In Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, this epitaph is written on Arthur's tombstone: Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus Here lies Arthur, the king that was and the king that shall be.
There once was a king. And a King there shall be again. But in this brief glimmer of time, the King is absent.
After the battle of Camlann, where Arthur and the traitor Mordred dealt each other fatal blows, the King is carried away, grievously wounded to the isle of Avalon, where he lies in healing sleep, waiting for the hour of Britain's greatest need.
He has gone to fair Avalon. Far across the sea. And has passed out of time and out of mind.
He sleeps under the mountain in his Bergentrückung, his "mountain rapture". surrounded by his knights and in full armour. On a table before them lie a sword and a horn and his great beard grows has grown long through the millenia. Ravens circle the peak and it is said when they stop he will wake and restore the Kingdom to its former glory.
And so we are born into the wasteland. And we have wasted ourselves
With the royal line broken, a petty steward sits on the throne and his cabal of …. . A tyrant has claimed your crown.
You were once King But lost your crown Drank a potion of forgetfulness Yet, one day shall regain it
What is real and true can never be lost. A king can forget his crown and lose his throne, yet he cannot divest himself of his true name and heritage.
He was, and he shall be.
(Flow of ideas)
- arthurs death and passing
- the message on his tomb
- King sleeping in the mountain
- The Steward
- Unrecognized, rejected
- calling forth the king, we all yearn
- Aragorn
- The Inner Sovereign
- Prophecy and Promise
He caused him to be borne to Avalon for the searching of his hurts. He is yet in Avalon, awaited of the Britons; for as they say and deem he will return from whence he went and live again. Merlin said of Arthur, that his end should be hidden in doubtfulness. The prophet spoke truly. Men have ever doubted, and as I am persuaded will always doubt, whether he liveth or is dead. - Wace — Roman de Brut (c. 1155)
Rex Quondam, Rexque Futurus
After the catastrophic battle of Camlann — where he and the traitor Mordred dealt each other mortal blows — Arthur is carried away, grievously wounded but living, to the isle of Avalon, where he lies in healing sleep, waiting for the hour of Britain's greatest need.
"Here lies Arthur, the king that was and the king that shall be." (Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus)
In Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, this epitaph is written on Arthur's tombstone.
Malory — Le Morte d’Arthur, Book XXI (1469–1470)
"Now put me into the barge," said the king. And so he did softly; and there received him three queens with great mourning; and so they set them down, and in one of their laps King Arthur laid his head. And then that queen said: "Ah, dear brother, why have ye tarried so long from me? Alas, this wound on your head hath caught over-much cold." And so then they rowed from the land, and Sir Bedivere beheld all those ladies go from him. Then Sir Bedivere cried: "Ah my lord Arthur, what shall become of me, now ye go from me and leave me here alone among mine enemies?" "Comfort thyself," said the king, "and do as well as thou mayst, for in me is no trust for to trust in; for I will into the vale of Avilion to heal me of my grievous wound: and if thou hear never more of me, pray for my soul." But ever the queens and ladies wept and shrieked, that it was pity to hear. And as soon as Sir Bedivere had lost the sight of the barge, he wept and wailed, and so took the forest. Thus of Arthur I find never more written in books that be authorised, nor more of the very certainty of his death heard I never read, but thus was he led away in a ship wherein were three queens; that one was King Arthur’s sister, Queen Morgan le Fay; the other was the Queen of Northgalis; the third was the Queen of the Waste Lands. Yet some men say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu into another place; and men say that he shall come again, and he shall win the holy cross. I will not say it shall be so, but rather I will say: here in this world he changed his life. But many men say that there is written upon his tomb this verse: Hic jacet Arthurus, Rex quondam, Rexque futurus. "Here lies Arthur, the Once and Future King."
Arthur was wounded wondrously much. There came to him a lad, who was of his kindred; he was Cador’s son, the Earl of Cornwall; Constantine the lad was called, and he was dear to the king. Arthur looked on him, where he lay on the ground, and said these words with a sorrowful heart: "Constantine, thou art welcome; thou wert Cador’s son. I give thee here my kingdom, and defend thou my Britons ever in thy life, and maintain them all the laws that have stood in my days, and all the good laws that in Uther’s days stood. And I will fare to Avalon, to the fairest of all maidens, to Argante the queen, an elf most fair, and she shall make my wounds all sound, make me all whole with healing draughts. And afterwards I will come again to my kingdom, and dwell with the Britons with mickle joy." Even with the words there came from the sea a short boat borne on the waves, and two women therein, wondrously arrayed: and they took Arthur anon, and bare him quickly, and softly laid him down, and fared forth away. Then was brought to pass that which Merlin whilom said, that there should be sorrow untold at Arthur’s forth-faring. The Britons believe yet that he is alive, and dwelleth in Avalon with the fairest of all elves; and ever yet the Britons look for Arthur’s coming. Was never the man born, nor ever of woman chosen, that knoweth the sooth, to say more of Arthur. But whilom there was a seer hight Merlin; he said with words — and his sayings were sooth — that an Arthur should yet come to help the Britons. - Layamon — Brut (c. 1190–1215)
The King Sleeping in the Mountain
Alongside the isle of Avalon, a second tradition took root in the folk memory of Britain: Arthur did not sleep on an enchanted island across the western sea. He slept beneath the earth itself in a hidden cave inside the hills of his kingdom, surrounded by his knights, armored and ready, waiting.
