Grail Symbolism in the Pisces-Virgo Era
Commentary to JWK:MJL #10: Of the Holy Grail
Astrological symbolism is woven throughout Kaiser’s work, and this article is in many ways one of the high points. He presents the symbolism of the Holy Grail and the fruit of the Pisces-Virgo era, which is now behind us, to make room for the time of Aquarius, which we are now moving into.
There is no life outside of Heaven. ²Where God created life, there life must be. ³In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion. ⁴At best it seems like life; at worst, like death. ⁵Yet both are judgments on what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. ⁶Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. ⁷Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. ⁸Illusions are but forms. ⁹Their content is never true. (ACIM, T-23.II.19:1-9)
On one level nothing ever changes, but this world of appearances always presents the appearance of change, for as the Course also says in many ways, we should not deny our worldly/bodily experience either, but we should honor our experience.
⁶The body, if properly understood, shares the invulnerability of the Atonement to two-edged application. ⁷This is not because the body is a miracle, but because it is not inherently open to misinterpretation. ⁸The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. ⁹Its abilities can be and frequently are overevaluated. ¹⁰However, it is almost impossible to deny its existence in this world. ¹¹Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial. ¹²The term “unworthy” here implies only that it is not necessary to protect the mind by denying the unmindful. ¹³If one denies this unfortunate aspect of the mind’s power, one is also denying the power itself. (ACIM, T-2.IV.3:6-13)
Thus, on the grand scale of history, the Platonic year of the precession of the Equinox is part of our experience, and we are certainly coming to realize at this point how the age of Aquarius is now seriously upon us. The Grail legends were a high point in the era of Pisces/Virgo, symbolizing self-sacrifice and dedication to the universal well-being. JWK connects two phenomena very logically, the symbolism of Pure Receptiveness of the Virgin-Mother, and the caricature thereof, its diametrical opposite of venerating Mary almost to the detriment of Jesus, aided by the emergence in the 11th century of celibacy in the church, with repressed sexual energy now being projected onto the Virgin-Mother.
Of course, in Christianity this unnatural relationship with sex became quite prominent, and it is good to be reminded that this was a late phenomenon, manifesting in the middle of the Christian era. He cites Clemens of Alexandria who said that it is not up to us to reject what God has caused to be, but by the late middle ages, his voice was apparently forgotten. Thus the whole sexual repression was a serious distortion that eventually was to surface in the never ending sex scandals of the church. Celibacy was actually introduced in 1074 by Pope Gregory VII.
Kaiser sees in the Grail imagery a symbol of the receptivity of soul, as a chalice, and he highlights how the grail is found by seeking for it but by doing God’s Will, symbolized by the figure of Titurel in the Arthurian legends. This same theme is reflected in the Course, in the sense that we can endlessly procrastinate if we attempt to study the Course with the ego and achieve mastery in form, instead of practicing what it says.
⁸“Seek but do not find” remains this world’s stern decree, and no one who pursues the world’s goals can do otherwise. (ACIM, M-13.5:8)
and:
You may complain that this course is not sufficiently specific for you to understand and use. ²Yet perhaps you have not done what it specifically advocates. ³This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application. (ACIM, T-11.VIII.5:1-3)
One of the more important things is to realize this, that Jesus presence in our lives is always in experience, in sometimes very subtle ways, and sometimes in very intense experiences. But experiences. The teaching is not in the words, but in between the words. The words point towards the experience, but the ego always drives form over content, and the tendency is to focus on the words, on the “holy book,” etc., which is self-defeating.
⁸Words can be helpful, particularly for the beginner, in helping concentration and facilitating the exclusion, or at least the control, of extraneous thoughts. ⁹Let us not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols. ¹⁰They are thus twice removed from reality. (ACIM, M-21.1:8-10)
Kaiser quotes both Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzifal, and the Gospel of John, about the truth of the way, the truth and the life, and the issue of being chosen. In von Eschenbach’s Parcifal there is a statement that says nobody can conquer the grail by force, unless God calls him. Kaiser adds to that the quote from the Gospel of John 6:44 “No-one can come to Me, unless the Father pulls him.” And, with the Course in hand, we can go further to clarify this:
¹⁰Sane perception induces sane choosing. ¹¹I cannot choose for you, but I can help you make your own right choice. ¹²“Many are called but few are chosen” should be, “All are called but few choose to listen.” ¹³Therefore, they do not choose right. ¹⁴The “chosen ones” are merely those who choose right sooner. ¹⁵Right minds can do this now, and they will find rest unto their souls. ¹⁶God knows you only in peace, and this is your reality.
In short we are all called, the question is if we are listening. Doing the Course with the ego will not work, for you will get trapped in the same way as what Jesus refers to as the “scribes and the Pharisees” in the Gospel tradition. Form over content. The words point to the Love that Jesus represents, but they are just the wrapper - words are but symbols of symbols, and twice removed from reality. This is why the teaching moments that we experience from time to time, is when we do have our meetings with Jesus in the experience and suddenly we realize we now understand for the first time what he was talking about. Those little moments are the true teaching moments. A lot of what JWK writes points to that realization.
