The Path Through the Labyrinth

By Marian Green
& Courtney Davis
Published by Element Books
(1988)

Underlying the evolving culture of the West there hides a complete strata of folklore, of traditional skills and wisdom, of ancient arts and festivals. These are still emerging in myth and legend, in song and celebrations, each retaining aspects of a very great initiatory system rooted in the land and its magic. Most available sources tell the reader about the how to of magic, but for the first time this book explores the why of magic, and the what happens when ... of modem magical techniques. In The Path Through the Labyrinth, Marian Green, a highly respected practitioner and teacher of the Western Tradition, examines these questions and guides the reader safely to the heart of the magical maze, and then out again. The Path through the Labyrinth is about the Quest for Initiation into the Western Mystery Tradition. Many people are well aware of the mystical, philosophical and religious systems of the East, for in those lands and cultures the national religion has walked hand in hand with its mystical, magical and spiritual traditions. In the West, in Europe, Britain and Ireland, the state religion has held its own Mysteries secretly, revealing them only to the ordained priesthood, not all of whom, over the last nineteen centuries have either understood or been able to function with the power such knowledge brings with it. Therefore it has been necessary to conceal the inner, spiritual way, the way of the soul rather than that of the body. Circumstances have made it impossible for there to be continuous secret schools; wars and crusades have taken away those with knowledge, yet underlying the fragmentation and control of the people, the Western Mystery Tradition has survived, been enhanced, and is now ready to flower again in the world. The ways in which the actual spiritual values and traditional rites of worship have survived the vicissitudes of the world have been several in number. On the one hand, in Britain and Europe there is a strong and enduring folk tradition, of songs and tales, legends and public celebrations, festivals and seasonal gatherings during which the stories of the Old Gods, who have never entirely faded from consciousness, are welcomed and worshipped, their stories retold and relived by all the participants. The magical arts, those of divination, of healing and of personal questing for the eternal have also been preserved at a very simple, almost trivial, level by the Wise Women, the Cunning Men' the healer, the witch, the herbalist and the Horse Doctor. Another deeper level has been nurtured by the scholars, writing secretly through the ages, even when their lands were at war, and studying the stars, and the stones, the lives of animals and mankind, and the working of God throughout the known universe. From these hidden literary stores and their students have come the arts of astronomy and astrology, alchemy and the physical sciences, many practical healing arts including that study of the, soul, psychology and psychiatry' From, the Holy Land via Spain has come the wisdom of Qabalah, the Jewish philosophical system which gives a firm structure to the understanding of Creation in all its manifestations, and a symbolic language in which it might be discussed and shared with others, open to that knowledge. A later manifestation which captured and held (and still holds) the collective imagination is that of the Legend of the Holy Grail, the Quest for that archetypal 'something' which has the power to heal the world, adjust the entire system so that all have their needs fulfilled, which will make green anew the Wasteland, whether laid waste by war or man or nuclear disaster. We have always sought answers to the eternal questions about life, and the universe, and the place of mankind in Creation, and for many years' since book learning, international travel and interchange of ideas have brought about greater contacts with other traditions and other philosophies, many students have been able to discover in the East those things which have become totally hidden and apparently lost in the West. But now the rose is being allowed to bloom again in the wilderness, for those who go forth to be gardeners of the spirit have found it, pruned it back and cut away the overgrowing jungle of orthodoxy and enforce religious belief. Underneath these strangling vines the Light of Knowledge has penetrated and in the darkness the bright blossoms of our own tradition are being allowed to put forth their faces into the light of day, to take their place beside the Easter Lotus. Although there has been a long scholarly tradition in Europe and Britain, the folklore and its powerful mysteries have been preserved within the oral, rather than the literary, heritage of the land. We still have the folk songs, the ballads, the legends, the heroic tales, which were current before the Romans came to Britain two thousand years ago. We have the ancient inheritance of the Druids passed on by word and action, by story and song, kept sacred among the uneducated ordinary folk to whom the written word, the printed book and the dead record of ink on paper were strange manifestations of some alien culture. We have been happy to bask in the Light which came front the East and have forgotten to look for the Light that shines in the West, but now that Light is being seen and recognized. Underneath the Christian facade there has been an ongoing pagan stream, running fresh from its source, overlooked by the learned, but still tasted and known to be pure by the country folk, the village healers, the magicians and those who work with the power of Nature to restore the world. There have always been secret fellowships who have sought out this eternal spring of Western wisdom and who have kept the sacred ways for thousands of years, each preserving a few ancient threads of the great pattern, and now it is time for those shining strands to be rewoven into a tapestry which may be seen by all and understood by those who have the keys to the Mysteries. There are clear patterns to follow by ritually re-enacting