THE MYSTERIES OF AVALON: APPENDIX III

APPENDIX III

Zodiacal Correspondences

of Arthur’s Battles

For my identifications of the Arthurian battle sites, I refer the reader to my book “The Arthur of History: A Reinterpretation of the Evidence. In this Appendix I mean to restrict myself solely to the possible zodiacal correspondences of these battles. The Arthurian battles have a ‘canonical’ order, established in the Historia Brittonum of Nennius. They remind us of the Twelve Labors of the Greek hero Herakles – labors well known to have occurred in the signs of the Zodiac.

The mouth of the river Glein (= the Northumberland  Glen)

Battles 2-5 at the Dubglas River in the Linnuis region (= the Devil’s Water at Linnels)

The River Bassas (= Dunipace)

The Celyddon Wood (= the ancient wood surrounding the Caddon Water in the Scottish Lowlands)

Fort Guinnion (= the Binchester Roman fort)

City of the Legion (= York, not only a legionary fortress, but the Roman period capital and judicial center of Northern Britain)

A shore called Tribruit, the ‘Pierced-Through’ (= a ‘trajectus’ or crossing of the River Forth at Queensferry)

Mount Breguoin or Agned (Breguoin = Bremenium, the High Rochester Roman fort in Northumberland; Agned stands for Egnatius, a Roman governor of Northern Britain whose name is found at Bremenium)

Mount Badon (= Buxton in the High Peak)

Camlann (= the Camboglanna Roman fort)

As we are told by Nennius that Arthur carried the image of the Virgin Mary on his shield during the Guinnion battle, it would seem safe to assign this battle – in its seasonal aspect – to Virgo. This being so, the Twelve Battles of Arthur can be arranged as follows on the Zodiac:

Glein – Capricorn.  The Sign of the Goat belongs here, because of the Gefrin hill-fort near the mouth of the River Glen is named either from the British for “Goat Hill”, or may even represent a Celtic goat-deity named Gebrinios.

Dubglas – Aquarius. 1 February, the pagan Imbolc, falls in this sign.

Dubglas – Pisces.

Dubglas – Aries (in which falls the Spring Equinox or March 21).

Dubglas – Taurus (in which falls Beltane or May 1). Dubglas – Gemini (in which falls the Summer Solstice or June 21). Dubglas is British for ‘Black Water’. All four of the battles here were fought on the Devil’s Water near the Corbridge Roman fort. This grouping begins not long after Imbolc and extends to midsummer. It thus corresponds to our Spring season.

Bassas – Cancer.

Celyddon – Leo. The proper place for the lion is the wood. Again, the Welsh word for the god Lleu could be confused with their word for lion, llew, and Lleu’s Eildon Hills lie at the center of the Lowland Scottish Caledonian Wood. The ‘lion’ within Merlin’s Chapel atop Eildon Mid Hill is actually the god Lleu. Lughnasadh or 1 August falls in this sign.

Guinnion – Virgo. Autumn Equinox or September 21.

City of the Legion – Libra. The Scales of Justice are appropriately placed at the Roman judicial center of North Britain.

Tribruit – Scorpio. The ‘pierced-through’ meaning of the river-crossing was transferred to images of pierced shields in the early Arthurian poetry. Needless to say, the Scorpion’s tail is a piercing weapon. November 1 or Samhain falls in this sign.

Breguion/Agned – Sagittarius. The Winter Solstice or December 21.

Badon – Capricorn.

And what of Camlann, the Camboglanna Roman fort at Castlesteads where Arthur and Medraut (or Mordred) perished? Where does this tragic event belong on the Zodiac?

It would be tempting to place Arthur’s death somewhere in the Zodiac wherein we find either Beltane or Samhain (or, perhaps, the more ancient summer and winter solstices). But although the 12 signs of the Zodiac are sacred to the sun, Arthur’s astronomical symbol, as we have seen, is the star Arcturus.

We have only one potential clue to the seasonal date of the Battle of Camlann in 537 CE: Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us it happened in the summer. Archaeo-astronomers have determined that some stone circles had alignments designed to calculate one or more of the four important dates of Arcturus risings and settings.

Using the CyberSky planetarium program set to Carlisle as the ‘observatory’, I was able to come up with the following important Arcturus dates for the year 537:

February 24, 5:40 p.m. Acronical rising

Sun sets

Arcturus rises

July 4, 3:40 a.m. Heliacal setting

Sun rises

Arcturus sets

September 1, 5:20 a.m. Heliacal rising

Sun rises

Arcturus rises

December 26, 4:09 p.m. Acronical setting

Sun sets

Arcturus sets

If Arthur did fall at Camlann in the summer, as Geoffrey contends, then his ‘celestial death’ can be reckoned as occurring when Arcturus set at sunrise on 4 July, 537 CE. This date fell in the sign of Cancer.