Hallowquest Lesson Ten - the Round Table

PathWalker

Lesson Ten starts with a guided meditation based on the Round Table.

Then there is a task, relating to the "circles of your experiance"

(I could be typing these out in full if anyone would like to follow who hasn't got the Hallowquest study guide?)
 

PathWalker

Have got a bit side-tracked this week, by the xtian overlay of the Grail myth, and how hard it is to see the quest in a purely pagan light.
My meditation veered somewhat off -course :)

I need to do some more background reading, and try this again.
PW
 

Aerin

Will be interested to hear how you overcome this...

aerin x
 

PathWalker

So far ...

So, although this set of lesons is about Sword, I got side-tracked by reading, and need to resolve this in my head :)

So first of all, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowiki , in the article "To Serve the Light" describes the Creative Light, and then goes on ...

"Have you ever seen a prism? It breaks light up into its components parts, each of which vibrates at a different rate so we interpret this as colour. We can see seven colours and variations of those seven. There are others above and below the spectrum that we cannot see. The Light can be seen in a similar way, there is the one blindingly pure beam of Light, but the physical level acts like a prism and divides the Original Light into separate beams. We may call these separated beams God, Jehovah, Zeus, Osiris, Isis, Jesus, Hermes, Orpheus, Allah and so on. But they all emanate from the one original beam of light. They are the same but seen and interpreted differently. Some can only see the Violet hue of Christianity, other the Green of the Mysteries etc."

This analogy helps me, each faith or generation sees the Grail in a particular hue.

John Matthews writes in "The Arthurian Tradition" in the chapter on the Grail Quest ...

"This does not mean that one has to be a believer in the xtian dispensation, any more than it requires that one should become a pagan. The Grail simply IS, whatever we believe or do not believe. And it is this which makes it an utterly universal symbol, capable of the widest possible application It has about it the stuff of mystery; it is also concerned with sacrifice, service and the search for the absolute, whether one calls this God or Goddess, Divine Spark, or by some even more abstract term."


So as each generation has seen the Grail in a slightly different way, I can choose to see it in a certain light too.
I can see the promise of wholeness and healing, the containing of the Divine Spark, the light of hope, without having to accept the Christ aspects for myself.

Needs a little cogitating, but I think I'm getting there.


LATER:
I choose to look at some other decks which have helpful representations of the Ace of Cups card to help me.

- Buckland Romani – a cauldron suspended over a pool
- Sacred Circle – a cup with Celtic inspired artwork
- Greenwood – the waters of life
- Glastonbury – the blue bowl
- Driudcraft – an overflowing chalice
- Old Path – a cauldron
- Wheel of Change – a cup

So when I consider the Grail, I can picture it in other ways.

I also thought that when one creates a concentration of energy for healing, in the hands for example, one is creating the very palest of shadows of the meta-physical Grail. That part of it’s aspect is to contain and transmit energy, albeit from a greater source. When one draws energy together, especially to heal, then one becomes part of the whole.
 

Aerin

Thank you for posting that, lots to consider.

I love the idea of the white light and the rainbow.
 

PathWalker

Lesson 10 Meditation Pathwalker

So now at last I’m ready to travel to the Stone Circle. I leave the village, sad and smoking ruins, and walk towards the plain. I see the Circle from a long way off, and walk over short turf to where the stones stand, crisp and new, none fallen. And I step inside, where a different kind of quietness seems to be.

And straight away I see myself a small child, lonely and playing alone. No-one hugged that child; they took care of it, but did not cherish it. Then the child at school. Glad of different things to play and explore, glad of books and sunshine, but already missing something, not able to be friends in the way some of the others do. Watching, trying to join in, but somehow not understanding the rules.
Then the world of work, playing the dangerous game of sexual attraction and flirting, never realising what a small smooth prize she might be, how vulnerable, weaving in and out of adult games now. Hardly yet her own person.
Then marriage, the game of confusion and compromise. There are years and years that follow, children to care for, spouse to appease, lost to self without knowing. Never quite fitting in, yet searching. Sometimes content, sometimes so very unhappy.
And finally, I see myself as the reflection of the person sitting in this very chair. I am becoming the person I seek. I don’t have to create of appease, or argue or change. I am just being. And I could become a person of depth, or I could loose myself in inane chatter and wasted time.

I fit in here, in the silence, in nature, in the inner world of learning.

And the Stones fade, and the Table appears. There are many folks – just ordinary folks, all kinds all ages. I feel a surge of unhappiness and unworthiness – they are smarter/younger/they’ve been here longer, I am nothing. But I pull those thoughts up short, they are not what’s important here – it’s the being, the searching, the service. And they look towards me, and they smile and I feel welcome. There’s a place for me, ad so shyly, with nothing yet to put on the table, I sit down.

And there is music – like voices singing, like bells, hard to describe but beautiful. And the Grail appears, mostly light, and within the light the shape changes, morphing between cup and bowl, cauldron and dish, colours and shapes swirling around. And I realise it doesn’t matter, because it is to each person the inspiration they need, and the gift to all. And the light brings a change, nature envelops us, clean and functioning. The sound of water running, children playing. Animals move, birdsong, all that we each associate with the wholeness of the planet in our place. And we see it, and believe that it can be, even if our part in it seems small. And the clear air, and light, fill us with hope and joy.

Then it is gone, and the table is empty except for me. But that’s okay, I know the way to walk. So I stand, and the Table and chairs fade away, and the Circle is back. I wonder about the gift, I think about several things I’d like it to be, and so when I look there is nothing – I had pushed aside the gift for the foolish imaginings. So I kneel down quietly, and when I look, there! A cup, small and ordinary. But I could drink from it everywhere I go, and remember, and be back here in that moment when the Grail was shining, and be filled again with what I needed.

I take the simple cup, and I am home.