SYMBOLISM OF THE GRAIL

THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE were mentioned in the previous chapter, and it will not be outside our purview to call attention to the significance of the 'Grail quest', which in legends of Celtic origin is presented as their principal concern. All traditions allude to something that from a certain time become lost or hidden, such as the Soma of the Hindus and the Persian Haoma or 'draught of immortality', these latter having a precise and very direct connection with the Grail, which was said to be the sacred chalice that contained the blood of Christ—another 'draught of immortality'. Elsewhere the symbolism is different, as, for example, among the Jews, where it is the pronunciation of the full divine Name that has been lost,^[1] but the fundamental idea is always the same, and we will shortly see to what exactly it corresponds. It is said that the Holy Grail is the chalice that served at the Last Supper and in which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood and water flowing from the wound opened in Christ's side by the lance of the centurion Longinus.^[2] According to legend, this chalice was carried to England by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus,^[3] indicating a link between the Celtic tradition and Christianity. The chalice in fact plays an important role in most of the ancient traditions, no doubt most notably among the Celts, and equally worth noting is its frequent association with the lance, these two symbols thus being in some way complementary; but to digress on this point would take us far from our present subject.^[4] The essential significance of the Grail is perhaps shown most clearly by what is said of its origin: it is supposed to have been fashioned by angels from an emerald that dropped from Lucifer's forehead at the time of his fall.^[5] This emerald rather strikingly calls to mind the urnā, or frontal pearl, which in Hindu symbolism (and subsequently adopted by Buddhism) often takes the place of the third eye of Shiva, representing what can be called the 'sense of eternity', as we have explained elsewhere.^[6] It is said too that the Grail had been entrusted to Adam in the Terrestrial Paradise, but that after his fall he lost it in turn, for he was not allowed to take it when he was driven from Eden, the significance of which should be clear, given what we have just said. Separated from his center of origin, man found himself thereafter enclosed in the temporal realm, from which he could no longer return to that unique place whence all things are contemplated under the aspect of eternity. In other words, the possession of the 'sense of eternity' is linked to what all the traditions call, as we mentioned above, the 'primordial state', the restoration of which constitutes the first stage of true initiation, as it is the preliminary condition for the effective conquest of the 'supra-human' states.^[7] The 'Terrestrial Paradise', moreover, properly represents the 'Center of the World', an expression that will be better understood later, when the original meaning of the word 'Paradise' is examined.The following may appear even more enigmatic: Seth succeeded in re-entering the Terrestrial Paradise, and was thus able to recover the precious chalice; now the name 'Seth' expresses the idea of foundation or stability, and hence indicates in some way the restoration of the primordial order destroyed by man's fall.^[8] One must therefore understand that both Seth and those who later possessed the Grail were thereby able to establish a spiritual center destined to replace the Lost Paradise, a kind of image of the latter, with the possession of the Grail then representing the integral preservation of the primordial tradition in such a spiritual center. The legend does not record where or by whom the Grail was preserved until the time of Christ, although the Celtic origin attributed to it suggests that the Druids had a role, and should be counted among the regular guardians of the primordial tradition.The loss of the Grail, or of any of its symbolic equivalents, amounts to the loss of tradition, along with all that it conveys; but in fact it is more true to say that the tradition is hidden rather than lost, or at least that it can be lost only to certain secondary spiritual centers that have ceased to maintain a direct contact with the supreme center. This latter always preserves intact the deposit of the tradition, and remains unaffected by any changes occurring in the outer world; thus it is that, according to various Church Fathers, notably Saint Augustine, the Deluge did not reach as far as the Terrestrial Paradise, which is the 'dwelling place of Enoch and land of saints',^[9] and the summit of which 'touches the lunar sphere', that is, lies beyond the earth and the Heavens.^[10] But, even as the Terrestrial Paradise has become inaccessible, so the supreme center, which is fundamentally the same thing, can cease to be manifested outwardly during the course of certain periods, and then it can be said that the tradition is lost to the great mass of humanity, for it is preserved only in certain strictly closed centers, so that, in the present to the original state, the majority of people can no longer participate in it in a conscious or effective manner.^[11] This is precisely the state of affairs in our present age, the beginning of which stretches back well beyond what is accessible to ordinary and 'profane' history. Thus, according to the case, the loss of tradition can be understood in this general sense, or else be related to the obscuration of the spiritual centers that more or less invisibly governed the destinies of particular peoples or civilizations; and so every instance of a symbolism that relates to it must be examined to determine in which of these two senses it should be interpreted.From what has been said, it follows that the Grail simultaneously represents two closely related things, for anyone who possesses the 'primordial tradition' in its integrality, that is, who has attained the degree of effective knowledge that this possession essentially implies, is thereby effectively reintegrated into the fullness of the 'primordial state'. To both these, the 'primordial state' and the 'primordial tradition', we attach the double-sense inhering in the word 'Grail' itself, for by one of those verbal assimilations that play a not at all negligible role in symbolism, and that furthermore have much more profound reasons than might be imagined at first glance, the Grail is both a 'vase' (_grasale_) and a 'book' (_gradale_ or _graduale_), the latter obviously signifying tradition,^[12] while the first more directly concerns the state of itself.We have no intention of entering here into the secondary details of the legend of the Holy Grail, even though all of these, too, have a symbolic value, or of pursuing the history of the 'Knights of the Round Table' and their exploits; we will only point out that the 'Round Table', built by King Arthur^[13] according to Merlin's specifications, was destined to receive the Grail at such time that it would be won by one of the Knights and brought back from Great Britain to Brittany. The table itself is again another of those apparently very ancient symbols that were always associated with the idea of spiritual centers as guardians of the tradition; moreover, the circular shape of the table is formally linked to the zodiac by the presence around it of twelve principal personages,^[14] a detail which, as we said above, is to be found in the constitution of all such centers. Another symbol related to an aspect of the Grail legend and deserving special attention is Montsalvat (literally, 'mount of salvation'), represented as rising out of the midst of the sea in an inaccessible region behind which the sun rises, its peak situated 'on distant shores no mortal can approach.' It is at one and the same time the 'sacred isle' and the 'polar mountain', two equivalent symbols that will be discussed later; and it is the 'land of immortality', which is naturally identified with the Terrestrial Paradise.^[15] Returning to the Grail itself, we can easily see that its primary significance is basically the same as that of the sacred vase, wherever it is found, and which, notably in the East, is that of the sacrificial vessel that originally held the Vedic Soma or Mazdean Haoma, the 'draught of immortality' that bestows upon or restores to those who take it with the requisite disposition, the 'sense of eternity'. A separate study would be required to cover fully the symbolism of the chalice and its contents, but what has been said will lead us to other considerations of the greatest importance to the present subject.