Course Seven: Lore 335
and later advisor of King
Arthur (465–537). A fatherless
boy said to have been sired
by a demon, young Merlin
was brought before King
Vortigern upon the advice of
his court magicians. Vortigern
had brought Saxon mercenar-
ies into England to defend
against the Picts and the
Scots-Irish. The Saxons had
taken control of the land, and
Vortigern was attempting to build a tower to strengthen
his holdings. But the construction kept collapsing, and
Vortigern’s advisors told him that only the blood of a
fatherless boy would remedy this. But Merlin divined
that the tower’s instability was due to an underground
pool of water, which was discovered upon excava-
tion. This event secured his fame as a prophet.
About ten years later, with Vortigern dead and
Uther Pendragon on the throne, Merlin arranged for
the birth of Arthur by disguising Uther as the husband
of Ygraine, Queen of Cornwall, whom Uther then se-
duced and impregnated. When Arthur was born, Mer-
lin took him away for fosterage and tutoring. Upon
Uther’s death, Merlin arranged the contest of the sword
in the stone; upon drawing it forth, Arthur became King
of England. Merlin, then in his 40s, became Court
Wizard. He is said to have established the Order of
Chivalry with the Knights of the Round Table.
In his old age, Merlin was seduced by the enchant-
ress Nimué, who learned his magick and turned it
against him, trapping him, it is said, in a crystal cave,
thorn forest, or oak tree. There it is believed he lives
on still, resting until he is needed again.Nicolas Flamel (1330–1418)
Nicolas Flamel, born in
Pontoise, France, became a
successful bookseller and phi-
lanthropist. At a time when
most people were illiterate, he
made his fortune as a profes-
sional scribe. With his wife Per-
nelle, he created low-income hous-
ing for the poor, founded free hospi-
tals, and endowed churches and cemeteries. Flamel was
also a student of alchemy and spent much of his time
searching for the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher’s
Stone that would turn metal into gold. One night an
angel appeared and told him that a mysterious book
would come to him. Shortly afterward, a stranger of-
fered him an ancient manuscript, The Book of Abraham
the Jew. Nicolas and Pernelle spent the next 21 years
deciphering it. According to an entry in his diary, in
1382 Flamel wrote that he had transformed “worth-
less lead into pure gold.” He spent the last years of hislife writing about alchemy, and died in 1418. The Book
of Abraham the Jew has never been seen since.Abramelin the Mage (1362–1460)
Abraham was probably born in Mayence, but trav-
eled widely through Austria, Hungary, Greece, Pales-
tine, and Egypt. At Arachi, on the banks of the Nile, a
sage named Abra-Melin initiated him into magick. On
returning to Wurzburg, Germany, he took the name
Abramelin and began to practice alchemical research.
He claimed to have learned his knowledge of magick
from angels, who told him how to raise storms and
conjure and tame demons into personal servants and
workers. He said that all things in the world were cre-
ated by demons, working under the direction of an-
gels, and that each individual had an angel and a de-
mon as familiars.
According to lore, Abramelin created 2,000 spirit
cavalrymen for Frederick, elector of Saxony. He also
is said to have aided an Earl of Warwick in his escape
from jail and helped save the Antipope John XXIII
(1410–15) from the Council of Constance. At 96, he
compiled his famous work, The Sacred Magic of
Abramelin the Mage—three books originally written
in Hebrew, dated 1458, which he left to the legacy of
his son Lamech. Therein he specified details of the in-
vocation of angelic forces and presented a series of
rituals that required six months to perform.Leonardo da Vinci
(1452–1519)
Leonardo was the great-
est Wizard of the Italian Renais-
sance. His contributions to hu-
manity were extraordinary—as
an artist, inventor, writer, and
thinker. His notebooks reveal
explorations and examinations
of everything in the known
Universe, and some of his paintings (particularly the
Mona Lisa and The Last Supper) are among the best-
known artworks in the world.
Each subject that Leonardo studied, he made a
field of scientific research. He studied human anatomy
to better draw the human body; he studied botany and
geology in order to accurately portray plants and land-
scapes. He became a geologist, physiologist, astrono-
mer, and mechanical engineer. The many machines and
inventions that he conceived are marvels of engineer-
ing—including his famous designs for a flapping-wing
flying machine, or ornithopter. The thousands of pages
of drawings and writings he has left us convey a new
vision of unity that Leonardo sought to give the world.
He spoke of science as the “knowledge of things pos-
sible in the future, of the present, and of the past.” He
wrote many of his texts in mirror image and is known
for secreting coded symbols in his paintings.Merlin
and
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