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There are Three reasons why the sky is round: likeness, conveniece and necessity. Likeness, because the sensible world is made in the likeness of the archetype, in which there is neither end nor beginning; wherefore, in likeness to it the sensible world has a round shape, in which beginning or end cannot be distinguished. Convenience, because of all isoperimetric bodies the sphere is the largest and of all shapes the round is most capacious. Wherefore, since the world is all containing, this shape was useful and convenient for it. Necessity, because if the world were of other form than round--say, trilateral, quadrilateral, or many sided--it would follow that some space would be vacant and some body without a place, both of which are false, as is clear in the case of angles projecting and revolved.

--The Sphere of Sacrobosco (Trans. Thorndike)

When you wanted God with the same intensity as when you
needed a sex partner, then that God would be with you, because you
would have to find that God or perish in the attempt. This was the
significance of the text. God itself must be your sex partner found
through the mediatorship of another human. This was the way early
mystics understood it. Their love affair with God was sexual in
every implication except physical, and some would have included
that as well.

–WG Gray

..a table of silver, and the Holy Vessel, coverd with red samite, and many angels about it...and before the Holy Vessel... a good man cloaked as a priest. And it seemed he was at the sacring of the mass.

--Le Morte D'Arthur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanteos_Cup

The Hidden Adept & The Inner Vision

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A Parable of the Spirit

Mara Freeman

St Joseph of Arimathea

 

 

Again, the later romances may be divided into two sections: (a) those which speak of an enchantment fallen on Britain, and (b) those which are concerned with the termination of certain adventurous times. If the literature follows any set purpose, a definable importance must be attributed to the meaning of that enchantment and those adventures. In this manner, the chief questions may be summarised alternatively as follows:--
 
(a) The sacramental claim and its connections, so far as these appear in the Quests.
(b) The qualifications for the Quest.
(c) The Hereditary Keepers of the Graal.
(d) The King's Wounding and the King's Healing.
(e) The enchantments of Britain in connection with the Wounded Keeper.
(f) The removal of the Graal and the close those times which the texts term adventurous, since when there has been silence on earth in respect of the Holy Graal.
 
The sacramental claim is introduced, among other documents, in (a) the De Borron poem; (b) the Lesser Holy Graal; while its shadow is projected as a secret which cannot be told in (c) the proem to the Conte del Graal. It seems to be found by a vague and remote inference in the Longer Prose Perceval, and it may be gathered by brief allusions in the early prose Merlin. In the Great Quest it has been expunged, while it is outside the tradition as represented by Wolfram. The Quest qualifications are vague in Chrétien and exceed reason. They are perhaps what might be termed ethical--but in the high degree--in Wolfram, who presents the marriage of Perceval. The so-called ascetic element appears fully in the Book of the Holy Graal, in the Longer Prose Perceval, and in the Quest of Galahad. The King's Wounding is accounted for differently in every romance; the withdrawal of the Graal is also told differently; sometimes it passes simply into deeper concealment; sometimes it seems taken away utterly; in one version there is another keeper appointed, but of the realm apart from the Hallows; it is carried to the far East in another; in two texts it remains where it was.
If there is a secret intention permeating the bulk of the literature, again it must partly reside in those epochs into which the literature falls; their consideration should manifest it and should enable us to deal, at the close of the whole research, with the final problem, being that which is signified by the departure of the Sacred Vessel.
 
Each of the Hallows has its implied enigma, besides that which appears openly in its express nature, and as we know that the mysteries of God are mysteries of patience and compassion, we shall be prepared to find in their reflections through the Graal Legend that even some offices of judgment are formularies of concealed mercy. They are therefore both declared and undeclared--that is to say, understood; and as there are certain Hallows which only appear occasionally, so there are suggestions and inferences concerning others which do not appear at all. That which was always in evidence is that to which the distinctive name of Graal is applied in every text, but enough has been said concerning it till we come to its exhaustive consideration in the next section. The second and third Hallows are the Lance and the Sword. The Lance is that which was used by the Roman soldier Longinus to pierce the side of Christ at the Crucifixion, or it is this at least according to the more general tradition. Of the Sword there are various stories, and it is this which in some cases serves to inflict the wound from which the Enchantments of Britain follow. It is (a) that which served to behead St. John the Baptist, in which connection we can understand its position as a sacred object; (b) that of the King and Prophet David, committed by Solomon to a wonderful ship, which went voyaging, voyaging throughout the ages till it should be seen by Galahad, the last scion of the royal house of Israel; or (c) it is simply an instrument preserved as a token belonging to a legend of vengeance, in which relation it was brought over from folk-lore and is nothing to the purpose of the Graal.
The Dish, which is the fourth and final object included among the authorised Hallows, is more difficult to specify, because its almost invariable appearance in the pageant of the high processions is accompanied by no intelligible explanation respecting it; and although it has also its antecedents in folk-lore, its mystic explanation, if any, must be sought very far away. Like the rest of the Hallows, it is described with many variations in the different books. It may be a salver of gold and precious stones, set on a silver cloth and carried by two maidens; it may be a goodly plate of silver, or a little golden vessel, and this simply, except in the Longer Prose Perceval, which as it multiplies the Hallows so it divides their ministry; but here, as elsewhere, the Dish does not embody apparently the feeding properties which are one aspect of the mystery.
 
In summary therefore: subject to characteristic variations which are particular to each text, it will be found that the several romances follow or forecast one general process, exhibiting a general secret intention, manifested though not declared, and it is for this intention that my study has to account.

 

AE WAITE

Father of the Mysteries

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