PARSIFAL, THE GRAIL AND INITIATION
By Martin [Copyright 2001 - The GERME: A Martinist Opus, 140 N. Center Street, Plainfield, IN 46168, USA]  PARSIFAL! This famous name is the title of an opera of Richard Wagner, and the name of a legendary Knight of the Middle Ages.
Parsifal, a simple and pure Knight, who, by his valiance and his will, triumphs over the most difficult tests, which enables him to conquer, with a magical blade, the terrible KLINGSOR, and to become King of the GRAIL! THE GRAIL! An astonishing word, which perhaps designates an object, perhaps a celestial vision, but certainly a deep mystery.  Above all, it is advisable to summarize the legend, such as it was written approximately 800 years ago by the poets WOLFRAM von ESCHENBACH in Germany, and CHRETIEN de TROYES in France, under title «PERCEVAL the WELSHMAN or the STORY of the GRAIL», as well as by many continuators such GERBERT de MONTREUIL, WAUCHIER de DENAIN, MANESSIER, etc... HISTORY OF PERCEVAL  The history begins one spring morning. Perceval is walking in a wild forest. His mother raised him far removed from the world, for she feared for him after having lost her husband, and her others sons died as Knights.
Suddenly, Perceval hears a great clatter of iron and a cavalcade and he sees armor sparkling in the sun. Perceval, who had never seen anything like this before in his solitary forest, believes that he is seeing angels and kneels before them. A conversation ensues with one of the Knights, amused by the naiveté of the young man. It is thus that Perceval learns all that his mother had hidden from him. Yes, there are men who live all kinds of adventures on horseback, traveling throughout the world and combating loyally with their sword and their lance. It is King Arthur who creates Knights, and without hesitation, Perceval decides to leave for the court, abandoning his mother and the familiar places of his childhood. In his coarse attire, he thus arrives in the room where King Arthur is seated with his companions of the Round Table. 
The court is saddened, because a red knight has just defied the King by stealing his cup from him. The Seneschal, Kay, in making fun of Perceval, tells him that he will be made a Knight when he will have brought back the cup of the King and avenges his honor. Perceval, who believes all that he is told, and who has no fear, pursues the red knight and attacks him, armed only with his wooden javelin that he had made himself. His enemy looks at him with disdain, from on top of his horse, but Perceval skillfully launches his javelin into his eye, thus killing him on the spot. It is thus the he acquires a complete equipment [of a Knight] at the same time as the respect of the Knights of the Round Table, to whom he restores the cup of the King. A wise old man, Gornemant de Gohort instructs him at length in the profession of arms, soldiering, and finally transmits to him [the art of] Chivalry, by encouraging him through several forms of advice. An accomplished Knight, Perceval can sit at the court of King Arthur, with the Knights of the Round Table, who all love each other as brothers. One day, Perceval comes upon a river and sees two men, richly dressed, who were fishing in a boat. He is, therefore, invited to stay over in their castle, which then appears to Perceval behind a hill. 
Nobly accommodated, Perceval dines in the company of the rich Fisher King, who is crippled and cannot rise from his seat. A young man enters, holding between his hands a Lance, from the point of which blood runs, drop after drop, towards the arm of him who carries it. Perceval is seized by astonishment, but he does not dare raise questions. A young lady then comes holding in her hands the Grail, which shines like a precious stone. When the Grail passes close to the guests, each one is at once served with meats, varied dishes and drinks, according to his most secret desires. The rich Fisher King, who seems to suffer much, looks at Perceval with sadness, but Perceval, struck dumb by timidity, always postpones the questions, which burn on his lips. Led to his room, he falls asleep. The following day, Perceval would really have liked to raise the questions about Grail and the Lance, which bleeds, but he no longer sees anyone. He barely left the castle when the drawbridge is abruptly drawn behind him. Saddened by this strange adventure, he meets his cousin, a virgin who knows many things. She informs him that he has slept in the castle of the land known as «Gaste»: this land has become barren following the wound inflicted upon the rich Fisher King.  