| The Vision of the Holy Grail |
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Among the greatest and most sublime experiences of the initiatic life there is the vision of the Sacred Cup, to which very few are admitted. It is the vision of those who, with absolutely pure heart, have longed for the participation in the Mysteries of the Holy Grail , and to obtain it have truly pursued, above all else, the conquest of the Grail. The winner of the search, when he receives its light, can be considered as one baptized in the Fire of the Holy Spirit and in the Light of the Blood of Christ, because for him has arrived the day of the Pentecost.
He is aware of having entered in the Community of those who keep perennial watch over the Holy Grail. When the very rare Initiation of the Grail arrives, the inner illumination is so perfect that the privileged one will no longer need to look for material ways to reach those spiritual. He will consider himself, with reason, free from any earthly cult or rite to give concreteness to the Holy Grail, because this concretization, this objectification, would bear in itself weakness and fall: the real Initiate knows that the Temple of the Holy Grail is in the high spiritual planes, built by the Lord and not by man, with a priesthood composed of sacrificers in conformity with the order of Melchisedek, priest and King of Salem, town of peace, as Saint Paul writes in his letters to the Hebrews. Melchisedek, as is well-known from the Bible and from the esoteric teaching, was the first to offer the bread and the wine in the Cup to the victorious Abraham. This regal priesthood (Christ himself says) is not of this world, but can be reached even while living, in one’s own body. “My Kingdom is not of this world”: so says our Avatâr and in the same way the searchers for the Father are the royal priests of another Kingdom, though acting and fighting in this one. It is certain that the collective earthly initiations, like the fraternal or monastic hierarchies, have their value, because the initiates of these orders gain the support of the eggregore of their fraternity or their hierarchy. When celebrating the sacrificial rite the celebrant of a Mass is not alone, with him co-vibrates a powerful hierarchic force, because the orders are a linked initiation, or collective. If the collective initiation takes advantage of the support of an eggregore (initiatic body) and this support is useful for the journey towards perfection, the initiation itself, however, is at the same time also hampered. Indeed, an initiatic fraternity or hierarchy passes through given stages of development and, since it is made of human beings, suffers crises, the risk of aging and weakening. The collective Initiation is therefore a force, as it receives a powerful psychic assistance, but is also a danger and a damage if this force is inferior to its initiatic ideals. For who has the strength to follow by himself the spiritual Way with warrior courage and possesses a strong individuality, for who is not afraid of being blinded by the excessive light, for who dares to assume the responsibility and the power of the initiate without seeking support from a group or of an earthly fraternity, the Way most beautiful, most certain and most direct is the conquest of the Holy Grail. In this sense, the myth has represented these initiates as armed knights traveling and fighting against the snares of the journey and facing the challenges. The journey, in esoteric symbolism, is the moving of the consciousness to a world which is normally closed to the human being. To start out on this journey and on the search, a special vocation, some studies, a remarkable mental and spiritual preparation are presupposed in the knight. It is a search, a work, an exploration, a knowledge of symbols which require earthly instructors, friends and guides on the spiritual level, but for his initiation he will find himself decidedly alone. excerpts from "THE INITIATION OF THE HOLY GRAIL" from the 18th Booklet |
