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This article is a collection of theories concerning the Holy Grail and what it could be. The confusion arises because the word Grail is derived from the word graal which first appeared in turn of the first millennium (A.D.) prose and poetry. There is no confusion over the meaning of the word Graal, which was a dish or platter brought to the table at various stages during a meal. However, the things that the graal or grail has come to represent has changed from story to story throughout the words history.
The first story in which the word appears was written by Chretien de Troyes - ``Le Conte del Graal''. Chretiens story was almost certainly based on an earlier one, but it is unknown what his actual source was or his meaning of the word Graal. Chretien did not finish his story and continuations and rewrites of the story are then free to embellish and invent as much as the authors saw fit.
Now the Grail represents many different things to many different people. No one meaning seems to explain all the strange events in the Grail stories. The reader will not find a definitive answer. Nor will he read all theories as some are obscure and not yet encountered in detail by the author.
The Cup was the cup used at the last supper from which wine was drunk as a symbol of Jesus' blood. It is also the cup which Joseph of Arimathea used to collect the actual blood of Jesus after his crucifixion while preparing the body for burial. The legend then follows many differing stories about Joseph and the Cup. The most well known is that Joseph and his sister and her husband left Jerusalem and sailed to France. Here Joseph left his sister and his brother-in-law and sailed to England where he set up the first Christian church at Glastonbury. Some legends claim that he left the cup in the care of his brother-in-law in France while most stories tell of him bringing the Cup to Glastonbury which to this day is still associated with the Grail legends.
The Arthurian stories now include stories of the Cup of Christ. It was not always so. Something called the Graal was in early Arthurian stories but it wasn't until later that this was Christianised and became the Cup of Christ. The Graal was a mysterious object which was not described in detail. The earliest story, to mention the Grail in some form, by Chretien de Troyes was left incomplete, enabling many writers since to place their own interpretation on the story.
It ought to be pointed out that these legends are considered by historians to be, at best pseudo-history, and at worst complete romantic fabrications.
The cup has certain powers associated with it. These are :
Her book shows how man has revered light in religion and fire made from direct sunlight, through a crystal or glass ball or the like, has long thought to be holy in some sense. Often perpetual fires were kept alight in Holy places by virgins using such methods. She also demonstrates how many metaphors for light and rays of light (such as the spear and the sword) appear time and again in Arthurian legend. Not only this but the Grail is often depicted as a stone and there is constant reference to a Grail tree. Further it was often women who were in charge of fires created from objects such as these and it is women who are depicted as Grail guardians in Arthurian legend.
Undoubtedly such objects existed and it is likely that the Jews at the time of Solomon used such objects. The theory goes on to state that these objects were buried along with the Ark of the Covenant in a cave system somewhere in Jordan. Interestingly, the final sequences of Indiana Jones III are filmed in the ancient ruined city of Petra in Jordan and not in Egypt as is claimed in the film itself.
In this book it is claimed that Christ was married to Mary Magdalene and that Christ did not die on the cross. The authors present much historical evidence to support their claim and try to show how several secret societies have guarded the secret of this blood line down the ages to the present day. They associate historical characters and places with those found in the earliest Medieval Grail texts and demonstrate how the blood line from Christ has been involved in world affairs.
Another notable Grail seeker, Walter Stein, also investigated this theory for some time. His theories were discredited because of his one time association with the Nazis. He was, however not a Nazi himself and indeed was Sir Winston Churchills advisor on Nazi occult activity for a time.
A famous welsh poem, The Preiddeu Annwn, describes Arthur and his men venturing into the Celtic underworld to steal the Cauldron of Annwn which had pearls and is blown on by nine maidens. It has the ability to restore life to dead warriors. Note that in the Christian tradition, the Cup is always carried or guarded by women and that it has life restoring capabilities.
Another cauldron, the Cauldron of Awen had a potion brewed in it which could bestow all knowledge. A youth, Gwion, was set to stir this by the goddess Ceridwen. He spilled three drops onto his fingers and put them into his mouth. He gained all knowledge. Note too that the Grail in Arthurian legend could bestow knowledge.
Many authors have thus tried to show that the celtic cauldrons are in some sense a forerunner to the modern Grail image. This, together, with the derivation of some Arthurian heros, such as Kay and Bedivere, from celtic ones has been explored in many texts. The author wishes to point out that although the celtic derivations are popular in theory, they by no means explain all events and descriptions within the cycles. Nor, do they explain the sudden interest at the time of Chretien in the Grail. Although the celtic cauldron derivation theory has good grounds it is by no means a complete explanation for the Grail cycles. The author states this in order to warn against the plethora of purely celtic origin based texts.
It is interesting to note that the Grail has been depicted as a stone in the early Arthurian legends. It is this stone, fallen to earth, which has been suggested is the Grail.
The `gold' in alchemy is presented as being `enlightenment' or spiritual oneness with God. The base metal is what each man is before the process of alchemy, and that alchemy is a spiritual path to God. The philosophers stone has thus been associated with the Grail as it has the same property of imbuing oneness with God. It should be stressed that the philosophers stone is not considered to be a real stone of any sort but that the Grail in this case is a metaphor for the final stage of enlightenment.
Sometimes this theory is tied to the Emerald of Lucifer theory in suggesting that a real stone may exist.
In this book the Grail is presented as the knowledge to use this spear in some supernatural way. No evidence is presented and no cross referencing of any of the other literature available. It is simply stated. Ravenscroft claims that there are two ways to achieve this knowledge. Either through the use of ``black arts'' or by a much harder route of ``learning the abcs of magic''. These particular quotes are from the introduction to Wolfram Von Eschenbachs `Parzival'.
