Ace of Cups W

Frank Hall said:

Curiously, Wolfram describes the "dove from heaven winging," " "bringing to the Grail a wafer white" which the dove places on the "stone" or Grail (Book 9, Wolfram's Parzival, lines 468-477). -- So the Grail/stone is empowered on the "Good Friday." I suppose I associate this passage and Waite's Ace of Cups too closely.

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I think you are right about this as Waite describes the Grail in much the same way:
"On Good Friday, by the descent of a dove from heaven, carrying a sacred Host . . . the ‘crown of all earthly riches’ were renewed." Furthermore, Waite talks about the flight of the mystical dove from the casement to inmost Shrine, "as if the bird went to renew the virtues of the Holy Graal." Waite also says the cup is the "receptacle of the graces which are above and the channel of their communication to things which are below."

In going back over my notes I see that there are a couple of other "Ws" that could be significant. He makes much of the "Secret Words" which were given to Joseph of Arimathea along with the Vessel and are ultimately to be passed along to the Rich Fisher's grandson, Perceval at the end of his quest (see The Metrical Romance of Robert de Borron). Waite's magical motto was "Sacramentum Regis" - "the Secret of the King" referring to the Secret Word in Masonry, about which he writes: "The missing formula was a Word of Life, and the _locum tenens_, by a contradistinctive analogy, is a Word of Death. It is for this reason that the whole corporate Fraternity undertakes a Quest which is in undesigned correspondence with that of the Round Table." (The Holy Grail, p. 461-462). There is more in this section revolving around the key phrase: "Let me say now more openly, if not more clearly, that the ideal of the True Temple is in our hearts, and it is there that we build it."

The transubstantiation of Water into Wine is also a strong possibility (i.e., Water=Wine).

Finally, Waite says: "I cannot affirm too early that any Secret Tradition . . . has been always an open secret in respect of the root-principles concerning the Way, the Truth and the Life. . . . The modes and forms of the Quest have varied, and that widely; but to a single point have all the ways converged." (The Holy Grail, p. 499-500). So, maybe it means "Way".

Mary

And if it's an upside-down "M", which it may or may not be, along with the Grail Castle or "Mont Salvage," the word might be "Mystery," a favorite word of his through his book of Grail history. He refers to the "Grail Mystery" and the "Mystery of Initiation" and "Mystery of Faith" and "The Mystery Which Is Within." He says: "Merlin carried a strange warrant to connect his work with the Mystery of the Holy Grail..."(p.650). And: "The Graal is a guide of the distressed in the Lesser Chronicles.They represent that Mystery ... in the Hidden Voice of Christ..."(p.671). So, for Waite, the Grail is the Mystery of all mysteries, the Word of all words.

Frank Hall said:

the word might be "Mystery," a favorite word of his through his book of Grail history.

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Yep - that's on my list. Thanks for the specific instances of it.

If it's both a M and a W then perhaps it's "Mary's Womb" - perfectly logical and simply elegant, yet it seems to me that this is moving beyond the realm of Waite's typical thinking.

I think Waite first thought of the W because of the design on that older deck (mentioned specifically by Mathers) that looks much like a wave/water. By emphazing it's W-ness he makes it into his signature card. Furthermore, his magical motto, Sacramentum Regis, signifies the king (Keeper of the Grail) who specifically holds the Warrant as Warden of the secret Word. The M signifying Mem(water)-Mother-Mystery-Matter is from the pov of the descent of the dove into Manifestation. The W/M is exactly like the lettering of the Magician (not seen in the newer decks where a mechanical typeface was substituted for Pixie's letters) and not like the lettering of the W in Wands. The ambiguity stresses the "As Above, So Below" theme of the famous alchemical, Emerald Tablet, and the Ascent and Descent on the Tree of Life.

Waite ends _The Holy Grail_ with these thoughts:
"We . . . may begin to see after what manner the imagined Secret *Words* were a Guiding Voice on the *Mystery* of Divine Substance communicated to the soul, while the Super-Apostolical Succession was the Ordination and the Priesthood of those who know the Great Attainment behind the Veils of Bread and Wine. . . . As regards the Keepers of the Grail, in the Quests that really signify, they are those who hand on the *Mystery*, so that the Grail Temple is like a House of Initiation." (p. 593)

My up-coming article in Llewellyn's 2006 Tarot Reader will show how the suit of Cups depicts the story of Joseph of Arimathea by Robert de Borron, how the suit of Wands are the story of Perceval by Chrétien de Troyes (and others), the suit of Swords is the story of Galahad (Waite specifically tells us that the Knight of Swords is Galahad) but also the pain of how the Word has been lost, and the suit of Pentacles continues the 'rumor' of this great Mystery within Freemasonry. It's all there in plain sight in Waite's book _The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal_, published the same year as the tarot deck. I'll be giving the details at the tarot conference in Melbourne only a few days from now. Hope you'all will be there (forgive me for the plug).

Mary

I wish I could be there to appreciate your researches. Certainly Waite wove Grail symbols into his Tarot. The 6 of cups shows this, for example. He knew very well the various Grail stories. Incidentally, I've revised my post 17, adding some thoughts about Waite's Grail letter on the Ace of Cups as intentionally double, a "W" from earth-view, an "M" from the dove's heaven-view. What a wondrous, magical Image, this Ace of Cups.

Frank Hall said:

I wish I could be there to appreciate your researches. Certainly Waite wove Grail symbols into his Tarot. The 6 of cups shows this, for example. He knew very well the various Grail stories. Incidentally, I've revised my post 17, adding some thoughts about Waite's Grail letter on the Ace of Cups as intentionally double, a "W" from earth-view, an "M" from the dove's heaven-view. What a wondrous, magical Image, this Ace of Cups.

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Colman Smith and Waite also intregated a dove into the stem of the Cup, in the inverted image. See -
http://www.angelfire.com/space/tarot/rwacups.html

Ross G Caldwell said:

Colman Smith and Waite also intregated a dove into the stem of the Cup, in the inverted image. See -
http://www.angelfire.com/space/tarot/rwacups.html

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Wow. That's super cool. I never noticed it before. It certainly confirms the idea of the letter being both a W and an M - the Ascent and Descent. The richness of this deck continues to blow me away.

Thanks so much, Ross.

Mary

Thank you for that extremely close observation, and a significant one, Ross. This way, the dove descends towards the "M" -- much symbolic possibility here.

wow this thread took me off in some far-flung directions -- a good thing

thanks for the discussion -- it's definately an upside down M --

and fulgour thanks for the symbols link -- great resource -- i'll keep it handy even tho it is about.com (which years ago was a great website -- before the popups, banners, browser invasions/alterations, etc.)

All these are very eloquent opinions but i insist in that there is something much deeper here. What’s behind the Grail? Beyond the Davinci Code that associates the cup with Mary Magdalen's ( 2 "Ms") uterus. More than the cup in wich Joseph of Arimatea picked up the Christ's blood. I believe that the important thing continues being the characteristics of that blood. In a "latu sensu"” I cannot let to have present that some occult doctrines besides considering that Jesus also had kharma and for that reason his suffering, they also consider that it was necessary that the Christ's blood fell in earth so that its atomic composition changed the electronic vibration of the planet. For me it is too much "coincidence"...

W/M Ace of Cups

W and M being a reflection of each other, they neatly stack on top of each other to form a double X.... (XX)...This is also a well known sign of the Mason lodge and Waite was a Mason. The only thing missing would be the "G."