Monroe Lodge #22 F&AM

(Since we postponed my presentation of this topic until the May meeting of the G&G Society, I thought I would post my working transcript here for those who are interested.)

Why the Holy Grail? And why me?

Last Fall, I was contacted by the people who have been publishing my wife’s low-carb cookbooks, which many of you know about. The same people have also been the state-side publishers of books like The Hiram Key and Robert Lomas’ latest effort, Turning the Hiram Key, which I had the opportunity to preview before publication. They informed me that they were planning to issue a "Holy Grail Kit," which would include a figurine of a "grail," a map showing important grail-related locations, a set of character cards depicting important people relative to the grail-legends, a genealogical chart showing the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene (ahem!), and a booklet to explain the origins of the legends, modern theories, etc. Their hope was that they could persuade me to write the booklet.

Well, I figured that since even the non-fictional material available on this subject is, in any case, speculative at best, that I wouldn’t have any more problem turning out 35,000 words of fish-wrap on the topic than the next guy would! So, I agreed, and with the help of several of you giving me ideas and pointing me in certain directions (you know who you are), I managed to knock it out and send it in about 15 minutes before deadline. Now, for some reason, I’m the "expert" on All Things Grail. Go figure!

Since this is a Masonic presentation, I’ll be focusing on the relationship of the Grail legend and allegory to the symbolism and allegory of Freemasonry – a relationship that is neither overt nor immediately obvious, but nonetheless present on a more subtle level. I’ll start, however, with brief overview of the Grail and associated literature.

The legend of "the Holy Grail" originated in the Arthurian romances:

· Chretien de Troyes was the first of the Arthurian authors, but probably took much of his source material from Geoffrey of Monmouth (early British historian). Among several romances, Chretien's Le Conte du Graal was left unfinished due to death of the author. It appeared in its unfinished form in 1190. Various other writers completed "continuations" of the story soon thereafter.

· One of Chretien's contemporaries was Robert de Boron, who wrote an Arthurian trilogy around the same time. Not all his work survives, but it is Robert who first asserted that the Grail was brought by Joseph of Arimathea to Britain, and that it was the cup used at the Last Supper

· Wolfram von Eschenbach was another of Chretien’s contemporaries, and his Parzival is probably the most richly informative of the medieval Grail romances. His work goes into great detail about the origins and properties of the Grail, which is described as a stone on which appear prophecies. The story follows nearly the same plot as Chretien, but continues far beyond the abrupt ending. Wolfram mentions "templeis," usually translated as "templars" (non-capped) as being the guardians of Munsalvaeche, the Grail castle.

· Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur is probably the best known of the Arthurian sagas, and the one that inspired the most derivatives. The Grail story comprises five books – 13 through 17 – out of 21 in the whole work, and involves several characters other than Perceval. Galahad, the son of Lancelot and Elaine, and grandson of the "Fisher King," becomes the central "Grail Knight," although Perceval retains his major role as well.

· Finally, the rich and moving work of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is based firmly on Malory, but presents the story in a much more somber and emotional mood. His Grail quest is not a bright spot in Arthur’s legend. Written in strict verse and highly recommended.

Briefly, the story goes as follows: Perceval, who becomes the Grail knight, is the son of a knight who was killed in combat, and has been raised in complete ignorance of the world by an over-protective mother. One day, several knights from Arthur's court are passing through Perceval's neck of the woods. Perceval first takes them to be gods, then learns they are knights, is very impressed, and vows to follow them and become a knight himself – much to his mother's dismay.

Perceval goes through training and does become a very good knight. One thing he has been taught, however, is to remain mostly silent and circumspect, and not to ask too many questions. This proves to be a problem when he finally makes his way to the castle of the wounded Fisher King, where the Grail first appears, along with a bleeding lance. Thinking to be courteous and obedient to his training, Perceval refrains from asking some important questions regarding the reason that the lance bleeds, whom the Grail is meant to serve, and what ails the Fisher King. His failure to ask these things is catastrophic, as he learns the next morning, awakening to find the castle deserted and the land devastated.

He is informed that if he had asked the questions that he wanted to ask, not only would he have received answers, but his concern would have brought great relief and healing to the King. Instead, he must ride alone in search of the secret of whom is served by the Grail and why the lance bleeds. In Chretien's account, Perceval encounters a hermit, with whom he stays for some time, and his story is left incomplete at that point. Wolfram goes on to finish the legend, and eventually has Perceval (or rather, Parzival) return to the castle, ask the right questions, and receive a warm welcome and happy ending.

The allegorical nature of this legend is inescapable, and in a few minutes I'll go into how that allegory relates to the one we are familiar with as Freemasons. But first, I'll briefly mention some of the theories about the Grail, what it might have been, and what it may have represented.

Grail Theories

· Cup of Last Supper (Robert)
· Cup that "caught the blood of Christ as he hung on the cross"
· A stone with remarkable healing powers (Wolfram)
· A plate capable of providing sustenance indefinitely (Chretien, implied)
· A head, or depiction of a head, possibly the same as allegedly revered by the Knights Templar
· Modern: The holy bloodline of Christ (Sang Raal) and/or the woman with whom he begat that line (Mary Magdalene) – the "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" thesis of Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh, fictionalized and popularized by Dan Brown.

