"The table was not of silver, the chalice was not of gold in which Christ gave His blood
to His disciples to drink,
and yet everything there was precious and truly fit to inspire awe..."

According to Christian mythology, however, which in time incorporated elements of the most diverse provenance as well as the term “Holy Grail”, it possessed miraculous powers.

One of the main elements in the Grail legend is Joseph of Arimathea, the rich merchant who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus’ death on the cross. According to Robert de Boron's verse romance Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th century), Joseph received the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sent it with his followers to Great Britain. Later writers elaborated on this theme relating how Joseph used the Grail to catch Christ's blood while interring him and that in Glastonbury, Britain, he founded a line of guardians to keep it safe. (Source: Wikipedia)

Joseph of Arimathea by Pietro Perugino, a detail from a
Lamentation (photo Wikipedia)

Another element in the legend would be an ancient Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers. However, it could be other things, not just a cup or vessel. For example, in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the grail was a stone which provided sustenance, and so forth.

Percival holds the Holy Grail while a dove descends. Parsifal, or Percival,
is the original Holy Grail hero. (From: Holy Grail and Percival, at
http://atheism.about.com/od/imagegalleries/ig/Holy-Grail/)

"Three Angels Bear the Holy Grail" by Garrett, Edmund H. (1853-1929)
(from: Francis Nimmo Greene. Legends of King Arthur and His Court.
Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901. In: The Camelot Project at the
University of Rochester
(http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/grlmenu.htm)

Lots of additional information about the legend may be found in Wikipedia and similar sites and also in Crystallinks, etc. From now on, however, I would like to only refer to the Holy Grail as perhaps the most important and most sacred symbol ever, and any fantastic theories about the blood of Christ, unless taken in its symbolic life-giving meaning, and all other nonsensical speculation can be disregarded as of here.

Camelot in an old etching by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898)
(at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cammenu.htm)

Regarding the legend of King Arthur, one may remember that the center of the Rounded Table was intended to accommodate the Holy Grail as soon as the quest for it succeeded and the sacred vessel was brought over to Camelot – which in fact is the crux and motive of the whole saga. There, like a Sun presiding from the center of the universe over the twelve constellations (an old representation of the Zodiacal Cycle) it would radiate in full perfection and glory, during the twelve months of the year, over the twelve knights at long last reunited around it.

Camelot, "A City of Shadowy Palaces" by M. L. Kirk, 1860-193x
(at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cammenu.htm)

A question naturally arises from all the above: what did the cup contain? And: was it really the blood of Christ?

Let us examine the question. A cup or vessel usually contains some kind of liquid, and if the legend is at all true, blood, Jesus’ blood, can be regarded as a likely content. But the world “grail” actually comes from the Latin gradale (singular gradalis), a dish brought to the table during various stages (Latin "gradus") or courses of a meal; and the whole term in turn derives from the Old French san greal, meaning “Holy Grail,” and not from sang real (“royal blood”), a late and false etymology which led to modern writers’ far-fetched conspiracy theories. Also, a meal basically consists of food, and food has always been the universal symbol for perfect knowledge, such as may confer immortality to those who eat from it – as is the case, for example, of soma among the Hindus or the elixir of the gods among the Greeks.

Thus the vessel which contains this kind of food means, by definition, the place where such knowledge can be stored. As simple as that. But again: lofty as this meaning may seem, is that all? Or is there anything else to it?

Let me propose an extension of the previous meaning. To understand what this symbol can actually mean in a time context, we need to resort to a circle – perhaps the most basic symbol ever – and more precisely to a semicircle. Then the upper half of the semicircle will represent the sky or heaven’s dome, from which all kind of blessings – notably light and rain – descend to Earth, and for the lower part we may chose from an array of well-known universal symbols with their corresponding meanings: mainly the cup (and all its derivates, like a pot or dish), a vessel or craft (i.e. a boat or ship), and the heart (either human or divine), paradoxically the least known of all three. Let us begin with the heart.

The Holy Grail and the Sacred Heart

The heart has always been symbolically regarded as the center of the living body, which it animates. So by extension, and considering the well-known correspondence between microcosms and macrocosms, if we disregard other genuine – but maybe too common – possible meanings, then Jesus’ Heart can symbolically be viewed as an immense central Sun radiating everywhere its material and spiritual power and blessings from the very center of the universe – in fact, being the center of the universe itself. And it will be agreed that this can make a legitimate symbol – perhaps the greatest of them all – not only for a Christian, but also for any sincere and dispassionate observer from any creeds and beliefs – even a non-believer.

The Holy Grail figured as radiating from the center of the universe

(taken from The Holy Grail of Information Architecture)

However, I am afraid we are not hitting the mark - not quite at least - by taking the Grail as just a symbol of the Heart. For while the Heart is most important itself and, in a way, the Grail’s counterpart since both Heart and Grail may be thought of as representing spiritual nourishment at its highest, it rather is a expression of Love and Life versus – and complementing – the Grail as mainly an image of Knowledge. And since the Cup is per se, inasmuch as the Holy Grail itself, the object of this short study, we only have left the vessel or boat to consider now. Well then, what about it?

