Hallowquest - Lesson 30 - The Grail Realm -The Autumn Equinox

We begin with the card Grail Ten, and a brief discussion of the Castle and the Autumn Equinox.


Questions
1. What vision of wholeness and completion calls to you at this time?

2. Call to mind the people who make you feel content and peaceful in your life; what qualities do they intrinsically manifest?

3. What factors make you feel spiritually 'at home'?



Meditation
A meditation where you approach and enter the the Grail Castle in the west of the realm of Albion (the inner and ancient land).


Autumn Ceremony of the Grail Hallow
This is along similar lines to the other celebratory ceremonies at the beginning of each season/session. You make a sacred space, meditate, call to the Grail Guardian ( Queen Guinevere) and begin to become aware of it's presence and power. You eat a small feast, create a shrine for the Grail Hallow and close the ceremony.



I can give more details if anyone needs.
Pathwalker

Do I always do this?

Seriously though, I am struggling big-time to enter the Grail castle. When I got to the beach, I just turned away and walked along the sands. This is the hardest meditation to enter that I have come to so far - probably because it is so emotion-filled!

For anyone else struggling at any point on the quest, what I'm doing here is keeping the book open, and the card propped up in front of it the whole time. I have my journal open. I try and write a few words, even if I'm just sitting, not deeply meditating. I allow myself to experience it in any way I can, rather than think it's "wrong" not to do it by the book. The harder it is, the more I probably have to learn and gain, so I keep returning, and looking and wondering. Then I jot down another sentence or two.

Pathwalker
)0(


LATER ADDITION
Well, with the help of tarot, I now understand why I don't want to approach or enter. But I don't wish to give up the quest. Going at a bit of a tangent, and re-reading "At the table of the Grail" a selection of writings edited by John Matthews, to try and get some other views of the Grail and it's purpose in my life.

PW

Anyone else find the bath a good place to meditate? I don't get cold (unless I stay there for hours) it's semi-reclining but I don't usually fall asleep, it's comfortable even for the arthritis bits.
Seemed especially helpful when I was stuck on this grail meditation.
Only down side it trying to remember everything and write it out when I'm dry. Think I may try a voice recorder.

Grail Castle meditation PathWalker

Now I'm here I sit down in the surf, which is warm enough and gentle, and I watch the sea, and listen to the sound of a single gull calling from the top of the castle. I look towards it. I realise I am nearly ready to enter now. I pick up a large shell which has rolled near me in the waves, and stand.
I put on my shoes as I cross up the beach, and walk over sand, pebbles and then at last rocks and soil to the castle door. It is bare inside as I knew it was, with the staircase curling up the wall to the floor above. I walk up and into the room. There’s the chair in the middle of the wooden floor. There’s the well, and the window that looks out over the land. I sit in the chair and just let it all soak into me. The sound of the sea, the bird crying, the light.

I sit quietly and tears fall down my face. Some drop into the shell in my lap.

When it’s time I cross to the well, and descend, still with the shell. I draw one bucketful of water - which has a slight glow about it - and drop the shell in too. I ascend, and look at the walls. I chose a place, and using the shell, I pour water down the wall.

There are pictures of me with my babies. Each child now grown and gone. But there before me on the walls those moments when all seemed possible.
I move round the wall and pour again. I see myself with animals we have cared for - loved and kept safe until their ending.
Next, I see myself kneeling in the garden, holding a handful of soil in the same way, as if it was a precious life to be cared for and cherished. I truly love the soil. I feel it’s like a heart in my hands.

Now there’s just one shell-full of water left.
I am planting something in the ground. It has the same slight glowing around it as the water from the well, but I can’t see what it is. Some act of love and cherishing, but am I cherishing the soil or the thing I’m planting? I don’t know, and there is no water left for the rest of the scenes.

Now there’s nothing left again, just the sound of the water and the bird.