunt co-founded ASH magazine, along with myself, Ian Dawson, Claire Capon and Jim Kirkwood, and under his leadership he encouraged us all to write and lecture about what we had researched. He remained with the magazine until its demise in the spring of 1997. He also helped host two very successful ASH magazine Esoterica conferences and was fundamental in the organisation of the ASH Wednesday public meetings, held during the mid 1990s. He was an active member of the Leigh-on-Sea based Temple of Isis Iseum, during the early 1990s and a valuable guiding light, teacher and mentor in the Clan of the Trees. Dave's biggest legacy though was his research. He spent years researching the Essex Landscape Zodiac, and I sincerely hope that someone, somewhere has this document, and that it will one day be published. I recall spending many happy hours out in the field with Dave, whilst he checked and re-checked the maps and the landscape for clues to the elusive geometry of the Zodiac, and he gave many excellent lectures on this subject.

I am very fortunate to have in my possession some of Dave's work, and it will all be published in due course.

The thing that will always stay with me most of all was Dave's infectious sense of humour. Many times I recall situations that needed the lightness of his humour and he always made everyone laugh, and this was one of the joys of belonging to some of the groups he was a part of. Dave was a wise soul, who would tell it as it was! He will be sadly missed in the communities he served.

Below is a poem from an early issue of ASH, that Dave wrote. I can recall talking to Dave about it at length at an editorial meeting, where it caused much discussion. It is a particular favourite of mine and seems a fitting conclusion to this obituary.

Years End

Years End

by Dave Hunt

In the hours between the hours when day has
died and night not yet begun
and this old Earth is made to sigh by Autumn's dim
and dwindling days,
over hills and vales made mellow by the mists and
setting sun.
The Mother of the mystery walks her secret ways.
As old as time, and born of time itself She passes,
quiet, stealthy and unseen.
Shuddering with the cloying cold that surely
soon will come.
Making Summer's sun and warmth a half
remembered dream.
And as She passes, with caressing touch, She
plucks the life from all She does survey
and drops it, gently as a falling leaf, into
a basket made of dark decay.
Over all the land She wanders, dogged by
shades of darkness and of fear,
pausing for a while at homesteads locked
against the Crone,
to scratch at door and window or to
freeze the child's tear
who hears her in the chimney softly
moan.
When She has passed the land is
locked in Winter's sere and snowy hold.
The now dead sun hangs like a pearl in
the pewter bowl of sky,
yet folk in Albion, huddled round the
fires against the cold
quietly wait to hear from far a future
Child's cry.

Written in 1989, and originally published in ASH magazine no. 3.

The Witch and the Stone

Folklorist Ian Dawson was one of the founder editors of ASH Magazine, and was at the magazine until the very last issue in 1997. He spent the nine years that ASH was in print, as a loyal and leading light within the editorial team. He wrote more articles than anyone else, and was a champion of the Green Man in Essex, along with being a mine of information on Essex Witchcraft and Cunning Lore. The article below, was one of his earlier ones, and was published in the second issue, which hit the streets in the winter of 1988!

The Witch and the Stone
by Ian Dawson

For years Essex has been known as the witch county, because of the many witchcraft trials held there in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is hardly surprising therefore, that there are many stories about witches and their craft, coming from this part of the British Isles. One such story is that of the Witch of Scrapfaggots Green. For years the villagers of Great Leighs knew of large stone that lay at the crossroads known locally as Scrapfaggots Green. Under the stone were the remains of the Witch of Great Leighs, put to death some 300 years before.

In 1944, during the second world war, the roads leading to Boreham air base had to be widened so that military vehicles could travel along them. One of these roads, called Drachett Lane, led over the crossroads where the witch lay, and an army bulldozer pushed aside the stone that marked the witch's grave. From that day onwards. there followed a series of events that defied all explanation and to which nearly everyone in the village was witness to at one time or another. For instance, after a calm and serene night, a farmer awoke to find his hay stacks had been tipped over and scattered around the surrounding countryside. He also found his wagons had been turned sideways in their sheds and it took the farm labourers half an hour to get them out! Sheep were found outside their still secure pens, yet there were no gaps or any means of escape. A builder found his scaffold poles spread all over his yard and some decorators found their heavy paint pots and tools missing, when they turned up for work at a cottage they were decorating. They finally discovered the paint pots under a bed in the attic. The church bells rang of their own accord at midnight and the church clock was found to be two hours slow. Cows stopped giving milk, chickens stopped laying and three geese disappeared without a trace. Not even a tell-tale feather. A chicken that belonged to no one was found dead in a water barrel. Daily the turmoil grew until a reporter for the Sunday Pictorial arrived on the scene and was witness to one event himself. At the village pub, the Dog and Gun, another large stone turned up on the doorstep. The landlord said he had not seen it before and did not know where it had come from. After he and the reporter struggled to move it out of the way, he stated that it would take at least three strong men to lift it.

