MYSTERIES OF THE HOLY GRAAL
IN MANIFESTATION AND
REMOVAL
By ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE

                                  I

                   THE INSTITUTION OF THE HALLOWS

IT is a very curious heaven which stands around the infancy of
romance-literature, and more than one warrant is required to
constitute a full title for the interpretation of the strange signs
and portents which are seen in some of its zones. The academies of
official learning are consecrated places, and those who have graduated
in other schools, and know well that they hold the higher authority,
must be the first to recognize and respect the unsleeping vigilance
and patience of students who are their colleagues and brothers in a
different sphere. In the study of archaic literature, the external
history of the texts and the criticism thereto belonging are in the
hands of official scholarship, and its authority is usually final; but
the inward spirit of the literature is sometimes an essence which
escapes the academical process. For example, the implicits of certain
books belonging to the cycle of the Holy Graal, as I have endeavoured
to express them, would seem to have eluded learning; but any school of
criticism which decides that these books do not put forward
extraordinary claims of the evasive kind, and do not so far contain
the suggestion of an interior meaning, are comparable to those who
should say that the effect does not presuppose a cause, and this of
necessity. According to those Lesser Histories which I have connected
with the name of Robert de Borron, the secret of the Graal, signifying
the super-substantial nourishment of man, was communicated by Christ
to His chosen disciple Joseph of Arimathaea, who, by preserving the
body of the Master after the Crucifixion, became an instrument of the
Resurrection. He laid it in the sepulchre, and thus sowed the seed
whence issued the archnatural body. On Ascension Day this was removed
from the world, but there remained the Holy Vessel, into which the
blood of the natural body had been received by Joseph; strangely
endued with the virtues of the risen Christ and the power of the Holy
Ghost, it sustained him, both spiritually and physically, during forty
years of imprisonment; and it was a sign of saving grace, instruction
and all wonder to the great company which he led subsequently
westward. He committed it in fine to another keeper, by whom it was
brought into Britain, and there, or otherwhere, certain lesser hallows
were added to the hallow-in-chief, and were held with it in the places
of concealment. Those which we meet with more frequently are four in
number, but the mystery is really one, since it is all assumed into
the Cup. It is understood that for us at least this Cup is a symbol,
seeing that the most precious of all vessels are not made with hands.
It is in such sense that the true soul of philosophy is a cup which
contains the universe. We shall understand also the ministry of
material sustenance, sometimes attributed to the Holy Graal, after
another manner than can be presumed within the offices of folklore. It
is for this reason that the old fable concerning the Bowl of Plenty,
as incorporated by the Graal Mystery, assumes a profound meaning. Some
things are taken externally; some are received within; but the food of
the body has analogies with that of the soul. So much may be said at
the moment of certain aspects which encompass the literature of the
Graal, as the hills stand round Jerusalem. The four Hallows are the
Cup, the Lance, the Sword and the Dish, paten or patella- these four,
and the greatest of these is the Cup.
    As all the hallows are therefore, in a certain sense, reducible to
a single hallow, so there are four epochs in the history of the Sacred
Vessel, and about these there is one question into which they are
resolved. The first epoch in the history is concerned with the origin
of the Vessel; the second gives us the place and circumstances of its
partial manifestation; the third tells us of things within and without
which led to its removal or recession; and the fourth epoch deals
ostensibly with its departure. The texts therefore purport to provide
the complete history of the Graal, including whence it came and
whither it has gone. In the present article I shall deal with these
four epochs, regarded as the institution of the Hallows, the
hereditary keepers of the Graal, the enchantments of Britain in
connexion with a wounded keeper; and, lastly, the close of those times
which the texts term adventurous, since when there has been silence on
earth in respect of the Holy Vessel. If there is a secret intention
pervading the entire literature, it must be held to reside in these
epochs; their consideration should manifest it in part, and should
enable us to deal, at the close of the whole research, with the final
problem, being that which is really signified by the departure of the
Graal.
    Each of the Hallows has its implied mystery, besides that which
appears openly in its express nature, and as we know that the
mysteries of God are mysteries of patience and compassion, we shall be
prepared to find in those of the Graal legend that even their offices
of judgment are formularies of concealed mercy. They are therefore
both declared and undeclared, that is to say, understood; and as there
are certain Hallows which only appear occasionally, so there are
suggestions and inferences concerning others which do not appear at
all. The Lance, as I have said, is that which was used the Roman
soldier Longis to pierce the side of Christ at the Crucifixion, or it
is this at least according to the general tradition. Of the Sword
there are various stories: it is (a) that which was used to behead St.
John the Baptist, in which case we can understand its place as a
sacred object; (b) that of the King and Prophet David, committed by
Solomon to a wonderful ship which went voyaging and voyaging
throughout the ages, till it should be seen by Galahad, the last scion
of the Royal House of Israel; or (c) it is simply an instrument
preserved in connexion with a legend of vengeance, in which case it
was brought over from folklore and is nothing to the purpose of the
Graal.
   The Dish is more difficult to specify, because its almost
invariable appearance in the pageant of the high procession is
accompanied by no intelligible explanation concerning it, and although
it has also its antecedents in folklore, its mystic explanation, if
any, must be sought very far away. Like the rest of the Hallows, it is
described with many variations in the different books. It may be a
salver of gold and precious stones, set on a silver cloth and carried
by two maidens, a goodly plate of silver, or a little golden vessel,
and this simply, except in the great prose Perceval which, as it
multiplies the Hallows so it divides their ministry; but here, as
elsewhere, the Dish does not apparently embody the feeding properties
which are one aspect of the mystery. As to these, in speaking of
everything shortly, which I am compelled to do, I can state only that
what was filled was the heart of man and what was refected was the
entire soul. At the close of our studies we shall find a better
explanation concerning it than that of antecedents in folklore, though
it will acknowledge these antecedents.