Back to the Arthurian cycle, we may remember that the Grail was thought of at the time of the legend as a central Sun that would radiate over the twelve constellations – represented by the twelve knights at the round table – from the moment it was recovered. This brought up into the scene the element time and, by extension, the notion of ages and cycles – and here we have the essential key to the remaining aspects of the symbol.

THE BABYLONIAN DELUGE
From the Painting by E. Wallcousins

(Source: sacred-texts.com)

In effect, a vessel within a context of ages and cycles can only mean a very special container where something particularly precious can be safely stored in one piece to be handed down, all through the vicissitudes of a full human cycle, to its final recipients. And the hazardous nature of the times during the last stages of a cycle may imply, by extension, a boat or ship capable of enduring the transit from one age to the next – even the hard, catastrophic conditions of a deluge, such as Noah’s Ark would. That particularly precious cargo would be no less than the science by excellence – the divine and perfect esoteric knowledge directly descended from the primordial civilization.

However, this is another story, and it would take a whole study of its own to just commence to elucidate its multiple aspects.

Thank you,

Luis,

So much to read and digest.

Very interesting and a worthwhile forum project.

Thank you.

I shall return.

Roger

Dear Roger and Friends,

The Center of the World

In previous posts I have introduced the esoteric notion of a "center of the world" - without a doubt, an entirely new concept for the majority of modern readers. However, this notion is of transcendental importance to understand the ancient thought concerning the essential nature of the universe and God; and significantly, it is basically the same notion that would impregnate the lives and minds of the intellectual segments of society all through the western Middle Ages to well into the European Modern Age.

In effect, the notion of a cosmic center around which the entire universe rotates, not quite a belief or a dogma in the religious sense but a metaphysical certainty descended from the primordial tradition, was actually already present in every auroral civilization, namely, those advanced human societies that typically started about the year 3100 BC and flourished all over the world, including the American continent. And among these, the main concern was always to imitate (or rather perform, as in a play) the cosmic behavior in order to ensure an appropriate performance of the celestial forces - regarded as divine - as this, in turn, would ensure their own success in every field.

As important as this characteristic, however, was the need for these auroral civilizations to evoke, in their own geographical areas, the Earth's primordial center originally located in the Hyperboreas, which - as we have previously seen - was the seat of the primordial tradition that flourished in the area of the North Pole. All other traditional centers - the memory of which they were apt to more immediately treasure as the seats of their parent civilizations, such as for example Atlantis - were actually secondary to that primordial center. Yet in the course of time all remembrance of this fact was, for the most part, lost - which explains the reason why in many parts of the world, and mainly in the American continent, it was the secondary centers that would be evoked as their respective places of origin.

In this way, we can see several levels acting simultaneously in this sort of metaphysical framework in which all things exist within this universe. First and foremost, there is "a" center of the world (in the cosmic sense) somewhere in the vast cosmos, presiding all cosmic phenomena and at the same time, in the metaphysical conception, giving life to and sustaining in every respect the whole cosmos - down to the minutest particle. This absolute center we can equate to God.

Next, there are innumerable centers presiding, in the image of the one supreme center, the also innumerable "worlds" within this universe (the galaxies and, within them, the planetary systems) all of them united to each other and to the supreme cosmic center as if by a gigantic umbilical cord that sustains them all; this "cord" is called the "world axis" (or axis mundi) and it is actually around this "axis" that the whole material universe rotates.

Then there are the planetary centers, also called "world centers", such as the one that I have previously described as belonging to our own planet Earth. This one is, or rather was, located in the area of the North Pole, also called the Hyperboreas, and it used to be the seat of the primordial tradition at the beginning of the current Manvantara. It is called "Brahma's paradise" by the Hindu tradition, and it can be considered the prototype of the Garden of Eden of the Hebraic and Christian traditions and of all the other paradises evoked by each and all of the other world traditions. The "world axis", that is, the universal axis just described, of which the earth's own axis is but a minute segment, traverses it as well in turn as it does with every other planet of the universe - thereby forming that which in all genuine esoteric circles has always been called "the chain of worlds".

The North Pole seen as the Earth's Navel or Center

Still next come all other centers located everywhere else on this planet Earth, not only Atlantis but also other fabulous places like Avalon, Shambhala, Aggartha, and many more that escape my mind now; these may be dated to the long period going from the time the Earth was just coming out of the Ice age to the time of the "auroral" civilizations. And next come Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt, Teotihuacan and maybe Machu Picchu, as well as many other more or less mysterious citadels - actually "mystic" centers the memory of which is, at best, hazy. Finally, there are innumerable locales all over the planet that go from sacred trees to waterfalls to dolmens and from sacred mountains to caves, apart from temples like the now disappeared Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem and the Potala in Tibet, to name but a few, and even cities considered sacred to these days, all of them the object of pilgrimage over the millennia. Even now there are cities like La Mecca, the Vatican City and others that were actually built in the image of any of the secondary centers and, ultimately, in the image of the supreme center itself.

