SOURCE: "Mithraic Aspects of Merlin in Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave," in The Celebration of the Fantastic: Selected Papers from the Tenth Anniversary International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, edited by Donald E. Morse, Marshall B. Tymn, and Csilla Bertha, 1992, pp. 91-101.

[In the following essay, Jurich explains Stewart's use of the ancient figure Mithras, from the Zoroastrian religion, in the creation of her Merlin.]

The figure of Merlin is a fascinating palimpsest of myth, legend, and history; this sage-magician-trickster prophet, wild man of the forest, and protector of kings has spanned fourteen centuries. He has performed his sleight of hand and necromancy in poems, novels, and plays, enchanting both children and adults in his many roles. Nowhere, however, except in Mary Stewart's fantasy The Crystal Cave has Merlin been cast as a Mithraic figure—as the force of light and truth, the messenger of Zoroastrian Ahura-Mazda, Mithras who came to Britain with the Romans and whose more ancient roots go back to Persia and India. In her brief note on historical sources that follows her novel, Mary Stewart says little of Mithraism, a religion whose practice in the Roman Empire can only be surmised from bas-reliefs, sculptures, and objects discovered in the grotto chapels or "caves" where Mithras was worshipped by Roman men, soldiers, and business men. Stewart's statement is cagey or better "cavey": "Mithraism has been (literally) underground for years. I have postulated a local revival for the purpose of my story…." She postulates that Merlin's father, Ambrosius, has Roman leanings and favors the worship of Mithra, the god most favored by Roman warriors during the first four centuries A.D. Yet if it be, as Stewart tells us, that King Arthur's birth occurred around 470 A.D., the practice of the Mithraic religion had already been prohibited in the Roman Empire some seventy years before. While historically Mithraism is perhaps somewhat anachronistic in the novel, artistically it forms a crucial layer of The Crystal Cave as Mithras illumines two alluring possibilities: Mithras may represent the god who guides Merlin, and he may also signify Merlin himself. After all, what god can be more appropriate for the mythic dimension of a fantasy about Merlin—Mithras, born in a cave, bringer of light?

To understand the subtleties of Mithra and Mithraism in relation to the novel, some religious background is valuable. Mithra, originating in the mythological Mitra in the fourteenth century B.C. Vedas of India, is the servant of the sky god, Varuna, whose great power is "binding". This quality the Persian god Mithras will inherit, to enforce the "binding" of contracts and, more generally, justice, in the Rig-Veda, Mitra is also considered one of the twelve Adityas, gods of the months of the year headed by Aditya, the Hindu sun goddess. Later, as Mithras, as the supreme God in the "Mazdean Pantheon," he is considered to be "boundless Time"; his statue may display the signs of the zodiac engraved on his body. In particular, Mitra is a deity of light in the Vedas, connected to fertilizing warmth, as well as to truth and to oath keeping. These qualities are suggested in etymology: Mithras derives from the Assyrian metru meaning "rain" and the Sanskrit metru meaning "friend". Thus, the god Mithras is the light that nurtures both earth and man—and can these functions, perhaps, also be ascribed to Merlin?

The ritual re-enactment in Mithraism of the slaying of the bull by Mithras confirms the god's role in assuring fertility. Whereas in ancient Indian texts Mitra is sometimes depicted as the unwilling participant in the sacrifice of the god Soma, the god of Immortality depicted either as a bull or as the moon, it is the Mithras of the Hellenistic period (331 B.C. to 324 A.D.) who is predominantly known as Tauroctonus, the Slayer of the Primeval Bull. The older Persian Mithraism had declined in the time of Zoroaster (c. 550 B.C.) who, objecting to the Persian polytheism, sought to restore the one god, Ahura Mazdah, but by 8 B.C. the Iranian Mithras was known as "a celestial soldier at Ahura's side": like Ahura-Mazda, god of light and justice, Mithras was "undeceivable and omniscient". Mithra's ascendancy relative to Ahura-Mazda seems to have derived literally from Mithras' "taking the bull by the horns," for after wrestling the bull down, Mithras drags the exhausted animal into a cave, and after deliberately allowing the bull to escape and recapturing it, in the cave he ritually plunges a dagger into its throat.

By the first century B.C. these rituals of Mithraism were prominent among the Romans. By the second century A.D., even though a religion confined to males solely, Mithraism was stronger in the Roman Empire than was Christianity ("Mithraism,"; in the third century A.D. it became so prominent as to be regarded a world religion. Mithraism at mid-third century had reached its apogee of power before Theodosius I (r. 379-395 A.D.) assured its decline by his edict prohibiting it, though some worship seemed to have persisted into the fifth century in remote parts of the Alps and Vosges mountains.

