“The Arthuriad, The Matter of Britain, as it has long been called (to distinguish it from the Matter of France, the legends of Charlemagne) has been recognized by many students of the mysteries as the basis of a set of teachings every bit as powerful as those of Egypt or the classical worlds of Greece and Rome. There is no obvious pattern, no precise formula to the texts, so that for many they remain no more than mere stories, however inspiring; but for those trained in the magical arts of the Western Mystery Tradition, they are much more: their secrets can be revealed, their codes unlocked, and their revelations enjoyed.”
- From “Arthurian Magic”, by John Matthews, Caitlin Matthews, Virginia Chandler, and Gareth Knight
“Consequently, in this mystical legend, there is a glimpse of the unknown; the reader may lose his way in a thicket of visions…This Way will lead us into the astral world and into the kingdoms of Faerie, where Merlin, the enchanter, serves as guide. Those who know how to read the book of nature will find the links of Celtic initiation in these sagas, and may even hear the tread of “the Lordly Ones.”
- From “Arthurian Magic”, by John Matthews, Caitlin Matthews, Virginia Chandler, and Gareth Knight
“A. E. Waite, himself one of the founding members of the Golden Dawn, first wrote of “a Secret School of the Grail” in his 1933 volume The Holy Grail: Its Legends and Symbolism.8 There he finds the presence of a mystical body of thought, almost without form but threading its way throughout the literature of the Arthuriad as in some way “a Grail behind the Grail.” This he sees as emerging from the lost Celtic church, which he believed preserved a more ancient liturgy and belief system after the church of Rome had set its own theology in stone.”
- Arthurian Magic