The Inner Quest of the Grail
by Mara Freeman, M.A.
Why are we still fascinated by stories of the Holy Grail told long ago in the courts of medieval Europe? It’s my belief that the Grail myth persists throughout the centuries like a recurring dream that must be brought fully to consciousness, understood, and resolved. This is the theme of my latest book, Grail Alchemy. As mythologist Joseph Campbell said, the quest for the Grail is “the founding myth of Western civilization.”
The Grail is a sacred vessel as old as creation. A rounded container, it belongs to the family of symbols – bowl, cauldron, vat, well, cup or crucible – which are all images of the divine feminine, the Mother Goddess whose womb holds the waters of life, found as far back as the Neolithic era and in cultures from ancient India to classical Greece. In Celtic myth and legend, this hallowed icon of Western spirituality has its origins in the magical cups which have life-giving and protective properties and more often than not, these cups belong to goddesses or female spirits.
In the tales of King Arthur, the first part of his kingship deals with the triumph of the Sword as he and his knights successfully subdue the warring factions and achieve law and order throughout the realm. But when the Sword has fulfilled its function in the outer world, it must be balanced by the Grail. This sacred vessel lies hidden in a castle surrounded by a Wasteland: a barren and blighted country which can only be restored to life when a worthy knight discovers the castle of the Grail, asks a ritual question, and heals the wounded king of this land.
But the struggle to find a balance between Cup and Sword plays out constantly without resolution. In the end, not one of the knights is able to bring back the Grail to Camelot, which represents the everyday world we live in. And because this conflict remains unresolved within the psyche of both individuals and culture as a whole, the perennial fascination with this myth has continued unabated down the centuries.
On the deepest, archetypal level, the Grail is a symbol of the soul, which is a feminine word in many languages: for example, the Latin anima, which gives the Gaelic, anam, the Greek psyche and German Seele. The Soul, like the Grail, is hidden away in the dimly-lit, tangled forest of the everyday self, sometimes glimpsed only like a gleam of light as in the far-off window of a castle. Like the Grail Knight’s initiatory adventures, the Quest for the soul entails many of life’s challenges and rites of passage, yet the discovery of Grail or soul is only half the story.
For the soul is a receptacle for Spirit, a chalice which must be filled from the highest spiritual influences if it is to be of any value. In the Christianized Grail versions, the shining figure of Christ is often portrayed within the Grail. This is an externalization of the radiant force of Spirit – sometimes called the Cosmic Christ – entering the soul. This supernal force is sometimes pictured as a light descending into the vessel and is well-known in many other spiritual paths as, for example, the Vedic Soma or the alchemical Heavenly Dew. It is a masculine (yang) symbol: the highest transmutation of the Sword as a pure spiritual power. When the Light descends into the feminine (yin) Grail, the ultimate goal of the spiritual seeker has been achieved. It is the supreme union of Soul and Spirit, known variously as the Divine Marriage, the Union of Opposites, the Conjunctio, or Alchemical Wedding – the apotheosis of the Grail Quest.
For those who follow the inner Quest of the Grail, the goal is to quieten the everyday self, enough so that the soul opens to allow the Living Light of Spirit to pour in, flooding us with bliss and peace. Then when the Grail of the soul is filled with divine energies, it can be offered to the world for healing the wastelands both within and without.
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About the Author
Mara Freeman, M.A., is an internationally recognized British author and teacher of Celtic wisdom and the Western Mystery Tradition, which she has taught for over thirty years. She is an initiate of the Western Mysteries and has also been very active in modern druid organizations. Her first book, Kindling the Celtic Spirit, (Harper San Francisco, 2001) has been hailed as the best modern introduction to Celtic spirituality and sacred traditions. Her most recent book, Grail Alchemy: Initiation in the Celtic Mystery Tradition (Inner Traditions, 2014) has been called ” a Celtic literary temenos of our time, a sacred space, in which to further explore one’s own inner journey and transformation.” http://chalicecentre.net/
