William ap Thomas, responsible for earlier construction of Raglan Castle, married Gwladus, daughter of Sir Dafydd Gam, and widow of Sir Roger Vaughan, and thus began the Herbert family line. Both these men had been part of the Welsh contingent that fought with King Henry V in France, and both were killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, where William ap Thomas had also fought. He retained Raglan as a tenant of his stepson, James, Lord Berkeley, and in 1425 Lord Berkeley agreed that he could continue to hold Raglan for the duration of his life. In 1426, ap Thomas was knighted by Henry VI, becoming known to his compatriots as Y marchog glas o Went (the blue knight of Gwent). He began to build Raglan Castle as we know it today, probably from the 1430s.
By 1432 Sir William was in a position to purchase Raglan from the Berkeley family for 1,000 marks (almost 667 pounds). He laid plans for a castle very much in the contemporary French style, as we know it now. Although there is a possibility that the wall of the hall facing the Fountain Court may include features of the Bloet period manorhouse, the building programme begun by William ap Thomas eventually swept away all the original structures. The principal buildings surviving from the time of Sir William are the Great Tower, a self-contained fortress in its own right, together with the south gate, both equipped with gunloops. He also raised the hall, though later largely rebuilt, and part of the service range beyond.
Sir Thomas Herbert of Tintern wrote an account of Raglan construction that still exists in the 'Herbertorum Prosapia', the family chronicle. Sir Thomas refers to Raglan where William ap Thomas had erected a ‘Tower of great bredth and height proportionable of several aequilaterall sides and angles about which was an artificiall Graft or Trench filled with water this was named Sr Willm Thomas his Tower’.
Their coat-of-arms from the ‘Herbertorum Prosapia’ shows the Herbert arms halved with those of the Gam family. The combined influence of the English symbols and the French is unmistakable, and both emphasize the Sun’s power of strategy and foresight (prophecy) associated with the royal family. The shield also provides healing features imperceptible to the aggressive army that attacked the castle, simply focused on blasting through the wall to destroy any loyalty or steadfastness to the crown. It is important for dowsers to note the Great Tower located left off the main entry, representing the 'KNOWLEDGE' sector of the castle itself. This is obviously the Deva's strongest point in the defensive line across the front of the castle wall. This was the
angle of the tower destined to draw the greatest fire, suggesting the wish to demolish higher octave consciousness at the castle and heart of the web of power in Wales.
Note part of text is from tour guidebook at Raglan Castle
Taken from RAGLAN CASTLE
John R. Kenyon BA, ALA, FSA, FRHistS
Cadw: Welsh Historic Momuments
Healing Power
Because Ragaln contains an element of New Jerusalem (Trump XXI The Universe) and the castle palace of Odysseus, the healing gift and ability to lift family curses, traditionally bestowed by Sun energy, is infused in the land.
Several mystical attributes consolidated within Tippereth, the intersection for all points outside the center, are distributed via symbols of England. The red lion associated with Richard The Lionheart, carries healing gifts to bless nobility and common folk alike, when the royal family wants to dispense these little miracles. The Royal Touch is directly linked with Christ’s disciples and the House of David. The French also claim this gift of healing, and especially The Sun King, Louis XIV, who, through hand healing directly on his subjects, healed thousands in a single day. So the suggestion of protection at Raglan Castle did not pertain exclusively to traditional objective reality concepts; this power of protection operated within invisible realms and had far-reaching influences.
In other terminology it could be said that Raglan Castle and it’s impenetrable walls are similar to Troy during it's siege, and even The Ark of The Covenant shown in the film,
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Mystics refer to natural protection by virtue of the Royal Marriage between the Sun and Moon. In the East, the balance of Yang and Yin in the physical temple guarantees resilient health - in ancient Qabbalistic terms, the protection of the Ark by Metatron and Sandalphon, Angels of The Face is part of the Covenant.
Raglan's walls, where the attack focused were specifically protected by the Deva, indicating the assault was led by someone who knew the secret of Raglan. It is difficult to stand in front of the tower without recalling
siege scenes from EL CID or the defensive might of
King Leodinas (Richard Egan in movie)
THE 300 SPARTANS who held back thousands of Persians. The common denominator is, naturally, that these three armies were Solar as heraldry* reveals. They were capable of what is regarded today as the super-human labor. The irony in the story of the Trojan War is the cunning and deception used to breach the walls of Odysseus' Palace and lay social siege to Penelope and the other women of the household. FIRST KNIGHT (Sean Connery, Richard Gere) glimpses the power of solar might on the battlefield as Arthur retakes a city*** held by the sons of darkness.
