Grail texts suggest a hidden current briefly surfacing then disappearing, seemingly due to an obstacle or danger. These texts arose within a short time frame, from the late twelfth to the early thirteenth century. This period aligns with the medieval tradition’s peak: the Ghibelline movement, knighthood, the Crusades, the Knights Templar, and Thomism’s synthesis of pre-Christian legacies adopted by Arab civilization alongside a similar knightly and mystical blossoming of Aristotelianism.
The Grail romances’ popularity was followed by sudden oblivion. By the early thirteenth century, European writing about the Grail ceased.
A later revival in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries yielded altered and stereotypical forms that rapidly declined. This initial Grail tradition’s syncope coincides with the Church’s heightened repression of perceived “heretical” trends.
The revival occurred after the Knights Templar’s destruction, followed by the more clandestine organization of related influences, particularly in Italy, France, and partially in England, which related to the tradition of the Grail.
PERCEVAL, AVALON, JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA
Avalon appears explicitly in *Perceval li Gallois* as the location where the Latin book containing the Grail story was found, in a “sacred house atop adventurous lands” where “Arthur and Guinevere are buried.” Robert de Borron’s text describes Avalon as a country in the Far West, a destination for some of Joseph of Arimathea’s knights, like Petrus and Alain, on a divine mission. Petrus must go “where his heart tells him to:’ namely, to ”Avalon’s valleys,” until someone capable of reading a divine letter announces the Grail’s power. The Western Avalon equates to the “White Island,” where Joseph of Arimathea and the Grail travel, sustained by the Grail itself, as recounted by Gautier; attacked by enemies, they are “nourished” by the Grail. Joseph of Arimathea is said to be buried in the *insula Avallonis*, often confused with Glastonbury. This island mirrors the destination of many Grail heroes, the site of their adventures and trials, echoing the Nordic-Celtic “polar” symbol of the primordial center as a rotating island.
This center is the “promised land” of the Grail, the source, destination, or sought-after location of the artifact. The attributed journeys are symbolic contacts with forces or centers of the primordial tradition. In the *Grand Saint Graal*, England is reached by Joseph of Arimathea and his knights supernaturally, facing a challenge of crossing waters where only the pure and elect succeed.
Wolfram von Eschenbach’s tradition connects to Avalon: Mazadan, founder of the Grail king dynasty, is led to Feimurgan by Ter-de-Ia-Schoye, identifiable as Morgan of the Arthurian cycle, residing in the Land of Joy, another name for the Western Island, sometimes applied to the Grail kingdom itself. The theme of a primordial tradition linked to Avalon, requiring heroic resurrection, is significant in Robert de Borron’s legend: Percival learns the Rich Fisherman (often a title of Joseph of Arimathea) is his father, divinely ordered to travel to the “far Western lands, where the sun sets,” sustained until Alain’s son proves himself the world’s best knight.
Potentates build a large part of their beliefs upon this heresy. We have often mentioned that the mystery religion based on gnosticism and initiation has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ, but pre-existed Him. The place where these forms of idolatry began after the flood was Babylon; it is the mystery cult of the Egyptians and of the Phoenicians.
Joseph of Arimathea, a pagan “noble knight,” secured Jesus’ body from Pontius Pilate after seven years of faithful service. He filled a cup, sometimes identified as the Grail, with blood from Jesus’ side.
Imprisoned in a pillar-like house within a swamp, Joseph received the sacred cup in a vision, sustaining him until his release, potentially forty years later.
After baptism and anointing as the first Christian bishop with a royal and priestly oil, destined to consecrate British kings until Uther Pendragon, Joseph journeyed miraculously to “White Island” (England).
Prior to this, Joseph and his companions experienced symbolic adventures emphasizing the island motif. Perceval le Gallois mentions Joseph’s pre-Crucifixion visit to the island where Percival would also travel. Robert de Borron references Joseph’s mysterious ancestors, whose service was a prerequisite for joining an order allegedly predating both Jesus and Christianity.
