The Rite of the Holy Grail (= Cup, in Sanskrit) is the Supersacrament which is celebrated on the spiritual plane with words of consecration having a divine power. It has an initiatic hierarchy “in conformity with the Order of Melchisedek”, which can celebrate the rite in a way invisible to ordinary earthly sight, operating on the eros, on the soul and on the spirit of man, supported by a lay chivalry composed of Initiates: the Knights of the Holy Grail.

The object of this otherworldly rite is the communion between the spiritual and the divine, as on the earthly level the Holy Communion and the Mass are the communion between the material and the spiritual.

 

Therefore, the Holy Grail is a High Mystery . Any other explanation, old or modern, diverging from this one, is false, that is, not adherent to reality.

 

We understand the difficulty of making ourselves understood, especially for one who is a novice in such studies, but these hints can lead the way to an evaluation of our exegesis which aims to illustrate a living and real spiritual form.

 

Only who has experienced the eternal present of the Supersacrament, even if only for a fraction of an earthly second, can explain and talk about everything relating to the Grail.

This rite has never ceased to be celebrated because the hierarchy of the celebrants is forever faithful to the Mystery to which it has consecrated itself. Throughout the ages the Knights of the Holy Grail always remain loyal to their theurgic duties to make the Communion available to anyone, man or woman, who is able to rise to the state of grace and receptivity: Communion Cosmic and Christ-Paracletic at the same time.

 

The Mystery of the continuity of the Grail in the upper planes can be said to have always been from when the earth and humanity have needed it. It serves to establish the harmony, the welding, the adhesion of the trinity of the man with the Divine Trinity.

 

Every individual is composed of spirit , emotive soul and eros , all united in the Ego . God is One and Trine, in the sense that He is Father, Word or Son and Holy Spirit or Divine Mother. The meanings of these three attributes of the One and Only God can be summarized thus: the Father is the Beginning or the Arkè, and unborn, innascible. From Him proceed the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 

The Son or Word, Logos, is the same God as thought, Idea. The Holy Spirit is the love of God. In other words, the Word or Son is the second person of the Trinity. It proceeds from the Father by way of intellection and by authentic spiritual generation. God knowing Himself (Father) generates ab aeterno the Idea of Himself (Word-Son), but with His divine nature or substance remaining immutably identical.

 

Consequently, the Word is to be distinguished in reality from the Father only in line of relationship, or as a term of filiation as opposed to paternity. The Word is consubstantial with the Father, in other words, of the same nature or substance of the Father and therefore in every way equal to Him. The Father is God as thinking, the Son is the same God as thought, the Holy Spirit is the Love of God.

The names of the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God, used by men, are many: Finger of the right hand of the Father, Live Spring, Paraclete, Fire, Charity, Unction. The Holy Spirit proceeds: either from the silent love of the Father and the Son, or from the essential divine Love (common to the three Persons).

 

In the Mystery of the Holy Grail , the Chalice or Cup represents the Holy Spirit or Divine Maternity, the Divine Presence, the Kabbalistic Sheckinah.

 

The rite of the Holy Grail, besides being a Communion on the spiritual plane, is the work of its Knights on a spiritual plane, a participation in the plans of God in the “Great Work” of the spiritual Evolution.

Inside the Cup, that is, in the Holy Spirit, there is the Christ. In this wonderful symbolism and supersensible reality (the ancient Vase of Celtic Liturgy, the Chalice of the Grail, the Graha of the Indo-Arians) we also have the Grace which descends in the cup as a ray of the Father to nourish and purify His Knights.

 

This is the stupendous Mystery of the Holy Grail, the Invisible Temple, the House of the Holy Spirit and of the Christ in Unity with the Father, this is the true Temple, the hidden Sanctuary of Prester John, the Ecclesia invisible to the exoteric spirituals, but visible and shareable for those who know how to make themselves brothers of the Knights, the twelve who guard and celebrate the holy rite of the Cosmos. Up above it is possible to eat the Bread of the Eternal Life.

The admittance to the invisible and spiritual Temple is not only for the Men because in the Grail there is the Divine Mother, She who will come as Avatâr: the entrance is also for the Women who have realized the Androgyne .

 

Tommaso Palamidessi

excerpt from "THE ARCHETYPAL RITE OF THE CHALICE"

of the 18th Booklet