Merovingian Mythos

The Merovingian Mythos: Its Symbolic Significance and its Roots

in the Ancient Kingdom of Atlantis by Tracy R. Twyman The Frankish King Dagobert II, and the Merovingian dynasty from which he came, have been romantically mythologized in the annals o f both local legend and modern mystical pseudo-history, but few have unders tood the true meaning and origins of their alluring mystery. The mystique tha t surrounds them includes attributions of saintliness, magical powers (derive d from their long red hair), and even divine origin, stemming from their supposed de scent from the one and only Jesus Christ. However, the importance of the divine origin of the Merovingians, and the antiquity from whence it comes, has never t o this author's knowledge been fully explored by any writer or historian. As Boyd Rice and I will explain in more detail in our forthcoming book, we have uncove red mountains of evidence which indicates that the origins of the Merovingian race, and the mystery that surrounds them, lies ultimately with a race of bein gs, "Nephilim," or "Fallen Angels," who created mankind as we know him today, and with a civilization, far more ancient than recorded history, from which came all of the major arts and sciences that are basic to civilizations everywhere , even unto today. As we intend to show, all of the myths and symbolism that are as sociated with this dynasty

can, in fact, be traced back to this earlier civili zation. It is known, in some cultures, as Atlantis, although there are many name s for it, and it is the birthplace of agriculture, astronomy, mathematics, metallurgy, navigation, architecture, language, writing, and religion. It was also the so urce of the first government on Earth - monarchy. And the first kings on Earth were the gods. Their race was known by various names. In Greece, t he Annodoti. In Sumeria, the Anunnaki. In the Celtic lore, the Tuatha de Danaan. In the Semetic scriptures (Torah, Talmud, Old Testament, and other Apocryphal texts like the Book of Enoch), they are called The Nephilim, "The Sons of God," or the Watchers. They are described as having attachments such as wings, horns, and even fish scales, but from the depictions it is clear that these are clothes or costumes worn for their symbolic value, for these symbols indicated d ivine power and royal blood. The gods themselves had their own monarchy, with la ws of succession similar to our own, and they built a global empire upon the Ea rth, with great cities, temples and monuments, and mighty nations established on se veral continents. They created mankind as a slave race to work on their fa rms and in their gold mines, among other things. The Sumerian legends are very c lear: man was made to "bear the yoke of the gods." Man was separate from the gods, like a domesticated animal, and there was a great cultural taboo amongs t the gods against sharing any of their sacred information with humanity, even things such as writing and mathematics. These gods ruled directly over Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley, and their rule is recorded in the histories of all three civilizations. This global monarchy was the crowning glory of the Ages, and the period of their rule came to be called the Golden Age or, as the Eg yptians called it, "The First Time," when the gods watched over man directly, lik e a shepherd his flock. In fact, they were often called "The Shepherd Kings." One of the symbols of this world monarchy was an eye hovering over a throne, a nd this eye now adorns our dollar bill, presented as the missing capstone of t he Great Pyramid of Giza, underneath which are written the words "New World O rder." Clearly this "New World Order" is the global monarchy that our Foundi ng Fathers (not a Democrat among them) intended for this nation to participate in all along, symbolized by a pyramid as a representation of the ideal and perfec tly ordered authoritarian empire. During the Golden Age of the Gods, a new ki ng's ascendance to the global throne would be celebrated by the sacrifice of a horse, an animal sacred to Poseidon, one of the Atlantean god-kings and Lord o f the Seas. (Recall that Merovingian King Clovis was buried with a severed h orse's head.) In fact there is an amusing story about how King Sargon's rebellious son Sagara tried to prevent his father's assumption of the world throne from be ing solidified by stealing his sacrificial horse. The horse was not recovered unti l years later, and Sagara, along with the "sons of Sagara," i.e., those members of h is family who had assisted him, were forced to dig their own mass grave. This grave was oddly called "The Ocean." It was just a rebellion such as this that lead to t he downfall of the entire glorious

Empire. At some point, it is told, some of the gods broke rank. This is again recorded in just about every culture on Earth that has a written or oral history of legends. Some of the gods, finding human females mo st appealing, intermarried with them (breaking, of course, a major taboo withi n their own culture), and creating a race of human/god hybrids. Some of these offspring are described as taking the form of giants, dragons, and sea monster s, while others are said to have born a normal human countenance, with the exce ption of their shimmering white skin and their extremely long life spans. Thi s is the bloodline that brought us Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, Jesus C hrist, and many others, in other words the Grail Bloodline. Legend has it that these beings taught mankind their secrets, including the above-mentioned arts o f civilization, as well as a secret spiritual doctrine that only certain elect h umans (their blood descendants) would be allowed to possess. They created ritualist ic mystery schools and secret societies to pass this doctrine down through the ge nerations. However, these actions (the interbreeding and shari ng of secrets with humans) incurred the wrath of the Most High God, and a numb er of other gods who were disgusted by this interracial breeding. This sparke d the massive and devastating battle of the gods that has come down to us in the legends of both the "War in Heaven," and the "Deluge." Then, in order to cleans e the Earth"s surface of the curse of humanity, they covered it with a flood. In terestingly, this flood is mentioned in the legends of almost every ancient cu lture on Earth, and the cause is always the same. Often the waters are described as having come from inside the Earth. "The Fountains of the deep are opened," it is said. "Suddenly enormous volumes of water issued from the Earth." W ater was "projected from the mountain like a water spout." The Earth began t o rumble, and Atlantis, fair nation of the gods, sunk beneath the salty green wa ves. As we shall see, this is analogous to part during the "War in Heaven" when t he "rebellious" angels or gods were punished by being cast down "into the bow els of the Earth," a very significant location. To be certain, some of the Atlanteans managed to su rvive, and many books have been written about the Atlantean origin of the Egyp tian, Sumerian, Indo-Aryan, and native South American civilizations (bringing i nto question the validity of the term "Native American"). Little, however, has been written about those who escaped into Western Europe, except for a passing r eference in Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis: The Antediluvian World , in which he writes: "The Gauls (meaning the French) possessed tradition s upon the subject of Atlantis which were collected by the Roman historia n Timagenes who lived in the first century before Christ. He represents that thr ee distinct people dwelt in Gaul: 1. The indigenous population, which I suppose to be Mongoloids, who had long dwelt in Europe; 2. The invaders from a distant lan d, which I understand to be Atlantis; 3. The Aryan Gaul." That the Merovingian bloodline came from elsewhere is clear because of the

legend that surrounds their founder, King Merovee, who is said to have been the spawn of a "Quinotaur," a giant fish or a sea monst er, who raped his mother when she went out to swim in the ocean. Now it beco mes clear why he is called "Merovee," because in French, mermeans sea. And in some traditions, Atlantis was called Meru, or Maru. (It is also the name of t he famous "World Mountain" of Eastern tradition.) For these gods, navigation abov e all was important to them, for it was their sea power that maintained their milita ry might and their successful mercantile trade. ( Mer is also the origin of the word "mercantile.") The Atlanteans were associated with the sea and were often depicte d as mermen, or sea monsters, with scales, fins, and horns. And they we re variously associated with a number of important animals, whose symbolism they h eld sacred: horses, bulls, goats, rams, lions, fish, serpents, dragons, even c ats and dogs. And as we will see, all of these things relate back to the sea ima gery with which these gods were associated. Now lets go back to the Quinotaur, which some have named as being synonymous with Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea and, according to Plato, one of the famous kings of Atlantis. Others have se en it as being emblematic of the fish symbol that Christ is associated with, thu s indicating that he was in fact the origin of the bloodline. However, the roots of this Quinotaur myth are far more ancient. The word itself can be broken down etymolo gically to reveal its meaning. The last syllable, "Taur", means "Bull." The first syllable "Quin," or "Kin," comes from the same root as "King," as well as the Biblic al name of Cain, whom many have named as the father of a particular branch of the Grail family. The Bull King who swims in the ocean is a recurring theme in many ancient cultures, most notably, ancient Mesopotamia. In fact, he comes fro m that dynasty of kings who reigned over the antediluvian world and who were al l associated with the sea, as well as this divine animal imagery. These kings inc luded Sargon, Menes, and Narmar. Their historical reality morphed into the l egends we have in many cultures of gods said to have come out of the sea a t various times and taught mankind the basic arts of civilization: agriculture , metallurgy, architecture, navigation, mathematics, medicine, etc. They were k nown by various names: Ea, Enki, Dagon, Oannes, or Marduk (Merodach). They wer e depicted as half-man, half-fish, half-goat half-fish, or half-bull, half- fish, but as we have said, in many of these depictions it is clear that this affect was m erely achieved by the wearing of costumes, and that these god-kings were using this archetypal imagery to deify themselves in the minds of their subjects. Dagon, Oannes and Enki are essentially synonymous, and interestingly, Marduk or Merodach is his son, just as Merovee is the son of the Quinotaur. Dagon was depicted with a fish on his head, the lips protrudi ng upward, making what were referred to as "horns." This may be the origin for the custom (common in the ancient world) of affixing horns to the crown of a king. It has also been historically acknowledged as the origin of the mite r that the Pope wears. (Now we understand why, in the post-mortem photo of Berenge r Sauniere lying on his death bed, this small parish priest is seen next to a Bishop's miter.) The Christian

Church has always been associated with fish. Christ himself was, as was John the Baptist, and the early Christians used the fish sign of the "icthys" to designate themselves. From Dagon's name Oannes we g et the words "Uranus," "Ouranous," "Jonah," "Janus," and "John." Perhaps w e finally now understand why the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion assume the symbolic name of John. The syllable "Dag" merely means fish, which makes i t interesting to note that the Dogon tribe of Africa, who have long baffled astron omers with their advanced knowledge of the specifics of the faraway star-syst em from which, they say, their gods came, claim that these gods were "Fish-Men." T his author wonders if the words "Dag" and "Dog" aren't etymologically related , especially since the star from whence these fish-men supposedly came is named Sirius, "The Dog Star." From Dagon comes our word "Dragon," as well as the Biblical figure of Leviathan, "The Lord of the Deep," a title also applied to Dag on. In fact, many of these gods received the titles "The Lord of the Waters," "The Lord of the Deep," and "The Lord of the Abyss," which appear to have been passe d down from father to son along with the throne of the global kingdom. They a re specifically associated with the Flood of Noah, which as I have mentioned, destr oyed their global kingdom and was somehow linked to their disastrous breeding experiment with the human race that lead to the Grail Bloodline, to which the Merovingians belong. For this they were consigned to the Abyss or the Underworld, which is why these gods were known as the Lords of both. Enki was also known as the "Lord of the Earth," and it is because of this "amphibious" nature of their progenitor, reigning o ver both land and sea, that the Merovingians are associated with frogs. But this "L ord of the Earth" title is significant, for this is a title also given to Sata n. And it has been historically acknowledged that Enki, as the "Fish-Goat Man," is prototype for the Zodiac sign of Capricorn, which is itself recognized as the pro totype for the modern conception of Satan or Lucifer. Furthermore, a well-known and pivotal episode in En ki's career was his rebellion against his brother Enlil over the succession of th e global throne. Enki eventually slayed Enlil, something that is recorded in the Egy ptian myth of Set murdering Osiris, and perhaps in the Biblical story of Cain m urdering Abel. Cain eventually became King - in fact that's where the word comes f rom, and now it makes perfect sense why Enki would be called the "Quinota ur." The identity of Enki and Enlil with Cain and Abel can be further proven by t he fact that Enki and Enlil were the son of Anu (in some Sumerian legends, the first god-king on Earth), whereas Cain and Abel were the sons of "Adamu - the First M an." Adamu and Anu appear to be etymologically related. This family feud erupted into a long and overdrawn battle between the gods, who were split into two factions over the issue. These appear to be the same two factions who were at odds over the mating of gods a nd men to create the Grail Bloodline. Those who supported Enki, Satan or Cain were clearly the ones who

