Wendy Berg on Skylight Press

Wendy Berg’s radical book on the faery tradition in Arthurian legend will be available soon on Skylight Press. Red Tree, White Tree re-evaluates the available mythology (including some of the obscure untranslated texts) on the basis that Queen Gwenevere came to Arthur’s court from the realm of Faery, and that her many “abductions” are attempts to return her to her own kind. This theory has previously been put forward by academics and the faery tradition has always been deeply woven through the Arthurian stories. But Wendy makes a fascinating and compelling case for the underlying ritual magic and faery initiation contained within the Grail legends, which are still relevant today, moving on from the “grail question” that no longer serves anyone, and going right back to the ancient stellar deities that survive, almost forgotten, within the British Mysteries.

On sending her manuscript to Gareth Knight for comment, he was so impressed by her ideas that he asked her to contribute a summary of Red Tree, White Tree to his own book The Arthurian Formula (Thoth Publications, 2006), and was further inspired to write a book of his own about the Faery tradition in Grail legend. However, the full text of Red Tree, White Tree is only now being made available for the first time.

Wendy is currently writing a follow-up book which will be available in 2011.

She is also co-author, with Mike Harris, of Polarity Magic: the Secret History of Western Religion (Llewellyn Publications, 2003) and was a major contributor to Alan Richardson’s Spirits of the Stones (Virgin Publishing Ltd, 2001).

Wendy has some thirty years’ experience within the Western Mystery Tradition and in practical ritual magic. She is an authority on Egyptian, Celtic, Arthurian and Grail magical traditions and has a thorough knowledge of the Qabalah, blending Christian Mysticism with modern Paganism. She currently runs the Avalon Group, the magical fraternity founded by Gareth Knight.