Many of these secondary centers - in fact, those that were man-made - were, in whole or in part, intended as observatories mainly aimed at determining the exact dates of the equinoxes and solstices along the year, as this would allow to establish precise agricultural calendars and thus ensure the production of enough food for the populations - even in times of scarcity. In a planet that had ceased to enjoy an eternal spring since the end of the Golden Age - according to my own calculation, back in the year 50,000 BC approximately - this had become peremptory.

As important as this function was, however, that of being stargates, as these would allow to establish communication with above.

And with this thought-provoking proposition, I will leave it at this point.

In my next posts I will elaborate on this other purpose by presenting cases of secondary centers from different points of view.

Thank you,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Sacred Mountains of the Earth

On these days when the nefarious influence of the Kali-yuga seems to be everywhere on its highest, I will abstain from referring to it for a while and rather focus on those wonderful places of supreme peace where “Earth touches Heaven”: the sacred mountains of the world.

Regarded as images of the world’s axis, these sacred mountains actually used to convey multiple ideas of the center of the universe, and as such were venerated by all past cultures (and are by some even today). They represent a point of connection between heaven and earth, as do some monumental buildings like the great pyramids in Asia, Africa and America and many derivative locales such as trees, A tree is a large, perennial, woody plant....pillars, towers, ladders, totems and the like, both natural and man-made. On these sacred spots where the four cardinal directions meet, communication from lower dimensions may ascend to higher ones, and the blessings from higher dimensions may descend to lower ones and be spread out to all mankind. Such spots work as the omphalos (navel), i.e. the world’s point of beginning.

Mount Shasta is one of them; Mount Olympus of the ancient Greeks is the best known example throughout the world; Mount Fuji has long symbolized the axis mundi for the Japanese culture, and Mount Kun-Lun fills a similar role in China. But in old India, Mount Meru (or Sumeru, as it was also known) stands as the most emblematic and influential sacred mountain for the whole Eastern part of the globe.

Not only that, Mount Meru was considered to be the center of all physical and spiritual universes in Hinduism, Buddhist cosmology, and Jain mythology alike. On the other hand, it was especially venerated as the source of the sacred Ganges river. Depicted in Surya–siddhanta as a huge mountain of conical shape located in the North Pole, around which the Sun revolved everyday bringing to Jambudvipa, the central continent of the Earth where it stands, an eternal spring during the Golden Age; and located somewhere beyond the physical plane of reality in a realm of perfection and transcendence, it is a prototype that has survived mainly in the sacred mountains of Central Asia, believed by many to be the cradle of humanity, and even Africa, by such names as Sumer, Sumber or Sumur – all of them clearly identical to the Sanskrit Sumeru.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Mount Meru in Tanzania, of indescribable beauty
(photo Wikipedia - October 2002)

On the other hand, the fact that all these representations gave rise, in different cultures and different times, to beautiful, evocative legends and images only reveals the intention to keep, over the centuries, a remembrance of such supreme center alive.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Bhutanese thanka of Mt. Meru and the Buddhist Universe,
19th century, Trongsa Dzong, Trongsa, Bhutan
(Wikipedia)

A nice example of a Mercator's map of the North Polar regions
drawn from an inset on this cartographer’s world map of 1569
by Barry Lawrence Ruderman

“It is said that Meru has its roots in hell, and its summit in heaven. Meru is surrounded by seven rings of golden mountains, each separated from the other by one of seven circular oceans. It is crowned by a golden palace wherein Indra, king of Hindu gods, resides. This entire superstructure rises from an outer ocean, and is flanked by four main continents, each with two subcontinents.

The southern continent, Jambudvipa, corresponds to the physical earth. Each of the other continents represents a nearby planet upon which transmigrating souls following the yellow light-path may be reborn. However, it is said that all of these worlds are undesirable, for they are non-human worlds inhabited by sheep, cattle, or horses. The teachings of Buddhism clearly state that existence as a human being is the only way to achieve Buddhahood, so rebirth in any other form (including that of a deva or demigod) is a distraction from the path to enlightenment.

According to legend, somewhere in the northwest region of Jambudvipa lies a land called Shambhala. This is a magical land which is shaped like an eight-petalled lotus flower. It has been ruled by priest-kings for many thousands of years; in fact, the legend of Shambhala predates the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet. In the aboriginal Bon religion, Shambhala is known as Olmolungrung, and is based on the square instead of the circle.

Shambhala forms a gateway between the physical and spiritual realms. It is endowed with riches, and is ideally suited for the habitat of enlightened souls. They are not attached to the fruits of karma, and are but one step from Buddhahood. This is the realm to be sought for rebirth if one desires the swiftest path to nirvana.

In the Tibetan Buddhist version of the apocalypse, barbarians will overtake the earth at the end of the Kali Yuga, the present age. It will be necessary for the king of Shambhala to join forces with the gods to wage war on the barbarians. At this time, armies will be sent forth from the city, the location of which has been kept secret for millennia. Order will be restored on earth, and the wisdom which Shambhala has been holding will be dispensed to the peoples of the world.” (From The City on the Edge of Forever by Aaron Ross, Spring 1992.)

And with these thought-provoking words I will pass on to my next post, where I will elaborate a bit further on these notions about the world center and the axis mundi.

Thank you,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo