If the key’s to the doors of man’s true nature appear well and truly locked and are, as many would have us believe, simply lost why is it so many
appear to have tried and even opened them!
What we will find out through the course of this book is that those who have attempted to open them from within, from inner space, have discovered
that something else is perhaps living amongst us now - and always has been.
It is how ordinary men, of no previous stature or inheritance can suddenly rise or achieve temporal earthly power. And it would seem that we are now
living in an age where the very establishments that rule over us are fuelling a social programme that on the surface of it aims to open all our doors
simultaneously, automatically and perhaps not entirely against our very will.
What is also rarely discussed or revealed is what actually lies on the other side of those doors of space and time that exist within our minds. As
Edgar Cayce said about the pyramids and the sphinx ‘there will come a time when men will find beneath the Sphinx access to the great hall of
records’. Was he speaking literally or alluding to a state of mind? The riddle of the sphinx famously and cryptically refers to ‘the riddle of
man’.
Who or what beckons us to unlock and enter into those timeless corridors of our ageless subconscious, and exactly which door will we be opening and
what manner of life forms lurks behind? All our associated ideas of the occult, of witches and monsters have been attached to those doors by the very
forces that teach and guide or innocent and trusting young minds.
Being thoroughly modern and sophisticated, we tend to think that the ideas and beliefs we hold, repeat to others and live our lives by are separately
and uniquely formed over the years by carefully filtering and rejecting ideas or principles that displease us. We firmly believe that somehow we are
‘in control’ of our thoughts and that ‘the little voice in our head’ is still actually part of us.
It is as if Einstein consciously willed into existence the theory of reality and there was no chance of failure, but bear this in mind Einstein was
once just a man who failed his basic exams before he suddenly rose to incredible and almost infinite knowledge.
However, the control of knowledge and personality has been with us since the very beginning, perhaps even before language. Iconography and symbolism
occurred precisely the moment primitive man first recognised his own footprint in wet clay.
There is no area of the human psyche that is not under constant assault, especially in the modern world where political spin, empty marketing rhetoric
and every form of media has literally become a 24 hour onslaught of ‘high level concepts’ designed to buy their way into your mind.
Our mass media is driven to infiltrate our minds with unrelenting efficiency and saturate us with its intoxicating mix of empty throwaway knowledge.
Universities are even awarding degrees in the science of media manipulation.
The techniques of influence are the subject of social experiments and are tortuously reduced to the form and rules of a science by ‘think tanks’
hidden silently and innocuously on the outskirts of sleeping British country villages or verdant American plantations.
What is evident, however, and much to their surprise is that every now and again a golden thread winds it’s way into a particular book, movie or
picture that carries far more meaning than perhaps a surface or cursory review would lead one to image. It carries a signal older and more profound
than perhaps it’s authors or producers even knew when they assembled the piece. This is one of the results of partial ‘illumination’. The
accidental subconscious revelation of aspects related to the ‘Great Work’ to the human race collectively.
There are many cases of such people throughout history who have actually stumbled into or across such areas of information that they would have
preferred not to reveal publicly. However, there are far more who are ‘privately’ seeking or are connected to certain organisations of the
brotherhood and so the source of their nocturnal ‘astral insights’ can do nothing but that to leak out in their works. Thus perpetuating the
mystery and the growth of followers.
These mysterious threads when seen, picked up and followed reveal an entirely different level of understanding; they are the paths of the labyrinth,
perhaps even part of a plan to our otherwise utterly irrational planetary carousel.
What we find in the history of man is that certain individuals have left clues for those fortunate, committed enough or somehow otherwise inclined to
spot them.
The paths to a vast body of knowledge have been embossed into our planetary landscape like a ‘tromp de oeil’ painting. For many they only see a
wall but for others there is door but it is merely painted to look like the wall. The exit signs above such doors wait eternally throughout time
–such silent clues are like ochre coloured salamanders basking in the open sunshine on craggy stone walls, then as a stranger, a human, approaches
they jump into bushes - quickly automatically changing their skin to a dusky dark green – and probably for good reason.
But, if one searches hard enough the crumbs, like we would hope in the old Hansel and Gretel tale, they promise to guide us out of the dark dangerous
woods and into the realms of unimaginable possibility.
However, it seems to spice the game up a little there appears to be two possible outcomes – indeed two paths, two labyrinths that intertwine
infinitely. One leads to darkness and one leads to light. And the masters of darkness seemingly plant their own crumbs with such exquisite fineness
that our journey is not so much one of hacking our way through man eating Triffids but rather an beautiful lush overgrown garden of rare and exotic
flowers.
Question: Have you ever asked yourself which path do you want to be on and is that the path you are actually on?
Remember: Only your actions reveal your true path; not your desires or your perceived self-image. Look back for a moment at your footsteps in time and
see where you have been, what you have done and where a continuance of the trend will take you.
Only then shall you be able to identify who you really were and who you are to become as you shake off your acquired personality traits. Only then can
you measure any kind of progress. At this moment in history, (and this point in the book), if your making positive, spiritual progress, or intend to,
then that is something you should be immensely pleased about – since it puts you in a remarkably rare place on this earth right now.
