Samhain is drawin near. I can feel it in the air. Or rather, I can feel it inside, and the spirits seem to be whispering about it. True Samhain is somewhere around the 6th of November. 90 degrees Scorpio. But the energy is present already, and will remain so for days afterwards.

There’s been a lot of stuff going through my mind lately. So many things that I’m trying to get done, and transformations I want to make. As a result it’s been really hard for me to focus on any one thing, even though it’s very desirable for me.

There is an older woman on the train talking to a noncorporeal entity. Not sure if she’s delusional or if her friend John is really with her. She doesn’t have an otherworldly air about her, but neither does she seem deranged.

Last week before she left for international travel, Herbis Orbis and I were talking about the divine masculine, primarily in the context of Arthur and Galahad, as the pillars of that divine form. We neglected to discuss Mordred and Lancelot, although I think it’s primarily because we aren’t faced with a compelling example of that aspect of the masculine diivne in our experience.

One of the things that struck me about our discussion, is the realization of how important Time is to the masculine Divine. And it is more interesting that Time itself is often viewed as part of the femenine, part of water. Time flows. It has a stream. It stretches, creates, and does not end. — It is true that we can only take the stream metaphor so far, and since I’m not entirely convinced of the linear quality of time it, perhaps, holds even less water. But the connection is there, deep in our mythic history.

So with time the strata in which the masculine divine manifests and moves, I’ve been evaluating or examining the relationships that our Masculine Heroes have with that strata. Arthur, of course, is the warrior of time. He supposedly suspended outside of time, awaiting the proper moment to come back and raise camelot from history. This is the result of his battle against time and his eventual surrender to it. Arthur, throughout his reign struggled over and over again with the fact that time would not slow down and stop. He fought to create equilibrium at camelot, in many ways he fought to halt the passage of time. It was his greatest wish to create a kingdom of nobility and righteousness that would stand against the ravages of time, that would not degrade or fall apart.

Arthurs acceptance of Christianity, and taking Guenevere as his bride, is often told as an indication of how he turned away from the old ways. And it certainly is, but why? It was certainly a betrayal of Avalon, but perhaps Arthur was looking for something that the new religion offered that Avalon could not. Time. I do not presume to know the truth of the pagan traditions of the british Isles historically, but if the assumption is correct that the pagan culture revered change, and the passage of time, as many tellings of the arthurian tales reference, then it is entirely likely that Arthur could not have any faith in the survival of camelot. The Christian faith however, makes strong promises about perpetuity. Perhaps Arthurs betrayal of Avalon is as simple as his desire to live forever.

This makes him the champion of Christianity, and in many ways of rational humanism. Arthur the conquering hero, Once and Future King, the king who defeated the old ways, the ways of darkness and mystery, and heralded the dawn of science, of mans ability to truly master this creation, to master the ultimate enemy, Time.

Thus Mordred, who we most often see as the villian, is the warrior of the old ways. Not time precisely, but the reverence of time. In many ways, Mordred is actually the divine child. He carries the power of the divine masculine, but as Arthur in his youth, he is in truth a warrior of the Divine Femenine. His battle is to preserve the old ways, both good and bad, because he rejects mans dominion over nature. Both over the nature of man, and over the natural world. It is here that we find his darkness. Mordred seeks revenge on behalf of the betrayal of Arthur, and himself becomes a symbol of that which Arthur hates most. The passage of time.

There is of course the obvious reference to Arthurs own mortality in Mordreds existence and adulthood. What father is not at some point scared by the fact that his son is aging, primarily because it means his death is that much closer. Note though, that Mordred is not fighting on Times behalf. He is the counter to Arthur in his beliefs, but not in his enemy. Arthur fights to become the Lord of Time, to conquer it. Mordred fights to conquer it in his own way, by preventing it from moving forward. Arthur wants to vanquish time. Mordred merely wants to stop it.

This is perhaps Mordreds greatest flaw. He is shallow. He has no great mission of his own, no divine purpose. He is the force of the masculine divine with no Will of it’s own, and that destructive force obsesses upon the betrayal of Arthur, the driven divine, and so seeks to destroy his work. Once Arthur has been killed, his great efforts destroyed, Mordred too may die, having no greater purpose upon which to spend his will.

Time is up. I’ll write about Lancelot and Galahad when I get a chance.