To know this it is first necessary to find the Grail as Mrs Beeton (the cook) said:

"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.

What would be our motive anyway? Look around and most people in today's world are not really all that interested in the Holy Grail or of any teachings offering liberation and joy. Not even Religion for that matter! If life is one long party, says the student, then why stop to look around and ask for the meaning of life? Got to live it up while you can and ask questions later, if at all. Into middle age and life has taken its toll on us and we are no longer part of the 'in crowd', life is one long hard struggle as we begin to pay back some of the excesses of our youth. We may then scorn the younger generation for not thinking or considering the cost of life. Some of us may fall ill, be betrayed by loved ones, loose home, family etc. What would be the meaning of fate then? Would this be a valid question to put before any living God or even a Grail question? Alright so 90+% of us are not going to bother to ask the question anyway; maybe out of sheer self interest or doubt. The years of social patterning and conditioning given to us to cope with the strain of life and not to not ask questions concerning our fate. That fortune may lend a hand if we can but hope! Unfairness and acceptance are our lot?

Then one day something happens to one of us, a gleam of light, a realisation that there may be something else. Something calls and we feel the resonance. We are attracted to a teaching, a poster or a memory of what someone once said, that took root in our subconscious, and only now leaps out of the closet. Some of us may even have had a Divine experience of an Angel, an apparition or hand that saves us from a drowning disaster or an NDE.

So like Percival and Gawain, we embark upon our own inner journey or personal grail quest, guided by our chosen teaching. This could be Buddhist, Kabbalah, Shamanic, Druidic, Sufi, Christian or even if it were possible; to visit the Grail Hermit himself deep in the forest of Brocéliande. All would offer 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 then, involve a descent into the underworld. Merlin or Taliesin’s (2)  metempsychosis through many variant animal forms; experiencing the DNA of all life, is a similar interpretation on this theme. It is the underworld descent of the cross into the river of time, memory and of tradition.

The river separating life and death is then 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 or our first contact with our true self, our Avalon. Here we may see the Grail from the outside. We have our first vision of our Soul 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 Holy 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).......

....... Now the "dark night of the soul" is upon us. How long does this last? Months, years? Quite possibly! Are we now not purified and able to carry on the Great Work?" We try but come up against "losers, cheaters and six-time users (Dylan). We may end up dumped and forlorn and very lonely-

What are we to do?

In the Grail Romances then, are hidden two journeys that the self can make to the full realisation and integration of body, mind and Spirit. These are to be found in the stories of Percival and of Gawain. They are really two characters in One or one character split into two paths. The Purple path of Humanity and the Green path of Nature. Both of these Characters represent our relationship to the self, to the environment and ultimately to the Creator and within this context, are our means of salvation. It also answers the argument that occured between the Gaian philosopher James Lovelock, and Mother Teresa. The former postulated that: if we were to put the environment before Humanity, as in the ecosystem which sustains us, then the problems of Humanity would become obsolete in the future. Mother Teresa argued that only by taking care of the people and by putting the needs of Humanity first would environmental issues eventually be solved. In the paths of the two Grail Knights then, both facets of this argument and seeming paradox are to be met with and are together resolved.

During their adventures on the Quest and like much of us failed seekers; Percival and Gawain are destined to suffer. Things start to turn out pretty much like ordinary life at its worst except in a now definative series of events veiled with a hidden purpose, symbol, meaning or riddle. The question one would naturally ask is:

"how having seen the light of the Grail do we now turn the vision around, so that life works in our favour and not against us?"

First we must be True, to ourselves! Secondly we must ask again and enquire of the Grail Hermit. Indeed, in the novel Lilith, the Mystic George MacDonald once wrote:

"And you MUST answer the riddles!" he continued. "They will go on asking themselves until you understand yourself. The universe is a riddle trying to get out, and you are holding your door hard against it." (4)

The Grail, having been once witnessed didn't switch off! It embraced us and kept on shining through our darkness until the more inside of the Grail we become, the darker it seems to get, until we begin to understand the riddle of a life turned inside out. What was previously held within ourselves now becomes what is on the outside. The Grail has come out into the world except it now appears in front of us as a riddle and it is now our turn to begin the task of restoration by accepting all that is given us to encounter. To embrace the all with love and compassion and to question what this experience may mean for us, for our growth and awareness.

To summarise: - in the first instance one reaches the vision of the outside of the Grail by ones own efforts. A teaching is found by which the life river is crossed and a vision of the greater self is achieved. The temptation is to hold on to the raft, to teach it or to possess the Grail and to preach it, but it is far better to leave the raft by the shore for another to find in his or her own way. The Grail cannot be possessed because it is the universal source of all life and is beyond and subsequently the creator the mind. It contains the whole mind within itself and the mind must then become in the Grail's image-as a passive receptacle. This, therefore, is a true state of mind. The mind as we know it is mostly used as an active will.

The "dark night of the soul" is experienced when the inside of the grail is being polished and the self is being purified through suffering. This can happen in a big way, all at once, as a major crisis or else given in accord with the individual souls capacity in a series of smaller crises separated by periods of time. The soul then sees clearly the inside of the Grail and realises its connection with the universal source of all life. The infinate circle of the celtic cross has been reached. The soul then becomes a spontaneous being of service, reborn and unhindered by the passions of the heart and dictates of the mind. The soul has become reborn into the circle of the greater life, the conscious circle of Humanity, the circle of the Table Round, Thrice Born!

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