I have been fascinated with Elves for just about as long as I can remember. However, I first heard of the mysticism surrounding the "Elven" Bloodlines of the Holy Grail in 1993, (albeit in a somewhat diluted form) when I was a Junior in High School. A friend of mine who I'd always known was interested in the occult began to make claims regarding her physical and spiritual ancestry that grabbed my attention. She dabbled in magic, or "Magick," as she called it (and as I soon came to call it) and was also my first introduction to the always-controversial philosophies of Aleister Crowley, Ceremonial Magick, Alchemy, and the Qabbalah. But it was her claims of "Elven" and "Draconic" decent that seized my imagination.
She told us of an "otherdimensional" race of Elves, a people infused with the blood of the gods, from whom the true Royal lines were descended. These were not cute hobgoblins or the willowy waifs of modern literature and fantasy pop culture, but tall, imposing Kings and Queens who, in her words, "resembled the old Scottish Nobility."
She said she had distinct memories of being a Princess of this race, (though it seemed to her as if she were having these experiences simultaneously in another dimension, rather than in a past life) and even started to write a novel based on these memories. Much of what she told us was caught up in Gnostic mysticism and Golden-Dawn style Hermetic lore. This friend of mine also revealed to us that a secret sect existed to defend this ancient bloodline, and that a history teacher at our school whom we knew to be a Freemason (he always wore the ring) was a member of this clandestine organization. If this sounds suspiciously similar to the plot of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, keep in mind that the events that I am describing here took place a full ten years before it was written.
Now, is perfectly possible that this acquaintance of mine could have pulled all of these references from any of the existing occult books on the shelves of our local bookstore at the mall (or the local public library, where she worked after school.) After all, Laurence Gardner's articles began to appear in NEXUS magazine at about the same time, as Grail enthusiasts have since pointed out to me. The controversial book Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and Richard Leigh had been available for about ten years at this point. But this friend of mine represented all of this information as having been revealed to her in dreams and visions.
With all of the resources that were available at the time, it would have been easy for her to "do her arcane homework" and then hide her sources, passing her knowledge off as instinctual or divinely-revealed mysticism. But after I learned that many of my own childhood mythologies had contained what could only be described as blatant Mithraic symbolism, I began to wonder if perhaps her "personal mythologies" as well could have all resulted from something embedded in her subconscious mind; or if we were just pulling symbols from the collective unconscious at random, like names from a hat.
In any case, our "Elven Study Group" fell apart after a few months when one of our members, (a young lady with a highly unbalanced mind) began to make things very unpleasant for all of us. I will not go into the details any more at the present time, except to say that it quite ruined things, and for the most part we went our separate ways. But I was not able to get the ideas out of my head.
Yes, we we sixteen at the time, caught up in our own teenage dramas and the throes of what some people in the occult subculture refer to as our "mad bastard" phase. But all of it struck a chord deep within me, and I began to try and see if there was any outside information that might corroborate what she was saying. But for years, my search was limited to a stumbling, instinctive hunt for information, limited to intuitive flashes and "what felt right," based on what I had retained of my mentor's "revelations."
My first step was to read the same books that my friend had read and referred us to, regarding Aleister Crowley, Ceremonial Magick, and the Golden Dawn. While this got me no closer to my goal of discovering the true historical basis for the Elves of myth and legend, I did learn a lot that would be useful to me later in my quest. The "Ceremonial Magick" that is the legacy of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn has been the foundation for most of the modern occult systems that have emerged over the last century (i.e Wicca, Thelema, etc.) Back in High School, my friend had referred me to the book Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts, by Donald Michael Kraig. It was (and still is, in my opinion) a good jumping-off point for anyone with an interest in modern Ceremonial Magick. However, for those who cannot find this at their local library (or who just don't want to spend the money to buy it) there are there are also a great deal of resources to be found online regarding this subject.
The rest of my research dealt with the study of maps, particularly those of the Black Sea area, the Caucasus Mountain range, Venice, Italy, and the Carpathian Basin. I started dreaming of these places, of underground lakes beneath mountains, of cities on lakes, of underground cities, of Templar hideouts, of seeing positions charted on countless maps, of being shown these specific areas on a globe, even of being there in person.
It's true that all this simply could have been a product of my then-fevered obsession with the subject - however, there was one intuitive connection I was able to make on my own: somehow, the Elves and Vampires of popular legend were linked through the Apocryphal accounts of the Nephilim, one tribe in particular which was known to the ancient Hebrews as the Anakim. And the Scythians were involved, of that I was certain; though I couldn't say precisely how, or in what way. I had first learned about this nation of steppes-dwelling nomadic equestrian archers in a history book owned by my grandfather when I was a young child, and for some reason I instinctively felt that the Scythians just seemed to "go" with what I was studying, as if they were the key to it all.
Then, in 1999, I stumbled onto Laurence Gardner's NEXUS articles on a website, while looking for information on the ancient Egyptian Bennu Bird. Bam. All of a sudden, I'd found exactly what I'd been searching for over a period of six years, and completely by accident. Within was a near-perfect description of my onetime-schoolfriend's "Elven Royalty,"
"What did these early God-kings look like? Well, they are now thoroughly identifiable from their preserved remains, which have been excavated at various sites from as far afield as Transylvania and Tibet. With their light-brown to red hair and pale eyes, the leather-clad men stood at least 6ft 6ins and upwards, while even the women were over 6ft tall. Undoubtedly these forebears of the Gaelic and Celtic High-kings were among the most awesome warriors of all history."
