"King Arthur:  Legend of the Sword":
Claiming Your Power & Self-Mastery
(Spoilers)
Reviewed by Joy Ramos Davis

Synopsis:  Selected by "Conscious Movie Reviews," "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" is an action and adventure drama.  After witnessing the brutal slaying of his parents by his uncle Vortigern to steal the throne, young Arthur manages to escape in a small boat found by prostitutes. He is raised in a brothel to become a hustler and street fighter.  As an adult, Arthur discovers that he's the true heir to the kingdom from pulling the Excalibur sword from the stone.  His allies, the mage, boyhood friends, and Resistance group, help him to defeat his evil uncle Vortigern and become the king of the Britons by divine right.

Warning: Spoilers within Presentation

Divine Right of Kings to Abuse

Welcome to "Conscious Movie Reviews."  I'm your host Joy Davis and here to review the action and adventure fantasy film, "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword."

As the young son of King Uther Pendragon, Arthur witnessed the brutal slaying of his parents by his evil uncle Vortigern, who turned into the possessed demon knight.  Arthur survived by escaping on a small boat, where he was picked up by prostitutes.  

Historically, the royalty of Europe followed a doctrine called the "Divine Right of Kings" to believe that they get their authority directly from God.  A king could demand obedience from their subjects, allowing them to abuse their power in a tyrannical way.

Throughout the film, it was a lesson for Arthur to claim the kingdom that was granted to him by Divine Right.  It was his birthright.  Like any blessings that you receive from God, no one can take it away from you.  It's rightfully yours to claim.  

Pulling Excalibur from the Stone

Under the care of prostitutes, Arthur was raised in the bowels of Londinium to become a skilled street fighter and hustler.  He was joined by his friends, Tristan and Backlack.

When Arthur forced a Viking to pay for the mistreatment of a prostitute, he was criminally charged for attacking a guest of the king and placed on a ship with many men around his age to head for Camelot.  They were all made to pull a sword from the stone.  No one except Arthur could do it.  He fainted from the sword's otherworldly force going through his body.

Swords usually symbolize political legitimacy.  Set in stone, it can relate to the gross reality of this material world with its social consciousness that Arthur needs to pull away from.  Because the Excalibur sword held great powers, it gave Arthur both political and divine legitimacy to the throne.

This was a threat to King Vortigern's reign, so he arranged for Arthur's execution before a large crowd. 

Mage the Magician

Arthur escaped by way of magic when the mage summoned help from a raven and horses to create a diversion.  He was taken to Sir Bedivere's secret hideout for protection by members of the resistance.  The men there once served as King Uther's knights.

Magicians like Merlin and his acolyte, the mage, follow the path of the mystic to practice the secret ways of manipulating the forces of Nature for healing, illusions and phenomena.  They understood man as a God man walking the Earth before being reduced to less than that  with the advent of moral and materialistic laws.  When orthodox religions came into power, magic was forced underground.  This is according to Paul Twitchell, a spiritual teacher of Eckankar.

Surrendering to Divine Power

Arthur had trouble wielding the sword.  Mage intuitively sensed that he resisted its power, so he was sent to the "Blacklands" realm to correct that.  This was where Merlin defeated Mordred's dark magic years ago, now serving to test Arthur's resolve.  He was repeatedly attacked by giant animals there, forcing him to master the use of Excalibur for survival.

Symbolically, his time at "Blacklands" were rites of initiation to learn self-mastery over his lower, animalistic natures of anger, greed, lust, vanity and fear.  Arthur was operating from poverty consciousness that's not about money, but thoughts of lack and unworthiness, rooted in fear.  To be a channel for Divine Power that flowed through the sword, Arthur had to surrender his masculine tendencies to adopt the passivity of the feminine for the divine to flow through him.  It was this art of passive surrender to the unknown that the mage became a powerful mystic.

Painful Resistance

The next time that Arthur resisted the sword, he threw it into a lake out of shame.  He couldn't save his friend Backlack, who was killed by Vortigern and his minions.  A hand came up from the marsh to pull him in and reveal a very dark future ahead for Britons under Vortigern's reign of terror if Arthur doesn't accept the sword to stop him.  The vision was motivation to continue the fight.

Whenever we resist our destiny that's divinely suited for us, we can be given a powerful message on the inner or outer, like being "hit over the head," to better understand our life's purpose that's for the good of the whole.

Women of Sacrifice

The women of the film represented sacrifices to be made or as a medium of exchange.  For Vortigern to rule with the help of the dark forces, he had to pay in blood by sacrificing the lives of his wife and daughter to the sea witches.  Prostitutes like Lucy that were near and dear to Arthur were killed for harboring him.

It was the mage who selflessly served out of love for the greater good so that Arthur can claim his place as the king.  She modeled this in a powerful way. 

Based on the self-help teachings of Guy Finley, he explains that "sacrifice is called for when divine love wants all of you.  Communion with this timeless love has a cost.  It asks for all that we are...and more.  Your immortal Self is fearless because it lives for one reason: to be the unflagging instrument - moment-to-moment - of whatever love asks it to be."

Claiming the Kingdom

Arthur fought hard against his uncle, the demon knight, defeating him with the sword.  He blessed Vortigern from realizing where his drive really came from by saying, "you put me in that brothel.  You got me on the streets.  I am here now because of you."  His uncle was what tempered him in life to defeat his false self and rightfully claim the throne and greater kingdom within.  For that, he was grateful. 

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