Path: shell.portal.com!svc.portal.com!news1.best.com!sgigate.sgi.com!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!newsjunkie.ans.net!news0.cybernetics.net!sagittaur.cybernetics.net!papajohn From: papajohn@cybernetics.net (John Mayer) Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.satanism,alt.magick,alt.pagan,alt.mythology Subject: Re: Merlyn-Druid or Christian? Date: Sun, 9 Jul 1995 01:35:00 UNDEFINED Organization: Cybernetx Lines: 24 Message-ID: References: <3t4jia$i21@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <3t7ltn$aor@newsbf02.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: sagittaur.cybernetics.net X-Newsreader: Trumpet for Windows [Version 1.0 Rev B] Xref: shell.portal.com alt.magick.tyagi:3661 alt.satanism:20870 alt.magick:46856 alt.pagan:111530 alt.mythology:16731 In article thaxton@cyber.net (Mandy Thaxton) writes: >Why dont you read "21 Lessons of Merlin" by Douglas Monroe. I think you will >understand Merlins relationship between the christian and the Druids. He >actually was a very advanced Druid, but had strong ties with high christian >leaders. As a matter of fact, he had permission to instruct Arthur in the druid >arts by Arthurs guardians the Catholic Bishop! It's very interesting and a well >documented book on the whole Merlin Legends. I'm not too strong on modern writers putting words into the mouths of ancient personalities, but it's gonna happen anyway, so if we must do it, at least we should maintain some degree of scholarship. Norma Goodrich makes a fairly strong case (in her "Merlin") for Merlin being the person known to the Catholic church as Saint Dubricius. To say that Merlin WAS this or that is fanciful at best. We can't exclude the possibility that he was both a Druid and a church father, a practice not uncommon among the Kelts of Wales. What better place to hide than in plain sight? Most Keltic church fathers were heavily into the Druid mysteries (read "The Book of Kells"), and I see no reason Merlin may not have been pre-eminent among them. But please, don't say "Merlin WAS a (insert favorite Merlin image)..." because anyone who pretends truly to know is just...pretending! Love, Papa John