Naturally the aura of Raglan would appeal to Robert Plant, a Solar child and versatile Leo ‘thinker.’ He plays two characters with equal skill and ease – using vertical and horizontal thought-patterning style. Plant can ‘play the game’ as either Apollonian or Herculean, though his generous, from the heart personal style assumes Apollo’s script most of the time. Robert Plant’s fantasy sequence tells the tale about knightly quest, adventure, vows and alchemical gold. Within his objective reality, Leo Sun and Pisces Moon (wife Maureen Plant portrays the princess in the tower) Plant recognizes a perfect personification of love, frequently seen in his dreams. Naturally, people seek their own internal balance between initiative and negotiating tendencies, to establish the ‘Superior Person.’ Expanded to embrace a larger world, this status constitutes a ‘right way’ of life - the chivalric order. Balance within the physical temple reflects the balance of creation within environmental realms. Trump V dialogue sees the heart, Trump VI The Lovers provides a clue about chemistry and Trump XIX introduces guardianship for soul mates. The arrangement places receptive/negotiating Yin energy within the skull, the place of Yang, and initiative taking Yang energy within the intestines. The origin of the term, ‘intestinal fortitude’ may reside in the domain of spirit. In story form, Ulysses and his perilous voyage home match up to Plant’s Piscean Era search for a castle holding his fair damsel. Both sagas remain faithful to a precise formula to yield alchemical gold.
The swordplay in the courtyard and eventually up the spiral stairway to the tower increases the polarity for role-playing fans of Led Zeppelin. These confrontation scenes, perfectly staged at Raglan, provide a geometrical background for Plant's fight to remain centered in the zone.
She shines white light
And wants to show how
Everything still turns to
gold
The Temple-Castle *
The Priestess of The Temple, The Sanctuary/Sacred Place Holds The Seven Letters: The Qabbalistical process known as Gematria establishes with measurement, the mystical purpose for which a building or other object has been constructed. The house, temple and city may be ethereal in nature. Letters are exchanged with their numerical equivalent to unlock subtle meaning within scripture, names, monuments and cities. Healing and regenerative formulae may be culled from documents using this ancient Jewish master key.
In alchemy, the pure feminine principal is symbolized by a dove. white eagle and red or golden phoenix [Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.] In Egypt the falcon, hawk and sometimes eagle, are sacred symbols of the sun [The Beast Master.] For protection or candle burning rituals [1 candlestick with 7 branches] gold is used to represent solar power [silver for luna] and for health, the archetypal colour is scarlet, the Sun’s most essential mode. Ra, Osiris, and Horus are often depicted with the heads of hawks and headdresses worn by goddesses were the falcon and hawk [Cleopatra, She.] Druids, also known as Dove Priests, wore the Belt that identified them with the Sun, the Celtic word for a Belt being ‘Crios.’ The Celtic name for Christ is ‘Crios-d,’ meaning ‘Belt-God.’
According to Curtis, “This Belt named all Druids… all words like Belt, Gir-th, Ban-d and Gir-d name the same daily orbit of the sun, which in the picture-language costume of the Druids was the Gilded Belt. The girdle is also a covenant of strength and represents the current of spiritual force which circles around man’s body just below the breasts… when man can hold the 7 stars in his right hand, his girdle will be a visible current of spiritual life-force passing through his heart, through the life-center in the right breast and through the center of illumination in the spinal cord opposite the heart.”
The 7 stars in the constellation Ursa Major or the Great Bear are considered the positive aspects or executors of the 7 Pleiades [constellation Taurus, who represented the Bull and Thunder-god of England]… they [7 Rishis] are called by the Hindus ‘the husbands of the Pleiades.’
... it has been shown that many stars widely separated and apparently belonging to separate systems, are mysteriously related to each other, especially the Pleiades and the Great Bear… it is largely the positive and negative powers emanating from these 2 constellations that give to the number 7 it’s mystical significance.” -Curtis, THE KEY TO THE UNIVERSE
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.