were inclined to breed with mankind, perhaps in att empt to create a hybrid race that could assist them in retaining the throne for Cain. But they were overpowered. After they lost the "War in Heaven," t hey were cast into the Abyss, according to legend, now the realm of Satan, and th e Earth was flooded so as to rid the Earth of their offspring. Yet according to the legends, those gods who had cr eated the hybrid race attempted to contact one of their most favored desc endants - called Uta-Napishtim in the Sumerian legends, or Noah in the J ewish - and helped him to rescue himself and his family, preserving the seed of hybrid humanity. (Uta-Napishtim contains the Sumerian and Egyptian word f or fish, "Pish," and perhaps we can see why some authors have claimed that the c haracter of Noah is in fact based on Oannes/Dagon/Enki as well.) We see remnant s of this in the Vedic legends of the Flood, in which the surviving family is warned about the Flood by a horned fish called the Manu (who turns out to be th e Hindu god Vishnu in disguise). He tells them to build an Ark, and then tie its mast to his horn, then proceeds to tow them to safety upon a high mountain . So clearly Vishnu is the same as Enki, Dagon, and Oannes, and clearly he is the one who saved Noah from the Flood. Yet this same kind deed became attr ibuted, in the Old Testament, to the same God, Jehovah, who had caused the Flood to begin with. In fact the word Jehovah, or "Jah" is said to have evolved from the name of another Sumerian sea god-king, Ea, "The Lord of the Flood." Likewise, Leviathan, or Dagon is responsible in some references for "vomiti ng out the waters of the Flood." This occurs at the Apocalypse in the Book o f Revelations as well. Leviathan, like many of these sea gods, was the Lor d of the Abyss, or "Absu" in Sumerian, and these waters were believed to he hold ing the Earth up from underneath, in the regions of Hell. And yet "Leviat han" is almost surely etymologically related to the Jewish name "Levi," a nd therefore the "Tribe of Levi," the priestly caste of the Jews from whence p art of Christ's lineage came. This dual current, being associated with both the H eavenly and the Infernal, with both Jesus and Jehovah, Satan and Lucifer, is somet hing that has marked the history of the Merovingian dynasty, as well as all of the other Grail families, and the entire Grail story itself. It is at the heart o f the secret spiritual doctrine symbolized by the Grail. This symbolism hits you im mediately when you walk in the door of the church at Rennes-le Chateau and see those opposing statues of the demon Asmodeus and Jesus Christ staring at the same black and white chequered floor, which itself symbolizes the balanc e of good and evil. This principle is further elucidated by the words placed over the doorway, "This place is terrible, but it is the House of God and the Gat eway to Heaven." This phrase turns up in two significant places. One is in the B ible, when Jacob has his vision of the ladder leading to Heaven, with angels ascend ing and descending. The other is in the Book of Enoch, when Enoch is taken for a tour of Hell. The existence of this phrase at the entrance to the chu rch, coupled with the images that meet you immediately therein, render the meani ng obvious. For Berenger Sauniere, who arranged these strange decorations, t his Church represented

some kind of metaphysical gateway between Heaven an d Hell. For this reason, the double-barred Cross of Lorrain e, symbolizing this duality, has come to be associated with the Merovingians. In a now famous poem by Charles Peguy, is it stated: "The arms of Jesus are the Cross of Lorraine, Both the blood in the artery and the blood in the v ein, Both the source of grace and the clear fountaine; The arms of Satan are the Cross of Lorraine, And the same artery and the same vein, And the same blood and the troubled fountaine." The reference to Satan and Jesus sharing the same blood is very important. A t radition exists, one which finds support among the Book of Enoch and many othe rs, that Jesus and Satan are brothers, both sons of the Most High God, and t hey both sat next to his throne in Heaven, on the right and left sides, resp ectively, prior to Satan's rebellion and the War in Heaven. This may be just a nother version of the persistent and primordial "Cain and Abel" story. It makes sense that Satan should both be a direct son of God, since he is described as God's "Most Beloved Angel" and "The Brightest Star in Heaven." (Note: The Book of Enoch refers to the Watchers, or Nephilim, as "stars," with various "wa tchtowers" in the houses of the Zodiac. Bear in mind that the ancients saw the sky above as a giant "Sea," the waters of which were kept at bay by the "Firmament of Heaven" - that is, until the Flood.) However, this symbol is far older than the modern c onceptions of Christ and Satan, or Lucifer. As Boyd Rice will explain to you in another article, this symbol can be traced back to the hieroglyphs of ancient Su mer, where it was pronounced "Khat," "Kad," and sometimes even "Cod." This was a nother title for the kings who were known as god of the sea, and the word "Kha tti" became associated with his entire race, and the region that was their capitol, "Amarru," "The Land to the West" (like Meru, the alternate term for Atlant is). This land was symbolized by a Lion, which may explain the origin of the word "C at," as well as why the lion is now a symbol of royalty. We would argue that this w as at the root of the word "Cathari" (the heretics associated with the Holy Gr ail who occupied the Languedoc region of France that the Merovingians ru led over), and Adam Kadmon, the Primordial Man of alchemy, as well as t he Mesopotamian kingdom of "Akkadia," which itself has morphed into "Arcadi a," which further morphs into Acacia, the traditional Sprig of Hope and symbol of Resurrection after death. Perhaps this sheds further light on the phrase "Et in Arcadia Ego," which pops up more than once in association with the mystery of R ennes-le-Chateau and the Merovingians. This phrase was illustrated by Nichol as Poussin with the scene of a tomb, a human skull, and three shepherds. The tom b and skull clearly represent death, while the Sprig of Acacia implied by the wor d "Arcadia" translates to "resurrection from death." The Shepherds, furthermo re, represent the divine

kingship of the Atlantean gods and the Grail bloodl ine, for these god-monarchs were also known as the "Shepherd Kings" (a title, n otably, taken up by Jesus as well.) This indicates that it is the Global Monarch y of these Atlantean gods that shall rise again from the tomb, perhaps through the Merovingian bloodline. This archetype of the Fallen King who shall one day return, or the Kingdom that disappears, only to rise again in a new, Golden Age , is a very common one, and one as I have shown in another article to be integr al to the Grail legend. It was also one used quite effectively by the last of the Merovingian kings who effectively held the throne of the Austrasian Empir e - this magazine's mascot, Dagobert II. Dagobert's entire life, as historicall y recorded, is mythological and archetypal. His name betrays the divine origins of his bloodline. "Dagobert" comes, of course, from Dagon. Now the word "Bert," as the author L.A. Waddell has shown, has its roots in the word "Bara," or "Pa ra," or Anglicized, "Pharoah," a "Priest-King of the Temple (or House.)" So Dagobe rt's name literally means "Priest-King of the House of Dagon." Interestingly, a rarely-found but nonetheless authentic variation on Dagobert's name was "Dragobe rt," emphasizing his lineage from the Beast of the Deep Waters, the Dragon Levia than. Dagobert made use of the myth of the Returning King early on in life. His father had been assassinated when he was 5 years old, and young Dagobert was kidnapped by then Palace Mayor Grimoald, who tried to put his own son on the throne. He was saved from death, but an elaborate r use was laid out to make people think otherwise. Even his own mother believe d he was dead, and allowed his father's assassins to take over, placing Grimoa ld's son on the throne. Dagobert was exiled to Ireland, where he lay in wai t for the opportunity to reclaim his father's throne. This opportunity showed itself in the year 671, when he married Giselle de Razes, daughter of the count of Razes and niece of the king of the Visigoths, allying the Merovingian house with t he Visigothic royal house. This had the potential for creating a united empire that would have covered most of what is now modern France. This marriage was celebr ated at the Church of St. Madeleine in Rhedae, the same spot where Sauniere's Church of St. Madeleine at Rennes-le-Chateau now rests. There is an existing r umor that Dagobert found something there, a clue which lead him to a treasur e buried in the nearby Montsegur, and this treasure financed what was abou t to come. What came was the reconquest of the Aquitaine and the throne of t he Frankish kingdom. As Baigent, et. al write in Holy Blood, Holy Grail , "At once he set about asserting and consolidating his authority, taming the anarchy tha t prevailed throughout Austrasia and reestablishing order." The Fallen Kin g had risen from his ashes, born anew as Dagobert II, and had come to once more establish firm rule and equilibrium in his country. The similarities to the Parzival/Grail story don't even need to be repeated. Sadly, Dagobert II would himself play the role of t he fallen king just a few years later, in 679, and the circumstances are decidedly strange. You see, since the time of the Merovingian King Clovis I, the Meroving ian Kings had been under a

pact with the Vatican, in which they had pledged th eir allegiance to the Mother Church in exchange for Papal backing of the their u nited Empire of Austrasia. They would forever hold the title of "New Constanti ne," a title that would later morph into "Holy Roman Emperor." But that "allegian ce" on the part of the Merovingians towards the Church began to wear thin after a while. Obviously, given their infernal and divine origin, their spiri tual bent was slightly different from that of organized Christianity. In addition, a s direct descendants of the historical Christ himself, they would have possesse d access to the secret teachings of Christ, no doubt shockingly different from the one promoted by the Church, and reflecting more the "secret doctrine" o f the rebellious gods that we've talked about in this article. Any public know ledge of this or the blood relationship between Christ and the Merovingians wo uld have been disastrous for the Church. Christ would therefore be a man, with a ntecedents and descendants, instead of the "Son of God - Born of Virgin" concep t promoted by the church. Seeing in Dagobert a potential threat, the Roman ch urch entered into a conspiracy with Palace Mayor Pepin the Fat. On December 23, while on a hunting trip, Dagobert w as lanced through the left eye by his own godson, supposedly on Pepin's orders . There are many aspects to this event that appear to be mythologically signifi cant. For one, it took place in the "Forest of Woevres," long held sacred, and host to annual sacrificial bear hunts for the goddess Diana. Indeed, this may have taken place on such a hunt. This was near the royal Merovingian residence at St enay, a town that used to be called "Satanicum." Then there is the date itself, almost precisely when the astrological period of Capricorn begins. Capricorn, as we have mentioned, is based on Enki, the horned sea-god that spawned the Merovingian bloodline. It is also close to the Winter Solstice, the shortest day in the year, when the Sun was said to "die," mythologically, and turn black, desc ending into the Underworld. This "Black" period of the Sun is associated with t he god Kronos, another horned sea-god, ruler of the underworld, and king of Atlan tis who figures repeatedly in this Grail/Rennes-le-Chateau mystery. Secondly, the murder is said to take place at midday, which, as I have mentioned in another ar ticle, is an extremely significant moment in time for mystery schools of t he Secret Doctrine, like Freemasonry. The parchments found by Berenger Sauni ere and the related poem, "Le Serpent Rouge," make a special mention of it. T his is when the sun is highest in the sky. Hiram Abiff was murdered at midday, whi le resting from his work, just as Dagobert was murdered at midday while resting ag ainst a tree. The fact that it was done by a family member is significant too. Thi s is similar to the "Dolorous Stroke" that wounds the Fisher King in the Grail st ory, something which also took place at midday and was inflicted by the King's own brother. In the Grail story, the brother who wounds the Fisher King is himself known as the "Dark Lord," and during the fight he is wounded in the left eye, pre cisely as Dagobert was wounded. The same thing happened to Horus in Egypti an mythology, fighting his uncle, Set. The "Left Eye of Horus" came to symboli ze the hidden knowledge of the gods, just as the "left hand path" does today. Dagobert's death appears to follow the same patterns as many of other "Fallen K ings" or murdered gods