These cults demonstrate plasticity, adapting and infiltrating cultures and religions. This is a key aspect worth repeating.
Celtic influences and initiation mystery tales began to permeate Christianity.
Britannia, linked to the White Island and Arthur’s kingdom, becomes the Grail’s promised land, its primary place of manifestation. An English center, Glastonbury or Salisbury, identified with Avalon, safeguards the Grail narrative’s origins.
The Grail’s sustenance of knights journeying to Avalon, who then suffer hardship, may reflect a decline in the ancient Nordic tradition’s visible forms.
This tradition, as a Grail tradition, is reborn through contact with Christianity in northern Europe.
This relates to the spells from which the Grail is said to free England, and potentially the world; Arthur’s court’s decline following the Dolorous Stroke; and the Round Table knights’ pursuit of the Grail, an adventure absent from older Nordic-Celtic texts.
THE REGAL DINASTY HERESY
The Grail quest, in its Christianized form, is absent from early orthodox Christian texts, and the Grail tradition appears largely disconnected from the apostolic-Roman tradition.
Joseph of Arimathea, the progenitor of the Grail’s royalty, receives investiture directly from Christ, establishing a regal dynasty independent of the Church of Rome, ultimately leading to King Arthur’s Nordic kingdom and, according to Wolfram von Eschenbach, converging in one branch with the symbolic kingdom of Prester John, the “king of kings.”
Although ecclesiastical literature acknowledged Joseph of Arimathea and his imprisonment, it remained silent on the Grail, and early Briton texts, with a possible interpolated exception, do not depict Joseph as a Christian missionary to England.
Helinand, the first chronicler to relate the story of the Grail, defined it as a wide, somewhat deep dish used to serve delicacies to the wealthy, adding that he could find the history only in Gallic scripts held by certain princes, not in Latin writings. In 1260, Jakob van Maerlant dismissed the Grail story as a fabrication, citing the Church’s ignorance or deliberate avoidance of it.
THE PAGAN ROOTS
Joseph’s cup, while sometimes equated with the Last Supper cup, lacks such association in Christian tradition. Even as the Grail takes on a eucharistic function in later texts, Robert de Borron’s reluctance to define it and the presence of secret, unrepeatable words entrusted only to Joseph of Arimathea suggest a separate mystery from the Catholic rite, officiated by non-clergy with a symbolism and esotericism alien to Christianity.
Identifying the Grail as Jesus’ Last Supper cup and the spear as the crucifixion spear raises questions about whether these are merely borrowed images expressing a different content rooted in non-Christian traditions reflecting a non-Christian climate.
Wolfram von Eschenbach cites “Kyot the Proven’ral,” who found Grail legends in pagan texts decoded through magic. Flegatanis, of Solomon’s lineage, wrote the Grail story found in these texts based on astrological knowledge, reading the Grail’s name in the stars and revealing secrets with fear. The Grail story possesses supernatural, secret, initiatory elements.
Robert de Borron attributes its source to an unreadable “great book” of Grail mysteries; Perceval Ii Gallais states the story should be withheld from those who wouldn’t understand. De Borron insists the Grail story was “never started by a mortal man,” its transformations in vision inexpressible, its sacramental secrets revealed only to the worthy. Vauchier warns against inappropriate Grail discussions, noting that speaking of the Grail’s mystery induces trembling and complexion change.
Master Blihis, according to Chrétien de Troyes’ Elucidation, oversaw a secret tradition, “For, if Master Blihis does not lie, no one must tell the secret.” The Grand Saint Graal, a later, Christianized text, replaced the Grail’s original secret and mysterious nature with mysticism, claiming Christ wrote the Grail book and revealed it in a vision.
Approach requires ascetic preparation and purification; reading it brings apparitions, and angels transport the spirit to contemplate the Trinity. Opening the Grail’s casket allows direct contact with Christ. Despite the text’s warnings of blindness or combustion for those who approach too closely, the Grail retains its original meaning as a mysterium tremendum, distinct from Christian pathos.
