MYSTICAL MENTORS “
cniud fo ae 7 otne rm pg
Afe h a nee h al cryn h ri,
tr se hd etrd te hl arig te gal
te ro a o bihl lu iae ht te cnls ls hi rline lk tr
we h u ie, o h on” hn te sn rss r te mo.
If all this is an accurate interpretation of the Grail sym- bolism, it would be fair to ask why comets were so important to the authors of the Grail literature. To try and arrive at an answer to this question let’s consider the setting of the stories. They generally revolve around the exploits of various knights of King Arthur’s round table such as Perceval, Gawain, Galahad and Lancelot. Now it is accepted by many scholars that the round table itself is an astronomical allegory, representing the zodiacal circle and the plane of the ecliptic with the twelve seats standing for the twelve signs of the zodiac. The quest for the Grail was the quest to restore the debilitated kingdom to fertility and productiveness by healing the wounded Grail King.
Confusingly, however, this king is given various names throughout the stories. In Chretien’s Perceval he is called simply the Fisher King. In Robert de Boron’s Joseph of Arimathea he is called Bron. This is significant in that it invokes the figure of Bran the Blessed from the medieval Welsh prose tales called the Mabinogion. Bran the Blessed has a magical cauldron that has the power of restoring life to the dead. In a war against Ireland he is wounded in the leg and the cauldron comes to ruin. In the tale his head is severed, returned to Britain and buried in London. The image of the severed head play a significant role in the pogroms’ against the Templar Knights, who, according to Wolfram, were, among other things, guardians of the Grail.
In one Welsh Romance associated with the Mabinogian there is told a tale similar in many respects to Chretien’s Perceval, with some notable differences including one that clearly echoes the story of Bran the Blessed. When in the castle of the Fisher King, instead of a Grail, Perceval is presented with a severed head on a platter drenched in blood. Here is the blood motif again, and the severed head. We will have more to say on this graphic image in another article wherein we will delve into the concealed astronomical meaning. In Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival the Fisher King is named Anfortas and in the Lancelot-Grail cycle the Wounded, or Maimed King is called Pellas, or Pellam who, as keeper of the Grail resides in the Castle Corbenic. The Lancelot-Grail cycle is a series of five prose volumes written in the early part of the 13th century that served as the principle source for Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur). In these tales Pellas’ wound comes at the hand of Sir Balin le Savage, or the Knight with Two Swords. Balin slays the brother of Pellam for some misdeeds which incites Pellam to seek revenge. During the ensu- ing fight Balin grabs for a weapon and unwittingly takes up the Spear (or Lance) of Longinus, which is none other than the very spear used to pierce the side of Jesus as he hung upon the cross, and with it stabs Pellas in the
8 Oracle 20/20 December 2013
h om ws s rgty ilmntd ta h ade ot ter bilac ie sas
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