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 it 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...

Is George-Michael a God?

As always it is fantastic to share some of the best articles which appeared in ASH Magazine over the years. This offering is from well known midlands folklore author and publisher Bob Trubshaw, and is the second of the three articles he wrote for us to appear in the archive. So without further ado, we let Bob ask the question...

Is George-Michael a God?

by Bob Trubshaw

Fear not, this is not hero-worship of the pop star kind. The heroes of this article are those strange saints, George and Michael. Their pervasive enigmatic appeal has been the subject of much previous debate and not a few books. Neither are very Christian by upbringing - Michael is mentioned but once in the Bible (Revelation 12:7-9) and, in the words of Pope Gelasius in 494 ce George was "one of those saints whose names are justly revered by men, but whose actions are known only to God." (Cited in [1]).

Michael came to popularity in a succession of spectacular visions from the 490s to the early 8th century. These were mostly experienced in elevated places and the eminent 18th century antiquarian, John Aubrey, remarked how frequently St Michael's churches stood on high ground, or had a lofty steeple. There are many associations between Michael and the Roman cult of Mercury: but it must also be recognised that Mercury shares the attributes of the Celtic god Lugh [2]. Many have speculated that the interest in St Michael is a thinly disguised continuation of the pagan worship of Lugh.

The development of St George as an eastern saint was pre-dated by the now lost cult of St Mena, who shared similar attributes - including the essential of dragon-slaying. Mena in turn, seems to have been the successor to an even more ancient demon-destroyer - near Alexandria a 4th century church to St Mena was discovered, and underneath was an Egyptian temple with figures of Horus triumphing over Set [3].

George is a late intruder into Britain - not until 1222 did the National Synod of Oxford institute St Georges day as a national holiday. He may not have been recognised as the patron saint of England until 1395. Although in 1415 George's Day was recognised as one of the chief feasts, in 1969 the Vatican reduced his status to a local saint [4]. It is worth noting that the previous patron saint of England was King Edward the Confessor.

Alternatively, it is possible to trace George back to the Babylonian deity Bel, who slayed the sea- beast Tiamat. In the British traditions Belinus was, like George, usually depicted mounted on a horse. Beli slew his brother, Bran, just as George kills the Turkish Knight in innumerable mummer's plays. In folklore George is closely associated with Green George and other Green Men [5]. He appears to signify the return of like after winter, which fits in well with George's Day on April 23rd.

It seems certain therefore that George is not a late intruder into English folk customs, brought in as part of the cultural contacts of the Crusaders, but he is an authentic indigenous pagan god who was "conveniently" absorbed with the Christian career of his eastern namesake - just as , at the same time, the pagan goddess was re-introduced into the church by absorption with the
Mediterranean cult of the BVM.

Somewhat later Henry VIII seems to have deliberately replaced the "popish" St Michael with the "home grown" St George - both by altering the images on coins accordingly and within the Order of the Garter [6]. George's subsequent success is still clearly felt.

A network of inter-linked deities emerges: Horus - Mena - Bel - Belinus - Lugh - Mercury. The overlap between Lugh and Belinus is not, as many will already recognise, simply geographical. They are aspects of the same deity separated partly in time, and more especially, by the different roots of the people who migrated through Britain. It seems that paganism has not survived as a secret cult, but in full view of those who have maintained our traditional customs. And that should be no surprise to us - as Stewart states "There was no hard dividing line between orthodox and pagan worship in England at the time of George's rise to prominence. The bulk of the population was pagan, as it had always been". [7]

But what of the essential counterpart to these notorious serpent-slayers, the dragons? I have suggested previously that such dualism's should not be read, as naive Christian opinion would want us to, as a once and for all conquest of evil by good, but rather as a Tao-like dualism where the strength of the light can only be seen when surrounded by darkness [8]. Indeed many Christians appear to need reminding that the closer to the light the larger the shadow. Killing the dark aspects within oneself simply makes room for a different demon to dwell; the message of the macho monster-marauders in the masonry is that their conflict is permanent, an expression of the two inseparable aspects of the psyche.

At a much more practical level, as Eric Swift has observed, Green Dragon pubs refer to a very different animal to the Red Dragon. Earliest records suggest that the Green Dragon and George/Green Man were commonly linked together. After the Reformation, when all the saints were regarded as popish, many dragons survived their slayer. Similarly , at the accession of the Hanoverian Dynasty many a George and Dragon that had survived thus far tended to become the George and take the head of the reigning monarch as its sign [9]. It is not fortuitous that earth mysterians tend to take a special interest in pubs - there may be much to be gained apart from the essential sustenance they serve.