                                  II

                  THE HEREDITARY KEEPERS OE THE HALLOWS.

    The true legitimacies are for the most part in exile, or otherwise
with their rights in abeyance. The real canons of literature can be
uttered only behind doors, or in the secrecy of taverns. The secrets
of the great orthodoxies are very seldom communicated, even to epopts
on their advancement. The highest claims of all are not so much
wanting in warrant as wanting those spokesmen who are wllling to utter
them. We shall not be surprised therefore to find that the custodians
of the Holy Graal, which was a mystery of all secrecy, "there were no
sinner can be," despite the kingly titles ascribed to them, abode in
the utmost seclusion.
    Let us seek in the first instance to realize the nature and place
of that castle or temple which, according to the legend, was for a
period of centuries the sanctuary of the Sacred Vessel and of the
other hallowed objects connected therewith. We have seen that the
Vessel itself was brought from Salem to Britain, and it follows from
the historical texts that the transit had a special purpose, one
exp1anation of which will be found ready to our hand when the time
comes for its consideration. The castle is described after several
manners, the later romances being naturally the more specific, and we
get in fine a geographical location. In some of the earlier legends
the place is so withdrawn that it is neither named nor described. Even
the late Merlin texts say merely that the Holy Vessel is in the west,
that is, in the land of Vortigern, or that it abides in Northumbria.
On the other hand, the temple in the German cycle is completely
spiritualized; it has almost ceased to be a house made with hands,
though the description on the external side is almost severe in its
simplicity. In the Chretien portion of the Conte del Graal, Perceval
discovers the castle in a valley, wherein it is well and beautifully
situated, having a four-square tower with a principal hall in front of
it, while a bridge leads up to the chief entrance. The section which
is referable to Gautier de Doulens describes it as situated on a
causeway tormented by the sea. The building is of vast extent and is
inhabited by a great folk. In a word, we are already in the region of
imaginative development and adornment. The prose Lancelot is in better
correspondence with Chretien, representing the castle as situated at
the far end of a great valley, with water encircling it. The most
decorative account is, however, in the great prose Perceval, where the
castle is reached by means of three bridges which are horrible to
cross. Three great waters run below them, the first bridge being a
bow-shot in length and not more than a foot in width. This is the
Bridge of the Eel; but it proved wide and a fair thoroughway in the
act of crossing. The second bridge is of ice, feeble and thin, and is
arched high above the water. It is transformed on passing into the
richest and strangest ever seen, and its abutments are full of images.
The third and last bridge stands on columns of marble. Beyond it there
is a sculptured gate, giving upon a flight of steps, which leads to a
spacious hall painted with figures in gold. When Perceval visited the
castle a second time he found it encompassed by a river, which came
from the Earthly Paradise; it proceeded through the forest beyond as
far as the hold of a hermit, where it found peace in the earth. To the
castle itself there were three names attributed: The Castle of Eden,
the Castle of Joy and the Castle of Souls. In conclusion as to this
matter, the location, in fine, is Corbenic, which our late redaction
of the Grand St. Graal mentions specifically, and which, all doubtful
clouds of enchantment notwithstanding, looms almost as a landmark in
the Lancelot and the Quest of Galahad. So did the place of the
mysteries, from a dim and vague allusion, become