Why did Mithraism have such appeal to its followers and offer such imaginative possibilities to Mary Stewart, who incorporates its mythology, ritual, and the qualities of its divinity into The Crystal Cave? The answer, of course, must derive from some understanding of Mithraic beliefs and practices and from the particular sense of how the god, Mithras, was perceived and understood.

Like all gods and heroes, Mithras had a miraculous birth. Emerging mysteriously from a rock, he came as "the new begetter of light." Even at his birth, he is fully attired with a Phrygian cap (that worn during the ritual bull sacrifice) and is holding a dagger and a torch. Often flames are shown blazing from the rock from which he appears and his cap is studded with stars. The parallel to Merlin as depicted in The Crystal Cave is clear—Merlin Emyrs is conceived in a cave, and recognizing his destiny through fire and light, frames a "new cosmogony" with Arthur as the unifying force. This application has even greater resonance when bas-reliefs of Mithras' birth are viewed where the god is shown holding a globe in one hand as he touches the circle of the zodiac with the other.

The bull has a place in the cosmic scene as well. Often considered a god, especially among the Aryans, and often related to kings, the bull was considered the bringer of new life. The Mithraic bull sacrifice closely resembles the bull sacrifice of the Phrygians commemorating the resurrection of Attis in the spring. Dionysus often took the shape of a bull to embody vegetation or the spirit of the corn. The reader of The Crystal Cave may find in Merlin qualities associated with the Mithraic bull, and perhaps more distinctly qualities associated with Mithras the slayer of the bull.

Mithras is assigned the sacrifice of the bull by Sol, who appoints the raven as messenger to tell Mithras what he must do. In the novel Merlin often serves as spokesman, that is, messenger, of the god and is named for a bird, the corwalch falcon: often directed by qualities of birds, the dove's wariness, the merlin's aggressive persistence, Merlin must transform himself from being like a dove to being a merlin, the bird of his name, for he will have to participate in violent acts; like a soldier, he will have to slay his bull.

Stewart's fantasy makes use of animals as symbolic and transforming agents, especially the bull, in some other ways. In Mithraic ritual at the death of the bull the cloak of Mithras becomes the vault of heaven covered with planets and stars; the bull himself is transformed through this "holy deed," in some versions becoming the moon, while the tail (or spinal chord) changes to ears of corn and the blood rises to form a vine. A seed issues from the bull, which generates all of life. Thus, the sacrifice influences earth as well as the heaven. Such a sacrifice Merlin, too, will have to make to secure the birth of Arthur.

Those initiated into the Mithraic mysteries descend into a pit, the taurobolium, where they are baptized in the blood of the bull sacrificed above them, a "blood bath". If the sacrifice of the bull relates the forces of light overcoming darkness (in earlier myths Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrian Antagonist, afflicts the bull) the purification of the initiate through blood rite symbolizes man's overcoming his dark instinctual drives. Now he will be able to transcend to a higher sphere of being. Yet, by participating in this "ritual killing," it seems evident that the initiate loses "light" even as he gains it. The Mithras figure often appears regretful, expressing compassion or remorse. In The Crystal Cave Merlin, an initiate in the Mithraic faith, later takes on the function of Mithras himself; he, too, experiences simultaneous joy in the coming of Arthur and loss in having to bring about the deaths of guiltless others, in the loss of his own "innocence."

Other elements in Mithraism are significant in the fantasy for supplying historical background as well as for enhancing the fantasy elements and deepening the mystery in the narrative. The sanctuary in which Mithraic rites were observed was a "mysterious" place. Worshipers congregated underground in caves that resembled the Mithraeum at Camuntum near Vienna, an oblong sanctuary approached by a stairway through a square hall. At the center of the sanctuary the bull ritual is sculpturally depicted. On either side of the central aisle is a row of benches, while at the beginning of the aisle are paired pillars, each extending a torch bearer. Sometimes the vault of the sanctuary represented the sky and various lighting devices might be manipulated to create "fitful flashes of light"—like in Stewart's "crystal cave." The celebrants in costumes symbolizing their grades sat on the benches. Just as the chapel had seven steps and seven altars, so the worshipers represented seven planets, each defined by a designated animal or other symbolic mask and assigned a special hierarchy. While authorities disagree as to the planet represented by each animal (for example, [M. J.] Vermaseren sees the Raven as air, while [Joseph] Campbell identifies it with the moon), most agree on the order prescribed for the celebrants. The servitors comprised the lower grades in this ascending sequence: Raven, Bridegroom, Soldier. The upper grades were known as Participants and included in ascending sequence Lion, Persian, Courier of the Sun, and Father. In addition, [Mercia] Eliade regards the participants as climbing on a seven-runged ladder, each rung of a different metal associated with the particular planet—such as gold for the sun. Thus, the initiate gains the empyrean by going through "the seven heavens". (Perhaps we derive from this the expression "I'm in seventh heaven"?)