Perhaps: Ignore getting trapped or hung up on terms like light or darkness, and especially the empire building catchall phrase ‘ the ends justify
the means’ and think only in terms of decency, integrity, compassion and empathy.
Think: Beyond your human existence what kind of being do you really want to be? Forget what ‘civilisation’ tells you that people should be and
become only what you believe to be pure.
To put the twin trails into perhaps the most eloquent and powerful context I could do no better than to quote in full a lengthy and extended passage
from Anthony Roberts ‘The cosmology of the Grail: An Arthurian Study – 1977 in which he uncovers in great details and with fantastic insight the
eternal aspects of the grail myths and more specifically that of Parsifal.
“The adventures, both temporal and spiritual, of the Arthurian knight Parsifal are among the most important to any study of Grail Mythology.
The young Knight begins his quest as a very worldly seeker and gradually refines his spirit through a series of what can only be termed thinly
disguised alchemical allegories. He is constantly beset by false trails, blind alleys and the insinuatingly hallucinatory deflections of incarnate
Evil. But through humility, hard work and fiercely individual spiritual growth, Parsifal wins through a form of harmonic, metaphysical equilibrium,
the real achievement of the Grail.
For the spiritual Grail is really the ‘Cosmic Fountainhead’ into which and from which all spirituality flows. It is the matrix of God!.
The earliest extant form of the Parsifal myth appeared in the work Conte Del Graal written down by the French poet Chretien de Troyes in 1180 A.D. But
the tale is far older than the 12th century. Just as the ‘Beowulf’ legend is a great deal more ancient than it’s 8th century codification, being
based on universal themes of the struggle between good and evil, so the initiatory aspects of ‘Parsifal’ stretch back towards a dim, somewhat
shamanistic indo-European ancestry. The story is found throughout all western European cultures.
In Wales the protagonist is known as Peredur. In France Perlesvaus. In England Perceval, etc. In the French version ‘Perlesvaus’, first set down
in 1200 A.D, a weird finale has the enlightened seeker visiting an enchanted western island full of incredible sages of vast age and total wisdom,
boasting long hair ‘whiter than the new fallen snow’. These sound suspiciously like Druids and the whole conception seems to be a Christianised
version of the pagan Celtic ‘other-world’, so well documented in earliest myth.
The tale reaches its apogee of creativity in the German ‘Parzival’, written between 1200 and 1212 by the famous ‘minnesinger’ (troubadour)
Wolfram von Eschenbach. Von Eschenbach, an untutored but psychically brilliant Bavarian knight, again gathered up the strands of very old oral
traditions and wove them into a glittering mythico-spiritual tapestry. It was this tapestry that so much later inspired Richard Wagner to score his
superlative opera. The following collective synopsis of the myth is based on von Eschenbach and his contemporaries, filtered through Wagner’s more
particular refinements and clarifications for our modern era.
Parsifal’s father is a grand knight who is killed in battle and the boy goes to live with his mother in wild, mountainous country. He grows kindly
but uncouth and after meeting some of King Arthur’s knights leaves his mother’s hearth and journeys to the royal court of Grail knights at
Camelot. His mother then dies of a broken heart. The young knight decides (as atonement) to seek the Grail and embarks on a journey of self-discovery
that entails many weird magical adventures. He meets giants and overcomes them; then meets mythical beasts and slays them; he encounters demonic
entities and beautiful damsels; he kills a huge lion guarding a black castle, etc. He is continuously confronted with terrible wastelands and
strangely contoured (geomantic) landscapes. He rides down straight and narrow tracks (leys). He visits the castle of the mysteriously maimed Fisher
King and does not ask the right question concerning the Grail. After countless failures and ensuing spiritual refinements Parsifal finally asks the
correct question, experiences the Grail and (in some versions) heals and takes over from the Fisher King.
It is in the German account by Wolfram von Eschenbach that some of these motifs (dramatically changed) give indications of the real struggle between
good and evil. Von Eschenbach’s ‘Parzival’ opens in the castle of the Guardians of the Grail, built upon the top of the holy mountain, Mount
Salvat. The Grail, being the fountainhead of all earthly (and heavenly) good, radiates and aura of benediction and fertility that turns the precincts
of the castle into an earthly paradise, a veritable Garden of Eden.
