Have you read "The Mists of Avalon?" This rendering of the Authurian
legends casts a spell wherein is told the story of the British transition
from a matrilineal-pagan culture to the patrilineal-christian culture. It's
a story with beginnings in deepest antiquity, where all of the stories are
myths, and all of the personalities, heroes.
Over the course of the novel, the sacred objects of power - what Mircea
Eliad> might call the "axis lundi", the sacred objects which specify the
world - are stolen from the priesti> es who have been their protectors from
the dawn of time. These magical implements - a sword and a cup - are
spirited away by a Druid who has become a christian priest, so that they can
be consecrated as sacred to the christian god.
The priesti> es, outrd at such a profanation of their sacred objects,
We call this cup the Holy Grail, or San Graal.
The presence of the divine in the midst of the wholly lundane - even in a
Mark Pesce
plan and execute a strategy to retrieve the sacred items and punish the
traitorous Druid. But all plans are upset by the intervention of divine
presence. During the ceremony at which the objects are set forth to be
venerated and consecrated, the shekina (the glory of the holy spirit)
appears and feeds
church - is more than anyone can resist. Each has seen a vision of
perfection, and lust strike forth to claim it as their own, forever. And so
Arthur's Round Table breaks up, divided not by strife, but by lad love of a
sacred vision.
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