the tasks of the Heroes, there are festivals which celebrate the sacredness of Nature and the turning seasons of the year, there are many clues which can lead the modem, urbanised, denatured individual on a journey of self-exploration so that he may recover the gifts of the spirit, and rescue the eternal from the mundane. It is a long and lonely path, for just as the Eastern initiate has to seek out a teacher in the high and remote mountains, so does' the Western wanderer have to find his instructor within the wilderness where only the forces of Nature can initiate him and restore his true path within Creation. Now he does not journey unprepared, for a few wise and daring scholars of our Native Tradition have written guidebooks: Christine Hartley The Western Mystery Tradition in 1968, Lewis Spence The Mysteries of Britain in the 1920s, John and Caitlin Matthews their valuable contemporary study in two volumes, The Western Way, and Caitlin Matthews Mabon and the Mysteries of Britain. Bob Stewart has explored this oral magical tradition using the life of the Magician/Prophet Merlin in The Mystic Life of Merlin and The Prophetic Vision of Merlin and his earlier book, The Under-world Initiation, in each case drawing on very early literary sources which were the last incarnation of a much more ancient oral tradition. Each of these important books sets out aspects of the history, the wealth of knowledge, the ancientness and validity of the Western Mystery Tradition and each will lead the wanderer further along the path to self-awareness and experience of his native tradition, but it is not the complete story. In our civilized and settled Western world where -the mundane is catered for, and most have at least the necessities of life, there is an unexplored spiritual dimension which orthodox religion no longer seems to address, and the material system of acquiring 'things' does not understand at all. It is here that people look for fulfilment of an inner longing and do not know where to turn for guidance. Looking to the East they have seen that there are gurus and teachers who have led their followers to a deeper understanding and new philosophy, but that doesn't appeal to all who now recognize their need for spiritual instruction. The Western Tradition has always been that, of a Quest, an individual, journey through the apparent world wherein the lessons are learned at an inner level, and it is the spirit which is nourished. To travel alone shows that there can be no handy teacher, no companion class within a school, no learned tutor from whom ongoing instruction can be sought. It is possible only to take those personal resources, that initial knowledge gained from books or from the experiences of life to guide and assist along the winding path of the Western Way to Self-Initiation which is true self-knowledge and power. Each person's Quest will be individual, his or her goal personal, his or her path straight or convoluted, clear or overgrown as each finds it, but many common things will be encountered along the way, many experiences shared, many similar way-marks seen and understood. That is what this text is about - those points on the map of this inner journey which will guide most travellers on the road to true happiness and perfect peace. It will show the how to read the old tales and see them as texts describe accurately the Path of the Initiate, to see in the shifting patterns stars and seasons those things which are eternal - to find with themselves the ultimate keys of the Mysteries of the West. One of the essential factors is that the initiate, be he bard, poet priest of the pagan ways' shaman, witch or any other Seeker the Western Mysteries must be bonded to the Earth. From earliest time in our history the magicians, the priests and t people have shaped the earth, raising up stone circles and ellipse constructing banks and ditches, marking out the confines sacred areas, and setting natural stone or tree markers in the place. Some of those which are still visible in Britain and Europe are six or seven thousand years old. The trainee or the individual driven by inner forces, had to go alone to a sacred place, be hilltop, or spring, cave or sea-shore, and there he would me with the initiator, perhaps seen as the Goddess of the Ear Later, where natural caves were not present, as they don't occur in chalk or clay landscapes, mounds lined with stones were up. It was within these earthy chambers that the initiate made hi bond to the Earth, and the Underworld and there received the keys of vision, poetic inspiration, magical power, healing and al the other things which any true initiate is capable of. Even king and queens to this day are crowned in England on the 'Coronation Stone' from Scone in Scotland. In legend Merlin the Magician ran wild in the forest until h was cured of his madness by musical inspiration. King Arthur had to enter and bring back from Annwn, the Welsh Und world, pigs and the Cauldron of Rebirth. Demeter sought Kore in the Underworld and found her daughter changed by becoming Pluto's bride and Queen of the Underworld, ruling the dead and the unborn for half the year. In each case a close contact with elemental Earth or Mother Nature is that force which energises and enables the initiate to go onward on his quest, The main objective of the Western Quest is not withdrawal, nirvana, shanti, but a desire to serve the rest of Creation by finding and bringing back the Grail of Wisdom by whose waters the whole world will be healed, the Wasteland made green again (for it has been green!) To serve, it is necessary to be there, an integral part of the Creation which you are healing, helping or guiding, for the Initiate becomes the link between the Inner Earth, the place of sacred power and the people of the world who do not know about that energising and healing force which is within them. It is the initial recognition that there is a spirit within us from which guidance, power and healing can be requested, the first step on the path to true 'self-knowledge', which is the key to the Mysteries of the West.

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