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Holy Grail

cup, dish or stone with miraculous powers, important motif in Arthurian literature
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The Holy Grail is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Different traditions describe it as a cup, dish or stone used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers that provide eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often in the custody of the Fisher King. The term "holy grail" is often used to denote an elusive object or goal that is sought after for its great significance.

The Holy Thing is here again
Among us, brother, fast thou too and pray,
And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray,
That so perchance the vision may be seen
By thee and those, and all the world be healed. ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The quest for the Holy Grail makes up an important segment of the Arthurian cycle, appearing first in works by Chrétien de Troyes. The legend seems to combine Christian lore with Celtic myths of a cauldron endowed with special powers.

Quotes

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If we only have love
Then we'll only be men
And we'll drink from the Grail
To be born once again… ~ Jacques Brel
 
Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion. ~ Robert Frost
 
We all been playing those mind games forever
Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil.
Doing the mind guerrilla,
Some call it magic — the search for the grail. ~ John Lennon
 
The Holy Grail! —
… What is it?
The phantom of a cup that comes and goes? ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
 
The sweet vision of the Holy Grail
Drove me from all vainglories, rivalries,
And earthly heats that spring and sparkle out... ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
 
If a man
Could touch or see it, he was healed at once,
By faith, of all his ills. But then the times
Grew to such evil that the holy cup
Was caught away to Heaven, and disappeared. ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
  • I simply state that I'm a product of a versatile mind in a restless generation — with every reason to throw my mind and pen in with the radicals. Even if, deep in my heart, I thought we were all blind atoms in a world as limited as a stroke of a pendulum, I and my sort would struggle against tradition; try, at least, to displace old cants with new ones. I've thought I was right about life at various times, but faith is difficult. One thing I know. If living isn't seeking for the grail it may be a damned amusing game.
  • I have kept hidden in the instep arch
    Of an old cedar at the waterside
    A broken drinking goblet like the Grail
    Under a spell so the wrong ones can't find it    ,
    So can't get saved, as Saint Mark says they mustn't.
    (I stole the goblet from the children's playhouse.)
    Here are your waters and your watering place.
    Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
  • In the year 569 of the Christian era, the Lombards crossed the Alps and rapidly occupied northern Italy, taking it away from the control of the Byzantine Empire. All? Not exactly. From his headquarters on the Comacina Island, General Francione still held the flag of the empire high on the Lario for a long time, tenaciously resisting the assaults of the Lombards. In "L'Isola" the ordinary events are narrated, the daily life on the besieged Lario; but also unusual events, such as the arrival of a British priest who brings with him a mysterious relic. This relic is none other than the Sacred Chalice, known today as The Holy Grail, whose events unfold between the Island, Piona and the mountains that surround the lake, up to a surprising and pending.
    • L’isola. L’enigmatica storia del Santo Graal sul Lario by Giovanni Galli (2010)
  • Okay, maybe there is no proof. Maybe the Grail is lost forever. But, Sophie, the only thing that matters is what you believe. History shows us Jesus was an extraordinary man, a human inspiration. That's it. That's all the evidence has ever proved. But... when I was a boy... when I was down in that well Teabing told you about, I thought I was going to die, Sophie. What I did, I prayed. I prayed to Jesus to keep me alive so I could see my parents again, so I could go to school again, so I could play with my dog. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't alone down there. Why does it have to be human or divine? Maybe human is divine. Why couldn't Jesus have been a father and still be capable of all those miracles?
  • The Holy Grail the cup of the Last Supper was taken by a disciple of Jesus, Giuseppe d'Arimatea to collect the blood that dripped from Jesus' side following the wound inflicted by the centurion. From Palestine he found refuge in Britain ... When the barbarian armies advanced into Europe in the sixth century, they wanted to take him to a safer place. A priest left for Rome to deliver it to the Pope. The priest stopped on the Isola Comacina to escape the invasion of the Lombards. And the merit of the successful resistance against the barbarians was given to the Holy Grail and the Church of Isola Comacina was erected in honor of the Holy Grail. But with the victory of the Lombards, an attempt was made to bring the relic to safety [...] from Piona, then from Colico and hidden in a remote place in the Val Codera, where its traces have been lost. It is said that it was hidden behind a huge boulder and that when the friars sent by the pope returned to retrieve it, they found the place covered by the boulders of a landslide... and the Holy Grail nowhere to be found. According to someone it would still be here, lost under the stones in the valley.
    • [1], La leggenda del Santo Graal e del lago di Como: quando fu portato sull'Isola Comacina, QuiComo, February 27, 2023
  • You must choose. But choose wisely, for as the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.

  • We all been playing those mind games forever
    Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil.
    Doing the mind guerrilla,
    Some call it magic — the search for the grail.

    Love is the answer and you know that for sure.
    Love is a flower, you got to let it — you got to let it grow.

  • As the dreaded Black Beast lunged forward, escape for Arthur and his Knights seemed impossible. Then suddenly the animator suffered a fatal heart attack. The cartoon peril was no more. The Quest for the Holy Grail could continue.
  • It begins with the king as a boy, having to spend the night alone in the forest to prove his courage so he can become king. Now while he is spending the night alone he's visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the holy grail, symbol of God's divine grace. And a voice said to the boy, "You shall be keeper of the grail so that it may heal the hearts of men." But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible, like God, so he reached into the fire to take the grail, and the grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded. Now as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper. Until one day, life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn't love or feel loved. He was sick with experience. He began to die. One day a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. And being a fool, he was simple minded, he didn't see a king. He only saw a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, "What ails you friend?" The king replied, "I'm thirsty. I need some water to cool my throat". So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king. As the king began to drink, he realized his wound was healed. He looked in his hands and there was the holy grail, that which he sought all of his life. And he turned to the fool and said with amazement, "How can you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?" And the fool replied, "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty."