          A wilderness of building, sinkng far
          And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth
          Far sinking into splendour.

We can scarcely say whether that which had begun on earth was assumed
into the spiritual place, or whether the powers and virtues from above
descended to brood thereon.
    I have left over from this consideration all reference to another
spiritual place, in Sarras on the confines of Egypt, where the Graal,
upon its outward journey, dwelt for a period and whither, after
generations and centuries, it also returned for a period. As this was
not the point of its origin, so it was not that of its rest; it was a
stage in the passage from Salem and a stage in the transit to heaven.
What was meant by this infidel city, which was yet so strangely
consecrated, is hard to determine, but its consideration belongs to a
later stage. It is too early again to ask what are the implicits of
the great prose Perceval when it identifies the Castle of the Graal
with the Earthly Paradise and the Place of Souls, but we may note it
as a sign of intention, and we shall meet with it in another connexion
where no one has thought to look for it.
    Such was the abode of the Hailows; and those who dwelt therein,
the succession of Graal Keepers, belong to that order which we should
expect in such precincts. Joseph of Arimathaea, the first guardian of
the Vessel, passes from the scene before it has found its sanctuary.
According to the Lesser Chronicles, he was succeeded by his son-in-law
Brons; but according to the Greater Chronicles, as I have termed them,
he was succeeded by his own son, the second Joseph, who is unknown to
the other cycle. The Lesser Chronicles bridge the centuries between
that generation which saw the Ascension of Christ and that which was
to behold the flower of chivalry in Arthur, by means of a single
keeper, who was to remain on earth till he had seen his grandson
Perceval and had communicated to him the secret words pronounced at
the sacrament of the Graal, which he had learried from Joseph.
Perceval is the third who counts in the line of election to complete
the human trinity of Graal guardians, reflecting, after their own
mystic manner, those Three who bear witness in Heaven, namely, The
Divine Trinity. To accomplish the hero's geniture, Alain, the son of
Brons, although he had accepted celibacy, married. in some undeclared
manner, and it was as his issue that Perceval was born in the fullness
of the adventurous times.
    From one point of view, the succession in respect of the Greater
Chronicles involves fewer difficulties, because it exhibits a
rudimentary sense of chronology and develops in consequence a long
line of successive custodians. They are, however, quite shadowy and
exist only to bridge the gulf of time. It serves no purpose to
enumerate them, and I will speak therefore only of the alternative
keepers who were in evidence during the days of quest. We have thus
passed at one step all that period represented by the Lesser and
Greater Holy Graal, by the Early History of Merlin and by the reign of
Vortigern. Nor shall we be retarded by the later Merlin, according to
either recension, after which there are only the quests, including the
romance of Lancelot, but so far only as it enters into the time of the
quests. On the one side, there is Brons, to whom succeeded Perceval,
at the close of a life of search; on the other, there is the King
Pelles, lord of the Castle Corbenic, whose daughter Helayne gave
Galahad as issue to Lancelot, himself a lineal descendant of the King
reigning at Sarras in the days of Joseph of Arimathaea and the first
flight of the Graal. Galahad was the last keeper recognized by this
cycle, and he seems to have been appointed only for the purpose of
removing the Vessel. It was: <I>Ite, missa est,</I> and <I>est
consummatum,</I> when he died and rose to the stars.

