Hugo_M Posted March 8, 2009 Good Day NeutralWire and Friends Merlin was a Magician or Magus, and according to answers . com: Merlin also used his magic to build Stonehenge. Merlin had magical powers that recalled his Celtic origins. Others feel the Merlin we know is a composite of any number of prophets and wizards who lived in the hills of ancient Britain. Good Bye http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0...238&sr=1-15 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeutralWire Posted March 9, 2009 Ah! Merlin! I'm planning to do a bit more research on that whole thing; I know two people who are quite up on the arthurian legends, and I want to read the '4 ancient books of wales'. A recent pm conversation with Tumoessence reminded me that some say Merlin was born at Carmarthen in Wales, and may still be imprisoned there according to legend... (He did not build Stonehenge!) NW Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apech Posted March 9, 2009 eich bein ein Merliner!! I didn't realize you were a Kennedy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yoda Posted March 9, 2009 I actually got to see the famous Kennedy compound but never attended any of their wild parties and bizarre illuminati rituals! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tumoessence Posted March 9, 2009 Ah! Merlin! I'm planning to do a bit more research on that whole thing; I know two people who are quite up on the arthurian legends, and I want to read the '4 ancient books of wales'. A recent pm conversation with Tumoessence reminded me that some say Merlin was born at Carmarthen in Wales, and may still be imprisoned there according to legend... (He did not build Stonehenge!) NW The Black Book of Camarthen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeutralWire Posted March 9, 2009 The Black Book of Camarthen Right, that's one of those four books. Lots of other stuff about Taliesin too, who I find extremely interesting. Looking forward to this when I get a moment. NW Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeutralWire Posted March 10, 2009 What are the names of these 4 books? Maybe these ones?: http://www.eastonpressbooks.com/leather/pr...t.asp?code=1251 Nah, those are a couple of centuries later on and written in English. And as usual Hugo you have chosen the most expensive copy you can find! The Black book of Carmarthen was written in Welsh. Bound together with some others it features as 'Four Ancient Books of Wales' eg: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Ancient-Books...0023&sr=1-1 ... as usual I've chosen the cheapest copy I could find lol. There are also other early Arthurian romances like those of Chretien de Troyes: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Romances-...0093&sr=1-3 ... these were written in French verse. Was the druids or Celts that build the Stonehenge? Well they would be favourite, but bottom line: no-one knows for sure. All best wishes, ~NeutralWire~ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apech Posted March 10, 2009 Nah, those are a couple of centuries later on and written in English. And as usual Hugo you have chosen the most expensive copy you can find! The Black book of Carmarthen was written in Welsh. Bound together with some others it features as 'Four Ancient Books of Wales' eg: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Ancient-Books...0023&sr=1-1 ... as usual I've chosen the cheapest copy I could find lol. There are also other early Arthurian romances like those of Chretien de Troyes: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Romances-...0093&sr=1-3 ... these were written in French verse. Well they would be favourite, but bottom line: no-one knows for sure. All best wishes, ~NeutralWire~ Theres the Mabinogion (sp?) - or is that the same as the four books? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeutralWire Posted March 10, 2009 Theres the Mabinogion (sp?) - or is that the same as the four books? Sp is correct. The Mabinogion stories came out of a couple of different medieval manuscripts, one of which (The 'Red Book of Hergest') is collected in that four ancient books volume. Mabinogion was not used as a name for that collection until later on, by Lady Charlotte Guest I think, first translator of those tales into modern English. NW Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apech Posted March 10, 2009 Sp is correct. The Mabinogion stories came out of a couple of different medieval manuscripts, one of which (The 'Red Book of Hergest') is collected in that four ancient books volume. Mabinogion was not used as a name for that collection until later on, by Lady Charlotte Guest I think, first translator of those tales into modern English. NW Ah - read the Mab years ago - it was great. I love those Celtic stories - mind you I was also into Alan Garner those days - kids get all the best books (Owl Service and so on!). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeutralWire Posted March 10, 2009 I was also into Alan Garner those days - kids get all the best books (Owl Service and so on!). Oh yeh! Love that stuff. Mind you my favourite was always... you can guess... 'A Wizard of Earthsea.' And there was 'The Book of Three' as well, very Welsh. Way OT now but did you ever see 'The Dark Crystal'? Watched it again the other day, it's really good actually! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apech Posted March 10, 2009 Oh yeh! Love that stuff. Mind you my favourite was always... you can guess... 'A Wizard of Earthsea.' And there was 'The Book of Three' as well, very Welsh. Way OT now but did you ever see 'The Dark Crystal'? Watched it again the other day, it's really good actually! Yes i liked Ursula K. Le Guin(e?) and the Dark Crystal. I never read fantasy any more - I don't know why. I think I have read LotR more times than is healthy for anyone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeutralWire Posted March 10, 2009 I never read fantasy any more - I don't know why. I also stopped a while back. Personally I have a theory about it. There are lots of people who use books like that as bases for spiritual practice -- had you noticed? Taylor Ellwood and Storm Constantine... Lord of the Rings Tarot, etc. You probably know about that. I can't help noticing, esp. looking back over the Greek myths now, just how much stories are intended to naturalize a spiritual practice in oneself. That is precisely the role of mythology and it's a reflex going back a long time -- spirituality has always been connected with storytelling, and not least here, where the Bards reigned so long. I feel people are doing the same thing with the fantasies as well. The same reflex is at work. Some people do treat the LoTR like it was scripture, they will learn Elvish and so on. They are trying to bring it to life just as a Rabbi would the Torah, and it is playing a role not dissimilar to the one that the new Orphic mythologies played in Greece actually. I personally am learning Ancient Greek, where someone might learn Elvish! Sounds daft but I think it has something to it. With one difference -- there's no real practice behind it necessarily. Orpheus saw right through and