This, as with the other happenings, had no explainantion. No logical one anyway.The locals though, had their own theory. The moving of the stone at Scrapfaggot Green had let loose the spirit of the witch and it was she who was to blame for all the disturbances. Harry Price, the well known ghost hunter and head of the London University Council for Psychical Investigation, was consulted about the mysterious happenings, and in his view, the events were caused by a poltergeist and suggested the stone should be replaced in its original position. As this action was in accord with local feeling, and that Halloween, the witches night was approaching, they decided that this was what they should indeed do. So out to the stone on Scrapfaggots Green the villagers went and edged it back to its place. From that moment, all the strange activity stopped. They later found out however, that one last trick had been played before the replacement of the stone. A woman who kept rabbits, arrived home to find them all in the chicken coup with the chickens! So what was the cause of all these disturbances?

These upsets, although trivial, were witnessed by nearly everyone in the village and some of them would have required super human strength, ruling out the possibility of any foul play. Earth Mysteries enthusiasts would say that the stone at Scrapfaggots Green was a pagan standing stone or markstone, and the removal of this stone would release the earth energies flowing into it, causing poltergeist activity to occur. Or perhaps the villagers of Great Leighs were correct in their assumption, that it was the witch herself who was causing all the mysterious happenings.

Records show that there was indeed a witch who came from Great Leighs by the name of Ann Hewghes who was brought to trial at he nearby Chelmsford Assizes in 1621. For various misdemeanors performed on the nights of the witches sabbats, the old Celtic quarter days of Imbolc, Feb. 1st, Beltane April 30th, Lughnasadh Aug. 1st and Samhain Oct. 31st, she was put to death at the stake. As burning of witches did not take place after the reformation, this form of execution seems quite strange. However, among the crimes Ann Hewghes committed was the murder of her husband which was considered petty treason and punishable by burning at the stake. She was buried on the spot and covered by a stone to keep her down. There is no record where this spot was but crossroads were traditionally the burial place of witches. Bones and ashes were said to have been found beneath the stone at Scrapfaggots Green and incidentally, scrapfaggot is an old Essex name for a witch.

The stone which turned up at the village pub can still be seen. You will not find it at the dog and gun however, but at the St Annes Castle Inn. It seems that one night, three men from the pub tried to carry off the stone, still known as the witches stone, to no avail. Upon investigation, the stone was found to be too small to be the same one that covered the witches grave, but could it be a fragment of the original stone? The bulldozer that widened the road could quite easily have broken it and a piece found its way to the pub.

The fact that the stone is now at St Annes Castle Inn is interesting. The pub is one of the oldest ion England and is haunted by an old lady called Anne. Some say it is he witch herself who has taken up residence at the Inn, arriving with the stone that for so long kept her down.

A strange story but a true one. Whatever the case, the facts remain. I'll leave you to decide for yourself.


Notes.
The image above was published with the original article and is by Jim Kirkwood.

The Sacred Flame

Jim Kirkwood, aka Lucifaere, The Ancient Technology Cult, Beyond the Fields We Know, has been writing Electronic Music since the late 1980’s when he stepped back from fronting a black metal band to explore a solo career in instrumental music. He has his own unique style of Gothic EM which moves easily between huge symphonic slabs of music, dark ambiance and sequencer driven soundscapes, inspired by the fringe side of life - strange esoteric cults and religion, conspiracy theories, ancient mythology and civilisations, sci-fi and fantasy . Jim was one of the founding editors of ASH Magazine, and he contributed several thought provoking articles to the magazine. He was artist in residence between 1988 and 1991 and he produced 24 drawings for the publication in total. The article submitted here was first published in issue no. 1, Autumn 1988, which went on sale almost exactly twenty years ago today - happy birthday to us! To sample Jim's comprehensive music catalogue click here, or view his brand new website here.

The Sacred Flame

by Jim Kirkwood

Kyrie Eleison.

The air is heavy with incense and the sound of a strange chant. I glance across the small chapel to a statue of Mary the mother of God. I like Mary, which I'm told is unusual for one of a protestant background. It seems only a short step from Mother of God to Mother God, yet the Christian faith is still content with the masculine half of the Tao and gets nervous when the subject of God and sexual equality is brought up.

