The Secret Cult of Merlin The Magician
What seems like a lifetime ago, I dedicated a year of my life to finding the legendary wizard prophet Merlin (also known as Myrddin and sometimes Lailoken). I spent 7 months doing research, reading books, making plans, marking maps, raising funds, and getting in contact with the people I needed to connect with when I arrived. I then went to the UK and spent 5 months exploring every site that can be connected to the Merlin legends. I hitchhiked a lot and also travelled by foot and bus as I camped at over 26 sacred sites around Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and England. The experience I had was incredible, even life changing. I came back and wrote a book, which I am still tweaking and editing. I recently realized that I haven’t written anything about Merlin since the book and I wanted to change that, as the wizard has been lurking around in my mind lately.
I don’t want to talk so much about the history of Merlin because there are many people that have already done that better than I ever could. I owe them all a debt for their hard work, which made my research easier. I want to talk about the active role that Merlin plays in the spiritual mythology of the 21st century. The fact that a character as old as Merlin is still part of our living history is incredible. The ancient prophet has transformed himself several times through mankind’s story to the point where the modern day idea of Merlin is dramatically different than the original. To explore this idea, I want to tell some of the stories of the people I’ve met and the things I’ve seen.
There is a bookstore in Oakland, California that holds classes about Pagan spirituality. For a while, on each full moon night, a group would meet to discuss and meditate upon Merlin and his spiritual lessons. The group was led by two guys in their 30s, both professionally trained in different healing modalities, and both fixated on this ancient archetype of magic, divine inspiration, and prophecy. The group consisted of about 10 people and when they would get together they would chant, light candles, read from ancient Welsh and Scottish poetry, and meditate with energy work channeled from this Merlin character. This is one face of the Cult of Merlin, as I have named it.
In upstate New York, there is an author and healer who teaches classes at a wellness retreat center. He says that he has been in contact with the living energy spirit of the ancient Merlin and that Merlin gave him the gift of a energy healing technique that works like a sort of nonverbal psychotherapy. He can help his clients to overcome mental barriers, childhood issues and habits, and empower them to improve their life. He has been teaching this method to small groups of students for over 10 years. This is another face of the Cult of Merlin.
There is a man who was living outdoors at the base of a sacred hill in Glastonbury, England who says that he is Merlin. He seemed a bit crazy but if Merlin was around today I would expect him to be more than a bit crazy. The most ancient stories about Myrddin say that he lived outside like an animal for decades and when people found him, the things he told them didn’t make much sense until later when they realized he was foretelling the future.
There is an Englishman living in Wales who tells another story about a spiritual entity called Merlin, who gifted him with the ability to heal people’s hearts and minds. He also teaches this technique to others and has been for many years. In the legends of Myrddin, there is one tale about healing where a new spring starts flowing from the ground and the water must have been magical because when Mad Merlin drank from it, his mind was healed. His thoughts cleared and like archetypal Adam, he realized he had been living like a wild animal. He later comes across another mad man and heals him by giving him the same healing water. The mad man is so grateful that he becomes Merlin’s disciple. This was the beginning of the Cult of Merlin. Once Merlin’s mind is healed, he sets up a kind of School of the Mysteries in the woods. Since he had been living like a wild man for so long, he had perceived the mysteries of the stars and the seasons, of the plants and the animals, and he would teach what he knew. His first students were his twin sister, Ganieda, a famous poet called Taliesin, and the ex-mad man that he had previously healed. That was in the early 7th century, around the same time that The Prophet Muhammed was receiving divine information from an angel on another sacred hill, 4200 miles away.
Almost 1400 years after Merlin started teaching his lessons, a book was published called The Way of Merlin: The Prophet, The Goddess and The Land: Techniques of Transformation from the Merlin Tradition. In this book, R.J. Stewart describes a series of mental and physical excercises that one can use to get in touch with the spiritual wisdom of the ancient sage and learn how to live in a way that follows in the footsteps of Merlin, living in harmony with Nature and the Universe. I don’t mean to imply that there is an unbroken tradition that spans 1400 years, though I have heard it said that “Merlin” is actually a title, not a name and it has been passed down from master to master, teacher to teacher, forming a lineage. It’s said that the lineage died out for a while but was reawoken in 1994 when the divine intelligence known as Merlin contacted a spiritual healer in Arizona and trained him as the next master with the title of “Merlin.” This is another face of the Cult of Merlin.
There is a big debate within Merlin circles as to whether the original character that the ancient Welsh poems and Scottish stories depict was actually Welsh or Scottish. During my research quest I was in Scotland, looking for the remains of a ruined castle that has a vague connection to the Merlin legends and I couldn’t tell which hill I was looking for from the road. A family came home and I asked them if they knew where this hill was. The woman said “Oh! you mean Merlin’s Hill?! It’s right over there.” I was shocked. I had not mentioned Merlin but in the local mythology, Merlin was still a character related to the land and it’s ancient ruins. In the nearby village of Broughton, there is a brewery that recently released a beer called Merlin’s Ale. Considering that until recently, Scotland has had no Merlin-related tourism or signage at all, it’s amazing that Merlin is still inspiring the locals with his image and history.