whose death must be avenged. And it is meant to sym bolize the concept of the "Lost or Fallen Kingdom" the same way the Dolorous Stroke does in the Grail story. Clearly it meant the end for the Merovingian kingdo m. All subsequent Merovingian kings were essentially powerless, and t hey were officially thought to have died out with Dagobert's grandson, Childeric I II. 49 years later, Charles Martel's grandson, Charlemagne was anointed Holy Ro man Emperor. But in 872, almost 200 years after his death, Dagobert was cano nized as a Saint, and the date of his death, December 23, became "St. Dagobert's D ay." Write Baigent, et. al.: "The reason for Dagobert's canonization remains unc lear. According to one source it was because his relics were believed to h ave preserved the vicinity of Stenay against Viking raids - thought this explanat ion begs the question, for it is not clear why the relics should have possessed such powers is the first place. Ecclesiastical authorities seem embarrassingly igno rant on the matter. They admit that Dagobert, for some reason, become the ob ject of a fully fledged cult... But they seem utterly at a loss as to why he should have been so exalted. It is possible, of course that the Church felt guilty abo ut its role in the king's death." Guilty, or afraid? For surely they knew that this " Priest-King of the House of Dagon," with his divine lineage, so beloved by his people that they worship him like a god 200 years later, would of course be aven ged for his treacherous murder. Surely they knew, as most Dagobert's Reveng e readers know, that the Merovingian bloodline didn't die out, surviving thr ough his son Sigisbert, and continues to jockey for the throne of France to thi s very day in various royal bloodlines throughout Europe. Surely they knew that this kingdom would rise again, and that the Lost King would return someday. The seeds of their return have already been planted. France is united into th e political mass that Dagobert had envisioned it be when he united Austrasia. And the "Holy Roman Empire," which the Merovingian Kings were clearly attempting to form with the help of the Vatican, has now become a reality, in the form of t he European Union. During WWII and immediately after, the Priory of Sion, tha t secret order dedicated to the Merovingian agenda, openly campaigned for a United States of Europe. They even proposed a flag, consisting of stars in a circ le, that is identical to the flag used by the European Union today. (This flag was ca rried by a divine white horse, a symbol of Poseidon and world monarchy.) Furthermo re, the World Empire of the Atlantean Kings who spawned the Merovingians is closer now than it has been since the gods left the earth during the Delug e. The United Nations, a feeble example, will surely give way at some point to a un ited world government strong enough and glorious enough to be called an Empire. The Fallen Kingdom of the Gods is clearly returning, and the new Golden Age i s upon us. And if this author's hunch is correct, this is, indeed, a glorious time to be alive.

The Merovigians were a dynasty of Frankish kings, d escended, according to tradition, from Merovech, chief of the Salian Frank s , whose son was Childeric I and whose grandson was Clovis I , the founder of th e Frankish monarchy. Merovingian kings followed Frankish custom in divid ing the patrimony. After the death (511) of Clovis I, the kingdom was divided am ong his descendants into various kingdoms, which later became known as Austr asia , Neustria , and Burgundy . These kingdoms, whose borders were const antly shifting, were often combined; for brief periods, they were all united i n a single realm under Clotaire I (558-61), Clotaire II (613-23), and Dagobert I (629 -39). The rule of the Merovingians before Dagobert I was disturbed by chronic warfare among aristocrats and rivals for power, notably between Queen Brunhilda of Austr asia and Queen Fredegunde of Neustria. Dagobert I was the last active ruler; his descendants were called the rois fainéants, or idle kings. They were entirely subject to their mayors of the palace, the Carolingians , who became the nominal a s well as the actual rulers of the Franks when Pepin the Short deposed (751) the l ast Merovingian king, Childeric III.

Mull is the point from which pilgrims sail to the s acred isle of Iona.

IONA, Mystic Isle

IONA, MYSTIC ISLAND Metaphysical Ground Zero by Iona Orr Miller, 2010 This article appeared in Green Egg Zine, #154, Yule 2010 http://www.greeneggzine.com/current.html Y Gwir Erbyn Y Byd ("Truth Against the World”) –Druid Motto Divine Dreamland Many holy sites are esteemed around the globe. The sacred isles of Britain have a spiritual role so rich that few comprehend their sc ope that is so disproportionate to their size. Sacred sites are natural meeting pla ces of heaven and earth. A tiny,

nearly barren speck of land, the Scottish island of Iona embodies an astounding holographic record of the span of human civilizatio n, much of which is beyond the scope of this article. Each snippet of a hologr am contains a smaller but intact version of the original image. The smallest parts o f a hologram contain all the information possessed by the whole, demonstrating t hat separateness is an illusion. Cosmos is a superhologram, echoing the ax iom, “As Above, So Below”. The "whole in every part" nature of a hologram or f ractal provides us with an entirely new way of understanding Iona which has be en called “the Mecca of the Gael.” This mystic island was sacred to megalithic, iron and bronze age pagans, Druids and Celtic Christians alike. Windswept Iona is a time machine, a gem in the frigid sea, embedded in “the back of the ocean” like a planetary chakra. Iona’s holy ground formed as the first oceans were condensing on the blistering hot surface of the earth. These rocks are so old, t hey contain no fossils. Perhaps the first plants took root in Iona’s thin soil. The island is the oldest rock on Earth, four billion year old remains of the Precambrian oc ean’s eruptive spine. Her marble formed under vast heat and pressure. The met amorphic Lewisian gneiss shot through with green serpentine has resisted the relentless blue-foaming dragon of the devouring sea that eats up the land. Much of the island itself is highly-conductive and charged quartz, often said to enhance healing, telepathy, remote viewing, dreaming, and superconsciousness or store subtle information or energy. There are unseen things here that are et ernal. From the mainland, the spiritually magnetic isle often appears like a mira ge. Iona is the “motherland of dreams”, the ethereal gr ound of imagination and ground zero of Druid culture. Its spell draws us in to its center. Iona’s old Gaelic name Innis nan Druidhneach translates as the Island of the Druids. Their mott o was Y Gwir Erbyn Y Byd (“Truth Against the World”). These Servants of Tru th held greater power than the kings who took advice f rom them: All of nature was sacred to them and they were its students and stewa rds. These seers and overlords understood the workings o f Nature and our nature. To the male and female Druids and their predecessors, the “Shining Ones,” (Siddhe, Fairies), the dead live through visions in dreams, more so for those in one’s own lineage. In Druid lore myth is not plot, but image; not action, but rhythm; not character, but ghosts. Images animate t he soul with guidance from higher dimensions. Alba or ‘light’ is the Gaelic name for Scotland and Ion a is her most ancient and holy capital. The island Iona is t he shape of a dove and curiously its name even means 'dove' in Hebrew, tho ugh it was named after the pioneering spirit, St. Columba, “the dove of the ch urch”. The Rosarium Philosophorum equates the dove with heavenly light. Young visiona ries, virginal children used as oracles or channels, are also call ed “Doves” in the magic tradition. Sacred sites are like tuning forks. Iona’s colorful history is related to sea gods,

King Arthur and Merlin, the Grail stories, St. Brig hid and the Goddess -- Sophia, Virgin of the Light, the archetypal soror mystica . Its mystery and magic includes tales of Templars, elves, fairies, and pixies; the Sidhe or People of the Hills, Tuatha De Daanan . Angels’ Hill on Iona is associated with supernatu ral beings. Iona was always an island of mystics and scholars. Iona’s most ancient Gaelic or Pictish name is Ioua . The name, (a corruption of early Gaelic Ii-shona, pronounced, Ee-hona; the 's' in Gaelic is silent be fore an aspirate), is steeped in multidimensional mystique that can be gradually unf olded in physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual metaphors. But it is more tha n a metaphor to be unraveled like a Scottish yarn. Indeed, an exciting and illum inating journey to the "heart of Iona" is a soulful initiatory journey into myth and eternity. Our journey does not have an ordinary aim. The history and legends of Iona carry us into a vor tex of the imagination, a time machine carrying us back through ages. To be a livi ng soul is to live with imaginal images. Rather than linear, time is cyclic . There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller, allowing Second Sight through the vei l.These ‘thin places’ may be inter-dimensional portals, a natural combination of radiation and magnetism that produces altered states of consciousness or amplifi es psychic ability. In Iona, time is no barrier, for it has been said of this gr ound zero of Druid tradition and ancient spirituality: “This island set apart, this motherland of many dreams, still yields its secret, but it is only as men seek that they truly find. “To reach the heart of Iona is to find something eternal,” (G.E. Troup) . Iona’s heart is the white marble that gave ancient Scotland the name Alba , or Albion (‘white’). Known for its ethereal light, Ion a has been the destination of many epic spiritual journeys. The name of this magn etic “isle of dreams” has been called “a talisman of spiritual beauty.” In he r enduring and silent way, Iona continues affecting the spiritual evolution of huma nity, whispering her deepest secrets only to a few of her 250,000 annual visitor s. Even more make the astral journey to the “Iona of t he heart.” The north of Iona is the traditional place of testing and ordeal, the so uth of work and labor, while the west is the place of mystic vision and the spirit. The east is the place of rebirth, compliment to the west as the realm of the dead.

On Iona, vivid moments of focused experience are in terspersed with those of emptiness. Magic happens in those gaps between brea ths and waves when you attune with the singing wind and ringing stones. Io na’s highest hill, Dûn-I (Doon-ee), an iron-age fortress, hides a little pool amid the broken rocks and heather near the beehive cairn that marks the highest part of the island. From there you can also see the Cairn of the Back to Ireland. Slia v Starr (The Hill of Noises) faces the westernmost part of the island, Port-na-Churaic h (The Haven of the Coracle)

where St. Columba was said to have first landed on Iona. Early Ogham inscriptions referred to the island as Ioua, after a Moon goddess, but other early sources said it wasHyBrasil (Island of Beauty or Worth), or simply Hy, an earthly paradise found far out at sea , or perhaps a reference to the otherworldly Tir na nOg (the Land of Youths or the Ever-Young). Druid maps listed Iona as Innis nan Druidnean (or Innis na Dru ineach), the Isle of Druids, possibly because it is believed that at one time th e island was covered with oak and yew trees, sacred to the Druids, and had 350 st anding stones, megalithic structures frequented by Druids. There are rocking stones in Iona called na clachan- bràth, within the precincts of a burial ground, placed on the pedestal of a cross. S ome call them tomb supports, but finely-balanced rocking stone were used in tria ls. A clach-bràth is sometimes known as a judgment stone. The reason that courts w ere near "logan" stones is that the movement of stones in such formations was used to determine the guilt or innocence of those accused of serious crimes in ancient times. Druids used them to judge people. The accused was made to sit o n the stone and by the way it moved the Druids judged the innocence or guilt of t he individual. Near to the Tormore pier and above the sandy cove, hidden amongst the rocks is a cave called "The Cave of the Dead", (Uamh na Mar bh) large enough in size to hold a coffin containing an ancient Scot's king. Wa s it a perfect place to shelter in bad weather for the final journey of burial to Iona or a Druid initiation in Fingal's Cave? Imagine the awe of approaching such a natural wonder in times long past. In the Lord of the Isles, Sir Walter Scott beautifu lly contrasts the church on Iona with the cave of Staffa, opposite - "Nature herself, it seemed, would raise A minster to her Maker's praise! Not for a meaner use ascend Her columns, or her arches bend; Nor of a theme less solemn tells That mighty surge that ebbs and swells, And still between each awful pause, From the high vault an answer draws, In varied tone, prolonged and high, That mocks the organ's melody; Nor doth its entrance front in vain To old Iona's holy fane, That Nature's voice might seem to say, Well hast thou done, frail child of clay Thy humble powers that stately shrine Tasked high and hard - but witness mine. The Druidical system peaked at the time of the Roma n invasion under Julius

Caesar. Against the Druids, as their chief enemies , these conquerors of the world directed their unsparing fury. The Druids, harasse d at all points on the main land, retreated to Anglesey and Iona, where for a season they found shelter and continued their sacre d rites. The Druids retained their predominance in Iona and over the adjacent islands and main land until they were supplanted and their trad itions and culture overturned by the arrival of St. Columba, the apostle of the H ighlands, in 563 AD. Sheela-na-Gigs are directly related to earlier Godd ess/Fertility figurines and the Goddess symbolism of the early pre-historic and Cel tic periods. It is not certain how old the tradition is or the precise age of some of the earliest examples. Apparently, the Sheela-na-Gig made its appearance d uring the latter part of the Early Christian (or Celtic Christian) period and th ey were still being erected during the later Middle Ages. There is one built in to the wall of the Nunnery on Iona. Sheela-na-Gigs are religious carvings of women, spe cial women, the symbolical representation of femininity and/or actual female d eities or Goddesses. They were placed on churches, castles and other important bui ldings of the medieval period and, until quite recently in some instances, they a cted as dedicatory or protective symbols promoting good luck and fertility. But thei r meaning goes much deeper and the fact that they were erected over the doorwa ys of churches and castles and otherwise placed in very prominent positions su ggests that they were a very potent and powerful image, obviously the primary re ligious belief of the people of that era of Christianity. Sheela-na-Gigs are direct ly related to earlier Goddess/Fertility figurines and the Goddess symboli sm of the early pre-historic and Celtic periods. Like many of the ancient Celtic goddesses, Cailleac h had two faces: dark and light. In the winter months she was fearsome, whirl ing around Scotland with her nine hag-servants, casting storm, snow, and ice ove r the land. But in springtime, she renewed herself in the Well of Youth on the isl e of Iona, and was transformed into the beautiful spring maiden, Bridget or Bride, who brought back light and warmth to her people again. She also appeared at th is time of the year, called Lùnasdal in Scotland, Lughnasa in Ireland, as the p ersonification of the ripe sheaves of oats or barley that would feed the clans at harvest time. From the hilltop Dun-I of Iona with its sacred well , St. Bride sang daily to her lost Bridegroom. St. Bride of the Kindly Fire, St Bride of the Shores. Before she was Christianized as a saint, Brighde or Bride was alre ady present on Iona as Goddess. Her totems were the swan and the serpent. Many generations have drunk from and ritually purified themselves in this holy healing pool called Tobar na h’oige, “the Fountain of Youth,” or “Well of You th,” in which the dark Goddess annually renews herself for her light phase. There are energetic alignments or grids of holy islands, holy mountains and holy well s in Scotland.