was experienced in travelling to the other side; Tolkien would write about things like that too but he was no Orpheus! At a certain point I realized I needed something more real, and at that point, fantasy fell by the wayside, but I still do find some of those ideas in myself, because it awakened my imagination as a kid... I just have my priorities different and have stopped trying to get too much out of what, in the end, is entertainment. I still think, though, that fantasy came along at the right time to have that influence in the culture, opening things up and away from paradigms that existed then. I also think about gaming that way -- I notice that the excellent Phore plays D&D. I never was a big player but I really liked the idea of it. And I notice that some of the more sophisticated games, eg. Runequest, are quite on the money as far as my own view of spirituality is concerned! Which is interesting. (Mind you wasn't the designer of that a practicing shaman?) Maybe I should come back around to fantasy and try to deal with it differently now. One of the reasons I might is that I am very much using storytelling now to effect self-change. I got that practice from Milton Erickson... but somehow, I haven't yet managed to get back and actually read any fantasy in the last decade or so. Maybe the 'Dark Crystal' thing will prompt some more investigating, but the problem is, I have all this new stuff now... All best wishes, ~NeutralWire~ 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apech Posted March 10, 2009 Neut, Spot on with that analysis I think. Interested in how you use story telling as a practice - can you explain? Thnx. A. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeutralWire Posted March 10, 2009 (edited) Interested in how you use story telling as a practice - can you explain? Well you might know that the initial stages of Bardon have you working with your personality to make it more balanced & positive, get self-knowledge and find your way about, etc. This is a practice that developed out of that. I will essentially use Ericksonian techniques to tease out what needs to change, and add in other techniques too of course. I can't say too much more about it right now, but one day I hope to offer it up to my fellow Bardonists as a new technique to help with their practice -- any anyone else too of course! Essentially with storytelling you go into a trance, and this happens even with writing a story too. You use what I call 'approach technique' which means, images that remind you of key things that you are changing, and you scoop them up into a story that leads you to look at things in a different way, or express those things in a different way. What's very interesting is how incredibly similar it gets, when you add energy techniques, to what karen talks about when she explains Heilkunst. It is about putting something into yourself that has a deliberate magical effect on your system, like a seed. Stephen and Carol Lankton had a huge influence on me; they were Ericksonian and wrote some unbelievably good books about using storytelling for change, including one called 'Tales of Enchantment'. But what I discovered was that, if you put yourself into it more as a self-directed practice, it becomes a whole other thing that can have profound effects. As time has gone on I have refined it and brought in more and more of the magical techniques... I will write more on this one day. NW Edited March 10, 2009 by NeutralWire 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thelerner Posted March 10, 2009 For me creating and writing stories is therapeutic. A rorschach test, the long version of Freudian word association. Your thoughts and deeper feelings come out subtlly or not so subtlly in your writing. Many great writers function like channels, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Richard Bach, in discussing how they write tell that there first drafts are unscripted and unplotted. They write from their inner eye catching the words as they flow. Michael Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apech Posted March 10, 2009 Thanks Neut that's interesting - I hope you will be able to write more in the future. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeutralWire Posted March 10, 2009 I agree with you of course concerning how writers of fiction function. I should explain though that using stories for healing is not really the same thing. The stories might have little or no literary or artistic value, in fact you would never really consider them in that light; if you read some of Milton Erickson's stories just as stories, you would say they were very boring and pointless! But using those techniques one can make major changes in the soul in a deliberate manner, consistent with the Bardon-style practices, this is the intent. You write, knowing that what you write will cause specific images and feelings in your reality to change, rather than to access the feelings and images themselves. This happens through psychological association of images in the energy body. Many of the same things can happen working this way as happen with fiction writing too -- spontaneous things of course. But still it's not 'art' or meant to have a public audience of any kind, this is the big difference. You use diction that works rather than diction which sounds good, and you work in a specific manner. Some public stories do have a healing effect too, and I think are intended to. I remember hearing there were both Hindu and Islamic practices of healing using stories, and Pythagoras is said to have healed people by reading passages of Homer to them. But this might have been to do with their meter -- physiologically the hexameter has been studied and found to help your heart! -- see this article, Reading Hexametric Rhyme Supports Cardiac Synchronization, Especially After A Heart Attack, http://www.the-aps.org/press/journal/04/18.htm. The artistic use of writing to explore feeling-images can be very helpful in cathartic healing too of course! But there are also other ways to get at the feeling-images too for the less artistic. The practice I've been designing takes you step-by-step from a specific psychological problem to a solution in the form of a series of image-feelings and so on. Story is probably the best way to use that info. Still working on it! NW Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hugo_M Posted March 27, 2009 (edited) Thanks NeutralWire and friends I had read in a Spanish homepage that: The first book that mention Merlin is in the book known as: The History of kings of Britain by Geoffrey de Monmouth that was published 1138. The parts that talk about Merlin in that book he took from other pieces of books like: the prophecy of Britain (year 930) There Myrddin is said was living many years before year 930 and that was author itself of many prophecies, that is why Geoffrey de Monmouth put Merlin (Myrddin) in the book : history of the Kings of Britain and whit the relate of the name Arthur. They said this is a book by Merlin?: http://www.amazon.com/Wizardology-Master-D...7293&sr=1-2 Edited March 27, 2009 by HugoOlivaresMila Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
