The Quest of the Holy Grail


Book Description

Composed by an unknown author in early thirteenth-century France, The Quest of the Holy Grail is a fusion of Arthurian legend and Christian symbolism, reinterpreting ancient Celtic myth as a profound spiritual fable. It recounts the quest of the knights of Camelot - the simple Perceval, the thoughtful Bors, the rash Gawain, the weak Lancelot and the saintly Galahad - as they journey through danger and temptation to reach the elusive Holy Grail. But only one of them is judged worthy to see the mysteries within the sacred vessel, and look upon the ineffable. Enfused with tragic grandeur and an aura of mysticism, The Quest is an absorbing and radiant allegory of man's perilous search for divine grace, and had a profound influence on later Arthurian romances and versions of the Grail legend. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.




The Grail


Book Description

The medieval legend of the Grail, a tale about the search for supreme mystical experience, has never ceased to intrigue writers and scholars by its wildly variegated forms: the settings have ranged from Britain to the Punjab to the Temple of Zeus at Dodona; the Grail itself has been described as the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper, a stone with miraculous youth-preserving virtues, a vessel containing a man's head swimming in blood; the Grail has been kept in a castle by a beautiful damsel, seen floating through the air in Arthur's palace, and used as a talisman in the East to distinguish the chaste from the unchaste. In his classic exploration of the obscurities and contradictions in the major versions of this legend, Roger Sherman Loomis shows how the Grail, once a Celtic vessel of plenty, evolved into the Christian Grail with miraculous powers. Loomis bases his argument on historical examples involving the major motifs and characters in the legends, beginning with the Arthurian legend recounted in the 1180 French poem by Chrtien de Troyes. The principal texts fall into two classes: those that relate the adventures of the knights in King Arthur's time and those that account for the Grail's removal from the Holy Land to Britain. Written with verve and wit, Loomis's book builds suspense as he proceeds from one puzzle to the next in revealing the meaning behind the Grail and its legends.




Trial of Magic


Book Description




Grail Alchemy


Book Description

An experiential guide to the spiritual path of the Holy Grail • Traces the evolution of the Holy Grail from the sacred vessel of the Celtic goddess to the Cup of Christ and how it represents the longing for the divine feminine • Provides exercises, meditations, and rituals to connect you with the powers of the Cauldron of Rebirth, the Chalice of Healing, the Sword of Light, and the Holy Grail • Explains how attaining the Grail brings full consciousness of the soul and Divine influence for the healing of self and others The primary myth of Western culture, the quest for the Holy Grail persists through the centuries like a recurring dream, embodying the longing for the divine feminine suppressed for more than two thousand years. The Holy Grail emerged not only as a symbol of the feminine but also as a symbol of the soul, for hidden within the sacred Grail legends lies an initiatory path that leads to the highest realms of consciousness and spiritual illumination. By working with the symbols of the Grail tradition we can gaze into our own hidden depths and heal the separation between masculine and feminine, Spirit and Matter, and Heaven and Earth. Mara Freeman traces the evolution of the Grail from the sacred vessel of the Celtic goddess to the Cup of Christ, revealing a spiritual path rooted in the mysteries of the Goddess, the Grail, and the Sword. She explains how the Sword has dominated over the Goddess and the Grail for far too long, leading to a spiritual wasteland as foretold in the Grail stories. She provides a practical workbook of exercises, visualizations, and magical rituals to restore the power of the divine feminine through spiritually transformative experiences with the Cauldron of Rebirth, the Chalice of Healing, the Sword of Light, and the Holy Grail itself. Drawing on folk traditions and medieval Arthurian romances as well as alchemy and the wisdom of the mystics of Glastonbury, Freeman reveals the ancient Celtic teachings of the Western Mystery tradition. She shows that attaining the Grail involves achieving full consciousness of the soul. Then, as a Grail-bearer, you can bring the light of the Grail into the world for the healing of self and others.




Lancelot-Grail: Volume 3 (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




The Ill-Made Knight


Book Description

Lancelot, despite being the bravest of the knights, is ugly, and ape-like, so that he calls himself the Chevalier mal fet - "The Ill-Made Knight". As a child, Lancelot loved King Arthur and spent his entire childhood training to be a knight of the round table. When he arrives and becomes one of Arthur's knights, he also becomes the king's close friend. This causes some tension, as he is jealous of Arthur's new wife Guinevere. In order to please her husband, Guinevere tries to befriend Lancelot and the two eventually fall in love. T.H. White's version of the tale elaborates greatly on the passionate love of Lancelot and Guinevere. Suspense is provided by the tension between Lancelot's friendship for King Arthur and his love for and affair with the queen.




The Tree of Life and the Holy Grail


Book Description

Recent works of fiction and popular history have promoted the idea that the Holy Grail symbolizes a physical bloodline resulting from the union of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. This, supposedly, is the 'secret' that esoteric movements have kept tirelessly for the past 2,000 years. From her groundbreaking research, Sylvia Francke exposes this notion to be a blatant misinterpretation of the mystery traditions that preceded and ran parallel to the birth of Christianity. She traces the ancient spiritual paths of knowledge from the Cathars, the Knights Templar and the enigmatic Rosicrucians, to the work of Rudolf Steiner in the twentieth century. Here, she concludes, is true Grail knowledge: the Tree of Life and the Holy Grail itself explained in their metaphysical context. From her research she suggests a solution to the riddle of the sudden wealth and strange behaviour of Bérenger Saunière, the mysterious priest of Rennes-le-Château in southern France. True Grail knowledge, she concludes, has nothing to do with bloodlines or worldly status, but is an ancient lifeline to the spiritual origins of creation. Its energetic forces ray up from the earth and down from the constellations and planets while interacting with individual human beings. It holds the key to the fulfilment of mankind's quest, a step to the next phase of human evolution... The recent explosion of interest in an alternative history of Christianity - the shadow Grail - prompted Sylvia Francke to revise The Tree of Life and the Holy Grail, first published in 1996. The result is a completely reworked and expanded book that constitutes a powerful and convincing refutation of distorted esoteric truths.




Graëlfire


Book Description

Graëlfire is a gripping new twist on Grail mythology. Based on the medieval legend of the Grail as a stone that fell from Heaven, the adventure is set in present-day Switzerland and medieval Occitania within a fictional cosmos where universes emerge from the cosmic soup of Graëlfire—the source of all Creation.




Guardians of the Holy Grail


Book Description

Presenting the ancient Holy Grail lineage from Asia and how the Knights Templar were initiated into it, this book reveals how ancient Asian wisdom became the foundation for the Holy Grail legend.




Gemstone of Paradise


Book Description

Presenting the story of 'Parzival' that was intended as an argument against continued efforts by Latin Christians to regain the Holy Land by force, the author reveals the secrets of the altar stone that inspired Wolfram's work in the diocesan museum of the German city of Bamberg.