Publisher's Synopsis
It is said that when Britain is in the direst peril and needs him the most, King Arthur will arise from his grave and return.We know this because we used to hear rhymes about it while still in the cradle - bardic poems that hailed from of an age that Time forgot, when our ancestors carved stories about the Once and Future King in the green and pleasant hills of Avalon, and then left them there for the salvation of mankind.
These esoteric dramas are as rich and fertile as the black peat laid down in the soil of the salt marshes and flower-filled meadows of Somerset in England, because they are threaded through with the resonances of songlines that come from gentler, slower days ...when both treasure and pleasure were measured by meaning and a man's dreams were valued more than gold. The deeper significance of these plays is only visible to those who have the eyes to see, who have the "knowledge of the stars" - which few do today. And yet they are still faithfully acted out, every night, by huge earthwork giants on a massive stage lit by a thousand stars shining down into an oft-flooded, cauldron-shaped landscape that is reminiscent of the Holy Grail. The stories about Arthur Pendragon originally came from ancient Celtic myths and in Stories in the Summerlands, Annie Dieu-Le-Veut introduces you to this character in his original mythic form, and reveal to you where he is buried. Then you will understand how resurrection from the grave is a metaphor for a spiritual realisation that will awaken mankind to their true nature. She will show you how Arthur is part of a stellar drama that features other great star giants who govern the Wheel of the Year, and whose fertility battles over the hand of the Queen of the May are marked and celebrated as the Earth turns into the light half of the year, and then again, as it sinks down into the dark half. The seasons are marked and celebrated in Somerset according to a battle between two great star giants, who the Celts named Gwythyr and Gwyn, respectively the Lord of Summer and the Lord of Winter. Gwythyr rules under the Summer Stars of Somerset, otherwise known as the Summer Triangle which is etched out in the night skies by three 'birds'. Gwyn is the psychopomp who guides the initiate down into the Underworld for the Judgement, just as Anubis performs that role in the Egyptian Papyrus Texts and the Sumerian Nabu ferries Gilgamesh along a river into the Realms of the Dead. When the Arthurian scribes of the Norman conquest came later on to recast the Celtic myths, they ascribed the psychopomp character to Morgan of the Fae who takes the wounded Arthur in her boat through the mists of Avalon into the Otherworlds. So why not let Annie Dieu-Le-Veut be your guide along this winding pilgrimage into both the outer and inner landscapes of Avalon, during which you will develop the ability to recognise the wonders found in these stories in your own land, and the wisdom to take what you learn there to enrich your own life today.