For the third time in my life I am attending a Roman Catholic church. It is exactly twenty one years since the first, confused encounter. A priest dressed in white walks around the perimeter of the church and back to the altar. The white robe reminds me of something, a Druid I think. I wonder why they walk round the church carrying a burning censer and a crucifix on a pole. Then I realise he has just formed a circle around the people. A different kind of magic.

This time I am singing along with the rest, I now know what the strange chant means. Children are playing in the aisles and the music is accompanied by two ladies playing guitar and keyboards making an ethereal sound that echoes round the chapel. The priest, a Dominican brother, talks about love and reads from the Gospel of John, the gospel most favoured by the Celtic church and the Christian mystics down through the centuries. It is the gospel of fire, so called because of the strong image used in the opening chapter of an eternal flame burning in a sea of darkness. Tolkein used exactly the same image in his book, the Silmarillion, when writing the creation myths of Middle-Earth.

The idea is of course borrowed from the religion of the Magi and it is interesting that the three wise men who followed a star to the birthplace of Christ, were themselves Magi and astrologers from Persia. The worship of fire forms an essential part of the religion of the Persians, called Zoroastrians after their founder Zoroaster who lived, according to Parsee tradition, between 660 and 583 BC. The element of fire though, was sacred to the Persians long before Zoroaster. The worship of Mithras, a sun god, can be traced back to 1500 BC and there are many aspects of this god which have been attributed to Christ, especially concerning his birth. A hymn, sung to Mithras also reveals importance of the sacrifice of blood. "Thou hast saved us also by pouring out the blood eternal". It is It is an interesting fact that Christ claimed to baptise with fire and his death coincided with a solar eclipse.

Apart from the Findhorn community, what do Christians and pagans have in common? To have asked this question a few centuries ago, the answer would have been the stake. Heretics made just as good burning as witches. But it is 1988 and the law, for the moment, is on our side.

The answer is simple, yet it would seem difficult for most to accept. We walk the same earth and breathe the same air. The fire of the sun gives us light and warmth to good and bad alike and the same water sustains all life. If we can agree that there is only one power in and around, creating and maintaining all the elements of life forms dependent upon these elements, then we have found the supreme harmony between our apparently different religions.

Whatever name we chose to give this one power, whether we see it as a trinity or a duality, this one power has poured out His/Her blessing through the elements on all, regardless of their religion or beliefs. This article is the first in a series on the elements, and in particular, the elements as seen from the Christian point of view.

In the closing chapters of the excellent book by Marion Bradley, The Mists of Avalon, Morgaine of the fairies enters the Christian chapel of Mary at Glastonbury where she discovers a statue of St Brigid and recognises the goddess of that name. At last she sees, after a lifetimes struggle with a bigoted Christian church, that the powers that be were not limited to working in the way that she thought they should. The goddess had been reborn in Mary and Brigid and her worship continued.

St Brigid, the abbess of Kildare was born on the 1st of February 450 AD at Fockhart near Dundalk. Her life and that of the Celtic triple goddess Brigid have become so interwoven over the centuries as to be almost inseparable. One particularly close link is that of the element of fire. A perpetually burning fire among the Druid oak groves in the central plain of Ireland was part of the ritual worship of the goddess. When the abbey of Kildare was built on that site the flames did not die but were kept alive by St Brigid and her nuns.

As hinted at in the above mentioned book, the early Celtic church did indeed share much in common with the pagans and the fire of Brigid could be seen right up until the reformation. Today only the ruins remain, but who knows, the wheel turns. The oaks may grow again and the fire rekindled on the plain of Ireland.

The writings of St Francis, himself heavily influenced by the early Celtic church, left us a rich legacy of their beliefs and practices. Brother sun and sister moon are familiar to all of us. His faith was simple, and like the druids he worshipped his God mostly in the great outdoors. The elements, far from being static, to him were living beings with whom he shared his life. This was not a romantic ideal that he lived. At the end of his life, his eyes had to be cauterised with a white hot iron. These words are his reaction to being told what the treatment would be.

"My brother fire, outdoing all things in splendour the Most High
created you mighty, fair and useful. Be kind to me this hour,
be courteous, for I have long loved you in the lord."

Such a belief in the elements as living beings figured very strongly in the religion of the Hebrews.

"Who makest the winds thy messengers,
fire and flames thy ministers."

"Who maketh his angels spirits;
his ministers a flaming fire."

Psalms 104 v4

Above are the same quotations. The first, a modern translation from the RSV bible. The second from the older King James version. The difference between the two give us some understanding as to why the modern Christian fails to see anything spiritual within the elements. One quotation implies that God merely uses creation for a purpose. The other reveals that the elements are living, thinking, moving beings.