To cure the King and to return fertility to his country, it was necessary to raise questions about the Grail and the Lance. Perceval, confused at having failed in this adventure, swears that he will not sleep two nights in succession in the same place, as long as he will not have solved the mystery of Grail. A little later, he is recognized by a hermit, who teaches him certain secrets. Finally, after many exploits, he again encounters the Castle of Grail. This time, he questions the King about his wound and about the Lance, which bleeds. The King is cured and all the country regains its joy and abundance. Perceval succeeds the old King, who transmits to him his powers, and he thus becomes the KING of the GRAIL. Such is the novel of Perceval, which forms part of a vast literary ensemble that is called «The ARTHURIAN CYCLE of the ROUND TABLE », and which includes: - The Romance of Merlin the Magician - Lancelot of the Lake - Perceval the Gallois - Joseph of Arimathea - The Grail Quest - The Death of Arthur Many manuscripts give variants of the principal adventures, but the authors, often anonymous, have been inspired by two sources: the Celtic Tradition, the Christian source. THE CELTIC TRADITION 
The storytellers of Great and Little Britain have spread in all of Europe, their legendary and fantastic tales. In the thick forests where the sources are inhabited by fairies, the hero wishes to conquer giants, or evil genies of the other world, with talismans such as the cauldron of abundance, or the cauldron, which resuscitates the dead, or the Lance, which renders one invincible and kills, with a single blow, all of the enemies of the hero, and then afterwards, returns to the hand of the hero.  In the legend of «Peronnik», the hero must conquer a giant in a castle, with a golden basin, which procures all the nourishment and riches that one wishes, and with a Lance of inexorable diamond, which kills and breaks all that it touches. In all these tales of Breton, the tests, which the hero must undergo are terrible; tempests, earthquakes, terrible monsters with many heads, etc... But sages and virgins give council, or even a protective ring. Merlin the Magician is the adviser of King Arthur... The Fairy, Viviane, raised Lancelot in her magical castle of the lake, …It is Merlin who drew up the plans for the Round Table, where the best Knights will be companions, loving each other as brothers. He often appears to his friends with a new face, and nobody recognizes him, which amuses him greatly. 
A Bard of Breton by the name of truly existed. Disconcerting prophecies have supported the legend. CHRISTIAN SOURCE 
In the twelfth century, the crusaders who returned from the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem conquerors of the Saracens, brought back to Occident venerated relicts. The Apocryphal Gospel of «Nicodemus» gives a great importance to Joseph of Arimathea and to the Holy Lance, which pierced the side of Christ. The centurion Longinus, becomes converted after this act. 
Collected in the cup of Last Supper, the Blood of the Crucified would have been taken to England by Joseph of Arimathea. This precious relic would be kept ever since by a succession of Kings or Saints without interruption. Perceval would thus be the last among them. The romance of The GRAIL QUEST is a synthesis of the Celtic and Christian themes. The Grail has become the Holy Grail, under the guardianship of angels. It, however, preserves the magic powers of the Celtic Talisman, and The Grail Quest, open to all Knights, remains strewn with obstacles. On the Day of Pentecost [Whit Sunday], the Grail appears, for the first time, to the 150 companions of the Round Table, in a thunderous noise and a dazzling light, more dazzling even than the sun, without anyone of them being able to know who carries it. 
