Customer Reviews

The Secret Tradition in Arthurian Legend: The archetypal themes, images, and characters of the Arthurian cycle and their place in the Western Magical Traditions

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is absolutley one of the best books of its kind available today!Maybe the best book of all times!This book covers a huge amount of esoteric material that is extremely purposeful in todays fast changing times.If you are serious seeker of esoteric wisdom then stick with this book and you will learn lots.The arthurian legends truly are works of faery art to show us our evolutionary way forward as individuals and as a group.These legends show us the proper way of evolutionary developement and they show us what happens when we lose our way.The information in this book along with serious study of the arthurian legends will lead to the rememberance of who you really are and you will be amazed at what you find.The information contained within these pages is priceless and you could spend lifetimes integrating the wisdom and knowledge found within.

This book is a well-written, well-informed esoteric guide to the stories of Arthur, his Round Table companions, and the Holy Grail in British and Celtic legend. I found it a beautiful combination of scholarship, psychological and spiritual insight, and intelligent speculation about some of the more ancient origins and meanings of the many stories we have inherited that form part of the Arthurian romances. Anyone who is interested in this tradition, and the mysteries that lie behind it, will find this a fascinating and illuminating commentary. Interpreting ancient myth is a high art because symbolic images reveal their meanings only to those who are prepared to personally engage with the symbols and the entire mystical tradition that supports them. Gareth Knight is an able guide.

I enjoyed reading this book since it is full of fascinating tidbits of Arthurian lore. It is a great reference book to keep on hand for those of us who are drawn to the Arthurian mysteries. However, it does not offer any practical applications for use in magical work. Readers are left to figure that out for themselves.

I felt that Part 3 was written with a Christian bias, which was interesting in itself, but I would have been more interested in learning about the pre-Christian origins of the Arthurian legends. It seems to me that some of the depth and mystery of ancient Celtic mystery wisdom was lost in the Christianizing of the stories during the Middle Ages. I was hoping this book would reconnect the legends with their pre-Christian past.

I had never studied the Arthurian mythos in any detail, so wasn't that interested in it overall. Then I started this book. Gareth has about a half century of esoteric experience to draw on so from the first page the book balances his exoteric knowledge of Arthurian lore with his esoteric experience with the hidden side of this legend. His knowledge of Medieval French adds a dimension of understanding not often encountered in esoteric writings. I have read the book slowly trying to understand each chapter and am pleasantly surprised to find that this group of stories, called myths, legends, etc etc are some of the deepest teachings I have seen on Western Mystery Tradition.
If you combine this book with "The Arthurian Formula" by Dion Fortune you will have an excellent source for deepening your awareness not found, in my opinion, in most of todays esoteric literature.
If you want to really open up the full potential imbedded in The Arthurian Tradition, also obtain "Red Tree, White Tree" by Wendy Berg, long time student and associate of Gareth Knight.

must be a really good book to get more than a 3 star for me, ok if you are really into the arthurian or grail mythos but arent yet well versed, has some wiccan and alot more of christian symbology i was hoping for it to be more about qaballah or from a pagan standpoint