This is the Bergentrückung, the "mountain rapture", one of the oldest and most widespread motifs in European legend. The King is not gone. He is buried within the land he loves, within the interior of the earth.
The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, or Barbarossa, is said to sleep inside the Kyffhäuser mountain in Germany. The entrances to these caves are said to be hidden, opening only on sacred nights or once every seven years. Inside, the knights sleep in a great circle. On a table before them lie a sword and a horn and his red beard grows through the stone table before him. Ravens circle the peak and when they stop, it is said he will wake and restore the empire to its former glory.
The Steward
In the King's absence, the Steward assumes the throne. At first this is a matter of necessity — someone must govern while the King is away. But as years become decades and decades become centuries, the Steward forgets that he is only a placeholder. He begins to believe the throne is his by right.
The ego is this Steward. Its entire existence depends on the King not returning. When the true sovereign stirs, the ego does what Herod did: it tries to destroy the child before he grows.
Aragorn & The Return of the King
But he was called Estel, that is ‘Hope’, and his true name and lineage were kept secret at the bidding of Elrond; for the Wise then knew that the Enemy was seeking to discover the Heir of Isildur, if any remained upon earth.
Aragorn is the rightful heir to the thrones of Gondor and Arnor, living in the wilderness as a Ranger, his true name and lineage concealed from the world. The kingdom has long been governed by Stewards; the White Tree is dead; the land has slowly decayed.
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”
the broken sword Narsil is reforged into Andúril — Flame of the West — and the ancient prophecy is fulfilled: "The crownless again shall be king." His return does not merely restore a throne. It heals the land. The dead tree blooms. The realm is made whole.
The Coronation of Aragorn Then Frodo came forward and took the crown from Faramir and bore it to Gandalf; and Aragorn knelt, and Gandalf set the White Crown upon his head, and said: "Now come the days of the King, and may they be blessed while the thrones of the Valar endure!" And when Aragorn arose all that beheld him gazed in silence, for it seemed to them that he was revealed to them now for the first time. Tall as the sea-kings of old, he stood above all that were near; ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him.
Aragorn doesn't announce himself with an army. He comes through the Paths of the Dead, works in shadow, and his first act upon entering the city is not to claim the throne but to heal the wounded in the Houses of Healing. The people recognize him by this, before any crown is placed upon his head.
“For it is said in old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known.”
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness. - Jeremiah 23:5–6
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. - Revelation 1:7–8
We All Long for the Return of the True King
The King will not return until there is a readiness and yearning within the people — or within the individual soul — for the return of a true sovereign.
Something deep in the human soul knows it has been living without its rightful sovereign.
The longing for the Messiah, for the return of the King, for the coming of the chosen one is an instinct of the soul. All people, beneath whatever ideology they profess, carry the ache of living in the Wasteland. Most do not recognize it as such. They experience it as a vague dissatisfaction, a sense that the world is not what it should be, that something essential is missing.
We feel the lack of living in a world, a nation, a culture centered around the sacred. We have no mythology, no religion. There is no natural hierarchy where each knows their place and those who are most noble and capable lead and serve in their leadership.
The vast majority of people do not truly wish to rule. They wish to follow — but they wish to follow someone worthy of that following.
Our modern age insists we do not need kings. That no one has the right to stand above another. And yet, without a living center of true sovereignty, people will follow whoever fills the vacuum — however hollow, however corrupt.
"Do not look here or there. Lo, the Kingdom — and the King — is within you."
The Inner Sovereign
Every one of these stories — Arthur, Aragorn, the Davidic Messiah, the Christ — is ultimately about you.
The Once and Future King is not only a mythic figure awaited by a nation. He is the divine sovereign within every human soul: the higher Self, the Christ-mind, the inner royalty that was forgotten, buried, and driven underground by the long reign of the ego-steward and the spreading grey of the inner Wasteland.
The Prince was born in the Kingdom. He fell. He drank a potion of forgetfulness, went into exile, and wandered in disguise — as a Ranger, a commoner, a nobody — the true heir hidden even from himself.
The entire Quest is the long, difficult, alchemical process of recovering that identity. It is not enough to think or believe that you are the King. You must KNOW. And the knowing must become Being. The sword must be drawn. The crown must be earned through the full passage of the trials, the dark nights, the descent, the initiation, the crucifixion of the false self, the resurrection, sacred marriage, and ultimately the Coronation.
Prophecy and Promise
"The once and future king" is a prophecy and a promise.
It is the declaration that what once was shall be again.
The King reigns in eternity, and so it matters not that there is a temporary abdication of the throne.
But do not become attached to your waiting. Do not rest on your fair laurels and keep yourself asleep with visions of grandeur that are not actualized and lived. For if the King is not enthroned then you live in poverty, and you are that poverty.
Rex quondam, rexque futurus. The king that was, and the king that shall be.
The prophecy is made for Arthur. It is made for the Nation of Israel. It is made for every soul that has ever fallen, forgotten, and wandered in exile from its divine inheritance.
You were once King. You drank a potion of forgetfulness. You lost the crown. But that is not the end of the great Story… The King shall return again.