                                 III

         THE ENCHANTMENTS OF BRITAIN AND THE KING'S WOUNDING.

    We have seen that, according to the High History of Perceval, the
great and secret sanctuary gave upon the Earthly Paradise, even as the
visible world gives upon the world unseen; and there will be no
question for us that its external splendour signifies the soul within,
even as the outward beauties of Nature are the vestures of the high
graces which communicate under indefectible warrants to those
instituted sacraments which exceed Nature.  This manner of doctrine,
put forward evasively in story-books, while the Orthodox Church stood
aloof but vigilant and dubious, is enough in the way of wonders; but
we have now to consider how a horror fell upon the Secret House of God
and a subtle work of sorcery on the world which encompassed it. No one
knew better than the old makers of romance that the places of
enchantment are places of high seeming and not of realities situated
in time and space; they were not therefore dealing in common legendary
lore; but were plying, if I may so express it, some secret trade,
which may perhaps disclose its nature in the light of events
externally, or, this failing, in that more obscure light which shines
about the precincts of other coincident mysteries- a possibility which
bears the greater aspect of likelihood because the fact that the
Graal, throughout the romances, is uniformly described as a mystery
must render it a tolerable thesis that it can be explained by other
mysteries, if any such were prevalent at the same time in the same
countries of Europe.
    The nature of the horror within, which I have termed already a
certain cloud upon the sanctuary, is described after several manners.
In one cycle, the flesh, which at no time profits anything, has
smitten deeply into the life of the Keeper; in another, he is unable
to die till he has seen the last scion of his house and has
communicated to him certain secret words; in yet another, which on the
surface is void of meaning, he is suffering more especially from his
great age; he has alternatively received a dolourous stroke from a
sword-thrust; and as a final explanation there is that of a mystic
question which should have been asked and was not for a period of many
years. These things are reflected upon the order without, sometimes,
as it would seem, only in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle;
more generally on the whole of Britain; while in rare instances the
world itself is involved, at least by imputation. The quality of the
enchantment is sometimes a suspension of Nature in her common
operations; sometimes it approaches a frenzy which leads knights to
destroy each other, which rifles maids and matrons, and so forth. In
the legends of Perceval and Gawain the healing depends on the asking,
in fine, of the question, which restores Nature to her proper course
and the sense of sanity to chivalry. In the great quest of Galahad,
owing to continuous editing, there is some confusion regarding the
King's wounding; the enchantment without is replaced by the notion of
certain times of adventure; and there is no interrogation which can be
identified with that of the other traditions. There is, however, a
dual healing, that of the Keeper of the Graal in those versions of the
text which show clearly that he was wounded, and that of another
personage, whose sin dates back to the first times of the legend,
being one of unprepared intrusion into the most secret mysteries of
the Graal. We have otherwise the whole process of the Quest lifted
into a high spiritual region, the implicits of which will provide us
at a later stage with the master-key of the mystery.

                                 IV

                     THE REMOVAL OF THE HALLOWS.

