sick bodies. She also knows an art by which to change her shape, and to cleave the air on new wings like Daedalus; when she wishes she is at Brest, Chartres, or Pavia, and when she will she slips down from the air onto your shores. And men say that she has taught mathematics to her sisters."
According to legend, she is the possessor of the sword Excalibur, the magical blade given to King Arthur. It is this act of taking the offered sword which grants Arthur the right to rule, and it is she who claims the blade again when his role as sacrificial king must be fulfilled. Other versions of the legend tells us that Excalibur was presented to Arthur in a floating stone. When he pulled it out, it was an act of reversal of the Great Rite, separating the female and male concepts of creation which were not to be united again until Arthur's death. The Lady of the Lake is also said to have been the foster mother of Sir Lancelot, one of Arthur's knights.
Tennyson writes,
‘And near [Merlin] stood the Lady of the Lake, who knows a subtler magic than his own— Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful. She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword, Whereby to drive the heathen out: a mist of incense curled about her, and her face Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom."
Her story exaggerates aspects within the psyche of all women; nurturer, seductress, lover, hater, manipulator, giver, vulnerable, cunning. These emotions are often closely entwined when passions are aroused. Lady of the Lake represents the sensuous nature of water; the feminine: The fluid and manipulative power of seduction over male dominance.
The stories of the Lady of the Lake sometimes put her into unnecessarily dark roles and I believe this to be the result of masculine writers slandering and skewing the stories of powerful women in history. In the Magical Awakening lineage, The Lady of the Lake is the main feminine guide of the healing system and is a powerful ally and teacher for intensive spiritual healing. The Lady of the Lake represents the source of creative power and of renewal. She is consciousness and revelation. She is the guide to the immense realms of emotion. She is often pictured as sitting on a throne of reeds in the center of the lake's depths. Among her many magical credits is that of a healer. She is associated with the crane, water lilies and marble. She rules over purification, healing, the Great Rite, any other magical acts associated with the feminine elements.
Beth Clare Johnson has written a beautiful "Call of the Lady of the Lake"
Nimue, Nineve, Niniane, Vivienne
Morgan, Morgaine, High Priestesses;
Ladies of the Lake, Avalon's Own.
Taliesin, Lancelot, Merlin the Great
Arthur and the Great Sword Excalibur;
Famous men who called upon your help.
Apples and water weave in your tapestry,
Knights and castles in the background
Laughter, tourneys, and ladies' bright gowns.
Fairie Queen, Enchantress of great power,
You rule still in the Mists of the Otherworld
With the Sidhe and your magickal sisters.
I hear faint splashes from the lake,
See white swans majestically floating;
And there you are rising up amid the waters!
Wearing your crown, with swirling wet hair...
You beckon, and point to a small boat
For me to climb in, and journey to Avalon. |