In the Hebrew/Christian tradition the archangel Michael was the master of the element of fire as well as being the guardian angel of the nation of Israel. The other three archangels, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel being air, water and earth respectively. Such designations of angels to the elements and cardinal points was an essential part of the belief system of the ancient Hebrews, long before the kabbalah came on the scene. It was during the bronze age, 1200 BC, that the Hebrew peoples, wandering for forty years in the wilderness, developed the idea that the four archangels stood at the cardinal points to protect them, each holding a key to one of the four elements, which were believed to be the weapons of God's judgement. The arrival of Christianity saw the designation of the elements to the Holy spirit, the symbol of fire being a single flame. belief in the angels did not cease, but they lost their elemental significance, being seen more as messengers and rescuers than interacting with the powers of nature.

J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S.Lewis, apart from being very good friends, were also strong advocates of the Christian faith and much of what they believed can be read in their books, Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. In Tolkein's works, angels, or divine spirits, took the form of wise old men with supernatural powers, an idea straight out of the old testament and certainly a prominent feature of the Celtic church where angelsoften appeared as beggars in disguise to test the faith of the religious. Gandalf, the wizard/angel who walked middle-earth dressed like a beggar in grey rags, also possessed one of the three elemental rings of power, Narya the ring of fire. The other two were Vilya and Nenya of the elements of air and water.

According to Robert Graves, the colours of these three rings, white, red and blue, were a reoccurring sequence symbolising the lunar-vegetation goddess as new, full and old moon and as maiden, bride and crone, of which Brigid is certainly an example.

This great work of fantasy, which borrows so much from the mythologies of the Celts and Norse interwoven with Christian ideals, presents us with a vision of marriage between heaven and earth to which both pagan and Christian can easily relate. It is a vision of the past, a vision of the Christianity of Jesus the gentle carpenter from Nazareth whose parables were full of the elements of nature so beloved of the Celtic church.

It is also a vision of the future once this dark age has received the sacred flame. I'll see you there.

Kyrie Eleison

Credits
ASH Magazine Autumn 1988 cover art by Jim Kirkwood
Celtic Cross and Dragon by Jim Kirkwood (was published in the same issue as this article).
Brigid by Paul Atlas-Saunders (not part of the original article).

Beli Mawr

This article was submitted for inclusion in The Lighthouse Vol. 2 No. 2 - the lost issue, and it is with great pleasure that I can now finally publish it for all to read. Beli is the earliest known deity of Britain. Very little is known about him for sure as his origins are lost in the thick smog of unrecorded history that predates the dark ages. Glastonbury artist and author Yuri Leitch goes in search of his origins.

Beli Mawr

The Origins of an Ancient British Deity
by Yuri Leitch

Beli Mawr is the father god of ancient Britain, the Dis Pater of pre-Christian Europe. In Ireland he is Bile, husband of Dana, mother of the famous Tuatha de Danaan. Beli and Don are the British counterparts of the Irish Bile and Dana; all are Celtic. Links have been made between Beli and the Babylonian god Bel because of the obvious similarity between the names, however this remains subjective. Yet there is a link between Beli and the Orient in an obscure piece of folklore which gives Beli a Phoenician origin.

In a Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology by Marian Edwards and Lewis Spence a story is given, that in far ancient Phoenicia there was a huge tower from the top of which the entire world could be seen. One day three men upon the tower; Ith, Beli and Mile espy Ireland. So won over are they by Ireland's beauty that they decide to live there. It now being known for sure that the ancient Phoenicians had much interaction with Ireland and Cornwall, the above story could hold some hidden truth.

All that is known for sure is that Beli is a Gaelic personification of Dis Pater the God of Death and the Underworld. In British he is Beli, In Irish he is Bile (pronounced Bill-lay) and to the Formorians (the ancient race that lived in Ireland before the Tuatha de Danaan) he is Balor. The Gaelic root syllable of Beli, Bile and Balor is Bel, which means "to die".

Beli is the husband of Don, Don is the ancient goddess of fertility of Britain. Their offspring are called the Children of Don and are also known as the children of light. Metaphorically, it is from the darkness of death, i.e. emptiness, nothingness, that "light" can spring. The Children of Don as a pantheon of deities are symbolic of different enlightenment's and knowledge. Celtic mythology is full of heroic characters who venture into the underworld or who come back from the realms of death, with learnt or gained treasures that would then benefit mankind or the world about them. That illusive divine spark, that bright idea, that initiator of motivation, that guiding light ij the darkness of despair, and that big bang of universal creation all come from the darkness that Beli is.

