The Meaning of the Holy Grail
“What is the significance of the Grail” asked Percival, “for I would dearly like to know: whom does the Grail serve?”
To know this it is first necessary to find the Grail. Mrs Beeton (the cook) says, “first catch your hare!” Ahh, here we have some teaching that provides all the answers, and with this in our hands we can transform the world. But of course we know that in order to transform the world we must first transform ourselves.
So we embark upon our inner journey, guided by our chosen teaching. This could be Shamanic, Kabbalah, Buddhist or Gurdjieff for instance (even Brionnfhionn's!), all offering us liberation from our fate.
“Symbolically, the grail- the vessel which, in the Christian legend, contained the blood of Christ- represents the human “heart” in the spiritual sense, seen as a spiritual receptacle. Seeing the outside of the grail corresponds therefore with reaching the primordial state of true man, accomplishing the lesser mysteries of classical antiquity.”(1)
The Earth Mysteries involve a descent into the underworld. Taliesin’s incarnations through different animal forms; experiencing the DNA of all life, is a similar interpretation on this theme. It is the descent of the cross.
The river of life is one arm of the cross. To cross the river we employ a raft. According to the Snake Sutra of Mahayana Buddhist teaching, the raft is our chosen teaching that we employ to get us across the river. The temptation is to keep the raft on our shoulders after we have landed on the other side. After all it took a lot of effort to make it. The raft, however, should be left at the waters edge for another to use and not carried on the head or the shoulders. After we have used it, it must be discarded.(3)
On the shore of the other side of the river lies our greater self. Here we may see the grail from the outside. We have our first vision of the true self and ecstatically we carry the vision back home.
“The Legend states that for a long time the Holy Grail was visible to all pilgrims, and that its presence conferred blessings on the land where it was kept. Eventually, one of the holy men who guarded it, forgot its sacred office, and looked with lustful eyes on a young female pilgrim. The sacred lance punished him of its own accord, inflicting a deep wound between the thighs; one which would not heal and which rendered him impotent. He therefore became known as Le Roi Pecheur, which was the double meaning of Sinner- King and Fisher- King. This part of the story may well go back to ancient times when the fertility of the land was considered to depend on the King’s virility. After this event, the Holy Grail withdrew its presence from the crowds, and an Iron Age succeeded to the period of happiness which its presence had diffused amongst the tribes of Britain.
This part of the legend can be interpreted in two ways, which are not mutually contradictory. The wider interpretation is that the spiritual way was easily accessible to all, in an ancient far off Golden-Age, but that in this later Age of Iron, it is hidden and difficult to access. The narrower interpretation is Christian, and historical, implying that the earliest Christians had easy access to the spiritual way, but that later, when Christianity had become an exoteric and “official” religion, the way represented by the Grail was accessible only to those with the requisite esoteric aptitude.”(1)
So we’ve made it to the other side of the river (of the self)-to the court of the fisher king, and have witnessed the grail. Have we asked the grail question? Or were we too wrapped up in our own ecstatic vision and attributed it all to our own efforts and that of the teaching! Yes, we have been bitten by the snake! The self and not self are the two extremes! We cannot fix ourselves on either one; see the Snake Sutra.(3) We tried to possess the grail and were cast down in blindness (like Lancelot).......
