Despite my associations with Crowley, yesterday I had some strong synchronicity with another British wizard and one whom I much prefer—Merlin. Of course, before that happened I had yet another synchronicity with Crowley, I sent an image text to a girl which featured a woman with a black eye—and then I called her “Scarlet Woman”. I read on in the Crowley biography and came to a section where Crowley gave his “Scarlet Woman” a black eye. Perhaps this happens because I live near Crowley’s birthplace, Leamington Spa, and fell into the habit of walking about there—only later did I realise he was born there.
However, I had a much stronger synchronicity with Merlin—or Merdyyn, in the old tongue. Incidentally, the “old tongue”—HP Lovecraft’s “language of the old ones”—is surely Welsh; for example, “Ry'n ni wedi cadw ffeiliau a elwir yn cwcis ar eich dyfais. Mae'r cwcis hyn.” (A clip from the Welsh government website, not from sleepless R'lyeh). As for the synchronicity, well, Merlin was a real person, obviously, (as was King Arthur) and he lived in northern Britain: he lived on a hill called Hart’s Fell (Hartsfell), and from there he could see all the forests of the land as far away as Cornwall. From there he could control the beasts of the forests—particularly the horned red stag, the hart; and, indeed, this animal was sacred to the tribe to which Merlin was attached (the Selgovae)—later the hunt for the hart was said to represent the hunt for Christ.
Strange to relate, the above happens to have a strong synchronicity with my real name; so I identify more with Merlin than with Crowley. The old story goes that Merlin had a single eye in his forehead and sat cross-legged on the mount; indeed, he was Buddhistic—he was a yogi, with his third eye (vajra) open; and this granted him power over the beasts of the fields and over the mists. The holy mount was said to have several rivers that flowed from it, and this indicates it was a primordial initiatory centre analogous to Mount Meru or Eden—also said to be the source for several rivers. Merlin was pretty much the archetypal yogi on the mountaintop, surrounded by thorns, to whom you go to seek enlightenment. Hartsfell was the initiatory centre for Britain, for Avalon—and such initiatory centres, as related by Guénon, dot the world (though they are mostly forgotten).
Indeed, it was said that to summit the mount Arthur had to play chess (“the royal game”) against Merlin—chess, with its black and white squares, represents prakriti and purusha in Hinduism. All this comes from a common Indo-Aryan tradition: Merlin was once said to be mollified by a troubadour with a “cithara” (a guitar, or an Indian sitar—just as “carmen” in Latin languages, “song” or “poem”, derives from “karma”; good karma is good music and poetry).
This relates to the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela, initiated by the Druids and said to end at Canis Majoris; hence the initiate always requires a dog to be with him, as with the Apostle James the Greater (in kabbalah dog=god)—this was the way followed by the god Lug (Lud-Apollo) and the Ligurians; and from “Lud” we get “London” (Lud-don). The path of Santiago de Compostela points to an initiatory site in Avalon—Britain being a fragment of Atlantis and Thule. The initiatory site, the place to return to the stars we descended from, being Hartsfell.
Old Crowley was a nominalist, not a realist; he thought there is nothing behind the name—a name can be changed at will. Yet I wonder if UFOs, as described here, are the archetypes—fully articulate to initiates, those who visit the spiritual centres; in other words, there is something more substantial behind language—the realists are right, behind the words stand the archetypes; and if the correct phrases are used the world will return to the cosmic order.