The Knights of King Arthur are seized by a stupor and all kinds of meals are served to them. When the Grail disappears, as it had come, all take an oath to leave in search of it during a period of «one year and one day», to clear up the mystery of the Grail.  Among them, many perished, led to killing each other without recognizing it, and only 3 Knights will arrive at the Kingdom of Sarras where the Grail reveals itself in all its mysteries. THE GRAIL AND INITIATION 
The long road traversed by the Knights, with its tests, not very different for each, is the initiatory course common to all the traditions of the Old Religions. (see ) 
The Grail, which appears at certain times and in certain places, is not a material object of this world. It belongs to the sacred world, and it can appear only in the sacred space reserved to Initiates. The castle of Montsalvat or of Carbenic, is such a sacred temple, carefully kept, and the profane cannot enter there, nor do they even know that it exists. The Quest for the Grail, whose adventures have a «great significance», according to proper terms of the romance, is the path of , with its symbols and its allegorical language.  At the first stage of the quest, Perceval is a profane in a crude state, having no knowledge. When he encounters the Knights, he admires them and wishes to become like them. He passes at once into the action, renouncing the familiar places and all the habits of his childhood in order to become Knight. He achieves his goal, thanks to his will, often aided by mysteriously favorable circumstances. At the second stage of the quest, Perceval is instructed at length by a wise old man, who is his Initiator. This latter has recognized in him [Perceval] the necessary aptitudes: goodwill, self-detachment, total availability.  The third and most difficult stage of the quest is access to the royalty of the Grail. It is no longer a matter of Terrestrial Knighthood, but of Celestial Knighthood. [In this] the majority of Knights fail because they remain prisoners of their social habits where VANITY is mixed with Chivalric Honor. In order to arrive at the supreme realization, Perceval must struggle on several occasions against the sleep, which invades him, [and] with the image of the weight of material life. is a SPIRITUAL AWAKENING, and the winner of the Quest for the Grail sees the spiritual wonders... «which the mouth cannot describe nor the heart ponder...». When Perceval is in perfect unity with the Divine Will, he obtains the fantastic Lance, which cures all wounds and returns the fertility to the land «GASTE », or to the fallen, through original sin. It is thus that terrestrial paradise is recovered by the Man, reintegrated into the primordial state. THE QUEST FOR THE GRAIL AND INITIATION In the Martinist Ritual published in 1913 by Teder and Papus, one can read «the allegorical history of the origin of Man...» (1) «The Celestial Man was protected by an impenetrable armor... moreover, he received a Lance made of an alloy of four metals. This Lance had the power to burn like fire; to it nothing was impenetrable. These advantages rendered Man powerful and formidable... in this place of delights where he was to remain forever happy and invincible». «It is thus in the search of this incomparable weapon that men have been committed since the fall of Celestial Man. Upon the recovery of this lost object depends their reintegration into their first rights». We read this same account in the book OF ERRORS AND TRUTH, the first writing of the «Unknown Philosopher» who explains in a letter to Kirchberger: «The Lance composed of four metals, is none other than the great name of God made up of four letters». (2) In the opera of Wagner written in 1877, the purity of Parsifal enables him to take the Lance, which the magician Klingsor withheld, and to cure with it the suffering King of the Castle of the Grail at «Montsalvat». Wolfram von Eschenbach, in his «Parzival», written in the old German of the 12th century, and which inspired Wagner, tells us that the Grail is a precious stone, which is «the wish of paradise». Men of desire will not contradict it [the wish of paradise]. Let us return to the French novel of the «Quest for the Grail», which describes the nave of Solomon. There a sword is decorated with three spindles, white, red, and green, which result from three branches of the central tree of the paradise. I leave it to you to meditate upon these three colors, which are those of our carpet. Engravings of the Middle Ages represent the Grail with an hexagonal base, which is a new encounter with our symbolism. 
My Sisters and my Brothers, united [as we are] in a sacred place, at the interface of this world and the invisible, we love all fraternally as do the Knight Guardians of the Grail at the Castle of Montsalvat; we also are in quest of our divine origin. If we are pure enough [of heart], the Grail itself will fill us with its gifts, each according to our desire. We will then live in the spiritual palace inhabited by the Knights of all time, and we will finally know all the mysteries of the Holy Grail, which is nothing other than the receptacle of INFINITE LOVE. Work presented to the group «Gérard Encausse No. 98 of the College of Paris. Completed on June 21, 1979, day of the summer solstice and eve of the festival of Sacré Coeur. MARTIN. (1) Ritual of L’Ordre Martiniste drawn up by Téder, pages 39 and 41. (2) Cited by Robert Amadou in «Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin et le Martinisme», Editions Griffon d'Or, 1946, page 53. [Copyright 2001 - The GERME: A Martinist Opus, 140 N. Center Street, Plainfield, IN 46168, USA] Note: This article appeared in the Winter Issue (2001-2002) of the English Edition of "L'Initiation" and was originally published in the French Edition of "L'Initiation" in December 1983. The article above appears with the permission of Onslow H. Wilson, Ph.D., Editor-in-chief of the English Edition of "L'Initiation". No reproductions are authorized without inclusion of the copyright notice. We would like to thank Onslow H. Wilson, Ph.D., of "L'Initiation" and The GERME - A Martinist Opus , for allowing us to re-publish it in our Grail Archives. For current subscription information: contact Raye Reynolds at :rreynolds9@comcast.net Back issues of "L'Initiation" and "Ariadne's Web" can now be purchased at their ebay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/Esoteric-and-Metaphysical-Books | 