The central mystery performed by the initiates was the journey of the soul from birth to immortality. At birth, according to this doctrine, the soul passes through the seven planetary spheres: at each planet the soul becomes tainted with the vice associated with the planet (for example, at Mars, anger). Once arrived on earth, the soul has the opportunity to cast off these impurities, aided by Mithras, who reveals a special moral discipline. After the person dies, Mithras has yet another function; he is arbiter in the struggle between the devas (demons) and angels for the soul. If the soul's good qualities outweigh the bad, it rises again, this time passing the planets in reverse order and shedding all of its impurities. If, as some authorities believe, Mithra once formed a link between Ahura-Mazda (light) and Angra-Mainyu (darkness), his capacity for acting as mediator has another relevance in his role as the Roman soldier's god. In acting for the good of the emperor, in regulating the conduct of the army, in sanctioning oaths among the brotherhood of believers, the soldier, like Mithras, brings divine sanction to the nation. Such, too, is Merlin's role in The Crystal Cave.

During Roman times Mithras represented the power of the emperor, and emperors were actually represented as Mithras in statuary and coinage, also identified as Sol Invictus, the invincible Sun god. Aurelian (r. 270-275 A.D.), seeking to find a new power that would unite the Eastern and Western Empires, built in Rome in 274 A.D. a magnificent temple to the Sun god. On the side of the angels and the Roman emperors, Mithras is a more complex mythic hero in his relationship to the sun. "A sun hero will always present … a 'dark side,' a connection with the world of the dead". The destruction of the bull here occurs in a new context as Mithras, the sun hero, succeeds in opening up a new era, in fact "a new organization in the universe". For when Ahriman (spirit of darkness, evil) will succeed in destroying life, suddenly a marvelous bull will appear on the earth and Mithra will descend again, this time to awaken the dead. He will immolate the divine bull to provide the righteous with a substance that confers immortality and will lead the resurrected into paradise. Merlin's affinity to Mithras, the sun hero, is unmistakable; as arbiter and faithful supporter of the sovereign, Ambrosius, his father, as commentator on moral codes, and finally as the mentor he will become for Arthur—in all these roles, he will guide men on a spiritual journey and recreate Britain as an earthly paradise.

Mithraism functions in several ways in The Crystal Cave: as historical background, as a religion defined by ritual and ethical codes affecting Merlin and others, and as a mythology. The presence of Mithraism and the hero Mithras in Stewart's fantasy creates a texture and tonality that make the narrative glow and its hero Merlin a radiant figure, both realistic and luminous, pragmatic and prophetic.

In the novel Mithras first appears as a figure carved on the wooden chest that holds Merlin's clothing at the palace in Maridinum. The child Merlin is intrigued by the representation of a cave scene in which appear a bull, a man with a knife, someone holding some corn, and in one corner "some figure, rubbed almost away, with rays round his head, like the sun…." When Merlin is twelve and hiding in a cow shed near Ambrosius' headquarters, he has vision of that same scene. In the winter landscape the sky is a "black dome" and the arch of stars "like the curved roof of the cave with the light flashing off the crystals, and the passing shadows flying, chased by the fire." When the shadows lift, Merlin sees the god himself dressed in the ritual costume—cross-bound trousers, thongs, low-girded tunic, Phrygian cap, and wide cape. Then, from the charging of the bull to the final plunge of the knife into its neck, Merlin observes the great sacrifice. This powerful vision Merlin, in a situation of peril in which his identity cannot be established, describes to Uther and his followers, and to Ambrosius; and because the vision reveals secret Mithraic knowledge the listeners are persuaded not to arrest, not to harm the ill-dressed unknown youth who tells it, for he apparently has supernatural powers.

Later Ambrosius explains the vision to Merlin as of "the soldier's god, the Word, the Light, the Good Shepherd, the Mediator between the one God and man." Mithras, says Ambrosius, represents courage and self-restraint, is both strong and gentle. Ambrosius describes Merlin's birth in a cave and interprets the ritual sacrifice. Merlin, who comes to be characterized by the qualities of Mithras, had also been conceived in a cave; and he, too, must commit a form of ritual sacrifice. The parallels between god and prophet become increasingly evident.