The light of the children of Don and their descendants was their creed for living. Druidically it was expressed (as in all things Celtic, in a tinity) as the Three Pillars of Light, a three fingered symbol of enlightenment; that which was, is and will be as one. In later centuries this light and the creed that it followed would be symbolised by the motif of the Three Crowns of the Wise men, a possible ironic return to the oriental source of Beli Mawr.

The myth-smiths of early medieval heraldry , forming noble blood lines of descent with stories of picture symbols paint a scene of enigmatic lineage. The Three Crowns as an emblem shine back (and forward, outside of time) through history. Connecting the likes of St Helena of Colchester and the tragic but devoted King Arthur back to the source.

12th century heraldic artists give Beli Mawr, the god-king of Britain, the coat of arms of the Three Golden Crowns upon a dark blue background. Orion's belt of heraldic expression. In a time before television, in an ancient time even before writing. When fingers drew symbols in the sand, the night sky was an open story book and the characters within it were known to all. The great expanse of dark nothingness was the all encompassing father of the underworld/otherworld - Beli Mawr.

As Balor the Formorian the bright burning ball of fire - the Sun, was his all consuming eye, the beautiful shining moon that governed the seasons of farming his beloved wife and the Queen of Heaven, Goddess of fertility - Don. The bright shining myriad of stars and constellations of the heavens were their children of light. Known in the east as Angels and to the Vikings (of the great Odin with his one eye) as Elves. To the Celts they were known as the Faerie, beings of light from beyond the veil.

Yuri Leitch Original Drawing Found!

The beautiful pencil drawing below was found today buried deep within my publishing archive. It was originally submitted to be included in The Lighthouse Vol. 2 No. 2 - the lost issue!

I am very happy to have found it, and it is reproduced it here as part of the ongoing archive project. Please visit the official website of artist Yuri Leitch here, where you can view all the latest art from Yuri.

The Michael Line the Qabalah and the Tarot

It is with great pleasure that I can now republish this article by Glastonbury based writer and mystic Paul Weston. It first appeared in ASH magazine No. 11 Winter 1991. The drawing of Adam Albion Kadmon is by Kerry Horrigan, and was published with the original article in ASH. The pencil drawing by Yuri Leitch, was inspired by his attendance on the 1991 Rally, and it was featured on the front cover of ASH No. 11 (left). I have reproduced a high resolution copy at the end of Paul's article, from the original, for your enjoyment. The slightly revised article which is republished here was featured in the Glastonbury based Avalon magazine in 1999.

The Michael Line, the Qabalah and the Tarot

by Paul Weston

In July 1990, during a visit to Glastonbury with my friend and psychic questing colleague of the time, Alex Langstone, I had a wild idea. Why not try and traverse the entire length of the famous St Michael leyline during the Mayday Bank holiday weekend (a time when the sites along it are alleged to align with sunrise)? The pace we would set led to the event being named the Michael Line Rally. It was conceived of as a holiday, a pilgrimage, and an experiment. Some sort of activity other than simple site-seeing was intended for each place we visited. Perhaps a meditation or ritual of some kind. The sites represented a tremendous diversity of aspect. A theme was needed to link them together, to provide some conceptual continuity. I was looking for something that could incorporate the idea of pilgrimage through the multi-faceted sites, within the continuum of earth energy currents of the St Michael force and its counter-balance, the newly formulated St Mary Line, which weave their way around the basic line of sites. (For a full explanation of the Michael/Mary interaction, see The Sun and the Serpent by Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst.) I put my mind to work.

In the extraordinary Green Stone of Graham Phillips and Martin Keatman there is an episode known as the “Lights of Knowledge” Quest. From my association with Andrew Collins I knew details of this not mentioned in the published version. The main point is that in traversing most of the Michael Line, heading down towards Cornwall, Graham Phillips came to believe that various sites along it resonated with the energies of the Qabalah in an orderly sequence, so that a coherent Tree of life could be drawn with them mapped out upon it.

For what follows I have to assume some prior knowledge of the Qabalah in the reader. Here’s a listing of various sites assigned to the Tree of Life. See if they feel right to you or not.

Kether. The Merry Maidens stone circle.

Chokmah. St. Michael’s Mount.

Binah. Dozmary Pool, Roche Rock, Hurlers stone circle area.

Chesed. Brentor.

Geburah. Crediton.

Tiphereth. Glastonbury.

Netzah. Avebury, Silbury Hill.

Hod. White Horse of Uffington, Wayland’s Smithy area.

Yesod Dorchester on Thames.

The Merry Maidens stone circle is not normally considered to be a part of the alignment. In recent years Miller and Broadhurst’s dowsing work has suggested it does connect to the main current. A Malkuth site was never designated. I opted for Bury St Edmunds as a workable possibility.

