The Romance of Pendragon

Sorry we’ve been gone for so long, but we had computer issues for a few months. This group is about the fantasy role playing game Pendragon, and by extension anything having to do with the Arthurian mythos, romances, and the Arthurian magickal tradition tradition.

During the late spring to early summer of this year we saw Camelot, the Starz series, which told the story of a young man from a farming family who became the king of Britain when his father Uther was poisoned by his step-daughter Morgan. Stephen thought there was way too much Christianity and not enough magick or Paganism, but Tegwedd has always realized that there is a lot of Christianity in it. After all, it was first written down by a Christian monk Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 15th century. From the reading and research she has done on the subject, she has concluded that the Arthurian romances are a mixture of Paganism, and Christian mysticism. But her favorite retelling of the romance is still Mists of Avalon. She liked that it was from Morgan LeFay’s point of view in the whole thing because she is a faery.

If you’re local, we’d like to organize a Pendragon campaign at our house. Bring snacks and drinks to sustain us through the campaign. Please bring drinks that are non-alcoholic, and some that are caffeine-free, since Tegwedd can’t drink caffeine after 2:00 pm. They both are very fond of guacamole and Tegwedd loves 5 or 7 layer dip with tortilla chips. She also likes spinach dip. They both love ranch dip with veggie trays and french onion dip with potato chips. Also bring miniature figures if you have them.

Who is your favorite character? Tegwedd has already listed hers as Morgan LeFay. Stephen’s is, obviously enough the Merlin or Myrrddin the Pagan version. We hope you didn’t watch that piece of crap Merlin shown during the year on SyFy. Of course, maybe we should watch it and say we like it so the curse will kick in, and they’ll cancel it. It’s a waste of good actors like Anthony Stewart Head. He’s been in quite a few thing where his craft was able to show. He was Mr. Rupert Giles, Buffy’s Watcher in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was also the psychotic father in Repo: The Genetic Opera. He’s wasted in this putrid show because they messed too much with the story. Stephen hates it because it’s jesoid. Buffy had a similar relationship with Mr. Giles as Arthur had with Myrrddin. Eventually Buffy becomes independent of Giles as Arthur did with Myrrddin. Like many Celtic heroes, Arthur was a solar hero. Tegwedd heard something else when she heard that. She heard “solo hero”, and she thought Arthur was always surrounded by his knights of the Round Table. What Stephen has, his strange hearing seems to be catching. But once she heard what he’s actually said, “solar hero,” it made a lot of sense. You’d put Arthur on Sephirah 6 on the Tree of Life. Other Celtic solar heroes would be Lugh, Lord of Light and the Many-Skilled, Nuada of the Silver Hand, Cuchulain, and Brigit. Can you think of any other solar heroes or solar Celtic deities? In the Norse tradition, it would be Baldur,who was also called Lord of light. Sol was a Norse God of the Sun. Sulis is a Gaulish Goddess of the Sun. Balor was also a God of the Sun. He represented the harsher side of the Sun, like when it’s over a hundred degrees in the shade, and the humidity is also high. He employed a scorched earth strategy. They lifted u his eyelid with forked sticks, then he would scorch anything in front of his eye.

As the Pendragon, Arthur was the spirit of Britain. Dragons in this context were symbols of sovereignty, majesty and magick, all rolled into one. When he rode into battle, with his Pendragon banner/pennant riding high, unfurling into the wind, it wasn’t just his family or household he was fighting for, it was all of Britain. In his early days, Arthur could have been Pagan, but as he matured, you didn’t see anyone Pagan anymore as the poison from Rome spread its way around the Empire, thanks to the so-called Saints Columba and Patrick, names that will live in infamy for Pagans. In case you don’t know, Pendragon is a fantasy role playing game situated around when Arthur was supposed to have lived; the last years of the Roman Empire in the West, and the years until the Saxon invasion and conquest. Geoffrey of Monmouth set his Le Morte de Arthur during the time he himself was living, during the 15th century, the height of the Chivalric Age, a full millennium after the actual age of Arthur. The historical Arthur was reputed to have been in his 40s or 50s, a very important Pagan warrior chieftain, possibly a high king. The family castle was at Tintagel. Uther usurped Duke Gorlois’ place, took his castle, the Duke’s wife Igraine, kills the Duke, and fathers a son on the Duchess Igraine.

Fosterage was a very ancient Pagan tradition for highborn youngsters. Unlike today’s fosterage programs, which are designed to punish the parents, not help the children, the fosterage programs of old were designed to expose the youngsters to other households and other ways of raising children. They also promoted peace between tribes and households. After all, you aren’t going to attack the castle where your pride and joy is living, are you?

We are offering a new service. For just $19.95, you can have spell-coaching. We will take you through the construction and performance of a spell. It’s very simple. If you want to perform a spell but you don’t think you know what you’re doing, hire us to coach you through it. The fee is payable to our PayPal accounts, to either abbotts_inn@yahoo.com or tezra.reitan@gmail.com .
We will coach you using strong ethics. Tegwedd has a couplet she will teach you which you can add to your spell that will ensure that it is ethical. Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick is over 40 years old, having been founded in 1970 in Berkeley, CA. It went cybernetic almost 9 years ago. Lizet has been helping us put the school on a more commercial footing, and with her inspiration, Tegwedd has started packaging the classes into manageable packets. Ms. Freeman did a 3rd website for us almost a month ago at http://abbottsinn.wordpress.com. From there, by clicking on two of the graphics, you can go to either of the other two sites: http://abbottsinninternational.com/ and http://abbottsinn.com/ . You can also get to our network http://abbottsinn.ning.com/ . With her help, we also salvaged some things from his old website, including the mission statement: The Abbott’s Inn International School of Magick aims to provide a gentle nurturing environment that promotes education in both the atmosphere and the specific tools of magick. Our research arm is called the Magickal Research Institute or MRI, not to be confused with the medical MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Image, which Tegwedd had on her right ankle about 9 months ago. Stephen and Lizet came up with the name almost 9 years ago. The three of us have become a very effective working team. Stephen is getting a new cellphone which should be arriving any day now. His cell phone number is 916-467-6393. He’ll have access to the Internet on that phone. He says “I’m not very good at texting because of my glaucoma, so please be gentle with me.”