When Ambrosius becomes King of all Britain, Merlin is almost eighteen. The taking of York marks a special victory for the king, and it is in York on June 16, the feast day of the god, that Merlin is initiated into Mithraism. Stewart describes the cave sanctuary—with the long benches to either side of the central aisle, the torch bearers, the star studded roof of the cave, the masked believers—a historically accurate description. Mithras on the bas-relief is correctly depicted by Stewart as an unwilling participant in the bull slaying, his head "turned away in sorrow." Eight days after Merlin's initiation as Raven (the first level of Mithraic initiation), Ambrosius celebrates a Christian ceremony, reconciling Christ with Mithras: "As you will find, all gods who are born of the light are brothers, and in this land, if Mithras who gives us victory is to bear the face of Christ, why, then, we worship Christ."

Like those Christians who become members of religious orders, some devout believers in Mithraism practiced absolute continence. Merlin, a vessel of the god, must remain a virgin if he is to keep his power. When the young temptress Keridwen entices him to lie with her, he feels strangled in her embrace; he sees terrifying images and feels crushed inside a cave where the breathing walls take away his breath. But he tears himself away from her and saves his power. The cave symbol is used here by Stewart to image the dark fear of sexuality experienced by the dedicated celibate hero. Mithraic or Christian, bound to the code of the brotherhood of male warriors or priests.

The Mithraic aspects of Merlin are most clearly demonstrated in his special relationship to caves and in his magical ability to use fire and light. Often he is clairvoyant. Yet his powers begin naturally enough. In childhood, while he still lives in his grandfather's palace, his first "cave" serves as retreat where, unknown to others, he can listen to people conversing, learn their feelings, gain information about the adult world that would otherwise be held back from him. This boy seems to be supernaturally knowing, although he has gained his knowledge by going down into the tunnels under the palace floor, the system of tunnels once use for heating called the hypocaust, and there listening to conversations above. He is "alone in the secret dark, where a man is his own master, except for death." A particular area within the hypocaust, where a chimney shaft had once crumbled, the six year old calls his "cave." From a vantage point there he can look up at night to see the stars, to sense the magical design in the universe.

As a young boy, Merlin experiences a spiritual rebirth in "Myrddin's cave," the cave of Galapas, the seer, a sanctuary overhung by oak and rowan where water springs from the rock. Merlin's birth had been that of a hero-god, in his mother Niniane's legend the son of a "Virgin" (Niniane) and a supernatural being ("demon"), in reality the son of princess Niniane and prince Ambrosius. But Galapas is his first true father, teacher, and role model. From him Merlin learns natural science, geography, healing, and spells; he learns how to use "the sight." Finally in this special cave of Galapas he is provided with the moral convictions and spiritual courage to put himself in the path of the gods.

Through a gap in the rock of Galapas' cave, Merlin discovers the "crystal cave," torchlight refracted from a mirror of bronze that creates a conflagration of flames and the illusion of a "whole globe" floored, roofed, lined with crystals. In the "crystal cave" he sees burning diamonds, "rainbows and rivers and bursting stars and a shape like a crimson dragon clawing up the wall, while below it a girl's face swimming faintly with closed eyes." The light drives into Merlin's body as if it would break him open. The phantasmagoric splendor Stewart ascribes to the "crystal cave" must hold either promise or peril depending on how the seer makes use of his vision. In this setting Merlin views the events following his grandfather's death and gains knowledge that will ultimately save his life as well as lead him to Ambrosius and the discovery of his real identity as no "devil's whelp" but the son of Ambrosius.

While in the crystal cave, Merlin has a vision of another cave, that beneath the King's Fort at Segontium which, the vision reveals, has a crack on the rock face; he will use this knowledge later to escape the priests of his father's enemy, Vortimer, who would have Merlin's blood to pour into the foundations being built for the King's Fort, blood to strengthen mortar. To prove that his magic is greater than the soothsayers', Merlin descends into the cave where he plans to contrive some "magic" to convince the King that Merlin can strengthen the Fort better than the priests, but once in the cave he is overwhelmed by flame and light that glitter like crystals—it is "the crystal cave come alive," the starred globe of the cosmos. Through the dazzling haze he sees images of wings and wolves' eyes, "stars shooting through a rain of blood." In a great voice, he prophesies the combat between the white dragon of the Saxons and the red dragon of Ambrosius. A bear shall come out of Cornwall. These visions are so impressive, his delivery so thrilling that even the sceptics are convinced; and he becomes known as "Vortigern's prophet," commanding awe and respect. Later he appears as the great cloaked figure atop the rocky crag at Caerleon, the symbol and assurance of certain triumph to Ambrosius' soldiers.

