Introduction
“Visita interiora terrae, rectificando invenies occultam lapidem”
[Visit the interior of the earth. By rectification you will find the hidden stone]
It is by now well known in most spiritual circles that the quest for the Holy Grail, which Percival undertook in the powerful Grail epic, is not an outer journey but a metaphor for an inner journey; a path to self-realization. The claim, however, that the vessel(s) used in hermetism corresponds to earth, the human body and therefore the symbol of the actual Grail and the stone – Lapidem – being what often is referred to as ‘the spiritual heart’ or ‘the eye of the heart’ is not entirely correct, and even though we may be referring to the same divine knowledge; the different interpretations having the same core of truth, it needs to be adjusted. It is true that ‘the hidden stone’ is what often in various ancient traditions is referred to as ‘The Eye of the Heart or ‘The Spiritual Heart’. The heart is the sanctuary or crypt of the temple, portrayed as beneath the ground in the crypt of ancient temples,1 but the search for the Grail is obviously not the search for the body, because the Grail IS ‘The Hidden Stone’; ‘The Eye of the Heart’. Let us be very specific.
First of all, when looking at the different versions of the Grail epic, the Grail has various forms: a chalice (Robert de Boron), a disc or platter (Chrétien de Troyes), a stone (Wolfram von Eschenbach) or just a divine presence. The common features are: A physical object that has a divine presence. If the claim that the Grail is the body; that the human – as a physical being – because of the inner stone has a divine presence, then yes, we could say that the Grail is the body, but then again, the outer journey in the outer landscape is obviously not the quest for the body, but an inner journey into the inner landscape; the quest for the soul, or rather ‘The Eye of the Soul’, that which will make us able to become one with the original source; sometimes referred to as being one with God. It is also important to keep in mind that the Grail has its origin in the legends and myths of the pagan traditions, and therefore is much older than the popular Christian version, where the chalice from the last supper is the container of the blood of Christ, acquired and collected by Joseph d’Arimathie, which has become the “official” and “original” version today.
Secondly, The expression Saint Grail or Sang Real, used in modern best-sellers is not without significance here, but the interpretations needs to be corrected in order to avoid further confusion. If the physical heart is the life giving force that provides the human body with the blood of life, then as a metaphor, in the process of self-realization i.e. lifting the veil that covers ‘The Eye of the Heart’; The Hidden Stone, one simultaneously “cleanses” the blood, which as a consequence will “cleanse” the human body; the divine spiritual force from the the Lapidem purifies the whole inner being and we are able to receive ‘enlightenment’, since the divine is much stronger than the physical. It is for this reason Perceval says that the Grail calls him; the divinity in his blood calls him to depart on his journey; his chosen task to find the holy Grail and in the end heals Amfortas and restores the kingdom, which is something we will return to later on. Only the most noble of souls will try to walk this “royal” path and perform this “royal” art, which in the end will lead to Self-realization. If a man reaches this level of enlightenment, then he could no longer be called Human, but ‘Super-Human’ and this would then indicate that he has returned to his original state, the realm he originally belongs to; the Nirvana of buddhism and therefore we can say that he has purified his blood, therefore this Sang Real – Royal Blood.
The eye of the heart is a small part belonging to the next world, and it is what is expressed in Hinduism as Ātmān, which is the Self, which is a part of Brahman the divine essence. There is an interesting parallel to this in the hungarian language, where the word ’ember’, is the word for ‘man’ and in Hungarian the English word for ’ember’ is ‘szikra’. When dividing the word ‘szikra’ into two syllables, we get ‘szik’, which means ‘seed’ and ‘ra’, which means ‘light’, ‘radiation’, ‘sun’, ‘God’. Szikra – Ember. Man is a spark that is belonging to and is being cast out of the big fire. This clearly shows that the very relationship between the words ’ember’ and ‘szikra’ indicates that human beings have a divine origin, and therein lies also the concept of the fall of Man. The true origin of the hungarian people and their language cannot be dealt with further in this post, since it would be to digress to far from the original subject.
In old-time radios, an actual crystal stone was used, together with the other basic necessary components, earth and antenna, to create a radio. As hard as it may seem, a radio is the mechanic version of a human being, designed to be able to receive and to transmit information. Earth is the body, the antenna is the mental organ and the crystal stone is ‘the hidden stone’; ‘the eye of the heart’. It takes great knowledge, skill and dedication to put a technical advanced, mechanical devise, in the form of a radio together, to make the different parts operate together as one, but so does a Self-realized Man. If and when this great work is done, we have purified ourselves in order to be able to receive enlightenment; to receive divine knowledge. In the process of realization, body, soul and mind are operating together as one, and is vibrating at the very highest frequency and thus we are able to receive “information”, but if we are able to receive information, then naturally, we are also able to send information….
- Introduction to Magic, Julius Evola and the UR Group, Inner traditions int. 2001 [↩]