Iona is a geomantic power site – a vortex. Anchorin g a pentagonal matrix of ley lines, (invisible currents of earth-energy), enchan ting Iona is a gateway to the Other World. This telluric intersection of three le y lines lies in a swampy part of the island, marked by low lying boulders in a perfe ct circle with a central altar stone. Iona’s leyline alignment extends to Montrose on the east coast of the Scottish mainland, passing through the ancient Celt ic royal burial site at Dunstaffnage, then Fortingall, St. Mary’s Church, G randtully, Aberlemno, which is marked by two ancient and inscribed stones, finally reaching Montrose (Mount of the Rose). Precambrian Crystalline Basement The ancient deeply bedded Lewisian Gneiss rock stra ta, such as that found on Iona, is rarely exposed at the surface of the plane t. Ancient imbedded strata is metamorphicly altered, compacted. The enormous pres sure transforms the composition of the rock to a more ordered, crystall ine structure. All crystalline structures have an electromagnetic field. The great er the density, the stronger the field. The aura of balance and peace that blankets Iona is in part due to the unique qualities of this ancient metamorphic stone, the granitic Lewisian Gneiss. In addition, the strata upthrust and sharp hairpin fold of earth layer that peels the Lewisian Gneiss onto the surface also results in a magnetic energy release that 'thins the veil' between planes. Science has docume nted the relationship between magnetic anomalies and psychic phenomena and experi ences. An RAF pilot told a Scots freemason that every time they flew over Iona the compass would completely spin around and be useless . That suggests that the island itself had unusual geomagnetic properties. S ince the druids were very aware of Earth energies it would be logical to assu me that they knew about Iona, long before Columba went there with his pilgrim mon ks in the sixth century. There is a remarkable geological difference on Iona from the Island of Mull, a mere two miles across the Iona Sound. The Island of Iona is a rare upthrust of one of the oldest rock formation on earth. The 2900 million year old Lewisian granitic Gneiss dominates three quarters of the isl and. (The earth is approximated at 4,400 million years old). Mull is d ominated by a relatively young, 300 million-year-old pink granite formation. This i s in part an explanation for the differentiating vibration that led both Druids and St. Columba to recognize Iona (and not Mull), as a sacred place for worship. Such pilgrimage sites around the world have geophys ical connection. You definitely feel different in such places. The local energy seems highly conducive to connecting with deeper levels of oneself and the universe. The Druids occupied Iona and used nearby Staffa Island (known for its massive crystallized pillars of hexagonal basalt) as a point of mystical initiation rites for high priests. The whole system is a magnetic anomaly.

Staffa Island is in itself a unique and very powerf ul energy center. Staffa is a temple, a pulsing generator of white crystalline en ergy, charging all around it. Staffa energizes and protects Iona, and is a key be nefactor of Iona's vibrational quality. The varying lengths of hexagonal crystalli ne basalt pillars are like musically tuned windpipes on a massive organ creati ng a pure symphonic frequency, (in concert with all 7 chakras). Its gen erated energy is musical, crystalline, and penetrating. It energizes and effe cts the area like an enormous Tibetan bell. It charges and vitalizes the sea. A v isit to Iona, by any seeker, requires a visit to Staffa, and especially Fingals cave. Fingals is a pillared sea cave on Staffa, running 2 27 feet in length, approximately 75 feet wide with a tapered roof, and curved pipe p illars extending 100 feet high. Its symmetry is stunning, and remarkably shaped lik ed inside of a great cathedral, complete with buttresses. The Druids onl y entered Fingals Cave for initiate rites of the highest order. Geomagnetic re sonance effects create a deep sense of peace, or a feeling of "being home". Pilgr ims from all over the world come to Iona. The metamorphic nature of the granitic Lewisian Gne iss, combined with earth fold magnetic fields creates a crystalline lattice energy that is very dense, and acts as a receptor to the charged harmonic projecti ons emitted from Staffa. These energy frequencies that bombard Iona segregate in c ertain pockets into resonant frequencies that correlate to pure musical notes, a nd to the chakras. The points on Iona resonate with chakra centers. These are: Dun I Mound (Cairn on Top) - Crown (Seventh) Chakra , Note B# Gneiss Slab ( 12 ' x 6 foot) ( In field on immediat e north side of Abbey) - Third Eye (Sixth) Chakra, Note A Signal Hill - Throat (Fifth) Chakra, Note G# Angel Hill - Heart ( Fourth) Chakr, Note F# Hill of Lambs - Emotional (Third) Chakra, Note E Back to Ireland Cairn - Creative (Second) Chakra, N ote D# Columba Bay (Standing Rock just before the beach) - Base (Root) Chakra, Note C The crown vortex is centered on the stone cairn ato p Dun I, the highest point on the island, just behind the and to the north of the Abbey. The Dun I Mound is absolutely the strongest energy point on Iona. It i s a fifteen-minute hike to reach the top, up somewhat slippery trails. The reward is immediate. The visionaries say an angelic being hovers atop the mound and anch ors the portal that radiates joyous love energy into the site. The Dun I Mound i tself spirals sacred earth energy in a fountaining cascade atop the mound. Dun I is a place of emergence, clearing and vision. All seven chakras are tuned an d healed in this area.

Pre-Christian Ionians worshipped the Mother Goddess , sister of the sun god Bel, also worshipped in Egypt and Asia Minor. Her sites are associated with sacred springs, fountains and wells. This Mother Church co nnects the Gaels with the cradles of civilization in Europe and Asia. Iona us ed to have a circle of standing stones and there are remains of over 350 megalithic stones. One site is called The Glen of the Temple, another, the Tabernacle of Culd ees. The Culdees, remnants of the Druids, practiced hereditary descent and wor e white robes like the Druids. Some of Iona’s megaliths may have been carved into the numerous Celtic crosses of the island, some of which have gone miss ing. Both Druids and Culdees were called “certain strangers.” The term c hanged over centuries to Coli Dei, “servants of the Lord,” used for the Celtic Ch ristian monks that worshiped on the island beginning in the 6th century. Each footfall on Iona activates spontaneous “memori es”, unconscious stirrings. Life is “sung with ecstatic serenity.” It resonates with the deep past as the ground of our being. The swirling ocean echoes the sounding of our unconscious. Legends of magical caves reflect image s of the potentially luminous caverns of our heads. Iona is a place of s anctuary, healing, visions and prophecy. If she touches you with Fairy Ointment, t hereafter, all the world and its inhabitants look beautiful. Each of us unravels the story for ourselves. It is a journey through the labyrinth of history and myster y. There are too many threads to follow in one short article, but a quick search of any of these rewarding keywords + Iona can fill in the blanks. ROYAL ROOTS Scotland is named after Princess Scota of the arist ocratic dragon lineage, who is said to have brought the sacred Stone of Destiny wi th her from Egypt. The Gaels are named after their common ancestor, Gael who was born in Egypt as the son of Prince Niul, who was a son of King Fenius the An tiquary of Scythia, and of Princess "Scota", a daughter of Egyptian Pharaoh "C incris" or "Achencres". There is speculation that this "Scota" was Meritate n, the royal daughter of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. She migrated after h is monist religious coup failed, during a plague. She took the legendary Sto ne of Destiny with her. Her name “Scota” is Scythian for “ruler of the peop le”. According to Nicholas de Vere, “This line descended through theTuatha de Dan aan. (the Dragon Kings of Anu), on the one hand, and the Egyptian Dragon Dyna sty of Sobek on the other. The later strain included the bloodline of the Davi dic House of Judah who married into the descent of the Merovingian Kings of the Fr anks.” Her Cult of the Dragon’s Breath (cult of the spirit of An, or Ankh) was a cult of the dead or ancestor worship. The descendants of Gael and "Scota" fled, migrating over succeeding generations, from Egypt, first to Candia [ancient C rete], then back to their ancestral homeland of Scythia, then to the Caspian Sea for several years, then to

Getulia [ancient Libya], then to Galicia [northwest ern Spain], then back to Scythia, and back to Egypt again. But the Scots Gae ls come directly from the second Scythian-Egyptian royal marriage. The matril ineal Dragon Queen empowered the Grail King. There is archaeological e vidence of a cultural influx in the Third Millenium BC. Another "Scota", a daughter of Pharaoh "Nectanebus" , married the Gael's leader Míl [Milesius], and they sailed to the islands of I rena and Gothia, then back to Galicia, and finally on to the conquest of Ireland, the promised land of the Gaels, under the leadership of the eight sons of Míl and t heir mother, the second "Scota". Irish history records that Scota, the daug hter of Pharaoh of Egypt arrived in the southern part of Ireland between 4,0 00 and 3,500 years ago. Scota is buried on the sloped mountains in view of Tralee Bay at a place called Glenscoheen (Scota's Glenn). Scota is the progenito r of Irish and Scottish kings, a royal lineage which eventually gave birth to St. Columba of Iona. The word Iona and the Egyptian On (Heliopolis, holy place, light), are related, as is the kind of theology practiced in both places. T he age-old connections between Ireland and Egypt have been guarded for millennia. On was a word used to signify the holiness of light, and was used by the Solar-Cu lts of Egypt and Ireland. The place-name On is probably related to the Celtic Ion a, the island seat of the Druids in Scotland. When the island was a powerful Druid c enter it was planted with sacred groves of yew (Ioha), and the traditions of Iona involve rebirth and reincarnation. "The Chaldeans, had the God "Iao" as the secret nam e of the Mystery God, that of creation. The Hebrews adopted Iao, and transformed it into YHWH, considering him/her as a national power of salvation. "Iao, Iah o, or Yaho would mean breath of life generated or springing forth between an uprigh t male and an egg-shaped female, principles of Nature. Thus, Ye(a)va, Jehova h, Yahweh is the Hermaphrodite Supreme Divinity of the Hebrews, bein g Ievo-hevah, Adam-Eve, or Yod-Heva, hence, the Demiurge, preached by the alle ged Moses!" IO is the cry of the lower as OI of the higher. In figures they are 1001; (9) in letters they are J oy. (10) For when all is equilibrated, when all is beheld fr om without all, there is joy, joy, joy that is but one facet of a diamond, every other facet whereof is more joyful than joy itself. --Crowley, Dragon-flie s Another name for the island is Innis nam Druineach, meaning the Island of the Cunning Workmen, or sculptors. After the arrival of St. Columba, it was also called Icolmkill, "island of Columba of the Church. " Eilean Idhe means "the isle of Iona", also known as Ì nam ban bòidheach ("the isle of beautiful women"). The title of Merlin as Seer to the King is well establi shed in Druid tradition. The Merlins preserved the Mer-Line, the umbilical to th e Mother or matriarchal line

