The Round Table is the Rationale or Apotheosis of the Most Noble The Order of the Garter

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Round Table
(Mythical)

CHAPTER THE NINETEENTH

THE ROUND TABLE IS THE RATIONALE OR APOTHEOSIS OF THE MOST NOBLE THE ORDER OF THE GARTER

HONI-SOIT QUI MAL-Y-PENSE

THE Round Table of King Arthur is a Grand Mythological Synthesis. It is a whole Mythology in itself. It is perennial. It is Christian. By tradition, the Round Table of King Arthur devolves from the very earliest period. The illustration opposite a previous page was copied from the original with great care and attention. King Arthur, in the principal seat, is idealized in the person of King Henry the Eighth, in whose time the Round Table is supposed to have been repaired and refaced. In the Revolution, Cromwell's soldiery, after the capture of Winchester, and in the fury at the imputed idea of idolatry (the Round Table is the English 'Palladium'), made a target of it. The marks of many balls are still conspicuous.

The five-leaved Roses (Red and White Roses; Rhodion, Rhodes--Knights of Rhodes or of Malta, the

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successors of the Templars) typify the Ten Original Signs of the Zodiac. Red-Rose, Five Signs (Aspiration or Ascension); White Rose, Five Signs (or Leaves), Descension (or 'Con'-descension, or S.S., or Holy Ghost (the key of the whole apotheosis; according to the mystical Jacob Bœhmen).

The whole is radiant (notwithstanding that the rays are green; otherwise expressive of the 'Linea Viridis', seu 'Benedicta Viriditas'--Rosicrucian). (See former pages) out from the 'seed-spot', or 'Golden Sun' (Grand Astronomical Central Flame), in the centre. This double-rose, 'barbed' or 'thorned', Sol, is (in this form) the Tudor Rose (the Rose-en-Soleil, be it remembered, was another of the Tudor badges); denoting the union of the Houses of York and Lancaster in the person of Harry the Eighth.

It will be observed that each Knight of the Round Table is seated as at the base of an obelisk. The architectural 'obeliscar' form (rayed, or spread, or bladed) is universal, all the world over, both in old times and modern times. The Egyptian Obelisks are sacred to the Sun. The Paladins of Charlemagne were Twelve in number. The Marshals of France should be twelve in number. The Judges of England, according to old constitutional rationale, should be twelve; as the number of a Jury are twelve. All these are mythical of the Twelve Signs, or Divisions, of the Zodiac, the Twelve Jewish Tribes, the twelve oracular stones in the breastplate of the High Priest of the Jews, and, in the Christian aspect of the mysticism, the Twelve Apostles; with the 'Reprobate Condemned Central Sign' as Judas, the Traitor. The whole is Cabalistic in the highest degree; and therefore ordinarily unintelligible. It signifies the Second Dispensation, or the astrological reproduction and rearrangement of the Zodiac, when the original Ten

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[paragraph continues] Signs of the Ecliptic (mythically the gladius of the Archangel Michael) became Twelve; and when the mystic system underwent the GREATEST CHANGE--presenting a new traditionary and reproductive face. (Refer to Chapter on the origin of the Order of the Garter, previous, and thenceforward.)

510. Perceval Le Galloys; Tresplaisante et Recreative Hystoire du Trespreulx et vaillant Chevallier Perceval le galloys jadis chevallier de la Table ronde. Lequel acheva les adventures du sainct Graal. Avec aulchuns Picts belliqueulx du noble chevallier Gauvaīn. Et aultres Chevalliers estans au temps du noble Roy Arthus, non auparavant Imprime. On les vend au Pallais a Paris. En la boutique de Jehan logis. Jehan sainct denis, et Galliot du pre. [A la fin] Et fut acheve de Imprimer le premier jour de Septembre. Lan mil cinq cents trente [1530]. Folio. , fine woodcut border to title, woodcuts, old french olive morocco extra, gilt edges, 1351. Aug. 1879. 29 New Bond Street.