After studying Laurence Gardner's "Starfire" articles which has appeared in NEXUS Magazine, I immediately began my search anew. I began to read anything and everything I could find on the subject, beginning with the collected works of Zecharia Sitchin. Space Aliens aside, (and he is not the only one to suggest that the Anunnaki were thus) I had already done enough independent research on the subject of ancient Sumer to be able to spot flaws in Mr. Sitchin's work. To be fair, the legends that he drew his theories from are often contradictory in and of themselves, since the details of any particular legend will vary depending on the place (city-state) in ancient Mesopotamia where they originated from. But as I continued to read Mr. Sitchin's works, I was put off by his tendency to "cherry pick" and "mix and match" some of the details of different myths together until they came to resemble something that would support his theories. Even so, I do think that there is a lot of valuable information in his books.
I eventually found http://www.dragoncourt.org, and the writings of Nicholas de Vere (who claims to have taught Laurence Gardner everything he knows.) What transpired next is a subject for another time and another article, but de Vere's writings also served to back up the intuitive feelings that I'd had on the topic of the Grail Bloodlines in general. I'd also read most of Laurence Gardner's books by the time.
At the heart of Gardner and de Vere's claims is the idea that the Holy Grail is not just a sacred chalice, but a symbol for an ancient dynasty, whom modern aficionados of the subject call the "Grail Bloodlines." This is a concept that has recently exploded back into the public consciousness thanks to Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code. They are also sometimes referred to as the "Dragon Bloodlines," because other than the Grail itself, the Dragon is said to be their oldest, most enduring symbol.
Gardner and de Vere claim that a regal, supernaturally-gifted people who were known as the Anunnaki by their subjects ruled over ancient Sumer, and that they gave birth to the Royal Scythian tribe that later dominated the steppes of Eastern Europe and Russia - and that this tribe eventually inspired the legends of the Elven Kings and Queens of old. According to them, these "Elves" were persecuted first by the Roman Empire - and later, the Roman Church. Some people have made a connection between the Anunnaki and the aforementioned Anakim.
Whether or not you believe in Elves or Anunnaki, it is an historically-established fact that in the Eighth Century, the Merovingians (who were either a Salian Frankish Dynasty, the descendants of the Elven peoples, or the blood-relatives of Jesus Christ - or all three, depending on who you ask) were removed from power over much of ancient Europe, in a coup that was orchestrated by the Carolingians, with the full support of the Pope.
This shady deal was cemented with a document known as the Donation of Constantine. The gist of the Donation was that the Church apparently had the right to dethrone whomever they wanted and to put whoever else they wanted upon the throne in their place - all because Constantine supposedly said so. However, this document has been proven to be fraudulent several times over the centuries since then. This happened too late to save the Merovingian Kings, who are held to be the last of the "Grail" families to have reigned anywhere, though many who have ruled since then (such as the Angevin/Plantagenet Dynasty) can claim to be descended from them. If this is true, then all of their descendants - which these days may number in the thousands - might be able to to claim to be descended from the "Elven" bloodlines.
This is where Nicholas de Vere vehemently puts his foot down, claiming that there is absolutely no way that the Elven descent is so widespread, since by this time the original bloodlines were long gone, having been replaced by "client families" of the old Draconic tribes, or - even worse - the "Tinker Nobles," which is the term de Vere has coined to refer to the parvenu merchant-class dynasties who were put in place of the old Grail families of Europe by the early Church. But what of all of the others who have de Vere/Angevin connections in their past family history? And what of the people who may be descended from one of the other supposed "Draconic" dynasties mentioned in his book The Dragon Legacy?
Some people within the actual Dragon Court (particularly de Vere himself) seem to think that a return to the monarchy would solve all the world's ills. Conspiracy theorists within the normal human populace claim that the "Reptilian" members of the Dragon Bloodlines are trying to run everything behind the scenes anyway. Personally, I don't think that any type of Paternalistic governance is either helpful or desirable at this point in time, whether it takes the form of a re-established Monarchy, a Clandestine Cabal, or the current trend of imperialist Neoconservatism that we're currently having to deal with in the world today. On the contrary, it seems to me that each group that has tried to proclaim that they know all of the answers and they should wield the power has brought us that much closer to the brink of disaster.
The following is quoted from a forum post made by Bill Barckley, the late former Webmaster of the now-defunct www.dragoncourt.org:
"The Dragon Court stands in direct opposition to all hierarchical structures of power, including world government. For all of recorded history society has been structured as a hierarchical system with a few elites at the top possessing all power. The effect of this pyramidal system of power has been that the bulk of humanity have been forced into ignorance, superstition and slavery. The ignorance and superstition worked in the elites favor and propped up the system. Life was brutish, cruel, and short for most of history. This system of power remains in force and for most life remains brutish, cruel, and short.The idea of an Earthly Paradise in which men should live together in a state of brotherhood, without laws and without brute labor, has haunted the human imagination for thousands of years. With the advent of the machine and technology the hopeless idea of an Earthly Paradise had finally become a possibility. To the elites at the top of the pyramid of power, human equality, justice, individual freedom - the fabled Earthly Paradise - was no longer an ideal to be striven after but a danger to be avoided at all costs. Why? The answer is simple, the elites would lose their power over others."
As naive and unlikely as this may seem at this point in time, I believe that people should cultivate a sense of personal responsibility for their own actions, and a sense of responsibly towards their fellow man, rather than trusting any leader or set of leaders to "show us the way." (After all, we've done that for centuries now, and look at where it's gotten us.) But I also understand just because people "should" doesn't mean that they "will." Perhaps the best we can do as seekers of the "Grail Consciousness" is to serve as an example by taking responsibility for ourselves and our own actions and through acts of service to humanity as a whole, instead of waiting for some new Monarch or Messiah to do it for us.
(This article was last updated on 3/14/09.)