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| Simplified Scientific Christianity |
There are aspirants in the world today who possess all the eager enthusiasm and high idealism of the knights of the Middle Ages.
Wherever in the world &mndash; regardless of race, color, creed or caste — there is anyone, whether alone or with a group, working earnestly, with deep spiritual intent, for world betterment and the uplifting of any of God's creatures upon this planet, there the Grail descends, bestowing gifts of power and illumination.
Wherever there is an occult or mystical group who are honest and sincere, who are working not to amass earthly treasure or to build up a powerful organization but to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number, to bring about the universal under standing that all men are brothers because they are children of the same Father-Mother God, there the Grail descends, and its nearness is known in ever-increasing measure in the benediction of love, peace and beauty, wisdom and strength.
Many truth groups are founded in enthusiasm and flourish vigorously for a time, then are seen slowly to disintegrate, until they disappear altogether. Observing this, the casual onlooker comments, "How much time and effort have been wasted there!" This, however, is a superficial point of view. Always from such a disintegrated group will come forth a few — the remnant as it were — who have caught the vision and who go forth holding aloft the torch of light.
The majority of the knights who came to King Arthur's Court were unable to abide in the high vision of the Table Round. Yet out of their midst came Sir Galahad, who figures the few who are able to tread the Path victoriously to the very end, and thence to pass beyond through the portals of light.
It is well in this day of strife and tumult, of hatred and fear, to lift mind and heart frequently in contemplation of the noble young knight whose exalted vision and perfect attainment stand unchallenged, an inspiration to all who have taken up the Quest after him.
The word Initiation comes from a Greek word meanmg "to enter into," and in the early Christian community was a term applied to the Baptism. In our own day Initiation is still truly an entering into a new life, a higher phase of consciousness in which we know Christ face to face and discover that we, like Him, are children of the Most High. Initiation is a shortcut to wisdom. To follow its strait and narrow up-ward-climbing Path is hard but enables one to accomplish in a few short lifetimes on earth what the masses of mankind will achieve only after many millenia. They are ascending, too, for God watches over His children wherever they may be, but they climb by slow and easy stages, on a broad road that winds gently around the mountain; whereas the initiated one, who is a Child of the Light, takes the rugged path upward which, though it cannot be said to shorten labor, since the actual labor of millenia is concentrated in a few lifetimes, yet brings him to the summit ages in advance of his brethren.
No one is ever forced to enter upon the steep Path which climbs dangerously to the summit. Each man must enter of his own free choice, but before he enters thereon there are certain preparations to l;>e made, as always before an arduous undertaking, and the Guardians of the Way see that he is put to the test before essaying the Path. The requisite qualities are courage, devotion, persistence, discrimination and continuity of purpose. Some degree of these qualities must be present at the outset before leaving the broad highway of mass evolution, if Initiation is to be achieved. There are many who climb mountains; only a few conquer Mt. Everest.
In our discussions of the Holy Grail and the knightly epics of Initiation, we have drawn largely from Tennyson's Idylls of the King, because Tennyson has chosen, out of the great, bewildering mass of legends, those which best lend themselves to a philosophical and mystical interpretation. But in order to make clearer certain esoteric principles we have also drawn upon Malory's Marte d' Arthur and the anonymous High History of the Holy Grail, which is earlier. Thus we have elucidated some of the experiences which the aspirant today; as centuries ago, star the Path of the disciple, and we have shown how these experiences are a reflection of traits of character and understanding — or lack of them.
The Cycle of Pelleas and Ettarre — the proof that sorrow is ofttimes the great transformer.
The Cycle of Geraint and Enid — some of the processes which unfold in the course of the work of transmutation.
The Cycle of Merlin and Vivien — demonstrating the tragic mis take of following the mental path to the exclusion of the way of love and devotion, and thus failing to develop the equilibrium between head and heart, which is only achieved by giving one's self in loving, self-forgetting service.
The Cycle of Gareth and Lynette, in which is shown the great overcommg.
The Cycle of Elaine, Lancelot and Guinevere: "the mills of the gods grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small."
The Cycle of Galahad: "many are called but few chosen." Initiation was first given to mankind in the earliest dawn of civilization on this planet so that we might, if we so desire, forge ahead and carve out our destiny in advance of the masses.
This Path of the Higher Life was always and everywhere known in the pre-Christian world as the Path of Initiation. The early Christians called it The Way. For the medieval knight it was the Quest of the Holy Grail, and for the modern aspirant it is the Way of Attainment. The Path is the same and the Goal is One.
King Arthur's Round Table co:qtinued the School of early Christian Mysteries upon which all five of the Patriarchates of the World Church were founded, and it is these sacred Mysteries which form the Way of Attainment for the modern Grail knight as well.