More than the place that gives him birth and later contributes to his reputation, the cave is for Merlin a retreat, his true home; even after he is acknowledged as prince, he chooses to live not in a palace but in Galapas' cave. The cave, Merlin knows, will also be the site where he dies. To Cadal, his servant and friend, he confides that Belasius, the menacing Druid, cannot harm him, for Merlin sees another death. "I shall come to the cave in the end…." Yet, as Merlin recognizes, the cave is also "birth or a gate of vision or a dark limbo of sleep…." Thus, the cave becomes a cosmos, the very globe Mithras holds when he is born, as well as the dome that the soul ascends on the way to its ultimate rebirth.

While the cave defines and influences Merlin, as well as suggests his Mithraic affinity, it is light itself in the form of crystals, fire, and stars that gives Merlin his magical power and that, once again, realizes his proximity to Mithras, god of light. When as a child Merlin first met his uncle Camlach who asked his name, he had responded with "'myrrdin Emyrs,'" Camlach retorted, "'Emyrs? Child of light, belonging to the gods …? That hardly seems the name for a demon's whelp'." Scarcely "the demon's whelp," Merlin comes to have the supernatural power that can blind. Merlin admits to Cadal that his visionary experiences often frighten him, for when he is in a trance-like state, he is detached from his body, has no control over what he says, becomes only "a horn being blown through to make the sound carry." Yet one day Merlin knows for certain that he "shall command this part [of himself] that knows and sees, this god, and that really will be power." For the truth this God sends is shadowed—is incomplete. To use it fully, it is imperative that Merlin discover God's identity. Ambrosius once suggests that Mithras might be the god who guides him. The reader sees Merlin himself as Mithras, who is "all-seeing," knows the moment of Niniane's death, can perceive Ambrosius' death, recognizes that Arthur's coming will be a "shield and a living sword for a united Britain," however fraught with danger and death. As Mithras, the god of "binding," Merlin, while he recognizes perils, must keep his oath to the memory of Ambrosius, must assure the union and prosperity of Britain.

Mithras-Merlin is an ambivalent figure, for the sun is only light against the dark, and Mithras is the "divinity who formed a link between the Ahura Mazda and the Angra Mainyu of Zoroaster." In this sense, Merlin regulates the cycle of light and darkness, comes in darkness to Tintagel disguised as Brithael, Gorlois' captain and friend. His mission is "dark"—he is an accomplice in an act of betrayal, the betrayal of the loyal Gorlois, and the deviser of adultery, for he must make possible Uther's adultery with Gorlois' wife so that Arthur may be conceived. Yet for Merlin these dark deeds are not immoral, only essential. Merlin asserts to Cadal that on this night when Uther lies with Ygraine, Gorlois' wife, Uther is no King—only a ruler in a procession of rulers and "even less than that: he is a tool, and she is a vessel and I … I am a spirit, a word, a thing of air and darkness…." In order to safeguard Uther and Ygraine, he must kill his "other self," the real Brithael who unexpectedly comes to the castle to report Gorlois' death at Dimilioc. Cadal, who is with Merlin at Tintagel, also dies on this night, having been mortally wounded by Brithael. Merlin has endangered Uther and has drenched himself in the blood of many others.

To Uther's accusations that he has brought disaster through this night's contriving, Merlin replies that he could not have known the price of the night's work, for God keeps his price secret. When Uther demands to know the identity of this God, Merlin responds by naming many gods—"Mithras, Apollo, Arthur, Christ…." The name is irrelevant, Merlin concludes. It is "what men call the light…." It is this light that all men must live by or die. Yet Merlin might have added that light does not exist without shadow, and the god who uses man to consummate divine intention also corrupts his vessel, as indeed Mithras was tainted when he killed the bull. Slaying the sacred bull, however, was necessary for fertility, for human consciousness, for the possibility of moral evolution and eternal life. In the view of Stewart's novel, Merlin's "sacrifice" of others accomplishes the same mission—the growth of human civilization through a united Britain and the possibility for spiritual immortality through another deity of light, a Christian King.

As The Crystal Cave ends, Merlin, still steeped in blood, watches the star directly overhead become enveloped in gold. Then as the pale sky brightens, a wave of brilliant light bursts forth. The "young sun" covers the heavens. To secure cosmic order and the promise of its continual renewal, Merlin as mediator, Logos, and savior sacrifices a portion of himself. Like Mithras, he intercedes for the good of Britain. By murdering the innocent Brithael whose coming into Uther's chamber would have prevented the conception of Arthur, Merlin suffers for his people to attain for them a life where moral sanctions are upheld, where death need not be final—can, indeed, be the promise of spiritual regeneration.