Meaningful are the visions of the Grail had by another stigmatist, Ann Catherine Emmerich, born on 8 September 1744 in the village of Flamske. In the volume where Brentano speaks of the visions of this Christian mystic there are, especially in chapter IV, precious indications of what Emmerich saw in her ecstasy. The chalice is described as of a special, mysterious make, formed of an unknown material, singular, compact like that of a bell and not wrought as usual metals.

She says it was saved in the ark of Noah during the Flood, and then in Babylon. Melchisedek owned it and took it among the Canaanites. He used the cup when he offered to the Patriarch Abraham the bread and the wine, and to him he passed it. The great chalice moved to Egypt and was owned by Moses. Later, it belonged to the Patriarchs who drank a mysterious liquid from it in the rite of giving and receiving a benediction.

 

At a certain moment, again narrates Emmerich, the cup vanished and was recovered by Serapia, called Veronica, to be used by Jesus in the Last Supper. After the crucifixion, this chalice was guarded in Jerusalem in the first church of Saint James the Minor, and disappeared once again. To the other churches were distributed the small cups that surrounded it. The book of the visions of Emmerich further affirms that one of these small cups (seven in all) was taken to Antioch, and another to Ephesus. So, each of the seven churches had its small cup.

 

These visions make one think of the grailic knowledge of the German mystic. Emmerich remembered having already lived and having been Saint Cunegund, Empress of Germany (born in 978 and dead on 3 March 1033 or 1039 in Kaufungen near Kassel in Hesse). Although married, she remained a virgin. This latter information on her reincarnation is to be found in Schmöger “Life of A. C. Emmerich”, vol.II, p.258 and 586.

 

From all this, it is easy to deduce that the Grail is also an esoteric Tradition transmitted, passed in different ages to personages and esoteric groups composed not only of men, but also of women.

 

We believe to be in the right if we suppose the Woman to be more receptive to the Grail in its Christic aspect, while the Man is receptive to the Grail in its aspect of Holy Spirit, eternally female person of the Trinity. The conquest after the quest is integral if, by virtue of the Mystery of the Androgyne , it is achieved by two of different sex, united by the intense Love, in the Christic sense.

If the Woman for the Fedeli d’Amore means the Wisdom, the Sophia, the Holy Spirit with figures of a regal woman, it is also true that the Woman as such has had and will always have her importance in the integral Ascesis.

 

In Egypt, the divine women gave to the Kings the “key of the Life” or the “flower of the Lotus”, symbol of rebirth. However, it is also true that in the novels of the chivalric cycle the woman is often a cause of loss, of fall for the imprudent and weak knight. With this, we must not rule out the fact that often the superior woman, amazon of the Archeosophical Tradition , has, among the many snares of the journey, also that of the man as an expression and an assault by the ahrimanic and luciferic forces.

 

The hardest trial to find the way leading to the Grail is crowned by a total vision. In it, there is the participation in the Spiritual Sacrament, arrived at by extremely rare individuals. In this vision, the symbol or the sign of the acceptance or the admission to the Mysteries of the Holy Grail is the descent of the Light. The Vision is nearly always associated with the ancient sanctuaries, and these are found in different parts of the world: in Palestine on Mount Tabor near Nazareth.

 

Tabor was the natural altar for the Transfiguration, where the Christ, assisted by Moses and Elijah, in the white blinding light celebrated his own Mystery.

 

Tommaso Palamidessi

excerpt from "THE VISION OF THE HOLY GRAIL AND THE WOMAN"

of the 18th Booklet