    A distinction in the Graal literature between Quest versions and
versions of Early History is known to scholarship in England, and
though it is not quite definite in itself, it can be adapted in our
interest. Speaking of the first class, the keynote of the Perceval
quest is the suppression of a certain word and this, as we shall see,
at first causes dire misery, postponing the advancement of the hero;
but in the end it makes perhaps for his further recognition and
ensures his more perfect calling, so that he is crowned in fine as he
would not have been crowned at first. On the other hand, the keynote
of the historical series, to make use of the expression in a sense
that is not usually attached to it, is: A, the suppression or
concealment of that potent sacramental formula, in the absence of
which, as we have seen already, the office of the Christian ministry
is not indeed abrogated but is foreshortened or substituted, so that
there is something of an extra-valid character wanting to the external
sanctuaries; B, the removal, cessation, or assumption of a certain
school of ordination which held from heaven the highest warrants, but
itself ordained no one; and the substitution thereafter of some other
mode of succession, venerable enough in its way and the next surviving
best after the abrogation of the old, but not the high actuality of
all, not the evidence of things unseen made physically and spiritually
manifest as the term of faith.
    Seeing now that the great sacraments do not pass away, it must
follow that in the removal of the Holy Graal, as it is narrated in the
texts, we are in the presence of another mystery of intention which
appears the most obscure of all. The cloud that dwelt on the
sanctuary, the inhibition which was on the world without, the hurt
almost past healing which overtook the hereditary keeper, are ample
evidence in themselves that evil had entered into the holy place,
despite all the warrants which it held and all the graces and hallows
which dwelt therein. With one curious exception, the keeper was, in
fine, healed; the enchantment was also removed; and the achievement of
the last Warden, at least in some instances, must have been designed,
after a certain manner and within a certain measure, to substitute a
greater glory for the cloud on the secret sanctuary. All this
notwithstanding, the end of the great quests, the term of the whole
mystery, was simply the removal thereof. It occurs in each romance
under different circumstances, and it was not, as we shall learn,
always of an absolute kind. In the Conte del Graal it is said that it
was taken away, possibly to heaven, a statement which also obtains in
respect of the alternative ending supplied by Gerbert; in the Didot
Perceval it was seen no more; in the great prose Perceval it was
distributed, so far as we can tell, with the other Hallows, to certain
hermits, and it ceased simply to manifest; in Wolfram the whole
question is left open in perpetuity, for at the close of the poem the
keeper remains alive; in the Titurel of Albert von Schaffenberg the
Vessel was carried eastward into the dubious realm of Prester John,
and there apparently it remains; in the quest of Galahad it is assumed
by Heaven itself, and the last keeper followed; but, in spite of this,
the lost recension, as represented, faithfully or otherwise, by the
Welsh Quest, says that though it was not seen so opeuly, it was seen
once by Sir Gawain, the least prepared and least warranted of all the
Graal seekers, whose quest, moreover, was for the most part rather
accidental than intended.
    Speaking now from the mystic standpoint, the removal of the Holy
Graal has in a certain sense the characteristics of an obscure
vengeance. The destruction of the external order would appear to have
been decreed. The Graal is carried away and its custodians are
translated. The removal certifies the withdrawal of an object which we
know, mystically speaking, is never taken away. In respect of its
imputed removal, it is taken thither where it belongs; it is the same
story as that of the Lost Word in Masonry. It is that which in
departing hence draws after it all that belongs thereto. In other
words, it goes before the cohort of election as the Pillars of Fire
and Cloud before Israel in the Wilderness. The root and essence of the
matter can be put shortly in these words: The Graal was not taken away,
but it went to its own place, which is that of every man.
    The Galahad Quest closes the canon of the literature. Other
romances have said that the Sacred Vessel was not seen so openly, or
that it was heard of no more, or that it had passed into concealment,
and so forth; but this crowning legend carries it into complete
transcendence, amidst appropriate ceremonial, though otherwise it
leaves the Arthurian sacrament sufficiently unfinished.  That is to
say, it is still to be communicated for the last time to the whole
world on the return of Arthur. The Graal is in hiding, like Arthur;
but the Graal is, like Arthur, to return. Meanwhile, the chivalry of
the world is broken, and the kingdom is destroyed. The master of all
chivalry has received in his turn a dolourous stroke and is removed
through a mist of enchantment, under dubious wardens, to the land of
the setting sun, even into an exile of the ages. But he also is to be
in fine healed and to return, though at what time we know not, for
centuries pass as days, within the certain knowledge of Ogier the
Dane. So much as this may perhaps be hazarded on the point of time,
namely, that the King's rendering shall be when the King's dark barge,
sailing westward, like the lighter craft of Hiawatha, shall meet with
the Graal, which set forth eastward, since the Graal must heal the
King, and these shall meet truly when justice and mercy kiss. The
Graal is not therefore lost, but gone before.

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Scanned from the periodical "The Occult Review", Vol. V, No. 4; April,
1907. Formatted and corrected by hand.