When the Lord Christ departed from the earth He left the Cup of Remembrance to bring together all those who belonged to Him; and so it is said that from the early years of the Church, through the Orders of Chivalry and Mystery Schools such as King Arthur's Round Table, through Masonic and Rosicrucian brotherhoods and collegia, and down to the seekers of our own time, there is a golden chain, each link of which is a soul, binding all ages together in unity of Truth about the feet of the Christ.
A critical evaluation of these great Grail classics is not the primary aim of our studies in the foregoing pages. Not alone through the medium of books are their inner meanings revealed. Let the aspirant go within and in so doing lay hold of the high visions the Grail legends inspire. Only so may they become the master key yielding access to a life beyond a life. For it is true of every man as it is of King Arthur: From the great deep he comes; to the great deep he goes.
Plato said, "The world soul is crucified."
The horizontal limb of the cross represents the lines of force of certain archangelic beings, called Group Spirits, which circle the earth and impinge upon the horizontal spine of animals and the lateral branches of fruit trees.
The plants are represented by the lower limb of the cross. The Group Spirits of the plant kingdom function below the surface of the earth, sending their life forces upward into trees and plants.
Man is represented by the upper limb of the cross, and receives his spiritual sustenance from the sun through the head. In nature the open flower is the Grail Cup and the sacred spear is the sunbeam that opens the flower and reprtsents the spiritual power that has been turned to so much destructiveness by the human race, but which will bring the resurrection when it is rightly used to help and heal.
As the flower draws the spiritual force or power from the sunbeam in a pure and chaste manner, and it unfolds in harmonious beauty, so the disciple must, through purity, chastity and compassion, develop the Grail Cup within his own body, the spiritualized Will Force acting as the positive agent of this work.
Let the aspirant visualize the White Rose in the center of the cross where the Christ Force centers at each of the four Seasons. This is the Cosmic Grail Cup. The life of the Christ correlates with the four turning points of the sun's annual cycle: Birth, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. To the opened eye of the mystic, there is a descent of power at the Autumn Equinox, which reaches the center of the earth at the Winter Solstice and then arises at the Vernal Equinox and is again enthroned in the Sun at the Summer Solstice.
Correlated with the Months of the Year: a Mystic Calendar
Arthur's twelve knights are, cosmically interpreted, the twelve signs of the zodiac. Arthur himself is the sun, or the Christ Light to be awakened in man, so that each man is the image of his spiritual king. The twelve Idylls are opportunities given for soul growth as the sun passes in its yearly cycle through the twelve signs.
Historians of the Grail are not agreed as to the geographical significance of the Spiritual City of Sarras. The name is associated in legend with "the confines of Egypt," "beyond Babylon" (like the Holy City seen in vision by Esdras in the Field of Ardath), "an island," the "New, or Heavenly Jerusalem" and "Syria" generally. We have chosen the meaning as "the heavenly Jerusalem" which is an "island" floating above the terrestrial city. Paradise is fre quently described as such an island, floating cloud-like above the earth, in ancient cosmologies. Modern esotericists know that every city on earth has its heavenly prototype, which insofar as it pertains to the future, seems to float above the earthly city. Yet occasions are known of visionaries who are transported in consciousness into the "heavenly city" while still in the body of flesh, and it then seemed to them that the two were the same, though occupying different strata of consciousness.
That there are Egyptian overtones to Grail history is well known, since according to Von Eschenbach the story of the Grail was first written in Alexandria, in an early time, by one Flegetanis, whose mother was a descendant of Solomon and his father a "pagan" (Egyptian or Arab).
Von Eschenbach says that his account comes from Kyot de Provence who discovered the Grail story in a library at Toledo, and since it was written in Arabic, Kyot had to learn that language in order to decipher and translate it. In Toledo also rested the "emerald table," supposedly Solomon's, and one of the Cups supposed to be the Cup of the Last Supper. It is probable that the emerald table was an astronomical mosaic — it may have been a golden table inset with emeralds — for Toledo was the Greenwich of the medieval astronomer. Kyot de Provence seems to imply that the Grail story is written in the stars, and this many Christians still believe to be true.
Anciently a center of Druid worship, Glastonbury survived the conquest of England, linking together the early and late Christianity of the island. Glastonbury Abbey is said by some to have been founded in the second or third century, which to some extent substantiates the claim of those who say that the original Grail Castle and dynasty were not located at Glastonbury, but elsewhere. Glastonbury flourished without interruption until Henry VIII hanged the last abbot, and the famous Abbey was allowed to fall into ruin. Henry's purpose in thus destroying Glastonbury may be guessed from the fact that he also put to death the last of England's archdruids.
At Glastonbury the Blood Spring (Chalice Well) marks the spot where according to one story the Grail was buried, or according to another, dropped into the well.
The famous Glastonbury Thorn, said to have been Joseph's staff, which he planted in the earth at Glastonbury where it took root and grew, blossoming forever after on Holy Night, was cut down by the Puritans in the seventeenth century; but offshoots of the original tree still grow there, beside the Blood Spring.
— Corinne Heline
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Contemporary Mystic Christianity |
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