Yes. Good. But we're going to leave the theories out of it, at least for now. (This is not about The Da Vinci Code, or the Templars.)

But what on earth does the Holy Grail have to do with Freemasonry? That is, after all, what you came here this evening to find out, right? On the surface, nothing.

Nowhere in Masonic ritual or allegory is there any mention whatsoever of a "Grail." The ceremonies of the three basic Craft degrees, as we know, deal exclusively with legends based on the building of King Solomon's Temple, and contain no medieval elements whatsoever. Even the culminating degrees of the York Rite, based firmly on orders of knighthood including that of Templar, contain no direct Grail references. And no participant in any of the degrees of the Scottish Rite will encounter any appearance of this mysterious relic or the characters involved in the Grail legend. In short, there is no overt connection.

But this is not the way philosophy works, and it's certainly not the way mystical, occult or esoteric philosophy works. Esoteric philosophy, like that of Freemasonry, operates on an almost entirely subtle level, making its mental connections largely in the subconscious and barely-waking mind, thus imparting its lessons of morality and spiritual self-improvement.

So, while Freemasonry uses no overt Grail symbolism, many of the lessons veiled by the respective allegories of both legendary traditions are fundamentally the same. Therefore it is not at all inappropriate to draw connections between our system and other esoteric traditions, such as those of the Tarot or the Holy Grail. The connections between Grail and Masonic traditions are found on the more sublime level of their respective but shared meaning.

· The Grail Knight, like the Masonic candidate, begins his journey in the darkness of ignorance.
· Both are taught the virtue of silence and circumspection.
· Both set out upon a "quest" for spiritual self-improvement and direct knowledge of the Divine.
· Both encounter obstacles that teach very similar fundamental lessons.
· Both are considered to be "travelers", in pursuit of something which was lost.

Some parallels to the Grail Knight can be seen in the candidate for the three Masonic degrees:

The Entered Apprentice, like the young Perceval, is innocent and ignorant, groping in the dark, having no idea where he is going or what his future holds. The Fool of Tarot. (Incidentally, there is a legend regarding Castel Dinas Bran, one of the locations suspected to have been the "Grail Castle." This legend says that the hidden treasure of Castel Dinas Bran can only be found by a boy followed by a white dog who can 'see the wind.' Anyone familiar with the Fool card of Tarot will recognize this image immediately.)

The Fellow Craft has learned the value (and perhaps the pitfalls) of silence. These are the working years, the questing years, involving the doing of great deeds.

The Master Mason degree presents some very interesting parallels. Hiram Abiff, for example, is called the "widow's son." But Perceval is explicitly described by Chretien as being the "son of a widow lady." Each travels from his home to serve a King.

The death of Hiram and loss of the Masonic Word is directly parallel to the striking down of the Fisher King, devastation of the land and loss of the Grail. Each of these events causes the need to embark on a quest to find what was lost. Mackey's Encyclopedia summarizes this obvious connection very concisely in its entry on the Grail:

The Quest of the San Graal very forcibly reminds us of the Search for the Lost Word. The symbolism is precisely the same – the loss and the recovery being but the lesson of death and eternal life – so that the San Graal in Arthurian Myth, and the Lost Word in the Masonic Legend, seem to be identical in object and design. (Mackey's Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, 1929 edition, volume 2, page 905.)

So we see that three of the most important elements of Freemasonry are almost exactly the same, "in both object and design," as three of the most important elements of the Grail legend:

· the Grail Knight begins in the darkness of ignorance;
· the loss of something quite valuable is precipitated by a failure to make proper inquiries; and
· the result is a lifelong quest to recover what was lost and to discover the secrets which this emblem conceals.

All of these elements are quite prominent in both the early Grail legends and the three Craft degrees of Freemasonry.

In some cases, the similarities go even further. For example, Malory's account of the quest of Sir Bors, a knight who does eventually achieve a vision of the Grail, describes how Bors has just stayed with a religious hermit, who has heard his confession and given him penance. Bors departs in the morning:

And so a little from thence he looked up into a tree, and there he saw a passing great bird upon an old tree, and it was passing dry, without leaves; and the bird sat above, and had birds, the which were dead for hunger. So smote he himself with his beak, the which was great and sharp. And so the great bird bled till that he died among his birds. And the young birds tooken the life by the blood of the great bird. When Bors saw this he wist well it was a great tokening...

Anyone familiar with the 18th degree of the Scottish Rite will immediately recognize the bird that wounds itself to feed its young as the major emblem of that degree. Remember, Malory is writing in the 15th century, long before the Rose-Croix of Heredom was ever invented. The "blood of the pelican" is also mentioned by Wolfram as being a powerful restorative, saying that even this potent substance is not sufficient to heal the wounded Fisher King.

The short answer to the question of Masons having possession of the secrets of the Grail is, like with so many other things, yes and no. Yes, Freemasonry does indeed conceal profound and powerful secrets within its philosophy, allegory, and symbolism. These are secrets which cannot be "told" by one person to another – not because of some rule or oath that requires silence on the matter, but because of the very nature of those secrets. Neither Perceval nor Galahad, although able to see the Grail clearly themselves, could take that holy vision and "show" it to any of the other knights who were not worthy of it. The same is true of the Masonic "secrets" – their pursuit is a lifelong quest, and when they are attained, if they are attained, they are perceived not with the eyes or ears, but with the heart.