Footnotes To The Hidden Grail

(Conspiracy Nation, 12/31/07) -- Additional info relating to a "Hidden Church of the Holy Grail" has been gathered. Conspiracy Nation reported previously on the subject on Dec. 23, 2007 (http://www.shout.net/~bigred/HolyGrail.html). The image at left is from the popular Rider-Waite Tarot deck, co-designed by Arthur Edward Waite. In "The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail" (1909. Republished by Fredonia Books, 2002), Waite delves into Tarot cards as a mnemonic device. Please put aside notions of the Tarot as a fortune-telling method. It often happens a "Eureka moment" can occur in an unexpected manner. Puzzling over some problem, we at last put it aside. We think or do something else. Then, some unrelated matter "may serve as a pretext to open another horizon." The antecedents of the Grail "Hallows" (the cup, the lance, the dish, and the sword) are expressed in the four "suits" of our playing cards. These cards derive from the minor arcana of medieval tarot decks. (Cups = Hearts; Lance = Wands/Diamonds; Dish = Pentacles/Clubs; Sword = Spades).

It may have been Plato who called learning an act of remembering. "Education" has the etymology of "to lead out from within" (Latin: e + duc), i.e., to lead out what one already knows, to help them remember. The Tarot cards are a mnemonic device which can assist in achieving a "Eureka moment." Whether they can also foretell the future is another matter.

There are many different designs of the Tarot deck, besides the Rider-Waite deck. One recent deck, designed by Giovanni Caselli, specifically connects the Grail with the Tarot. Caselli's cards, "The Grail Tarot," unusually "form a continuous frieze when laid side by side..." An accompanying book (by John Matthews) notes how Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the Cistercian Order, is the driving force behind one of the Grail "cycles", that known as the Vulgate Cycle. Bernard also helped found the Knights Templar. There were 22 Grand Masters of the Knights Templar, which oddly corresponds with the major trumps of the Tarot deck.

The various Grail stories seem, in one sense, to be an inkblot upon which persons tend to project their own notions. The Wikipedia reference on "Holy Grail" summarizes multiple sources for the legend, including Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th century), the Didot Perceval, named after the manuscript’s former owner, and the Estoire del Saint Graal, the first part of the Vulgate Cycle. Also mentioned is "the notorious Italian traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola (1898-1974)." He wrote a non-fiction critical work on the Grail, "The Mystery of the Grail." According to a summary at amazon.com, "Evola uncovers the hidden meaning in the often surreal adventures of the knights who searched for the Grail, interpreting them as inner experiences and tests for the seeker."

Waite calls Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival" the most heterodox of the Grail cycles. Chapter 9 reveals startling information. The Knight, burdened by guilt, visits a hermit who offers esoteric Grail history. Parzival is "at feud with Him ['God'] Whom they love with all their hearts and look to for help but Who has shut me out from His succour and failed to shield me from sorrow." It is Good Friday, "God's" "helpful day." The Grail lore, explains the hermit, had been found by Master Kyot, written in "heathenish script" (Arabic). Flegetanis, devout astronomer of Toledo (Spain), descended from Solomon, "wrote of the marvels of the Gral." The "Neutral Angels," who had not taken sides in the battle between Lucifer and God, left the Grail on earth "then rose high above the stars..." (The Grail, a stone according to some variations, may be the Kaaba, in Mecca. See "Kaaba Is The Cornerstone?" http://www.shout.net/~bigred/KaabaCornerstone.html). The Grail resides at "Munsalvaesche," guarded by knights. "Whether these same Templars reap trouble or renown, they bear it for their sins... They live from a Stone whose essence is most pure... This Stone is also called 'The Gral.'" (Source: "Parzival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach)

Arthur Edward Waite includes brief commentary with a list of sources in an appendix to his book (op. cit.). Some of the (possibly) inkblot interpretations:

• According to Joseph Gorres, "Mont Salvatch [Munsalvaesche] stands in Salvatierra, in Arragonia [Aragon], at the entrance into Spain, close to the Valley of Ronceval [Guadalquiver? See 'Kaaba Is The Cornerstone?', op. cit.]."
• San Marte, i.e., A. Schulz, claimed "that Wolfram [von Eschenbach] depicted a Christian Brotherhood, or Kingdom of the Faithful, apart from pope and priesthood..." (Knights Templar?)
• Karl Simrock believed that "the original Graal Legend was connected with St. John Baptist, whose head was enshrined at Constantinople" and that "the Templeisen were the Knights of San Salvador de Mont Real -- founded in 1120..."
• Dr. Sebastian Evans "identifies [Pope] Innocent III with the Rich Fisherman, the [Holy Roman] Emperor with the King of Castle Mortal, St. Dominic with Perceval [Parzival], the Interdict of 1208 with the languishments and enchantments of Britain, and the question which should have been asked, but was not, with an omission of St. Dominic to secure the exemption of the Cistercians from certain effects of the Interdict."

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