The Michael Line has sometimes been thought of as a possible spinal column of a Blakean Albion figure. This is not conceived of in the sense of physical earthworks in the manner that the Glastonbury Zodiac landscape supposedly models giant effigies. It somehow lives in an inner realm of the nation’s consciousness. A Suffolk village named Eye has influenced views on which end of the line the head would be. Central to Qabalistic lore is a giant cosmic being named Adam Kadmon on whom the Tree of Life can be drawn. His feet are in the earthly realms, his head at the Crown of Creation. The path of High Magic lies in realising that cosmic figure is latent within us all and can be activated, thus raising us to our highest, fullest, most total capacities. In the specific physical locations on this figure of the different spheres of the Qabalah, a similarity can be seen with the Yogic concept of the chakra centres of energy along the spinal column. The middle pillar of the Qabalah correspond s to the spinal column of Adam Kadmon and ourselves. There are specific practices arising out of the Golden Dawn tradition for working with and energising the centres of this middle pillar. Knowing that Blake was aware of the Qabalah, I didn’t find it hard to broadly equate Albion with Adam Kadmon. I wondered how far, working with Graham Phillips’ material, the analogy could be profitably extended? Maybe the giant’s head was in Cornwall?

Adam Albion Kadmon

As manifested through the St Michael Leyline

I began to toy with the idea of taking it as read that, in some archetypal realm, an Albion figure exists along the Michael line and that treating it as a kind of Adam Kadmon and playing Qabalistic games with it would be doing it a favour. My attitude was to treat it as an experiment with reality. Believe it and see what happens as a result of believing it. I also felt that Adam Albion was generally conceived of as being distinctly male. I didn’t think it was taking too many liberties with Qabalistic thought to think of the figure as androgynous in some way. It was in keeping with the theory of the Qabalah, if not always the practice. This idea could be taken further with the concept of the dual Michael/Mary energies that wind, like a caduceus, around the spinal column, in the manner of the Ida Pingala currents of Kundalini yoga.

As pilgrims of the path of light, we would start at the source, the crown, trying to fill ourselves up with light and take it down through ourselves, through Albion following the downward eastern path of its manifestation in the sunrise orientation. By the end, hopefully, we would have helped to in some way activate the centres of this figure and their corresponding areas in ourselves. This was the plan to get the line humming.

The middle pillar would be our centre of gravity and the caduceus of Michael/Mary a continual balancing process throughout the journey. I felt that the Middle Pillar sites needed the Qabalistic cosmic figure emphasised, but how to do it? I also knew that Graham Phillips had done some unpublished work using the Tarot in the landscape. He believed that sometimes certain sites embodied the aspects of particular cards. Once this was understood the card could be used as a gateway into the inner realms of the place. In the Golden Dawn/Crowley tradition the Tarot cards are assigned to different places on the Tree of Life. The 22 Trumps correspond to the paths between the Sephiroth. Regarding the middle pillar, the path from Kether down to Tiphereth is Atu II, the High Priestess. Tiphereth to Yesod is XIV Temperance. Yesod to Malkuth, XXI the World.

I looked at the Michael Line sites that corresponded to the middle pillar of the Qabalah and the Tarot cards that joined them to see if there might be any possibilities for visualisation pathworkings. What I found was so apt and fertile for creative exploitation I could hardly believe it possible. I shall give a detailed description of these examples, and how they were used, as it possibly gives the essence of the feel of our journey.

Glastonbury Abbey’s ruined Mary chapel was the place I chose to enter the realm of Atu II, the High Priestess, linking Kether with Tiphareth. Its floor no longer exists and the crypt Chapel of St Joseph of Arimathea beneath it has now effectively merged with it, creating one vibrant space. We sat in front of the altar focusing, in our imaginations, on a cross that used to sit atop it in those days. A point of blue light emanated outwards from it filling the whole place, until seeming to have become a transparent veil with the pillars of the Temple and Qabalah, at either side of it. Behind the blue light, the cross faded, leaving the outline and sense of presence of a female form. With this the veil parted, revealing the Virgin Mary in a Queen of Heaven Isis aspect, seated on a throne. Behind her, steps led up to a door opening onto the landscape we had travelled from Cornwall, in particular the Kether Merry Maidens site.