(mitochondrial DNA) -- the connection to the divine feminine and the ocean of greater consciousness. Folklore says, “You walk Mer lin’s line on Iona through the Mother’s landscape body to the Mother." Columba is one of the three patron saints of Irelan d. As a young royal, he was tutored by Druids. He relinquished royal claims, ch ose the monastic life and finally settled the dove-shaped island sanctuary of Druid overseers in 563 AD to pursue his mission. He was essentially banished fro m Ireland for creatively editing the scriptures. Columba could only dream ab out what the Archdruid Merlins knew. Both the Druids and the monks used to nsure and performed baptisms. The local Picts considered the monastery’ s bronze bells very powerful shamanic medicine, instruments of art. Columba’s mo nastery became a glorious center of pilgrimage. The guesthouse was always occ upied. At first, access was restricted to high status pilgrims, royal and eccle siastical visitors, or those in serious trouble. Later humble pilgrims were welcome d at the Celtic Christian monastery. SACRED KINDRED Columba took the Stone of Destiny to Iona as a port able altar. Opinions differ on whether it is related somehow to the Blarney Stone. This Lia Fal was called a “speaking stone” that named the king to be chosen. Columba used the holy stone, traditionally considered “Jacob’s pillow,” a s a coronation chair for the consecration of Aedan as first King of Dal Riada, t he proto-Scot Gaelic kingdom. Did he consult silently with the Stone before he di d so? This singular act links Columba and Iona to the Pendragons and Grail legend s. All are related by blood to the root dragon lineages of Central Asia. King Aeden’s Merlin (Emrys) was his elder cousin. H e is arguably the Merlin of Grail legends. According to Sir Laurence Gardner, t he real King Arthur's father, King Aedan mac Gabran of Scots, became Pendragon by virtue of the fact that he was Prince Brychan's grandson. In this line Aedan's mother, Lleuan of Brecknock, was descended from Joseph of Arimathea w ho is the subject of much lore in the British Isles, including that of Glasto nbury and its middle eastern "thorn tree". The name 'Uther Pendragon', meaning ‘ terrible dragon’ was invented in the 12th century by the romancer Geoffrey of Mon mouth (later Bishop of St. Asaph). The true significance of King Arthur was his immedi ate joint descent in both the male and female lines of the Albi gens. His father was King Aedàn of Dalriada, the Pendragon of Britain in the year 559 - a descendant of the Wood Lord, Beli Mawr. His mother was Ygerna del Acqs, the daughter of Que en Viviane, whose grandson (by Ygerna’s sister, Viviane II) was the l egendary Lancelot del Acqs. Ygerna (sometimes called Igraine in the Grail tradi tion) was the High Queen of the Celtic kingdoms and her daughter, Morgaine (by her first husband, Gwyr Llew of Carlisle), was High Priestess of the Sisters of Ava llon. (Gardner)

St. Columba himself established the monarchs of Dal Riada. St. Columba correctly predicted Arthur, eldest son and natural heir to King Aeden would not live to succeed his father. In doing so, in answer to an inquiry from the Pendragon about his succession, St. Columbia’s prop hecy fulfilled the ancient Druid role, essentially meaning that St. Columba wa s a recognized Merlin, himself. His human sacrifice of the monk Oran to fi ght off demons in the building of his monastery ratifies the theory. Columba took fighting demons as seriously as the Druids did. Columba was exiled to the Scottish Isle of Iona. Th is island hosted a mixture of Druids, Culdean monks and priests. He built his mon astery near a former Druid grove as a base for Christianizing Western Scotland . First he proved his might in battle with Druids that were aligned with Warlords. He dispelled their winds and brought light into a Magical Darkness. Columba returned to Ireland on only one occasion, t o render a verdict at Drimceatt when Aedh, the new Ard Righ, attempted to outlaw the Druid remnant or Filidh (the Druidic Poets). Columba's stature wa s such that his arguments for the poets saved their status and class from extinct ion. Columba was trained by a Druid and was not above using Druid magic to furthe r his interests. In fact, he used them in overcoming the magicians of the Pictis h king, Brude. The Celtic Christian saints engaged in many magical battles wi th various Magicians. Columba began meditating on the Hill of the Angels -- Cnoc nan Aingeal. The Hill of Angels is adjacent to the Sithean, the Fairy Mou nd, the supernatural hotspot on Iona. These hills were the center of pagan ritu als in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Columba's meditations there attracted the att ention of angels passing in the distance who then came near and asked: “Who is this mortal who has turned his face away from the outer world to build a templ e of God within his own body and soul?” Legend says the angels would answer: “This is the D ove and Wolf of the church: Like the Dove, his eyes shine with infinite peace; and like the Wolf, he hungers and stalks. He wants to know more than priests are willing to teach. The church has already forgotten that the Truth is only found by listening to God speak from within the stillness of the heart. But Columba is not as these. He quests in search of God Himself.”Columba's meditation was so powerful, on those days when no angel came to visit him, Columba knew that he was needed elsewhere, and turned his attention to the outer world and to whomever came to visit the island. MEN & MAGIC Life of St. Columba: http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/ T201040/text001.html

Reported miracles and blessings by Columba include phenomena now called 'astral travel,' remote viewing, foretelling the fu ture, prophecy, predictions, ESP, dreams, apparitions, visions of angels and demons, visions of Divine Light, battles of supernatural wills, and out-of-body expe riences. Many of them involved distance healing, secret sins, or imminent death. D id the island of Iona amplify the exile's powers? Today, he would be called a psychic, much like the "Edgar Cayce" of his day. Many of his 'miracles' were elemental -- involving earth, air, fire or water or driving out 'demons'. Did he turn water into wine, or was the congregation hypnotically susceptible to suggestion? Ditto for t urning bitter apples into sweet. Were his blessings evoking spontaneous healing or t he placebo effect? Were the visions of the pious poet bard a neurological condi tion? He managed to amass a great deal of power with his predictions, cures, an d missionary zeal. Much has been made of Merlin’s magic but Columba’s powers in evocational magic could have made a thousand Merlins green with envy. Columba was a poet and the Druids embraced him as a bard. In the third book of St. Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, there is an episode entitled 'Of a man ifestation of angels meeting the soul of one Emchath.' Loch Ness Monster Columba made his way beyond the ridge of Britain (D rum-Alban), the the lake of the river Nisa (Loch Ness) and was suddenly inspire d by the Holy Spirit. He called to his brethren journeying with him at the time: "L et us make haste to meet the holy angels who, that they may carry away the soul of a certain man, who is keeping the moral law of nature even to extreme old age, have been sent out from the highest regions of heaven, and are waiting unti l we have come thither, that we may baptize him in time before he dies." Thereafter the aged saint made as much haste as he could to go in advance of his companion s, until he came to the district which is named Airchartdan (Glen Urquart). ' There he found 'the holy heathen man,' Emchath by name. His account of the p roto-Loch Ness monster follows: How an aquatic monster was driven off by virtue of the blessed man's prayer: when the blessed man was living for some days in th e province of the Picts, he was obliged to cross the river Nesa (the Ness); and when he reached the bank of the river, he saw some of the inhabitants burying a n unfortunate man, who, according to the account of those who were burying him, was a short time before seized, as he was swimming, and bitten most severel y by a monster that lived in the water; his wretched body was, though too late, taken out with a hook, by those who came to his assistance in a boat. The ble ssed man, on hearing this, was so far from being dismayed, that he directed on e of his companions to swim over and row across the coble that was moored at th e farther bank. And Lugne Mocumin hearing the command of the excellent man, o beyed without the least

delay, taking off all his clothes, except his tunic , and leaping into the water. But the monster, which, so far from being satiated, was only roused for more prey, was lying at the bottom of the stream, and wh en it felt the water disturbed above by the man swimming, suddenly rushed out, and , giving an awful roar, darted after him, with its mouth wide open, as the man swam in the middle of the stream. Then the blessed man observing this, raised his holy hand, while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, ‘Thou shalt go no furthe r, nor touch the man; go back with all speed.’ Then at the voice of the saint, th e monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with r opes, though it had just got so near to Lugne, as he swam, that there was not more than the length of a spear-staff between the man and the beast. Then the breth ren seeing that the monster had gone back, and that their comrade Lugne returne d to them in the boat safe and sound, were struck with admiration, and gave gl ory to God in the blessed man. And even the barbarous heathens, who were pres ent, were forced by the greatness of this miracle, which they themselves ha d seen, to magnify the God of the Christians. Sacred Kindred of Columba Clearly, Columba grafted his religion on the old cr aft. His behavior is half-Druid magician and half Christian missionary. He tried to heal the split between the Scots and the Picts. Pict tradition was matrilinear so a system was devised for Pictish Princesses to marry Scots kings, but succes sors could be chosen from parallel lines of descent from sons, nephews and co usins. King Malcolm II deviated from the tradition of Druid election of su ccessors to offer his daughter Bethoc the crown. She was married to Crinan, Irish royalty and Archpriest of the Sacred Kindred of St. Columba. The strongest heredi tary claim of succession to the Scottish throne thereafter passed through Bethó c. The only known historical candidate for the legenda ry Pendragon title is one Artur MacAeden, 6th century son of the Dalriadic Ki ng of Scots in Argyll, whose mother and grandmother were reputedly from British Strathclyde. This Arthur had a sister called Morgana, a nephew known as St. Kent igern, the Patron Saint of Glasgow, and some say that St. Constantine, King of Cornwall, and founder of Govan, was Arthur's uncle. We can be certain though that Arthur was distantly related to St. Columba through his father, Aeden Ma cGabhran, and the High Kings of Ireland. Also without doubt, is the Merlin -esque role that St. Columba played in the life of Arthur and Aeden. He chose an d placed Aeden MacGabhran on the throne of Dalriada (Argyll & Ulster), and af ter a prophetic dream, he foretold Arthur's death. There was only ever one Arthur born to a Pendragon - Arthur Mac Aedan of Dalriada. They "married" the land they ruled. Gardn er describes how Arthur

descended the Merovingian line through his mother Y gerna del Acqs. His grandmother was Viviane I, dynastic Queen of Bergun dian Avallon, a Merovingian kinswoman. King Aedan was a celtic church Christian of the Sacred Kindred of St. Columba, which incorporated Druidic ritual. His sacred sister-bride in the tradition of the pharaohs, Morgaine was a Celtic Pr iestess, a soror mystica and holy sister of Avallon, with whom he ritually consu mmated the archetypal Royal Marriage, as the Egyptian royalty had done. But alignment with the Roman church made Arthur a p olitical and religious enemy of his own son Modred, who was Archpriest of the Sacred Kindred of Columba and an anointed Fisher King. In 608, Aedan died and was buried on Iona, similar to Arthur’s reported burial on Avalon . Is Iona the mythic Avalon? Both were entrances to the underworld. Only 6 miles of from Iona, Staffa with Fingal's Cave is the largest, most dramatic such ap erture in the British Isles. The underworld of the Celts is called A-val or Avilion, the “fire of the heart.” If so, is Iona, not Glastonbury, the heart chakra of the worl d? Avalon was a school for Merlins, and Iona continued that tradition with a p assion. Today’s senior Stewart line claims decent from King Arthur’s father, King Aedan of Scots, on the one hand and to Prince Nascien of the Septimanian Midi on the other. The Scots descent traces further back throug h King Lucius of Siluria to Bran the Blessed and Joseph of Aramathea (St. James the Just), while the Midi succession stems from the Merovingians male ancestr al line through the Fisher Kings to Jesus and Mary Magdalene. If the "Grail" i s the sacred bloodline, it resided in Iona on multiple occasions. Its spirit n ever left. The sacred Stone of Destiny remained with Iona’s mo nks until 843 when Viking raids caused them to move to Scone, where they used it for crowning Scottish Kings. According to an old chronicle, "no king was ever wont to reign in Scotland unless he had first, on receiving the royal name, s at upon this stone at Scone, which by the kings of old had been appointed to the capital of Alba." In 807, the “Book of Kells” was also removed from I ona to Kells to save this luminous treasure of Celtic art from invading Vikin gs. Illuminated manuscripts from Iona’s scriptorium were thought to have supern atural properties. These Celtic designs were transferred to metal and stone. The Stone of Destiny was captured in 1296 by King Edward I (Long Shanks) and kept in England for 700 years. It was kept under the English throne through the coronation of Elizabeth II. It was only returned to Edinburgh in 1996 after an attempted theft. Aiden's Coronation "How an ANGEL OF THE LORD appeared in a vision to S t. Columba while he stayed in the Hinba island (Eilean-na-Naoimh), bein g sent to him in order that he might appoint Aidan king: ON another occasion, when this eminent man was staying in the Hinba island (Eilean-na-Naoimh), he saw, on a certain night, in a mental ecstasy, an angel sent to him from heaven, a nd holding in his hand a book

