From PS-Magazine.com
Ancient Sites
London's Lost Camelot: A Place of Magic and Many Mysteries.
By Chris Street
Jan 14, 2010 - 12:24:09 PM
An extract form new book,
LONDON’S CAMELOT AND
THE SECRETS OF THE GRAIL
, by Chris Street, published by Earthstars Publishing
(Amazon UK, Amazon USA).
If I were to tell you that Camelot is in North London and you can go and visit
it at the far end of the Piccadilly Line, you would probably think I was stark
raving bonkers. Yet all the evidence (and there is plenty of it)
indicates that a real Camelot once existed at the very centre of Enfield Chase,
the Royal Hunting Ground of the Plantagenet Kings.
Today it is still
there, a moated island hidden in woods on the fringe of Trent Country Park, and
known as Camlet Moat. Archaeological digs have been conducted, back in
the 1880s and again in 1923 and some interesting finds were unearthed. They
suggest a substantial structure with stone walls over five and a half feet
thick, a massive drawbridge 38ft long and a subterranean dungeon. Sounds like a
castle, doesn’t it? It is even called Camelot Castle in some old
books.
The Camelot connection here seems to have been overlooked, the
assumption being that the name was simply inspired by the Arthurian legends
rather than anything directly connected with them. Local folklore
contradicts this, telling us the name dates back to the time of William the
Conqueror, nearly a hundred years before Camelot first appeared in Chretien de
Troyes Arthurian Romances around 1170.
At least one leading expert on the
etymology of local place names is on record as stating that the name Camelot
here is “indisputably of Celtic origin.” That places it over two thousand years
old, at the very least, and dates it to more than a thousand years before the
mediaeval Dan Browns started writing about any kind of Camelot.
In
confirmation, some small Roman finds suggest the site was occupied that far
back. Ironically the earliest written mention of the Camelot name here
dates from 1439, when “Camelot Manor” was demolished –that’s 40 years before
Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur was printed.
What all this adds up to is that
this could be a real Camelot, not a mythical one. As it has connections
to Royalty dating back a thousand years, it may even been a location used by, or
at least known to, a real warrior King of the ancient Britons. Whether it was
ever used by King Arthur, is open to debate, but it is certainly a
possibility.
The site also has some intriguing associations with the
Grail Legends and is as much a place of magic and mystery as the mythical
Camelot. A cross bearing the name of King Arthur was found nearby IN 1981
and a map drawn by a prominent member of an occult “secret society” shows
Camelot at this location rather than the more accepted sites, like Tintagel,
Cadbury Castle or Camulodunum.
It has a Holy Well, where apparitions of a
Guinevere-like “White Lady” or “Grail Maiden” have been reported and it is
regarded as a place of healing, vision and inspiration by many visitors.
Some have suggested it is the location of an “inner-world grail castle”
where access to the grail mysteries may be found.
After my own personal
experiences at the place, I wouldn’t be at all surprised, though, in this world,
I think it was the site of an ancient British oracular shrine dedicated to
Brigit (or Bride) and centred on the Holy Well.
Camelot Moat’s mystical
atmosphere may be connected to the fact that it is a crossing point of numerous
ley energy lines. In fact, it was one of the first sites that triggered my
Earthstars discovery – an amazing pattern of sacred geometry linking many of
London’s most ancient sacred sites.
The geometry forms a vast “round
table” covering the landscape of London. Many visitors to the place fall
under its enchantment. Speaking from personal experience, the atmosphere of the
site is haunting and other-wordly. Crossing the moat to the island
sometimes feels like stepping through a portal to another realm, to a sacred
site and shrine of considerable antiquity. As if finding a Camelot in
London isn’t astonishing enough, the location of Arthur’s Sword in the Stone
also seems to have been in London.
This was as much as surprise to me as
anyone else. I merely followed clues clearly spelled out in the works of Sir
Thomas Mallory. A little research combined with my knowledge of London’s ancient
sites unearthed some convincing evidence that the stone actually once stood
where Mallory said it did. Amazingly, it may still exist nearby, built
into a wall, and like London’s Camelot, largely been unnoticed and ignored for
centuries.
About the book:
The book is not
simply about Camelot. That discovery leads to a secret mystery-school tradition
concealed within the Arthurian Romances. The Arthurian/Grail legends were the Da
Vinci Code of their day. They embody a mystery and a living tradition of wisdom
and knowledge which is particular to Britain and encoded in the land and its
sacred sites. Places like this over-looked and long forgotten Camelot.
If
you live in London, this is a book you must read and a place you must visit. It
has as many mysteries as Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.
London’s Camelot and
The Secrets of the Grail, by Chris Street is available in central London from The
Atlantis Bookshop and Watkins Bookshops, on-line from www.lulu.com, or direct
from Chris
(email: starman144@hotmail.com)
(Amazon UK, Amazon USA).
See www.earthstars.co.uk for details.
© Copyright 2012 PS-Magazine.com, otherwise the author.
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