Merlin: Master of Magick

127 Pages·2010·0.78 MB·English

by  Gordon Strong

About the Author
Gordon Strong has been involved in magick for more than forty years. He is a
writer, a teacher, a musician, and a scholar of English literature, Arthurian
legend, magick, and the Tarot. He gives talks and conducts workshops on many
subjects, including magick and the Tarot. Gordon lives in Somerset, England,
where he was born—within sight of the Glastonbury Tor—and grew up.
Please visit his website at www.gordonstrong.co.uk.
Llewellyn Publications
Woodbury, Minnesota
Merlin: Master of Magick © 2010 by Gordon Strong.
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First e-book edition © 2010
E-book ISBN: 9780738723020
Cover illustration © 2009 by Nenad Jakesevic
Cover design by Kevin R. Brown
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Merlin, who knew the range of all their arts, Had built the King his havens, ships and
halls, Was also Bard, and he knew the starry Heavens; The people called him wizard.
—TENNYSON
I . . . am also of the race of the Starry Heavens, a spark of that Mighty Flame, and
within me also is that Power . . . I aspire toward that radiant Source of all Power. O
thou, the Eternal, Whose spark dwells within me, I strive to realise Thee within
myself.
—W.E. BUTLER
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards,
for they are subtle and quick to anger.
—J.R.R. TOLKIEN
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Portrait of a Wizard
An Extraordinary Coming
Wunderkind
Birth of a King
Warrior and Wizard
Divine Madness
Deliverance
Lady of the Lake
The Quest
Magickal Legacy
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
First of all I want to thank Alan Richardson for introducing me to my
publishers, Llewellyn Worldwide. Alan and I have the kind of friendship which
endures because we don’t see each other that much. Next, I am deeply grateful to
Caterina Fusca, my acquisitions editor at Llewellyn. Through the alchemy of her
e-mails, Caterina was always encouraging during the time I was writing this
book.
I also owe a debt to that wonderful coterie of writers on magick whose
insights have encouraged me over the years. Dion Fortune, W. E. Butler, W. G.
Gray, Israel Regardie, Col. Seymour, and Aleister Crowley are, alas, no more
and we shall not see their like again. Fortunately, Gareth Knight, Dolores
Ashcroft-Nowicki, and R. J. Stewart are still around, and their knowledge was
just as valuable to my research.
Finally, I want to thank my beloved partner, Shama, for just being there. Her
presence enhances everything in my life.
Introduction
Merlin—as magnificent in myth as in reality—was the father of magick and the
equal of kings. For those involved in magick and those others who might just be
curious about what makes up the magickal world, Merlin remains the archetypal
magician. He is the first and the best—just as the Beatles have that stature in
pop music. His magick has a particular ambiance, solid and earthy, yet at the
same time oozing endless mystery—part of the world and yet not quite.
If he is chronicling the life of a man who constantly hovers between myth and
reality, the writer must adopt an approach that best suits his subject. If that
subject is also a magician, then any biographer must adopt a strategy akin to
playing three-dimensional chess. A linear account of a character whose nature
tends toward constantly hopping from one reality plane to another would not do
justice to Merlin. More importantly, the reader would not be given the chance to
fully embrace a wizard in all his wondrous diversity. Thus, in this narrative, shifts
in time and space occur, and the writer feels this should be so. Any difficulties of
interpretation that the reader might experience will be far outweighed by his
gaining a deeper understanding of Merlin.
Not for Merlin the temple and the orchestrated ritual; that would be too close
to the conventions of the court and the monastery to suit his temperament.
Although he is well aware of the power of words, as his lyrical prophecies show,
he is a man of inspiration. The spirit of the Bard is in him, and like the great
English Romantic poets of the nineteenth century—Byron, Shelley, and Keats—
he seeks freedom above everything else. For Merlin, true liberty can be found
only in the wildest and most distant corners of this or any other world. Although
he has a high profile in the Arthurian tales, he has too a love of solitude.
Merlin is a man of the forest and the mountain peaks. He is never happier
than when surveying the distant horizon of a world that, in magickal terms, his