of glass, regarding the appointment of kings. Havin g received the book from the hand of the angel, the venerable man, at his comman d, began to read it; and when he was reluctant to appoint Aidan king, as the book directed, because he had a greater affection for Iogenan his brother, th e angel, suddenly stretching forth his hand, struck the saint with a scourge, th e livid marks of which remained in his side all the days of his life. And he added these words: ‘Know for certain,’ said he, ‘that I am sent to thee by God with the bo ok of glass, that in accordance with the words thou hast read therein, thou mayest inaugurate Aidan into the kingdom; but if thou refuse to obey this command, I will strike thee again.’ When therefore this angel of the Lord had appeared for three successive nights, having the same book of glass in his hand, and had repeated the same commands of the Lord regarding the appointment of t he same king, the saint, in obedience to the command of the Lord, sailed across to the Iouan island (Hy, now Iona), and there ordained, as he had been commanded , Aidan to be king, who had arrived at the same time as the saint. During the w ords of consecration, the saint declared the future regarding the children, grandch ildren and great- grandchildren of Aidan, and laying his hand upon hi s head, he consecrated and blessed him. Cummene the Fair, in the book which he wrote on the virtues of St. Columba, states that St. Columba commenced his predictions r egarding Aidan and his children and kingdom in the following manner: ‘Beli eve me, unhesitatingly, O Aidan,’ said he, ‘none of thine enemies shall be ab le to resist thee, unless thou first act unjustly towards me and my successors. Wh erefore direct thou thy children to commend to their children, their grandc hildren, and their posterity, not to let the sceptre pass out of their hands thro ugh evil counsels. For at whatever time they turn against me or my relatives who are in Hibernia, the scourge which I suffered on thy account from the an gel shall bring great disgrace upon them by the hand of God, and the hearts of men shall be turned away from them, and their foes shall be greatly strengthened against them.’ Now this prophecy hath been fulfilled in our own times in th e battle of Roth (Magh Rath, fought 637), in which Domnall Brecc, the grandson o f Aidan, ravaged without the slightest provocation the territory of Domnall, the grandson ofAinmuire. And from that day to this they have been trodden down by str angers-a fate which pierces the heart with sighs and grief." --Life of Columba TRIPLE DEATH There are a number of stories in Celtic mythology t hat clearly are formed by the Tripartate functions of Proto-Indo-European. The th eme of triple-death occurs in several places in medieval Celtic sources. The firs t story comes from theLife of St. Columba (Vita Columbae): Aedh, surnamed the Black, descended of a royal fami ly, and a Cruthinian by race.

Aedh wore the clerical habit, and came with the pur pose of residing with him in the monastery for some years. This Aedh the Black h ad been a very bloodthirsty man, and cruelly murdered many persons, amongst oth ers Diarmuid, son of Cerbul, by divine appointment king of all. This sam e Aedh, then, after spending some time in his retirement, was irregularly ordain ed priest by a bishop invited for the purpose... The bishop, however, would not v enture to lay a hand upon his head unless Findchan, who was greatly attached to A edh, in a carnal way should first place his right hand on his head as a mark of approval. When such an ordination afterwards became known to the saint, he was deeply grieved, and in consequence forthwith pronounced this fearful sente nce on the ill-fated Findchan and Aedh... And Aedh, thus irregularly ordained, sh all return as a dog to his vomit, and be again a bloody murderer, until at len gth, pierced in the neck with a spear, he shall fall from a tree into the water and be drowned... But Aedh the Black, a priest only in name, betaking himself agai n to his former evil doings, and being treacherously wounded with a spear, fell from the prow of a boat into a lake and was drowned. This story of triple-death corresponds to the eleme nts which Evans finds in a whole host of similar stories. In all of these stor ies, the tripartate death is foretold. Here St. Columba foretells the triple dea th of Aedh. At the same time Columba's prophecy is a curse or a punishment which he dispenses to Aedh because of his sins. This leads to the next element common in many 'Triple-death' stories, the sins of the warrior. According to Dumezil, the warrior often commits a sin against each one of the functions.He is punished for each sin, with a punishment fitting for his crime. In this passage from the Life of St. Columba, three specific sins are mentioned. Aedh blasphemes by being ordained a priest outside of the Church. This is a sin against the pr iestly function of Indo-European society. Aedh's second sin is murder; he has killed numerous people, most notably King Diarmuid. This is a sin against the wa rrior function. Aedh's last sin is against the productive/fertile function in Indo- European society, he has slept with another man—an act which is by its very nature unfertile. The Tripartite death of Aedh is linked with another story of tripl e-death. Diarmuid, who is killed by Aedh, also dies a triple death: When the king sent men to arrest Aedh, St. Ronan hi d him and so Diarmuid had Ronan arrested and tried in his stead. He was conde mned by the ecclasiastics for this act and Ronan himself uttered the famous curse , 'Desolate be Tara forever!' Soon after, Tara was abandoned, never to achieve it s former splendor... [Diarmuid's wife] had an affair with Flann, so Diar muid had Flann's fortress burnt over his head. Sorely wounded, Flann tried to escap e the flames by crawling into a vat of water where he drowned... Bec Mac De [Diar muid's druid councilor] prophesied that Diarmuid would be killed by Flann's kinsman, Aedh Dubh in the house of Banban... The manner of his death would be by slaughter, by burning, by drowning and by the ridge pole of a roof falling on his head... The Prophecy seemed so unlikely that Diarmuid scorned it, even w hen Banban invited him to a feast... Aedh Dubh was there and stabbed the High K ing with his spear. Wounded,

Diarmuid fled back into the house. Aedh Dubh's men set fire to it. Seeking to escape the flame, Diarmuid scrambled into a vat of ale. A burning ridge pole fell on to his head. The prophecy was fufilled (Ellis, 8 4). In this story, there is a prophecy of the threefold death before it occurs. In fact, Diarmuid's death is foretold by three different men in the original story. Diarmuid has also clearly violated two of the three function s. He sins against the sanctity of the priestly function, by trying St. Ronan. For thi s crime Ronan curses the throne at Tara. Diarmuid also murders Flann, a violation o f the warrior function. Diarmuid is punished for his transgressions by the triple na ture of his death. Merlin In Welsh legend, Myrddin Wylit, one of the sources for Merlin of Arthurian legend, is associated with threefold death. As a test of hi s skill, Merlin is asked to prophesy how a boy will die. He says the boy will f all from a rock. The same boy, with a change of clothes, is presented again, and M erlin prophesies that he will hang. Then, dressed in a girl's clothes, the boy is presented, and Merlin replies, "Woman or no, he will drown." As a young man, the v ictim, in a hunt, falls from a rock, is caught in a tree, and hanging head down in a lake, drowns. Myrddin Wyllt also reportedly prophesied his own de ath, which would happen by falling, stabbing, and drowning. This was fulfilled when a gang of jeering shepherds drove him off a cliff, where he was impal ed on a stake left by fishermen, and died with his head below water. Arthur’s father was King Aedan of Dalriada the youn gest son of King Constantine. Arthur was recognized as the King of Britain at the time his father was crowned the King of what is now Scotland. Colu mba ordained the two Pendragons in 575. King Constantine was the first R oman Christian monarch. Arthur was a Roman Christian as well. Hi s mother, Igraine wanted him to make the Celtic Christian Church the Church of t he Britons. Arthur’s half sister, Anna married King Loth of Lothian and had s everal children including Gawain and Lancelot. Gawain, Lancelot and Arthur were all trained at a m ilitary instillation in Sweetheart which is now New Abbey across the Nith R iver near Dumfries. The Merlin was a mortal man as well as Arthur, Lancelot , Gawain, Constantine and King Aedan. Merlin was the title for the Seer to t he King. His birth name was Emrys of Powys. He was the chief advisor for both Pendragon Kings. He was also an elder cousin of Aedan Mac Gabran. The Merl in did prophecy the future. He told King Aedan that he would be alive to see all three of his sons die in battle as the Celtic Christians fought the Roman Christians for the Head of the Island. Arthur did have an ancestral relationship with his half-sister Morgan Le Fay that

lead to the birth of a son by the name of Modred. The Celtic Church did not see this as wrong for they believe that there is a Male and a Female that makes up God. Therefore, the divine union between Morgana an d Arthur was blessed. This created a whole ruler for the Celts of Britain. Mor gana or Morgan Le Fey raised Modred to be the Head of the Celtic Christian Churc h, after Arthur proved to be a Roman Christian. Modred also had the same Roman so ldier training that his father and uncles had received. There is a misconception of Arthur being Welsh for a very good reason. During the 6th century there were two Arthurs. The one th is story is based on and the second was Arthur Prince of Dyfed whom was installe d by St. Dubricius in 506. This Arthur was a descendant of the Deisi lea ders from Ireland that were the enemies of the Welsh. The confusion is from the Me rlin connection. Merlin’s father was Aurelious of Powys. Aurelious’ wife was the sister Arthur of Dyfed. This made Merlin the nephew of Arthur of Dy fed while at the same time the cousin to Arthur Mac Gabran, the Pendragon. The Welsh and the Scots were allies and had towns a nd villages of very similar names. Only with modern translations can both Arth urs be identified. King Arthur did marry Queen Gwenhwyfar of Brittany. Gwe nhwyfar is know to us as Gunivere or modern translation of Jennifer. Gunive re was a Celt priestess and a Queen by her own rights. She was recorded by Colum ba as being a fierce fighting woman. Sir Lancelot was actually her knig ht before she and Arthur were married. She brought Lancelot into the Pendragon’ s service. The treacherous affair between Lancelot and Gunivere was recorded b y St. Columba and other scholars at the time. King Urien of Gorre made a d eclaration of war because he claimed Gunivere and her lands as his. King Urien actually kidnapped the Queen. Lancelot came to her rescue; that in turn led to th eir affair. LAND OF LEGENDS Iona, the primordial Dreamland is a magical burial place of over 60 Kings, including the Scots Macbeth and his victim Duncan. Known graves include 48 Scottish, 8 Norwegian, 1 French and 4 Irish kings p lus numerous clan chiefs. Templar knight gravestones reveal their presence on the island. Megalithic remains suggest it was a prehistoric burial site, t oo. Iona is a borderland between life and death. Those buried there often arrived wh ile still alive to prepare for their final journey. The monks essentially died while liv ing a very solitary life. A beehive cell or single hermitage was called a ‘dise rt.’ An island legend tells of a lonely monk who fell in love with a mermaid. When she was banished, she shed tears that can be found toda y as small green tear-shaped crystals along Iona’s beaches. There are also legen ds about magical “green eggs,” called Druid’s Eggs or Serpent’s Eggs. Iona’ s other tales include Blood Eagle tortures of monks by Vikings, Fairy Ointment, Place of the Great Crosses, human sacrifice, Earthworks, “House of the Fairies, ” Culdees, and Moneymusk

