After Blaze had passed away peacefully, Merlin began to teach a pupil himself. This young man was called Adam and he seemed to have the thirst for magic that Merlin himself had at the same age. One day Merlin told Adam one of his favorite stories which Blaze had passed on to him. It was called “The Tale of How the Planets got their Kingdoms” and it went like this:
At the beginning of time, the Sun and the Moon ruled over all the twelve kingdoms of the Zodiac. The Sun, a magnificent golden Goddess, sat in her throne in the kingdom of Leo, shining her life-giving light on to the world and to the farthest reaches of the universe. The man in the Moon, who was an expert in medicinal herbs, ruled from the neighbouring kingdom of Cancer. The tending of all his plants on Earth had not only given him green fingers, but an entirely green body as well (some say he was also made of cheese, but frankly that’s just nonsense).
So it happened one day that the planet Mercury first came to speak to the Sun and he made the request of a kingdom of his own to rule over. The Sun Goddess, who was very generous and had plenty of kingdoms, graciously gave the kingdom of Virgo to him, which was right next to her kingdom, as Mercury had always been close to her. However, once night fell, the cunning and scheming Mercury went to the Moon to see if he could trick him into giving away another kingdom. Mercury said to the Moon, “The Sun Goddess has given me the kingdom of Virgo. Are you going to be outdone by a woman?” The Moon, feeling insecure, because he had no light of his own, but could only reflect the light of the Sun, hastily tried to imitate the Sun’s generosity and gave Mercury the kingdom of Gemini. This was right next to his on the other side from the Sun.
Mercury was very pleased with himself and given such an ego boost, he decided to find the planet Venus, whom he had admired from a distance, but had not yet spoken to. So he gave her a call, they met up and immediately he tried to impress her with his smooth talk about how he had been so clever in obtaining his own kingdoms. Venus barely batted an eyelid as she was so used to men chasing her, but on hearing that Mercury had got two kingdoms, she wanted to have some kingdoms of her own. Being a stunningly beautiful woman, she was used to getting her own way, and boldly she approached the monarchy of the Zodiac and made her demands. Again the sun was gracious and seeing that it was unfair for the wealth not to be distributed equally, granted Venus the kingdom of Libra. The Moon also granted her the kingdom of Taurus (although he was now starting to be concerned about what he had let himself in for).
Venus had got her kingdoms, one for the morning and one for the evening, but she wasn’t satisfied. There was something else she desired and that was the planet Mars. However, he was always busy: running; training; pumping iron; fighting battles. In a tiny pause in his hectic schedule he met with Venus, and she invited him back to one of her two new palatial pads. On hearing there was territory up for grabs he immediately jumped to his feet and demanded that he be let in on the action too. So he stormed up to the Sun and Moon and angrily barked at them, “So, where are my kingdoms then. Give me them NOW. Or else!!” The Sun Goddess, wishing to keep the peace, allocated the kingdom of Scorpio to him. She thought such a dangerous place would be a good test of his skills. The Moon shoved the kingdom of Aries on him as quickly as possible, just to get rid of him.
As things settled back to normal after Mars had left, the planet Jupiter made a state visit to the Sun and Moon. He had been spending a lot of time looking after his numerous satellites, governing them wisely as an exceptional leader. His majestic, mature, statesmanlike attitude, with strength both in the physical and mental senses, so pleased the Sun Goddess that she felt she should grant him a further kingdom to expand his already considerable realm. So Jupiter became the ruler of Sagittarius and the Moon was also so ennobled by his brightly shining example, that he gave him freely the kingdom of Pisces.
Last but not least, the planet Saturn had found out about the dividing up of the Zodiac amongst the planets. Always a bit slow to catch on, he decided that he too would go to ask for some kingdoms. When he eventually arrived at the palaces of the Sun and Moon, he found there were only two kingdoms left anyway, and so he was given Capricorn by the Sun and Aquarius by the Moon. And so he shuffled off on his laborious journey to the other side of the heavens and after what seemed like an eternity, he was established in his kingdoms. Fortunately, they were right next to each other, because he was getting on a bit and his legs weren’t as good as they used to be. “Quite a nice little retirement spot,” he thought to himself.
So, when all the planets had settled into their new kingdoms and had found them satisfactory, every year the Sun would travel around the Zodiac to go and visit the kingdoms and check everything was going well. She would stay for a month at each one and while she was there, the Moon would make a quick tour of all the other ones in that time, just to make sure they didn’t feel left out, and catch up with the Sun in her next destination. And the planets would also go and visit their friends and neighbours in the other kingdoms to keep up the good relations. And so they all lived peacefully and happily ever after.