The Qabalistic sphere of Yesod is concerned with the astral realms. It incorporates lunar and water symbolism. Graham Phillip’s Yesod site was at Dorchester in Oxfordshire. This is the place where the Michael Line and the River Thames cross. To bring the energy from Tiphareth to Glastonbury, we would pathwork with the Temperance card. The particular one that had inspired me was in the Mythic Tarot, in which the figure represented (often the Archangel Raphael), was Iris, the Rainbow Goddess, and which featured a rainbow as a prominent part of its imagery.

Now think of all the many versions of this card you may have seen and try to picture our scene. It is dusk by the banks of the Thames in early May. The evening star hangs in the heavens and reflects rippling in the river’s waters. Around a lantern at the water’s edge we sit now, closing our eyes. In our imaginations the light of the lamp expands outwards, through and around us, until an egg of glowing energy encompasses us. Just beyond we begin to see, as if in daylight on the bank, a shimmering wavelet of light that condenses into an ever clearer form. The Rainbow Angel of Temperance stands tall and serene before us. One foot is in the waters of the river and one is on the bank. In each hand is a chalice. One is gold and is filled with the solar aspects of the Michael Line. The other is silver and of the Thames and Mary. Endlessly, gracefully, the Angel pours the contents of the chalices between them. Eternal equipoise in the harmony of the two currents at this site. In the mid-distance the Dorchester landscape blurs as a giant rainbow arches across the sky. As it reaches the ground on the left we see Hod with the White Horse of Uffington and Wayland’s Smithy. On the right we see Netzah, Avebury and Silbury Hill. In the centre, just beneath the rainbow, in the far distance, we see Glastonbury Tor. We try to feel a sense of energies moving through the landscape to find their harmonisation at Dorchester.

Bury St Edmunds proved to be a good Malkuth. Its ruined Abbey provided the setting for the Qabalistic climax to our epic journey. Two ruined pillars, once joined as an arch, formed the frame for an imagined recapitulation of our complete travels to that point. We saw ourselves dressed as monks and pilgrims travelling from site to site and finally emerging through the gateway between the pillars to rejoin our physical bodies sitting nearby. We then saw, using Atu XXI, the World card as a jumping off point, the figure of Albion flanked on either side by St Michael and the Virgin Mary. Behind Albion, on the horizon, the sun appeared, ascending, and as it moved just above him, Michael and Mary both reached a hand out into it, and on doing so, it became a crown which they placed upon his head. Mission accomplished. A rendition of Blake’s Jerusalem was in order regardless of what any passing tourists may have thought.

The Michael Line Rally was carried out in full in 1991 and 92. In 1997, now living in Glastonbury, I felt the need to try the journey again when the General Election was announced for Mayday. It seemed likely that the archetypes and energies of the sacred landscape would be massively switched on. Sure enough, in the week leading up, I had a major brainstorm in which a flood of further Qabalistic Tarot imagery enabled me to make good use of the complete Major Arcana linking all of the spheres. As we travelled the line I did wonder if this cerebral Qabalah was imposing a structure onto the landscape that was not appropriate, however much it seemed apt to me.

On returning I discovered that, during the course of our journey, at a place near the course of the Mary current, a crop formation had appeared in the form of a complete Qabalistic Tree of life with all 10 sephiroth and the 22 paths between them. Regardless of how it arrived there, the concept of “hoax” would have to be re-defined in order to accommodate its synchronistic levels of meaning. Crop circles have been appearing for a long time now. A Tree of Life could have manifested on numerous occasions. As it is, it waited until a group of people were travelling the landscape carrying out detailed Qabalistic pathworkings at sacred sites (and not that many people are doing such things anyway). This was all the affirmation I needed. My work with the Michael Line continues to develop and represents one of the great joys of my life.

St Michael Line Rally 1991 drawing (with personalised inscription)
by Yuri Leitch. Click on image to view larger version.

The White Lady

This meditational piece first appeared in The Lighthouse No.1 Vernal Equinox 1993, and was partially re-written in readiness for inclusion in The Lighthouse Volume 2, No. 2 Winter 2000 - the lost issue! It is the re-written article reproduced here. The drawing of the White Lady by David Taylor, appeared with the original article in TL No. 1, and is reproduced here. The photographs are from my own collection and have been added, as always, for your viewing pleasure. So without further ado, let us enter into the secret pantheistic realms of Nature...

The White Lady
A Meditation of Communion with the Spirit of Nature
by Alex Langstone

One of the most beautiful places that I have had the pleasure of visiting has to be the White Lady waterfall at Lydford Gorge on the western flank of Dartmoor. There is a legend at this place of a white lady who appears on moonlit nights; standing within the white lance of the falls. Her hair becomes the tumbling luminous white liquid and her voice the rushing cacophony of cascading water that infinitely caresses the rock-face upon which is glides.