Reliquary -- even Atlantean priestesses. Staffa the nearest uninhabited island facing Iona displays the gaping maw of the astonish ing Fingal’s Cave, the Scottish end of the Giant’s Causeway, noted for its massive basalt columns. The giant's cave was a Druid initiation chamber. Lookin g out from inside this extraordinary cave, Iona is framed in the entrance. Both islands form an initiatory circuit. Caves are portals to the underworld, the w orld of the dead. Columba, the Celtic Saint was a wanderer. He realiz ed he had no abiding home on earth. Many early monks left their homes as a sign of the spiritual quest - the white martyrdom. One of these monks was Saint Colum ba - a nobleman of one of the leading families in Ireland. With some other co mpanions, including his cousin Beathain (Bean), he settled in the isle of I - Iona . While there he sailed up Loch Ness to negotiate with the Pictish king, Brude at I nverness. On the way he is recorded to have encountered (and tamed) the "water horse" which dwelt in Loch Ness. He baptized natives along the banks of the Ne ss, and eventually left his cousin in Cannich, where he is traditionally held t o have founded the cell known as Kil Beathain - now Clachan Comar. Above Clachan Comar is the spring still known as St. Bean’s spring. Other ancient stories tell of Joseph of Arimathea v isiting the island to trade in tin; some include his young nephew Jesus accompanying hi m. Another legend says Mary Magdalene was buried in a cave on Iona and in the future a Divine Woman from the fair isle will redeem the world. Though le ss is known of its pagan past, much more has been written on the Christian history of Iona after Columba drove out a rival monastic order, not the indigenous Drui ds, as is frequently but wrongly reported. But even Iona’s Celtic Christiani ty must be seen in a pagan light. This was not the Roman church. The monastics of Iona lived simple, often solitary lives. The “Black Nuns” on Iona followed the teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo, in Egypt. They wore black habits, and their church was locally called an eaglais dhub h (‘the black church’). They pursued a contemplative and cloistered life. Their first prioress was Bethoc. Gravestones demonstrate the nunnery was favored for retirement and burial for ladies of noble birth from across the western seabo ard. The ninth Abbot of Iona, who wrote the hagiography of St. Columba, demonstra tes the hereditary succession: Adomnán was a descendant of Colman mac Setna, a cousin of St. Columba and the ancestor, through his son Ainmire, of the kings of Cenel Conaill. He was the son of Ronan mac Tinne by Ronat, a woman from the (northern Ui Neill lineage known as the Cenél nÉnda.

Prehistoric Spirituality

Prehistoric Deluge: Meltwater Pulse 1A Narratives are frames best read in the context of t heir own cultural, mythological and philosophical origins. Perspective defines how wide or narrow that view is – broad or fine strokes. The story of Iona begins in Atlantis, both a literal story of radical changes in coastal geomorphology from cycli cal natural catastrophe as well as a metaphor of ancient wisdom sinking into t he subconscious. We don't have to give such a place or time a name, but simply say, "Before a near-extinction." The best known meltwater pulses i s referred to as Meltwater Pulse 1A (mwp-1A), which started at around 14,200 y ears ago and lasted for close to 500 years. Over this short period, sea level ro se approximately 20 m – or around 40 mm/y – almost 7 times the average rate. The late Ice Age comet impact on the Laurentian Ice Sheet, melted enough ice to create the evidence of super flooding seen in the S t. Lawrence, Mississippi water ways and the fresh water spike seen in the sedimen ts on the floor of the gulf of

México. This large impact event plausibly created a "Nuclear Winter". As the super flood of water entered the oceans, the sea le vel began to raise. The rise in sea level, though small, was enough to lift the edges of the grounded Continental Ice Sheets which were in a precarious b alance with the warming of the climate and frequent surges into the sea. It ti pped the balance and caused a massive entry of glacial ice from the Laurentian Ic e Sheet into the Atlantic ocean and created the 1A event of scatted stones found th roughout the North Atlantic floor sediments. Stones dropped from the ice as it melted in the ocean as the huge surge of glacial ice drifted far and wide. This wholesale entry of Glacial ice into the world oceans in the massive 1A event, raised sea level world wide in a matter of days by quite a number of feet. This sudden huge rise in sea level could have destabiliz ed the other Ice Sheets and Glaciers which existed in Ice Age, and could have r esulted in a domino chain reaction as one glacier after another slid into the sea, with each one raising the sea level higher and causing more glaciers to surge into the sea in a run away chain reaction. In the Ice Ages, Britain was a peninsula of Europe. Doggerland was the heart of mesolithic culture. It began sinking Doggerland, th e landbridge linking the British Isles with Europe, changing migratory patterns and creating pockets of isolation. Sea level began to rise before 15,000 BC as soon as the ice sheets began to recede. The most rapid phases were between 8000 BC and 5000 BC, and the general increase was effectively over by 2000 BC wh en it may have been one or 2 m higher than today.Mega-fauna became extinct. Fres hwater disruption of the thermohaline oceanic pump led to the Younger Dryas glacial period, which subsided 6,500 years ago. A Holocene submarine land slide off Norway created a huge tsunami that finished off Doggerland, making i t part of the North Sea. Others would have witnessed the sea racing inland a t the breaching of a shingle ridge or dune. Still others such as the inhabitants of what would one day become the town of Inverness in eastern Scotland faced cat astrophe. Archaeologists have recovered almost 5,000 flint artifacts, bone fragme nts and a fireplace so far. On some day close to 7,000BC a small group of Mesolith ic hunters were in a natural hollow in the dune. A few hours earlier, the massiv e sub-marine Storegga landslide occurred 1,000km to the north within the Arctic Ocean between Norway and Iceland. Profiles across the scarp show the great change in the seismic character of the disturbed sediments. They become jumbled, massive a nd form an irregular sea-bed, and produce strongly hyperbolic immediately be low the scarp. Seismic reflection profile from the Storegga Slide. It created a huge tsunami that probably hit their b each with a height of 8m. More than 17,000 cubic kilometers of white, stony sand b uried everything as far as

could be seen to the north and south. The impact of this tsunami across the low-lying coast of Doggerland must have been devastatin g. Many km of coastline are likely to have been destroyed within a few hours, perhaps minutes and many lives were lost. Another catastrophe happened on the other side of E urope 3,500km away. The victims lived on the shore of the freshwater lake t hat would become the Black Sea. The lowlands around the lake provided flat fer tile soil covered with oak woodlands in which people hunted and gathered for t housands of years. By the date of the event, however, a new people had arrive d: Neolithic farmers. They had come from Turkey and settled on the rich alluvial s oil; felling trees to make way for fields of wheat and barley and to provide wood for their houses, fences, and pens for cattle and goats. The Black Sea had become a lake during the Ice Age. The settlement of Britain by early modern humans co mmenced before the last glacial maximum (LGM, 19–23 000 BP; Mix et al . 2001), but the ice advance during it led to the British Isles being abandoned by temp erate species, including humans (Barton et al . 2003). Although a variety of scenarios have been proposed based on archaeological and genetic data, there is still debate over the nature and timing of the reoccupation of the British Isles by humans after the LGM (Oppenheimer 2006; Conneller 2007; Jacobi & Higham 2009). Likewise, linked in with these scenarios, there is much discussion on t he regional impact (both biologically and culturally) of subsequent human mi grations into the British Isles. In terms of current regional distributions in the B ritish Isles, the long-standing human occupants of the western and northern periphe ry are distinct culturally and genetically from those in central and eastern B ritain (Davies 1999; Forster et al. 2004; Oppenheimer 2006). The cultural distinctive ness is most evident at present through the separation of the peripheral pe ople and areas into the nations of Scotland, Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) and Wales, the dependency of the Isle of Man and the mo st westerly English county of Cornwall. The central and eastern areas and the peo ple within them constitute England. The traditional languages in the periphera l areas (Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Manx and Cornish) are closely relate d to each other linguistically (Forster & Toth 2003) and distinctive from English. Genetically, there are differences between people in the peripheral areas and those in England; for example, in peripheral areas there are high frequen cies of individuals with the mtDNA marker J/16192 and belonging to the Y-chromos omal gene cluster R1b-14, while J/16231 and I1a occur at high frequencies in England (Forster et al . 2004; Oppenheimer 2006). While the pattern is clear, the processes that led to that pattern remain contentious. The vernacular name for the peripheral regions and people within them is the Celtic fringe, which also includes Brit tany in north-western France. This reflects a traditional scenario that Celts spr ead into and occupied the whole

of the British Isles by 2600 BP, replacing earlier inhabitants. It is generally assumed that the Celts remained numerically dominan t and geographically widespread until they were themselves partially rep laced by Anglo-Saxons at approximately 1600–1200 BP, resulting in the Anglo- Saxon territory of ‘England’ and a peripheral fringe of Celtic people, which has persisted to the present day (Davies 1999). However, this scenario is controvers ial among historians and human geneticists and, while supported by some, alt ernative scenarios involve, for example, greater persistence of pre-Celtic peop le, and cultural spread rather than population replacement by the Anglo-Saxons (Da vies 1999; Burmeister 2000; Weale et al . 2002; Capelli et al . 2003;Oppenheimer 2006). Therefore, interpretation of the human pattern may need to tak e into account the aspects of human migration leading all the way back to the rec olonization of the British Isles after the LGM. The Human Effects With the fall of "Atlantis", the collective psyche of humankind began to degenerate. The esoteric map of Atlantis is a map of transformation. Deep within there is an Atlantis of the soul, from which we yea rn to recover what we sense has been lost – our potential for transcendence. Bu t it is ‘transparency’ that makes us seers by allowing us to see through the ve il of history and legend. Rather than answers, we might only find better ques tions. Very little informs us of who lived in Scotland from 10,000 B.C. until the Me galithic Age, roughly 3500 B.C. to 1500 B.C. Perhaps some of the earliest ancestor s were refugees from the Atlantean Deluge. The primordial solar church existed in proto-Irelan d before the historically known "Druids." The Megalithic Irish (or Arish) were know n as the Hyperboreans, which implied not only that they inhabited Northern clime s but that they were the descendants of the pre-diluvian inhabitants of Atla ntis, before the cataclysms that devastated the lands of the North-West. During the so-called "Age of Catastrophe," titanic cataclysms (following on from those that destroyed Atlantis) displaced the origin al inhabitants of Britain, who were forced to flee to the Continent across land-br idges now lost beneath the waves and known as Doggerland. The lost ground is a vast plain that joined Britain to Europe for nearly 12,000 years, until se a levels began rising dramatically after the last Ice Age. Taking its nam e from a prominent shipping hazard—Dogger Bank—this immense land bridge vanishe d beneath the North Sea around 6,000 B.C. Evidence suggests early migrations from the West to the East, preceding a return of the Scythian Druid kings. The Black Sea princes settled in Ireland about 800 BC. Arguably, it was the former who transmitted the elements of civilization to the world at large, before the return waves of Celtic-S cythian "Druids". Anciently, they were one. But the Royal Scyths were masters of transcendent