All forms of trees, plants and flowers flourish and all sentient life-forms (including the lower animals) exist side by side in a happy, harmonic
balance. The leader of the Grail Knights Anfortas lies grievously wounded after a battle with the black magician Klingsor and no one can alleviate his
suffering. This Klingsor is an earthly tool of the Dark Forces, demonic entities who seek to pervert the perfection of God into a hideous reflection
of their own twistedly evil ruin. They have fused powers into Klingsor and enabled him to build a blasphemous mockery of the Grail Castle in a nearby
valley. The black wizard had converted what was once a poisonous wasteland into a seductive counterfeit of paradise, strongly emphasized towards an
earthly, sexual licence of promiscuous self-indulgence. Klingsor’s garden is a sick parody of true perfection, populated by lustful maidens (
succubi) who weave illusory spells to trap the unwary. Many knights have been lured by Klingsor’s garden (and it’s denizens) into forsaking their
Higher selves, and wickedly indulging their lower instincts. Anfortas sallied forth to fight Klingsor, carrying the Sacred Lance, the spear that
pierced Christ’s side on the cross so releasing his dual essence (blood and ‘water’) into the earth to encompass it’s full physical and
spiritual salvation. But by a ruse Klingsor seizes the spear and strikes Anfortas his dolorous blow, wounding him in the groin.
Into this tense situation comes the innocent and questing knight, Parzival. He meets Anfortas, learns of the Grail and then undertakes to regain the
Holy Lance and vanquish Klingsor and his evil dupes. Parzival rides to the beautifully disguised Hell and almost succumbs to it’s tempting
blandishments. But by a supreme spiritual effort he overcomes his lower self, and, mastering his baser instincts, fuses their energizing potency into
his higher spirituality, so becoming invincible. Parzival seizes the spear from Klingsor and makes the sign of the cross. Instantly the black wizard
vanished, his false edifice crumbles and the tainted gardens wither and die. The knight, now in a state of grace, rides back to the real Grail Castle.
The journey however takes seven years, allowing the development of the travellers soul to encompass it’s various stages of etheric evolution.
Finally, Parzival comes back to Mount Salvat and heals the bleeding wound of Anfortas with the tip of the Sacred Lance. The mission is accomplished
and the Holy grail ( in this instance described as a magic stone or crystal) blazes in triumph from the mountain-top and gradually spreads it’s
divine effulgence over the whole world.
From the foregoing the whole ‘Parsifal’ kaleidoscope can be seen to have it’s roots in elements of universal myth that reach back to the dawn of
human spiritual recognizance. There are elements that echo many basic Indo-European hero/initiation tales, such as those of Theseus, Cyrus, Perseus
and even Romulus and Remus. There are deeper elements that hint at the Isis/Osiris cult in Epypt and there are strong vegetation God undertones of the
Ishtar/Tammuz variety that delve back to the great prehistoric religion of the Goddess. This is proved by the fact that Parsifal has regular dealings
with three women, his mother, his wife and the ‘loathly Damsel’ ( in von Eschenbach called Kundrie), all aspects of the great Triple Goddess so
assiduously sought by Robert Graves. The crux of the story is that evil can always be overcome by love, fortitude and purity in the order! The horror
loosed upon the world by the Dark Forces, using Klingsor as their focus, is a horror that can be removed when it’s empty and illusory nature is
divined.
Von Eschenbach makes the telling point that in his early days Klingsor had been caught fornicating with a married lady whose husband had then
castrated him, so ensuring that all further sexual pleasures had to be vicarious.
The meaning of this is that the power of Evil is always a sterile power, having no real creativity of it’s own but always being forced to mock (and
blaspheme) the true fertilising creativity of God.
The ‘Klingsorian forces’ that seek to entrap humanity through corruption of good and perversion of innocence can be dispelled by recourse to the
benignant love of God, crystallized in the spiritual powers that fuse through the Holy Grail, that bridging vessel of High Heaven that works in the
world and beyond. It must be emphasized that the quest is a highly individual undertaking and the seeker must never abrogate responsibility to any
spurious ‘leader’ or stray from the path of an intense self-discipline leavened by an inner knowledge of the need for spiritual growth.”
As you can see from the telling of that particular myth – the various aspects of our existence have far more depth than merely the concealment of a
few secrets. Here we find that myth and magic, good and evil, control, power, and above all illusion are inherently embedded into our earthly
experience and the experience of the grail quest is not as certain modern literary establishment figures would have us believe ‘non of our
business’ or alternatively ‘ best left in the hands of superior intelligences’.
The pursuit of the Grail and the personal spiritual evolution of the soul is the earthly birthright of every last living being – any authority
figure that tells you otherwise is more than likely planning your demise or your absolute corruption.
The archetypal myth is apparent everywhere and represents the more conscious re-working of a well know and understood initiation myth complex. A more
modern telling of the Arthurian story, the Parzival myth is George Lucas’s ‘Star Wars’. All the parts are there, the young knight Parzival (Luke
Skywalker), the wise old warrior teacher who falls at the sword of Klingsor (Anfortas, Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader respectively) , the hidden
‘Dark Forces’. Through only the purest spiritual growth of Luke Skywalker can he finally overcome Darth Vader and ultimately the Dark Forces. Of
course the thing about myths is that it’s hard to relate them to real life as they can be interpreted in a thousand different ways.
Well, in many ways the myths are psychological weapons and training guides, and we’ll discuss that later in the book, however, what we can begin to
see is that such forces or more correctly entities that mask themselves behind the guise of such ‘forces’ have seemingly been manifesting
themselves in our world for eons and do inspire both the battles of the dark and light side