In the symbolism of the Grail legends, the Grail cannot be found by the sword, and intellectually, as long as the ego runs the show, we can never “conquer,” the grail, just as much as there is no journey that will get us to salvation, for the very image of journey and of distance keeps validating the separation and thus the ego stays in charge. In Kaiser’s words in this essay:
Knight of the Holy Grail is not he, who refines his personality to a state of glory, but he whose personality is destroyed to a blanco, where by he merges into the BEING of Christ.
Eventually, this is the key lesson that we learn to let go of the ego’s meddling and constant judgments, the monkey mind, that keeps us trapped in the world. The ego cannot lead the way. It makes no sense to take our guidance from the thought that got us into the mess we are in.
⁴And it is very hard for you to realize it is not personally insulting that your contribution and the Holy Spirit’s are so extremely disproportionate. ⁵You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. ⁶Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. ⁷Salvation is easy just because it asks nothing you cannot give right now. (ACIM, T-18.IV.7:4-7)
Kaiser also revisits the confusion about the things Jesus said about people making themselves sex-less and the male and female merging into one, and when he comments:
The oft-cited word of Jesus, that there have been people who have made themselves sex-less for the sake of the Kingdom, in its mis-comprehension has become the motive for rejection of sex, which of course has created a lot of misfortune.
While we’re at it in terms of clearing up the understanding of the symbolism in the Grail legends, and how this is not about forcing anything, which is what the ego tries to do, always pursuing form over content, JWK takes a deep dive in the symbolism of the Chakras and Kundalini, all the while emphasizing that also here there may be observable phenomena, but they arrive as a result of an inner change, and it is silly to pursue a Kundalini experience, as if it meant anything, for the form alone means nothing. Thus Kaiser’s firm conclusion is that the changing of the life centers, which is the symbolic expression of accepting the Atonement and living from the Holy Spirit, versus living from the ego, is again not something that can be accomplished by will power. Doing it with our ego always means pursuing the form, and it makes the separation real and keeps us going around in circles forever. We become like the famous drunk looking for his keys under the street light and the passing police officer asks him why he is looking there, if he does not know where he lost them, and he answers with inexorable logic: for here there is light. He will be looking for a long time if the key is not right there!
Just like the miracles of ACIM are like these little teaching moments when we drop the hand of the ego and switch to the Holy Spirit instead, we gradually develop the trust to one day make the choice once and for all.
The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. ²This means you recognize that mind is the only creative level, and that its errors are healed by the Atonement. ³Once you accept this, your mind can only heal. ⁴By denying your mind any destructive potential and reinstating its purely constructive powers, you place yourself in a position to undo the level confusion of others. ⁵The message you then give to them is the truth that their minds are similarly constructive, and their miscreations cannot hurt them. ⁶By affirming this you release the mind from overevaluating its own learning device, and restore the mind to its true position as the learner. (ACIM, T-2.V.5:1-6)
Kaiser winds his way through the symbolism of a lot of the characters in the Grail literature, and along the way, there is a whole in depth section on the functioning of the chakras, including some Logia, i.e. messages channeled from Jesus, I assume via Ms. Hofmans, who was a very reliable channel in that regard. I do not feel qualified to say much about this for I am not very much at home in this subject matter, but it will be very meaningful to people who are more informed in these matters than I am.
Along the way, there is a sideswipe to medicine, on curing vs. healing, and how we tend to spend our time tending our wounds, instead of healing our problem. The curing of the wounds makes the error real, and keeps the problem alive. Think Byron Katie, on who would you be without your problems - we base our identities on them. Healing is of a different order. Thus we spend our lives keeping the problem alive, instead of healing, since we are afraid to deal with it. But we only become ready as the ego in us is diminished, and eventually “disappears into the nothingness from which it came:”
Although in truth the term sacrifice is altogether meaningless, it does have meaning in the world. ²Like all things in the world, its meaning is temporary and will ultimately fade into the nothingness from which it came when there is no more use for it. ³Now its real meaning is a lesson. ⁴Like all lessons it is an illusion, for in reality there is nothing to learn. ⁵Yet this illusion must be replaced by a corrective device; another illusion that replaces the first, so both can finally disappear. (ACIM, M-13.1:1-5)
What is remarkable is how much depth of symbolism has been with us in these legends, and we slowly may realize that the enlightened souls who we did recognize and maybe meet along the way were the ones who picked up on the teachings the words point to instead of getting lost in the stories. Inner experience, when we engage honestly with our inner work and try to tune our ‘ears’ to soundless voice of our inner teacher, can never fail, for God’s love is the attraction that will pull us through.