The Sword In The Stone

The Sword In The Stone is a great cartoon about gallantry, medieval magic, and even the shamanic crisis the wounded healer must face in order to become whole once again. The story starts with the ornery owl Archimedes' and the wizard Merlin's clairvoyant search for an initiate who is willing to become their apt pupil. This search takes place in the Dark Ages, a time in human history when the grim and the grimy overpowered the noble and the novel. There is also a subtle allusion to the Nordic "Age of The Wolf," which is the age that directly precedes Ragnanok, or the end of a cosmic cycle.

As the story trundles along, Merlin and Archimedes teach young Arthur about the importance of exploring his own consciousness ("Know Thy Self"). In the form of a fish, Merlin teaches young Arthur about the reality "between two planes," which has the surface of the water as one plane and the water-bed beneath them as the other. The fish transformation is all about getting in touch with the instinct, or the buried will of the Jungian unconscious. When Merlin and Arthur are transformed into squirrels, Merlin edifies Arthur in the ways of suppleness and play. And finally, when Merlin transforms Arthur into a bird, Arthur enjoys the ecstasies and profundities of shamanic flight. These three lessons and transformations are emblematic of shamanism itself. The co-existence of the lower astral world (fish), the earthly world of the gross senses (squirrel), and the sidereal world where levity resides (bird) is what Merlin and Archimedes teach young Arthur about. They instill in the initiate (Arthur) via sappy songs the idea that reverence and humility must be cultivated at all costs.

When Arthur lifts the sword from the stone and is pronounced the King of England by the mystified denizens, Arthur realizes that the lessons he received from Archimedes and Merlin helped him and purified him. Would he have been able to lift the sword without the shamanic transformations? Who knows. What we know is this: wisdom and intelligence imbued his gallant and humble nature with the power of heaven. In the end, Arthur was the true alchemical king.