I knew nothing else about the Grail, but then I picked up a young technician from Air France as a hitchhiker, and he told me about the Cathars. Then I myself had these dramatic encounters with the ravens on Puivert, my visions with the dying whales, and suddenly I was right in the middle of it. The land itself, the Pyrenees and especially their French side, are saturated with this vibration. Once a sensitive person has gotten into it, once they have tasted it, they can detect it everywhere. I have always been interested in old fairy tales and legends, because they contain many valuable references to ancient cultures, to magic, to the gods, to mystical phenomena. The Grail kept coming up again and again. I have a flair for approaching seemingly random strangers who then have exactly the old information I’m looking for.
Back in Germany, I found an old edition of Otto Rahn’s “Crusade against the Grail”. After that I read medieval legends and traditions. My images and suspicions became clearer that the Grail story had a true core. Other extraordinary events occurred at various Cathar castles, and in the village of Monsegur a village tavern appeared and soon disappeared again.
An article I wrote on the Grail appeared in the magazine “Rätselhafte Phänomene” in 1990. In the Middle Ages, people were convinced of the magical power of the Grail. Its fascination lives on to this day. Numerous medieval poems tell of the Grail. It is a mysterious, sacred object that bestows earthly and heavenly happiness on its owners, but which only the pure, the chosen can attain. The oldest known versions of the legend of the Grail date back to the 12th century. The story of the Grail appears to be a very old and widespread legend, which can be found in slightly different ways among various ancient peoples. There are references to Celtic and Germanic roots, but also to oriental stories. Of course, this story, like many others, was annexed by the Christians and rewritten in their sense. There is no doubt that this legend, with the content it conveys and passes on, is one of the few positive stories of early medieval Christianity.
The oldest text is by the French minstrel Chrétien de Troyes from around 1180. The unfinished work is called “Perceval – Li Conte del Graal”. Another Grail story was written by Robert de Borón around 1200, “Estoire Du Saint Graal”.
Basically, the work depicts a young knight’s search for enlightenment in the turmoil of the times. And when he no longer expects it, he ends up in a mystical castle. Monsalvache Castle is somehow hidden in time, or in another world, and only the naive, intuitive mystic can track it down. The young knight Perceval arrives at the mysterious castle. The lord of the castle is called the “Fisher King”, a reference to the symbol of the early Christians, the fish. Jesus supposedly said to his disciples, “I will make you fishers of men.” A reference to the fact that they were to go on a journey as teachers and find spiritually gifted people and teach them using his methods. The king is wounded by a severe wound in his side, similar to Jesus, and can neither die nor live freely. He is in constant pain, but the Grail keeps him alive.
Perceval witnesses a strange performance. While he sits silently by the sick king, a young man walks past with a bloody lance. Presumably this refers to the lance with which Jesus’ side was opened on the cross to prove that he was dead. They are followed by young men with candlesticks and a row of beautiful virgins dressed in white. One of them carries the Grail.
Perceval wants to know what is going on, but does not dare to open his mouth without the king addressing him. Everyone except the king sits down at the table to eat. Some say that the whole goblet was carved out of a huge green emerald. A shining ribbon runs around the top of the large golden chalice, which is set with many precious stones. A message appears on this ribbon, probably for anyone who is ready for it. And miraculously, delicious food appears on the table. Perceval has no opportunity to speak to the king after all.
The next morning, the castle is deserted. As Perceval leaves the castle, the drawbridge lifts behind him of its own accord. When he looks around shortly afterwards, the castle has disappeared. He was in the right frame of mind to find the entrance, but now the energy has shifted and everything is hidden again. It is only much later that a teacher makes him realize that he should have asked about the king’s suffering. Then he would have broken the spell, the old guardian of the Grail could die, and he would have become his successor. But perhaps Perceval didn’t want to live in this castle and guard the Grail for a small eternity?
Many stories are known of people coming to lonely inns, houses or castles at night and in emergency situations, finding refuge there, being entertained, and waking up the next morning in a meadow or in a ruin. Several of these stories are reported from the Giant Mountains in Silesia and in connection with the old nature spirit “Rübezahl” = Odin. We know that people have a 7th sense that protects them from danger. They are out and about at night, come to the edge of a ravine or a bog, and in their illusions they find a safe refuge instead of falling or sinking into the swamp. When daylight returns, they recognize the danger. These mysterious rescues are often associated with nature spirits who help us, as well as the spirits of the deceased, e.g. in a burnt down house. At the threshold of death, the boundaries between reality and mystical rescue are blurred.
Let us note that percé val in French means “to penetrate the valley”, or to cut open the valley (val), i.e. to find the hidden entrance, the entrance to the castle of Montsalvache. Mont (mountain) salve (greet) vache (cow). This mysterious name can therefore be translated as the mountain on which the special sacred cow is greeted. This is probably a reference to the ancient bull and cow cults, e.g. the goddess Hathor, the goddess of fertility and success. This story, which was annexed by the Christians, is therefore a deeply hidden mystery story of the Celtic natives.
It is about a tantric initiation cult. Percé-val can just as well mean that the young knight is to penetrate a woman, a ritual union that was just as common in Celtic times as it was in the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean region. The bloody spear can be a symbol for the penis that has just deflowered a virgin. And the mystical chalice is a symbol of the female powers of creation, which can bring forth anything we can imagine.
It is certainly no coincidence that the minnesingers of all people took up the story of the Grail. Although they sang diligently about “pure love”, meaning a platonic, completely spiritualized love, this does not alter the fact that the cult of the minnesingers had strong erotic aspects. It was the artistic expression of deep psychological needs between cultivated men and women in a dramatic and dogmatic time.
The idea of setting the table then became popular. It is surely just a wish of poor people who would have been happy to simply fill their table without any effort.
It is quite different with the message, very bizarre for the Middle Ages, that a band of light ran around the top of the large chalice, on which characters appeared. For us today, continuous text is quite normal, but around 1100? Perhaps it wasn’t “shining gemstones” on the chalice at all, but LEDs? And who controlled the whole thing? As crazy as it may seem, the continuous text makes me wonder whether the Grail was an alien artifact that somehow ended up in human hands. For Starship Enterprise, food replicators are quite normal.
The German minnesinger Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote his “Parzival” between 1200 and 1210, referring to Chrétien de Troyes and Kyot, which presumably meant Guiot de Provines. In his work, the Grail was once guarded by angels. Angels have often been symbols for visitors from outer space. Only the chosen ones can find the distant castle, where a community of knights has formed to protect it. Names and messages for those called to the Order of the Knights of the Grail appear in flowing script on the chalice. The Knights of the Grail became Knights Templar and later Rosicrucians.
Our current knowledge is largely based on the “younger Titurel” by Alfred von Scharfenberg, who turned the fragments of his teacher Wolfram von Eschenbach into a novel around 1270. The Grail Castle is said to be a hidden earthly paradise. The Castle of the Holy Grail is said to be in the Pyrenees. Richard Wagner adopted this in his stage play “Parzival”.
Spanish legend says that the Grail was brought from Rome to Spain during the persecution of Christians. In reality, however, it was brought to safety from the orthodox Christians around Peter and Paul by the 3 Marys, who had succeeded Christ, and taken to the Celts. They hid him in their temple to the sun, Monsegur, in the secret castle of Monsalvache.
Today it is hard to imagine that around 1000 AD this region was not yet completely Catholic. A few wealthy Cathars of free faith bought the mountain and the fortress of Monsegur from a Celtic prince. They expanded the Temple of the Sun of Belenus into the fortress that we can still recognize today from the outer walls.