Once this knowledge is obtained some power that is present in the spear can be used for good or evil. The use is determined by the method that the user gained the knowledge of the Grail. If he used ``black arts'' then he must wield the spear for evil, if not then he is free to chose.
It is part of the theories of the Grail as a mystical concept or level of achievement spiritually and not a real object at all. It should be remembered that the stories of Arthur which include the Grail (after Chretien de Troyes) were written in a time when many of the hidden ideas that this theory presents would have been considered heretical and dangerous.
At the time the first mix in cultures of the far east and the west was happening through such groups as the Knights Templar.Infact, Wolfram Von Eschenbach in his Grail epic `Parzival' describes a group of knights who are the guardians of the grail. The reader is left in no doubt that he is alluding to the Templars. The trouveres and troubadors (story tellers) of the time would undoubtedly have had contact with stories and legends from eastern religions aswell as western ones for the first time. Similarly to alchemy, it would have been heresy to combine these openly but expression of this union of religions through story would be a natural and acceptable outlet.
Roslin Chapel, Lothian Scotland.
The famous Grail Seeker Trevor Ravenscroft claimed in 1962 that
he had finished a twenty year quest in search of the Grail at Roslin
chapel. There appears to be a contradiction
in that Ravenscroft claims the
Grail to be a form of knowledge and also to be a real object (Christs
Cup). This is simply explained by the fact that many people now use
Grail to refer to the Cup of Christ while he himself may have felt this
to not be the case. He would still have called this cup the Grail in
order to communicate what he meant. There are quite a few people looking
for the Grail who do not know what it actually is. They thus follow up
many different theories. Ravenscroft may have believed in more than one
theory. His claim was that the Grail was inside the Prentice Pillar
(as it is known) in this chapel. The chapel is often visited now by
Grail Seekers and many references to the Grail can be found in its stone
work and windows. Metal detectors have been used on the pillar and an
object of the appropriate size is indeed buried in the middle. Lord
Roslin adamantly refuses to have the pillar x-rayed.
The Grail in Wales.
It is said that there was a community in Wales who existed to
guard a terracota cup which was inside a gold chalice. It was able to
heal and was a powerful tool for good in the right hands. In 1880 a
group of individuals was set up with the declared intention of studying
esoteric things such as the Qabalah and Tarot divination. Their real
intention was to find and destroy the Holy Grail. Over the next ten years
the Grail was moved and hidden, finally finding a safe place. However,
one of the guardians betrayed the others and the Grail was taken. A
black mass was said over the Grail to detroy its power and then it was
smashed into pieces and the pieces scattered.
Most legends of Grails have many inconsequential details added to them in order to give a false authenticity. Names, dates, places and even historical figures are scattered in the legends. This is not true in this case and makes the legend unique and interesting because of this.
The Narta Monga , Russia.
In the Caucasus Mountains in Russia is a small group of people
who have stories of a magical cauldron called the Amonga. This chalice
has properties in common with the Grail of early Arthurian stories of
serving food, giving knowledge and being able to chose those worthy to
serve it. The Narts were the heroic race of these Osettes. The stories
of them bare a striking resemblance to Arthurian legend.
The Chalice Well at Glastonbury, England.
Joseph of Arimathea, so legend tells us, came to England, to
Glastonbury, after the death of Jesus. With him he brought the Cup
of Christ. Local legend now says that the Cup is buried somewhere
under a hill called The Tor at Glastonbury. The Tor is an ancient site
of ritual and religion and is still a place of pilgrimage today,
standing high out of the Somerset countryside. A well, which is now a
quiet place of sanctuary with surrounding gardens, flows with water from
deep under The Tor. The rocks covered by the spring water are reddy
in colour, representing the Blood of Christ, and the water itself leaves
an aftertaste in the mouth much like blood. The Tor may have a network
of underground tunnels, long ago sealed, and the Grail is supposed to
be buried in one of these.
Further to this, many events in the Grail cycles have been closely analysed in terms of Jungian psychology. Jung showed that the writers understood or at least unconciously expressed many fundamental elements of his psychology in the events they placed in the stories.
And so on ...
There are many more theories. Some of these are presented in short here :
The vegetation theory was put forward in 1906 by J.L. Weston. She showed similarities between eastern vegetation rituals and stories in Arthurian legend.
Onomastic theories are concerned with showing the derivation of the word Grail in history. Most of these are unsuccessful and very unconvincing.
The Shroud of Turin may have been guarded by the Templars. They are also associated by implication with the Grail through `Parzival'. It has been suggested that the Shroud is the Grail.
The tree of life is a Qabbalists way of depicting the spiritual universe. On this tree are ten spheres which have certain values or traits associated with them. A few authors have attempted to place Arthurian places and people onto this tree, most notably, Gareth Knight in his book `The Secret Tradition in Arthurian Legend'.
A few people such as Mary Caine and Katherine Maltwood have used zodiacal theories about the Grail. They place Arthurian characters and places on the Zodiac and have even placed characters from the zodiac and legend on ordinance survey maps of the south of Britain, particularly around Glastonbury.
Jessie Weston showed the Grail Hallows (these are sword, spear, stone and cauldron or cup) to be similar to the suits in Tarot cards. Today a few decks exist such as The Arthurian Tarot and the Merlin Tarot which associate Tarot directly with the Grail legends.
Perhaps though we should ask what Chretien de Troyes meant by the ``Graal''. Unfortunately this question appears unanswerable as we only have one document, and that unfinished, to study. It would be foolish to hope that an ending be found. Documents from that time were often destroyed. What of Chretiens source ? Many writers have claimed a source for their stories on the Grail. None have been produced. Again the same fate may have befallen such documents or perhaps the writers of ancient literature knew the value of a mystery source as much as todays journalists.