I was constantly surprised in Scotland because there are so many locations that are connected to the Merlin stories like standing stone graves, tree graves, stained glass windows, and even the ancient spring that cured his madness. All the locations still exist, yet have no form of tourism built up around them. When you visit Wales and Cornwall, it’s hard to tell what might be connected to the ancient legends and what has been built up for tourism. Scotland is still raw and rugged and mostly in its original form. I was not surprised to find a few people making life decisions in relation to the Merlin legend, since I had already seen it in America.
There is a widow living in a village called Moffat in Southern Scotland. I met her because someone told me she had a connection to the Merlin stories. When I went to her wonderful old house, she told me that she and her husband had moved to Moffat to work on a book about the Merlin and the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain. When they chose their house they wanted to be within a specific distance from Hart Fell, the hill that holds Merlin’s healing spring waters. They looked at the map and drew a ring around Hart Fell to see where in the village was close enough for their purposes. Only the northern most end of the village would work and they ended up finding a house, which turned out to be the oldest house in town, and had been built by a holy man. They decided to buy the ruined house and renovate it to its original form to give them a base to work on their book. Like Merlin, the husband inadvertently prophesied his own death when they started renovations. A few years into the major project, the husband died, leaving the woman to finish on her own. When I met her, the house was almost done and she was partnerless, with only the proximity to Merlin’s magic spring and the spirit of the ancient house to keep her occupied. This is another facet of the Cult of Merlin.
I spoke extensively with authors such as John Matthews and R.J. Stewart who have written about the living presence of the eternal Merlin, whether as an archetypical aspect of the human mind or as a kind of ascended master in spirit form who grants wisdom upon those devotees who ask for it. I interviewed healers who practice various forms of energy healing and who believe in their hearts and souls that it comes from Merlin or his spiritual lineage. I met many people at the sacred sites of Britain while I visited them. Some people, like myself, were looking for physical remnants of a legend, and others had no idea at all. It can’t be denied that Merlin is still inspiring the present generation of mankind. You can find his essence in all sorts of places, such as the large number of the movies and TV shows that have reimagined the tale of King Arthur and Merlin, the most recents being 2008’s Merlin BBC TV series, and 2017’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. I think Geoffrey of Monmouth, who first popularized the Merlin stories in the 12th century, would be proud.
Merlin is alive and well. I believe his stories still have much to offer mankind and he will continue to inspire us for decades to come. Whether we desire the power to wield magic and make dreams into reality or we seek the power that lies within nature and its living, sacred spaces, the power that Merlin once learned while living in the woods like an animal, the Merlin story has something to offer us. The modern man, too, seeks these mystical states of being. We sometimes need to exile ourselves in order to get a break from society, from work, from family, from social media. Whether we simply wish to hike, to camp, to make a pilgrimage to sacred places, or maybe even to eat magic mushrooms in the woods and go deep into the hidden places of our minds, the Merlin story can serve as a guide, a dream, or a fantasy to escape into, depending on how serious the seeker is in their quest.
Whether we approach Merlin for healing, such as author Brett Bevell has in his book The Wizards Guide to Energy Healing, for history as Tim Clarkson has in Scotland’s Merlin, or for spiritual inspiration as R.J. Stewart has in The Prophetic Vision and Mystical Life of Merlin, there seems to be something to gain in a relationship with Merlin, whether personally or through literature. People around the world are still looking to the ancient prophet, as they have been for over a thousand years. The story of Merlin has never died. Perhaps Merlin himself never died. Perhaps he never even lived. Despite the facts, the legends, the disputations, the imposters, and the retellings and adaptations, people are still coming to Merlin and his tales and propecies for answers to the problems in their lives and the problems of the larger world. The Cult of Merlin is thriving in a culture that is getting further and further removed from Nature. People still feel a call to return to the natural world and Merlin is their emissary into these distant, dreamy, and magical places. Maybe he’s calling for you, too?
Bibliography
Bevell, Brett, The Wizard’s Guide to Energy Healing, 2015
Clarkson Tim, Scotland’s Merlin: A Medieval Legend and Its Dark Age Origins, 2016
Matthews, John, Merlin: Shaman, Prophet, Magician, 2004
Stewart, R.J., The Way of Merlin, 1991
Stewart, R.J., Merlin: The Prophetic Vision and Mystical Life, 1986
Tolstoy, Nikolai, The Quest for Merlin, 1985
Weinmann, Ric, VortexHealing Divine Energy Healing, 2015
About the Author
Justin K Prim is an American gem cutter and gemologist living and working in Bangkok, Thailand. He has travelled all over the world, studying various types of meditation techniques, psycho-spiritual healing therapies, as well as his trade skills of audio engineering and gemcutting. He is in the process of publishing two books, the first is about a spiritual quest through the UK to find the hidden heart of Merlin the wizard, and the second is a book about the worldwide history of gemstone faceting. He has explored careers in spiritual counseling and energy healing but now works as a Gemstone Faceting Instructor in Bangkok as well as writing articles, producing videos, and giving talks about gem cutting history.
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