The Return of Merlin

Gordon Strachan explains at the beginning of this intriguing book how he has always been fascinated by cycles of history, and got into trouble in Oxford for basing an essay on the work of Arnold Toynbee. He goes on to consider the work of Charles Carter, who divided the Piscean Age into 10 periods of 180 years each. He analyses this work in relation to that of Richard Tarnas before tapping into the contemporary fascination for the hidden history of the church and the return of Merlinesque figures in the form of Gandalf and Dumbledore, which he argues takes place within a 700 year cycle. He distinguishes two types of Merlin figure, one cosmic and related to the stars and the other to nature. The book is full of fascinating historical and astrological detail.