References.
[1] R. Stewart, Where is St George?, Blandford 1977; [2] R. Morris, Churches in the Landscape, Dent, 1989; [3] Stewart, op. cit.; [4] ibid.; [5] ibid.; [6] ibid.; [7] ibid.; [8] R. N. Trubshaw, Ancient amd Modern Myths of Dragon Slaying Saints in Hidden History, vol. 2, No. 3 & 4.; [9] E. Swift, Inns of Leicestershire, Chamberlain Music and Books, no date (c. 1975).

Illustrations.
The illustrations were not part of the original article, but have been added for visual enhancement of the articles content. Green Man drawing by Paul Atlas-Saunders. Statue of St Michael from St Michael's Mount. Photograph: Paul Atlas-Saunders.

The Winter Wildwood Mystery

This meditational piece was first published in The Lighthouse Vol. 2 No. 1 Winter 1999 - 2000. It was inspired by a vision of the Green Man in Tehidy Woods, Cornwall during 1999. Winter Wildwood illustration and magazine cover by Paul Atlas-Saunders. Yule King by Yuri Leitch

The Winter Wild Wood Mystery
A Meditation for Alban Arthan

by Alex Langstone

All is in darkness.

Gradually you see stars shining, glowing intensely in the night sky. As you become aware of your surroundings you realise that you are standing in a meadow. A heavy frost shimmers upon the ground, illuminated by the faint starlight and a slender crescent moon.

You notice that you are standing by a wooden gate, and on the other side of the gate is an ancient trackway leading to a vast woodland. You open the gate and begin your journey on the path. Your footfalls crunch upon the frosted landscape and your breath vapourises on the still night air. In the distance movement catches your eye. Your heart quickens and you increase your step. Something stirs in the approaching woodland.

Before you enter the forest you notice that dawn is breaking towards the eastern horizon. The sky is clear and soon the sun will be reborn at this sacred time, and the light of Arthur will shine across the land once again. For this is a time of beginnings and completion, death and rebirth; the sun dies and is reborn as the Child of promise.

The Sun's journey is about to begin once more as it has since the dawn of time, for in the depths of winter's darkness stirs new life, and the Oak king stirs in readiness for the waxing sun.

You now enter the winter wild wood, and again you see movement up ahead. Then at once as the Solstice Sun rises over the distant hills you enter a clearing. A huge stag greets you, his antlers rise up and he looks at you. Look into his eyes, for he is the guardian of the forest and the sacred totem of Cernunnos, of Herne, of Gwyn ap Nudd - He who leads the legendary Wild Hunt at the winter solstice; hunting out the light from the darkness, seeking out our future dreams and aspirations from the hidden depths of our souls.

As you watch him, he turns away and walks deeper into the magic forest. You feel compelled to follow him, for now is the time to use the light of the returning sun to aid us in our continuing quest. Follow the Stag-headed-one, keeper of the mysteries of the winter wild wood.

As you walk onwards you notice that the trees are getting bigger. Mighty oaks are now in abundance, their twisted branches look like ancient hands reaching out to welcome and guide you, for you are about to enter the sacred grove of the Horned God. He awaits you, and should you require his assistance and guidance, then ask for it now. Call out to him and he will answer. Spend some time in communion with the protective power of nature.

Whatever is happening now, look around you, notice that you are still in the forest but the Horned God has gone and shafts of pale winter sunlight pierce through the bare branches of the trees. You now retrace your steps, walking away from the clearing and towards the forest edge. As you leave the clearing you notice the bright red berries of the holly, which add life and colour to the woodland. You follow the path and shortly you see the mighty oaks again and you note the most sacred of all winter plants growing high up in their branches: the Mistletoe, it's gleaming white berries shining and silken, symbolic of the seed of life!

Shortly the woodland changes and you enter a Birch grove. The slender silver graceful trees form a perfect circle. You walk around the edge of the circular clearing. A Wren greets you by flitting from tree to tree. The sylvan trunks glisten in the watery sunlight. A small bubbling brook winds its way along the outer edge of the clearing. You listen to the sound of the water running over the rounded pebbles, which glow like jewels in the morning light. Take a drink from the stream. Feel the cold water refresh and cleanse you in readiness for your continued journey home.

Soon you reach the edge of the wild wood and as you leave by the old wooden gate, a Robin darts across your path from the old Yew by the gate. His sweet song greets you, the sacred song of winter. Remember what you have learned and take inspiration from what you have experienced and as you look around you the landscape fades away.

All is in darkness.

Winter God by Paul Atlas-Saunders. From the front cover of The Lighthouse Vol. 2 No. 1