Listen to me Igraine,′ said the Merlin. ‘I fathered you, though that gives me no rights; it is the blood of the Lady which confers royalty, and you are of the oldest royal blood, descended from daughter to daughter of the Holy Isle.
If, she thought, you can call a man your lover when you have never exchanged a single kiss.
One man was bad enough, who would want others who might be worse?
The Isle of Glass, the Isle of Brigantia, the Isle of Wings, the Isle of the Marches, the Isle of the Oak, the Isle of Pan, and the Watch Hill. They have been called by other names by other peoples, but this is their essence, as we were taught by the wise ones who came over the sea from the Drowned Lands. And why is it that these islands and no others are held holy, when, as you can see, they are not all the highest or the most impressive.
The friendship of a Comyn lord is as the sweetness of a beehive: it bears a deadly sting!
No house is big enough for the rule of two women.
The Christians seek to blot out all wisdom save their own; and in that strife they are banishing from this world all forms of mystery save that which will fit into their religious faith. They have pronounced it a heresy that men live more than one life – which every peasant knows to be true.
Before the gods, nothing matters save what you may create for yourself.
Do not think that this little one cannot understand. Babes know more than we imagine; they cannot speak their minds, and so we believe they do not think.
Quite simply, when she came near him, she knew that she had discovered some lost part of herself; with him she was whole. Whatever might happen between them as ordinary man and woman, something lay beyond it which would never die or lessen in its intensity. They shared a destiny, and somehow they must fulfill it together... and often when she had come so far in her thoughts she would stop and stare at herself in disbelief.
It does not matter what you are to do, she said, just as softly. What you are is something different. That is what you have to learn.
Molto, molto tempo prima, in un tempo di cui la breve memoria del genere umano non conservava tracce, la Luce aveva trionfato, e ora regnava suprema nel Sole. Ma nel corso degli infiniti cicli temporali – e questo lo ammettevano perfino i Sacerdoti della Luce – il regno del Sole era destinato a finire; Dyaus, il Dio Occulto, il Dormiente, avrebbe riassorbito la Luce... e, in una smisurata Notte del Caos, avrebbe spezzato le sue catene e instaurato il suo dominio.
What just God would create some men wretched, and others happy and prosperous, if one life were all that they could have?
As they deny the world of the spirit, and the realms of Avalon, so those realms cease to exist for them. They still exist, of course; but not in the same world with the world of the followers of Christ. Avalon, the Holy Isle, is now no longer the same island as Glastonbury where we of the Old Faith once allowed the monks to build their chapel and their monastery.
Our world – ruled by the Goddess and the Horned One, her consort, the world you know, the world of many truths – is being forced away from the mainstream course of time.
A pathway must remain, even if it is a secret.
Let him think her the most doting of his subjects, let him think her only his sweet compliant wife. It meant nothing to her, but one day it might mean much to have his trust, so that she could do what she chose.
The Merlin smiled gently. “I cannot join you in that wish, brother. I am dedicated to the belief that it is God’s will that all men should strive for wisdom in themselves, not look to it from some other.
Love, whenever and wherever it is found, though it last but a few moments, can bring only joy – if it is not thwarted!
Know, O my sisters, that the moon power is the Power of women, the light that shines in the darkness, the tides that rule the inner planes. The maiden moon governs all growth and all beginnings, and so it is that we draw on her power for those purposes for which our help has been requested.