THE HOLY GRAIL
The myth of the Holy Grail presents another take on this same immortal wisdom. In this myth, the Holy Grail can be interpreted as either the holy vessel (san greal) or the holy blood (sang real) contained within the vessel.
According to the standard version of the story, the seeker of the Holy Grail must first find the Grail Castle perched on the summit of Mount Salvation, for that is where the Holy Grail can be found. The problem: Mount Salvation is surrounded by a vast wasteland, which hides the sacred mountain from all unworthy eyes.
The summit of Mount Salvation, representing the highest of the thirty-nine layers within the cosmic egg, must be ascended just as we would climb the rungs of a divine ladder or the slopes of a mountain. The summit, however, is hidden from view by the vast wasteland of the cosmic shells wherein is dissolved the created appearance of the universe. According to the Grail myth, when the soul somehow finds the divine mountain and ascends to its summit, it is greeted by the divine Fisher King, who stands guard at the gate of the Grail Castle. This Fisher King is none other than the unborn Creator, whose cosmic station corresponds to the thirty-ninth layer above the half measure—the summit of Mount Salvation.
The myth goes on to tell us that the Fisher King puts the aspiring soul to a test to determine whether it is worthy to enter the Grail Castle and obtain the Holy Grail. The test is: “Whom does the Grail serve?” This can be translated to mean, “Whom does the immortal blood serve?” It is a trick question, and apparently; there are two possible answers. First, it can be said that the immortal blood serves the imperishable reality of God. Second, it can be said that the immortal blood serves the perishable reality of the universe. Yet neither answer is correct on its own. The true answer is that the immortal blood serves both the perishable reality of the universe and the imperishable reality of God.
This answer grants immediate access to the Grail Castle and the Holy Grail contained within it.In other words, to pass the final test, the soul must hold two truths in a state of balance: “I am mortal” and “I am immortal.” If there is the slightest imbalance between these two truths so that one outweighs the other, then the soul will answer incorrectly and fail the test. If, however, the two truths are balanced perfectly, then the soul will be admitted into the Grail family—that is, the family of immortal souls that abide beyond the outermost shell of the cosmic egg in the mysterious Grail Castle, which is cognized on the scale of the fortieth layer above the half measure and which represents the imperishable reality that rests on the summit of Mount Salvation (the thirty-ninth layer).
To enter the Grail Castle, the soul must “hatch” from the cosmic egg; it must break through the outermost shell and ascend, like the risen phoenix, into the imperishable reality that first dawns on the scale of the fortieth layer. There it cognizes a completely new type of reality filled with an infinite number of cosmic eggs similar to our own. These eggs are organized not in a higgledy-piggledy fashion, but ideally, according to the dictates of cosmic intelligence. More specifically, they are organized in the form of an infinite crystalline lattice—the transcendental superlattice, which represents a living embodiment of the Logos, the infinite and immortal body of God transcending the finite boundaries of the cosmic egg. That alone is the real Grail Castle, the immortal vessel (san greal) that contains the holy blood (sang real).
We can find here a deep duality: The holy blood corresponds to the imperishable substance of pure consciousness, which pervades and flows throughout the immortal body. Yet in the final analysis, this substance is not different from the immortal body. On the scale of the fortieth layer, the enlightened soul realizes that its own cosmic egg, in fact, all of the cosmic eggs that make up collectively the immortal body, are ultimately fashioned out of the same imperishable substance.
In this sense, the immortal vessel and the immortal blood are one. The mere taste or sight of that immortal blood is enough to render the soul immortal, but it is also enough to make the wasteland whole. Upon cognizing the imperishable substance of pure consciousness, the dissolved universe is reconstructed in awareness on that imperishable basis, and the covenant between heaven and earth becomes established.Although the myth of the Holy Grail is viewed typically as Christian in origin and a product of medieval fantasy, it has a deep resonance in the much more ancient Vedic texts. In the Rig Veda, the divine Fisher King was called Divodasa-Atithigva, “the divine fisherman to whom guests should go.” The guests correspond to the aspiring souls who have entered the sea of death—the wasteland of the cosmic shells. They should go to the divine fisherman—that is, the unborn Creator—so that they can be fished from the sea of death and delivered to the other shore.
According to the Vedic seers, when the soul ascends to the station of the unborn Creator, it becomes identified with the unborn Creator and with the sea of cosmic intelligence that abides within the outermost shell of the cosmic egg. Although the soul may transcend that shell by ascending into the imperishable realms that lie beyond, a portion of the enlightened soul identified with the unborn Creator remains behind. In this case, the guest becomes the host: the portion of the soul that remains behind becomes the divine fisherman to whom guests should go and the unborn Creator of the universe who upholds eternally the covenant between heaven and earth and serves to fish aspiring souls from the sea of death.