History became legend and legend became myth. There was a time of legend when King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table lived on our planet. Myth? When something so resonates with you that the truth of it is felt in your bones, that your hair bristles on your arms and you tingle, you must pay homage to this knowing.
Fact? Whether myth, legend or fact, this planet is a planet of storytellers and our purpose here is to create our story. Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon tells the story of King Arthur from the perspective of the women and showcases the transition of the very different worldviews when they collided over 1000 years ago.
In her acknowledgments, she speaks of the complexity of the sources for her work: she virtually memorized the Sidney Lanier edition of the Tales of King Arthur by ten years old and skipped school at fifteen to hide in the library of the Department of Education in Albany, New York, to read a ten-volume edition of James Frazer's The Golden Bough and a fifteen-volume set of books on comparative religions, including an enormous volume on the Druids and Celtic religions. Her reading list before she was 16 ~ whew!
Zimmer Bradley's Merlin, recognized that it is the belief of mankind which shapes the world and of all reality. He explained that his time was a powerful pivot in time, a moment to change the world. Merlin saw the change begin with the arrival of the followers of Christ: "...the views they hold are altering this world; not only in spirit, but on the material plane. As they deny the world of spirit, and the realms of Avalon, so those realms cease to exist for them. They still exist, of course; but not in the same world with the world of the followers of Christ. Avalon, the Holy Isle, is now no longer the same island as the Glastonbury where we of the Old Faith once allowed the monks to build their chapel and their monastery." As her story goes, she sees "the world once again come together, a world with room for the Goddess and for the Christ, with a leader to make us one. " A world of balance? The double scales even? The sly grin of some, the knowing grin of another ~ each soul adding weight to one side of the scale or t'other or both. The plot thickens in all of our stories.
Fast forward to 2010 and visit a new Lady of Avalon, Madeleine Marentette, holding sacred space in Canada at her retreat, Grail Springs. Read her story in the best selling Grail Springs: Holistic Detox for Body, Mind & Spirit
The day before her fabulous 7-day first annual Grail Lady Faire , Madeleine hosted a Pachamama Alliance's Awaken the Dreamer symposium. On a rainy morning beside the pristine, spring-fed Chalice Lake at Grail Springs she invited over 100 people to be seated and quieten themselves. Under a canopied tent, the Goddess-like Marentette announced her first guest speaker would be joining on the screen monitor behind her, his first ever attempt at Skype. Right on cue, Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversations with God series, greeted the delighted room.
In 15 minutes, Walsch summed up his take on the God conversations: when God first asked him to write a book and call it Conversations with God, he thought "ya, right", but knew he had to do it. After 27 books, he understood what God was saying: "You've got it all wrong". Walsch noted that he has already sold 7 million copies of his one book The New Revelations , so he wasn't trying to sell any, but highly recommends that everyone read it, as God offers possible and powerful answers to the questions facing the world. Walsch understands that it is okay to give money to third world countries to help them in their terrible plights; it is okay to open a homeless shelter in a big city; it is okay to try to help anyone and everyone, but in the long run, this aid will not make a difference. Neale Donald Walsch said that the only way we are going to evolve to a peaceful, happy race is to change our worldview. We must look to the indigenous populations around the world to understand why. Humans are connected with the animals, the oceans and the earth. What we do to the animals affects us. What we do to the environment affects us all. We are all interconnected and dependent upon each other. Humans must keep in balance with the planet.
Moving out of the despair felt by Merlin, into the concern understood by Walsch and finally we are all beginning to feel the sheer excitement of Grail Springs, where there is an understanding that the balance is shifting to a kinder world in which each individual is aware of their impact on the worldview. Go forth and Be (man/woman) Kind!
