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The Fisher King  In
the Quest of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,
the first knight to come upon the Holy Grail is Perceval, in
a mysterious castle surrounded by wasteland and held by a custodian
called the Fisher King. Like Adonis, the Fisher King is wounded
in the groin, and cannot walk. He offers Perceval his hospitality
however, and during their feast Perceval witnesses a curious
sight: a collection of young people proceed through the dining
hall carrying strange objects, one of which is a lance dripping
with blood, another a golden, jewel studded chalice. Perceval
watches in mute amazement or thinks it discourteous to inquire;
in either case he says nothing. It is only after he leaves the
castle that he realizes the chalice was the Holy Grail, and if
he had only asked about what he had seen the Fisher King would
have been healed and the wasteland made fertile.
The grail is a universal symbol of the Divine Feminine, the womb of the Great Mother filled with the Blood of Life. As long as the Grail is locked away, the land, or the landscape of our hearts, remains barren, and the Fisher King remains wounded. As long as, like Perceval, we remain silent. |