Idylls of the King (1862)

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Quotes on the Grail from Idylls of the King, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
  • The sweet vision of the Holy Grail
    Drove me from all vainglories, rivalries,
    And earthly heats that spring and sparkle out
    Among us in the jousts, while women watch
    Who wins, who falls; and waste the spiritual strength
    Within us, better offered up to Heaven.
  • The Holy Grail! —
    … What is it?
    The phantom of a cup that comes and goes?
    • "The Holy Grail" (1842)
  • The cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord
    Drank at the last sad supper with his own.…
    If a man
    Could touch or see it, he was healed at once,
    By faith, of all his ills. But then the times
    Grew to such evil that the holy cup
    Was caught away to Heaven, and disappeared.
    • "The Holy Grail" (1842)
  • Sweet brother, I have seen the Holy Grail…
    The Holy Thing is here again
    Among us, brother, fast thou too and pray,
    And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray,
    That so perchance the vision may be seen
    By thee and those, and all the world be healed.
    • "The Holy Grail" (1842)
  • While he was eating he let his gaze wander distractedly on the crown of peaks that surrounded him and noticed, high above the valley, an enormous rock cube (Saas Carlasch) placed right at the end of a steep coast beyond which a basin seemed to extend, invisible from below. The boulder, which probably detached from the wall behind it, appeared well squared as if a superhuman stonemason had dug it out of the rock and placed it there in full view waiting to be transported downstream. It was isolated and unmistakable, easy to recognize as far as the meadow where it now stood. The more he looked at it, the more Còdero became convinced that this was the ideal place to hide The Holy Grail without going any further.
    • "L’isola. L’enigmatica storia del Santo Graal sul Lario" by Giovanni Galli (2010)

The Birth Of Sir Galahad (1925)

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No bravery is such a virtue as the Graele may gain. For Arthour never gained it — Launcelot Could not achieve it. ~ Thomas De Beverley
 
Only these, Of all the Table Round, had purity Which gift alone the sangrael could win. ~ Thomas De Beverley
by Thomas De Beverley
  • Then came a maiden in — though all the doors
    Were closed. She, in her hands, the Sangrael bore.
    Then was a table o'erlaid with goodly fare:
    Red wine in crystal cups, and meat and fruit.
    "Peace be to thee and thine," she said, "Sir Bors,
    Go to the perilous siege, the siege of death!
    But first the Sangrael Galahad shall achieve;
    His father he excels in purity."
    Then kneeled they down, while wafted on the air
    Was incense of such savour, as the world
    Had never known; and, when the dove took flight,
    The maiden vanished, as the mists of morn —
    Vanished before the rays of that red sun,
    The source of life. Thus vanished and was gone
    The maid — the cup of sacred wine remained.
  • Sir Bors de Ganis, he of Launcelot
    The nephew, brave as lions, pure as snow,
    With Galahad and Percival was destined
    The Holy Grail to witness and to taste
    Wine from the Sacred Chalice. Only these,
    Of all the Table Round, had purity
    Which gift alone the sangrael could win.

Letters of Helena Roerich II: 1935-1939

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  • Kalachakra (the Wheel of Time, or the Wheel of the Law) is the Teaching ascribed to the various Lords of Shambhala. Traces of this Teaching can be found in almost all the philosophical systems and teachings of India. At present, it is perhaps known particularly in Tibet. One can also find obscure hints concerning Shambhala in Western literature. After all, the legend of the Grail also originated in the East, and is actually one of the numerous versions of the very same Shambhala... The Holy Grail is now guarded in the East. Recently there appeared quite a few investigators of the mysterious personality of Prester John, and also of the symbolism of the legend of the Grail. There is a theory that the Holy Chalice, or Grail, is the sacred Stone (read the legend about the "Stone" in On Eastern Crossroads), and such a version has its reason. (30 March 1936)
  • The thoughts you expressed about a symbol are very beautiful and quite true — the Chalice of Amrita, the Chalice of Beauty and Attainment, the Chalice — the Holy Grail! The legend about the Chalice — the Grail—also came from the East as one of the versions of a great spiritual achievement and the very same mysterious Shambhala. Incidentally, some investigators of the symbolism connected with the Grail perceive in this Chalice the Stone, which is at present in the world, accompanying historic events; later it is supposed to return to the "Heart" of Asia. This interpretation is also close to the truth. (2 April 1936)
  • The Chalice itself does exist, and before the beginning of a new era, it is sent to where the Teaching of Kalachakra shall be affirmed. Many legends exist about this Chalice. One of these says that the Chalice always comes unexpectedly and through the air. Thus, at the proper time, it was brought to the Lord Buddha. The origin of this Chalice is Egyptian, and its antiquity goes back to some twelve thousand years B.C. After the death of Buddha, this Chalice was for some time in a temple in KaraShahr, from which it disappeared, and since then has been guarded in Shambhala. According to all the legends, this Chalice will again appear before the New Epoch of Maitreya. (2 April 1936)
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