The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal: Book X: VII. The Conclusion of This Holy Quest

VII

THE CONCLUSION OF THIS HOLY QUEST

And now, seeing that the end of all is upon the very threshold, that the keepers of the paths of quest have sounded the horns for our retirement, and that the hour has also struck when we must turn down the glass of vision, it remains as a last duty to gather up certain threads which have been left under a covenant to recur, and these in their turn involve other considerations which must be treated shortly. The result of necessity is an attempt to codify things which, for the most part, are detached and even disjointed, yet some of them will be found to overlap under any mode of grouping.

Preliminary and General.--Setting aside its sacramental part, the literature, as literature, is Celtic in its elements and atmosphere; but this is the body and the environment in which the spirit of the mystery reposes. The Graal itself is in the root a reliquary legend. This legend was taken over and connected with rumours of secret doctrine concerning the Eucharist and the priesthood, being part of a tradition handed down within the

Quest of Galahad with the prevalence of an evil time and forgetfulness of the great things. It was for much the same reason that, according to the Vulgate Merlin, the Round Table was removed to the Kingdom of Leodegan prior to the coming of Arthur. (6) Sarras was the place of exit on the outward journey, and was thus the point at which the holy things began to manifest in the world; but it was this also on the return journey, when they issued forth in mysterium. The transit westward is here of the soul outward. (7) It must be admitted that the Lesser Chronicles are in some sense a failure: they seem to hold up only an imperfect and a partial glass of vision. But they are full testimony to the secrecy of the whole experiment; they are also the most wonderful cycle by way of intimation. Their especial key-phrase is my oft-quoted exeunt in mysterium. How profited the Secret Words to the interned Perceval? It is the most ghostly of all suggestions concerning that which is done in the heart.

The Lost Book.--I have said that Chrétien must have

Independently of corporate connections, the Mystic Quest is the highest of all adventures, the mirror of all knighthood, all institutes of chivalry. And this Quest is also that of the Graal, but written after another manner. The makers of the mighty chronicles said more than they knew that they were saying, but they knew in part and they saw through a glass darkly. We are "full of sad and strange experience," though we have not come to our rest, and for this reason we are in a better position to understand the old books than when they were first drawn into language. Better than they who wrote them in their far past do we now know after what manner the highest things go forth into mystery; but of the gate they knew and of the way also. Chivalry was a mystery of idealism and the Graal a mystery of transfiguration, but when it was removed from this world it was not any further away.

We have, on these considerations, and many others, every cause to be thankful to those learned persons who

Panis vivus et vitalis? What of the supersubstantial bread?" And if there be any one who deals therein, under what rules soever of any houses of exchange, I will have him know that if he sells in the open market, even I am a buyer. So therefore the author of this book gives thanks that he has written concerning the romance-pageants and