consciousness, called Sidhe (pronounced “Shee”), which colloquially means fairy or elf, but translates as ‘powers’. Many reli gious symbols were first employed by the Druid elders of the West, from the "Land of the Pure or Noble Ones." The high priests of Ireland were commonly kn own as Druids. The ancient priests were hereditary serpent kings w ho founded mystery schools. The Druids held the symbols of the serpent and the dragon in the highest esteem and considered them insignias of royalty. They refe rred to themselves asNaddreds , meaning "Wise Serpents” -- those initiated into t he highest mysteries, that possessed healing abilities and gre at knowledge of architecture, astronomy and astrology. The Druid's pre-diluvian t heology was based on the observance and veneration of the stars, of the sun, the moon, and the zodiac. From its inception, Druidry was a stellar religion. It is linked to the words for 'door' or portal and 'bringer of truth.’ West to East Celtic expansion - http://www.enter.net/~torve/trogholm/wonder/indoeur opean/indoeuropean3.html DRAGON AGE These "enlighteners" were fully aware of the 26,000 -year cycle of Precession of the Equinoxes. When their line arose, the star Thub an in the constellation Draco was the pole star. They were a hereditary caste of seers, philosophers, political advisors, priests, natural scientists, historians, doctors of medicine, judges, poets, royal advisors, musicians, geometers, orator s, navigators, and magicians. The Bards sang oracular songs. They preserved 'know ledge' or gnosis. The solar deity of Beltane was known as Bel, Beli, Belanus, c elebrated with vast bonfires. Iona still echoes symbols of the ancient solar cult on Easter, displaying an altar cloth showing the reborn rising sun. Druidry recognizes eight markers in the shamanic So lar cycle. Winter Solstice, called Alban Arthan [the Light of Arthur] is the time of death and reb irth. The sun appears to be abandoning us completely as the longe st night arrives; it stops in its tracks. Our own inner journey is linked to the yearly cycle, in which whatever impedes the appearance of light or holds us back mu st be cast away. As one lamp is lit from a flint and raised up on the Druid 's crook in the East, the year is reborn and a new cycle begins. The dynamic between body and soul is revealed in th e Druid natural philosophy of reincarnation, not in immediate rebirth but in r eincorporation of the spirit into a new body after a length of time. Transmigration is symbolized by the serpent that sheds its skin. Funeral pyres were considered porta ls through which one could send “letters” to the dead. Memories arise with no known reality. Old patterns die so that new psychic patterns are born through the v oid’s grace. Iona gives us the grace to breathe that void. Empty space is Iona’s c entral metaphor, informing the vacuum. We become containers for the ceaseless flow of images. Second sight

means to “know again.” We re-cognize our own images . We embody the idea of ancient hidden knowledge being carried through to o ur own time. From the light of Albion, the light of consciousnes s radiates out to the world. Some legends mirror the solar cycle, claiming Jesus and Mary Magdalene were on Iona, where she gave birth to His son, John Mart inus. We can assume a spiritual significance for the association that imp lies a family lineage, a holy bloodline older than Jesus. Does Mary Magdalene lie buried in a hidden cave on Iona? She was worshipped there as the Holy (Saint) Bride, “Mary of the Gael.” The children and descendants of early Celtic saints , both male and female, belonged to the old British royal lineages. Does th e Martin’s Cross on Iona, with its solar circle, encode such memories for those wh o can read them? The Winter Solstice , Alban Arthan , represents a time to open to inspiration and conception. All about us is darkness. Our only guid e is Arthur, the Great Bear, the Pole Star (or the Southern Cross in the Southern he misphere). Intuition is born in the stillness of night. This is the mystery of the rebirth of the inner light within us. The Winter Solstice is the time when the seed of Li ght, represented both by the one light raised on high and by the white mistletoe berries, comes down from the inspired realms and incarnates in the womb of the n ight and of the Earth Mother. This is a potent time to open ourselves to the fert ilizing power of the divine, which gives birth to our creativity. The Druid’s ye w tree, Ioha , is a symbol of immortality. Great yew trees can be 2-4,000 years o ld whereas Iona’s churches are far newer. The yews came first, planted on sacr ed sites of the Druids. Regardless of their symbolic names, the elements of light, consciousness and rebirth are woven and rewoven.

Atlantis: Lost & Found

The myths of lost Atlantis are Egyptian. The oldest known example of archeoastronomy with stone circles (Nabta Playa, Nu bian Desert) is in pre-sand Egypt, dated to the fifth Millennium BC. – 2000 yea rs before Stonehenge. This temple of the stars demonstrates the sky ‘moves’ in a predictable long-term cycle. An alignment with Sirius in 6088 BC and othe r alignments dated to 6270 suggest an estimated date 1500 years earlier. The s ite was used as a necropolis in the Saharan wet period of pre-history, roughly 1 1,000 – 5,000 years ago when the playa bloomed. The area became arid 4,800 years ago when the monsoon returned to the equator. Egyptian culture moved to the Nile Valley. The circle of Precession is called the “circle of S idi” or Circle of Seven, which is also a name for Stonehenge. The Welsh name for Zodi ac or ecliptic is ‘Sidydd.’ ‘Sidi’ is the Arabic honorific, ‘Lord,’ ‘master,’ o r ‘saint.’ It refers to the seven (periods of) the pole stars. Seven shifting positio ns are also the model for the stellar crown of seven stones. Over the cycle of Pr ecession constellations have “sunk” below the horizon in the Abyss of the heaven s. In the Dragon lineage the astronomical mythos came down to Earth as seers and overlords – the Siddhe , who described how to live in harmony with nature within the divine scheme of things. Galactic alignment of Earth with the core of the Milky Way is the long lost zero point of the precessional cycle. Precession defines the Great Year of circulation about the signs of the Zo diac. There is some evidence the Druids even placed a taboo on their people agai nst speaking the names of the sacred planets, mandating euphemisms, such as ‘brig htness’ for the Moon. There were three cataclysms, or major geologic chan ges, in Earth's recent history. The first, around 20,200 BC, was declared as the starting point for reasons which are not clear and by people now unkno wn. The glaciers started to

melt. A second geologic change occurred around 12,2 00 BC. There, again, was a sudden warming, causing more glaciers to melt. Many people died. A third geologic change occurred around 8100 BC. Th is marked the end of the ice age with a climactic optimum. There was a sudden ri se in sea level, drowning many coastal cities, many mammals became extinct, a nd most of the world's population died. Britain lost her solid connection with the mainland when lower lying Doggerland finally disappeared beneath the wa ves, severing her from the continent. These epic disasters came down as legend s of pre-diluvial Atlantis and sent surviving megalithic inhabitants on nomadic tr eks across Europe, the Middle East, toward China and India and back again via Gau l, Egypt and Spain. Egyptian beliefs were in Druid practice, but Egypt was originally a colony of Atlantis, the true source of the Druids.Although th e Scythians of later ages were originally affiliated with the Megalithic Arya, som e of their number became spiritually and morally corrupt. Today, a few mains tream historians and archeologists hesitatingly accept that Western "Cel ts" (sic) had settlements in the Middle and Far East. This is because these migratio ns were relatively late, historically speaking. They date from approximately 600 BC onward. The Hyksos/Atonists were originally Scythians from the West who migrated through Egypt. The Ouroboros that bites its own tail can be traced back to ancient Egypt, circa 1,600 BCE. Also the serpent entwined around the (se rpent's) egg, was a symbol common to the Egyptians and the Druids. It referred to the creation of the Universe, Precession and the Milky Way. The World e gg also known as the Serpent’s Egg, or the Druid’s Egg is a potent symbo l of the union of masculine and feminine. It depicts the creation of the World from these two aspects of divinity and reminds us that we contain both male a nd female within. Survivors of drowned islands knew the nature of cat aclysm. Arguably, according to de Vere's research, the Atlanteans were antedilu vian Dragon gods of ancient proto-Scythia driven from their homeland by the Bla ck Sea flood, now scientifically dated to 6,900 years ago when vast i ce sheets melted inundating their freshwater lake with seawater. This led to ma ss migrations as the climate re-adjusted. Modern research suggests migrations went both ways many times and cultures mixed, even while the royal bloodline pers isted. Legend says, "One group consisting of seven males, three females and one child, established an Atlantean colony on Iona. They built a small library for ancient sacred works. Around the library which they called their ‘heart seed', they built a strong, almost fortress like Temple." They called I ona Aberuk , or "distant place of the heart'." It is said the Hyperboreans called it Luma or "bright land." The priestesses on Iona called themselves the Priestess es of Ank, or ‘sacred well of life'. Ank is strongly suggestive of the Egyptian Ankh , symbol of life. Ionian priestesses were the basis for the Celtic legends c oncerning sanctuaries of ‘Lady

of the Lake' type anima women who regenerate the ma le psyche and often his physical form as well. Descriptions of activities on Iona throughout histo ry echo Egyptian forebearers. The Egyptians had several classes of priesthood, bu t the Sesh-Per-Ankh were the scribes of the House of Life. These, too, were freq uently associated with magical knowledge because of their connection with the sacr ed texts. The scribes worked largely within the Per-Ankh copying temple texts. T hey were considered to be very wise and scholarly. The scribes were also cons idered healers, possessing medical knowledge. French Egyptologist, Dr. Serge S auneron describes the activities of the scribes in the Per-Ankh: "The main activities in the house of life consisted in preparing the religious works necessary to the cult, in recopying the old manuscr ipts, in correcting errors, in completing the gaps and passages short of lines; th ey developed the texts of theology or of liturgy particular to each temple; t hey prepared the magic books of protection, the astronomical tables; they recopied a thousand times, versions of the Book of the Dead; they discussed with ardor, be tween copying sessions, philosophical and religious problems, without negle cting medicine and literary activities . . . For everything was not just mechan ical copying, in these studies; sometimes an original text, sometimes a theosophica l exposition would be drawn up following meditation or the exchange of fruitful views . . . Some of the finest spiritual or ethical texts we possess were stimulat ed by the reflections and convictions of some obscure scribe whose name will never be known to us . . ." (Sauneron 1960.136) The migrations of Atlantis, Egypt, Scythia, Ireland , Scotland and Iona bring us full circle in the Celtic cycle. We’ve seen the Cosmos i n a fractal grain of Iona’s sand. On Iona, the sANKHtuary, every stone could be a Phi losopher’s Stone. The vision of the reborn spirit within us is that of “heaven s pread upon Earth.”

REFERENCES de Vere, Nicholas (1985-2004), The Dragon Legacy , San Diego, California; The Book Tree. de Vere, Nicholas, (2005-2010), The Dragon Cede , San Diego, California; The Book Tree. Dunford, Barry, “Iona, Sacred Isle of the West,” http://www.sacredconnections.co.uk/holyland/ iona.htm Dunford, Barry, “The Mystery of the Mother Church,” http://www.sacredconnections.co.uk/holyla nd/motherchurch.htm Ellis, Peter Berresford, A Brief History of the

Druids http://books.google.com/books?id=PIXAREdVI_QC&prin tsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Gardner, Laurence (2003), “Realm of the Ring Lords, ” Nexus Magazine. Gardner, Laurence (2002), Bloodline of the Holy Grail , Fair Winds Press; Rev Exp edition.

• Bloodline of The Holy Grail: The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed (1996) (ISBN 1852308702)

• Genesis of the Grail Kings: The Astonishing Story o f the Ancient Bloodline of Christ and the True Heritage of the Holy Grail (1999) (ISBN 0553817744)

• Illustrated Bloodline of the Holy Grail (2000) (ISBN 1862047707)

• Realm of The Ring Lords: The Ancient Legacy of the Ring and the Grail (2003) (ISBN 1931412146)

• Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark: Amazing Revelations of the Incredible Power of Gold (2004) (ISBN 0007142951)

• The Magdalene Legacy: The Jesus and Mary Bloodline Conspiracy (2005) (ISBN 0007200854)

• The Shadow of Solomon: The Lost Secret of the Freem asons Revealed (2005) (ISBN 1578634040)

• The Grail Enigma: The Hidden Heirs of Jesus and Mar y Magdalene (2008) (ISBN 0007266944)

Menzies, Lucy (1920), Saint Columba of Iona . Miller, Iona (2010), “Iona Mystic Isle.” http://ion amiller.weebly.com/iona-mystic-island.html Sauneron, Serge (1957-2000), The Priests of Ancient Egypt ,” Cornell University. Tsarion, Michael (2007), Irish Origins of Civilization , Taroscopes:http://www.irishoriginsofcivilization.co m/irishoriginsexcerpts/book1_chap1.html ©2010 Iona Miller is a nonfiction writer for the ac ademic and popular press, hypnotherapist (ACHE) and multimedia artist. She ha s pursued a lifelong interest in esoterics and mysticism. Her conspirituality wo rk is an omni-sensory fusion of intelligence, science-art, new physics and emergent paradigm shift, melding many social issues into a new view of society. She is interested in the effects of doctrines from religion, science, psychology, and t he arts. Website: http://ionamiller.weebly.com