When it is time to set symbols into motion, the first thing any hero and/or heroine must do is use akasha (spirit, breath) to expand their paradigm. This is accomplished with the gift of hearing. They learn to listen, solve riddles and speak in different ways. Harry Potter discovers the answer when he learns he can understand and speak to reptiles. Dr. Doolittle, Beastmaster, Snow White and Cinderella - even Herne’s son Robin Hood, learn how to listen to the animals in the forest. Responding to the natural elements of the Earth and the quest of his deeper nature, Robert Plant acquires his sword in the style of an Arthurian knight and follows his heart with falcon and horse, his power animal companions. His falcon climbs to the top of the sky to provide guidance and, in the way Siegfried follows the forest bird to Brunnhilde’s fiery mountain, Plant reaches the castle. Musical elaboration on this point, to the fullest degree, is best provided by way of the RING cycle, and study of hero Siegfried. He is like Robert Plant in that both have a destiny to change their world and bring a new world into existence.
“So, on first hearing, the RING seems to be about the cosmos – the elemental struggle of earth, air, fire, and water. But as we listen more it is impossible not to think that the human soul is the real landscape on which the four dramas of the RING are enacted. Myth has always said as much about the psyche as about the cosmos, and – here is the astonishing thing about myth, and Wagner realizes it in this third part of the RING—myth tells us that the patterns of the psyche within are identical with those of the cosmos without….no scene in the RING is richer in these interpenetrations of music, myth, and psychology than the Forest Murmurs…”
- M. Owen Lee, Wagner’s Ring: Turning the Sky Round
Commentaries On The Ring of The Nibelung
And she's buying a stairway to heaven.
Heavily veiled formulae for bi-polar antidotes Venus–Saturn, are clearly suggested by The Grail and Cornucopia mythology. When keys to various Venus-Saturn ratio formulae are presented via cinema today, they are generally classified as tragedy, with few exceptions - one of those as Led Zeppelin’s, ‘The Song Remains The Same.’ Apparently, modern audiences find it difficult to hold this theme during waking consciousness, although these formulae dominate dreamers’ REM. An example of the collective’s rating of Venus-Saturn subjects, as told through modern life character casting, would be high numbers on the disempowerment-o-meter for, ‘Autumn In New York.’ Why? Both stars, Richard Gere (Saturn) and Winona Ryder (Venus), are A-class players with excellent big picture chemistry together. Some dusty ‘out-of-bounds’ concepts such as age difference, no longer able to raise an eyebrow in most quarters, fail to stop a knowledgeable audience these days. If we accept King Arthur (Sean Connery) as married to Guinevere (Julia Ormand) in, ‘First Knight’ (also with Gere as Lancelot) what’s the problem with the ‘Autumn In New York’ treatment? In fact, most audiences found the chemistry between Connery and Ormand more intriguing than that between Gere and Ormand. (I love RG, don’t get me wrong. Connery mused something about ‘losing his sex appeal’ in ‘The Rock’ – I think it’s fair to say we can rest assured that won’t happen anytime soon. I digress – sorry.)
The Venus-Saturn system is so powerful a feature of our waking paradigm because we tend to process copper-lead on an REM level that is not simply translated as a daily point of reference. We need some type of artistic prompter as a rule, such as a movie or other art form like theatre, to make REM objects live. The memory of our expressions and participation with inner, on-going transmutation of dross into pure ore, remains shadowy, at best. Led Zeppelin managed to combine such REM residents into a visual panorama from a cinematic viewpoint. In Robert Plant’s serial, we confidently address the characters and story twists we enjoy as they associate us with Arthur and Camelot. Recent memory of characters donned with Arthurian or Prince Valiant-like garments are just zzzz’s away. We move easily through Star Wars just the same, and draw insight from the development of the story at our own personal level, from the lower octave knowledge-reservoir. It is probably true that the movie with Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams, ‘The Fisher King’ won popular acclaim due to an exaggerated Venus-to-Saturn ratio, script-wise. The audience favors Venusian extravagance when she works with Saturn, as we discovered through the film, ‘Kate and Leopold’ (Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman) with a larger role for comedy than we find in ‘Autumn In New York.’
THE ROYAL
STAR