There is another legend also of a lady called Kitty, and it is thought that she fell into the river, where she drowned. Her ghostly presence can be seen each spring at dusk on the night of the new moon.

The gorge is an enchanted place of mystery and magic: it is indeed a haunted glade, where one can expect to see elves and sprites flitting between tree and river. Tall slender birch trees sway each side of the river, and a footpath leads away from the falls in both directions. There is a small bridge that leads to a path which leads to the Devil's cauldron, a huge cavernous cleft deep within the gorge, where the River Lyd boils and bubbles away in honour of the old ones. Truly a place of power! But I hear a feminine voice on the breeze, gently calling from the waterfall. It is the Soul of Nature...

The Pathworking.
Make whatever usual arrangements required for relaxation in readiness for meditation. Close your eyes. See yourself standing at the base of a mighty waterfall. You can hear the roar of the water as it cascades down a sheer drop of a 100 feet or more. Although it is only a narrow fall, its power is felt. Feel the clean clear water gently splashing all around. There is a dampness in the air, although not unpleasant, rather invigorating and fresh as a spring morning. Breathe in the cool clean air, feel your body being cleansed both inside and out. Hear the trees of the protective woodland that surround this place rustling in the gentle breeze, and breathe in the cool damp, clean air.

Gradually, as you become accustomed to the sheer beauty of the surroundings, you see in your minds eye a tiny droplet of water resting on your brow. Concentrate on this image for a few seconds. Then see it transform into a tiny white light, and as it does this it starts to move away from your head towards the waterfall. As it moves it grows in size until you see a round white disc, like the full moon, floating in front of the waterfall. As you watch, the round disc disappears into the waterfall. Look at the point that the disc entered the fall, you can see a portal opening, a rippling of reality, then a spark of light manifests, and from this light emerges a glowing spirit, an ethereal shining lady. She is dressed in white billowing gowns. She stands before you, and although she seems solid, you realise that she is part of the waterfall. Look at her face, she is smiling. She wears a silver crown decked with flowers upon her head, and her hair is long and flowing, shimmering and shining in the reflected sunlight.She stands tall and proud, for we have woken the spirit of the waterfall; the White Lady, the ancient holy spirit of the waters and of the earth, look into her eyes. They show beauty and compassion, strength and wisdom. She holds in her hands three flowers, a yellow daffodil, a red rose and a purple Iris. The daffodil symbolised creativity, and the life giving powers of the sun, the rose for compassion and our life-blood, and the Iris for wisdom and understanding. She throws the three flowers into the water and as she does so we see creativity, compassion and wisdom flowing as one in the waters of life. For the rivers of this land are the very veins and arteries of the Earth Goddess.

Look up once more. You see the lady is standing in the river. She starts to move towards you and she lifts her hands to her head and plucks a flower from her crown, this she hands to you. Take note of its colour and type, for this is your own special symbol of the Spirit of Nature.

She returns to the waterfall and holds up her hands, palms facing you. Out of her right palm a green ray of light emerges, and from her left palm a white ray emerges. These move towards us and form a circle of green and white light surrounding us. The energy of this circle of light links us to the the White Lady, the waterfall and the land itself. As we watch the energy from the circle spirals upwards towards the sky, and downwards into the earth. As above, so below!

Concentrate on the image of the lady again. She is glowing, radiating her power. She moves towards us and merges with the energies of the circle of light surrounding us and we enter in communion with her. Listen to what she may have to tell us...

The White Lady begins to draw the green and white light from the circle back into her being, and as she does this you become at one with Nature, you hear the land sing! The White Lady is now shining brightly, and you realise that She is Elen, Sovereign Goddess of Albion. She takes the remainder of the green light into her heart and our hearts open up to her sacred song! She turns and slowly merges with the waterfall once more, as she disappears, green and white energy shoots out from the water like lasers into the surrounding landscape, in every direction, to the four winds, into the sacred waters, into the earth and the sky and into the fire within each of us.

She is gone from vision, but remains within our hearts. We know She is everywhere, in every tree, flower, stone. In all rivers, seas and lakes. A part of every swelling bud, leaf and stalk. She is within us and you, for She is the Spirit of Nature and is omnipresent. Stand and listen to the sound of the rushing water, feel your feet firmly upon the ground and when you are ready end the meditation.

The Lighthouse: volume 2 number 2.

A lost issue of The Lighthouse will be published on the ASH Magazine Archive soon!

A complete mock-up of volume 2, number 2 has recently resurfaced among some paperwork that I was sorting through. The issue was due to be published in the summer of 2000, but personal events escalated, and the magazine project was abandoned.

Watch this space for further details soon...