Uncle, what ails thee?
-- Parzival to the Grail King, Anfortas
From the darkest of days comes a dawn. With the winter solstice at 4:23 PM PST on December 21, the sun leaves off its southern journey to return north, reborn again to our thoughts and to our landscape.
With the shifting tide of December comes the season of festivals, most of which owe their origin to the winter solstice. Our cultural imprint lays heavily on most this season. Elevated expectations are oftentimes accompanied by deeper disappointments. Even amidst the packaging, loneliness and alienation are harder to hide during the holiday season. Though it tis' the season, compassion is too often in short order.
In the late 1100's, a French poet by the name of Chretien de Troyes set a story to paper. Part legend, parts fairy-tale and romance, it chronicles the quest for a mystical wonder object, much like the Philosophers Stone, that can heal a king and his kingdom that has been laid to waste. The story was called Perceval, the Story of the Grail.
Chretien adapted his poem from a document given to him by his patron Philip, Count of Flanders. Chretien passed away before finishing his text and numerous adaptations of the story were written in the years following, including Parzival by Wolfram Von Eschenbach. Chretian himself stated the Grail legend was the "best of tales," told at court. The poem is a Christianized narrative with influences that include Celtic and Welsh mythology, Eastern symbolism and ritual as well as archaic vegetative cult practices.
Much like a Celtic sojourn into the Otherworld, the Grail legend tells of adventure, peril and opportunity missed. It has the quality of a dream about it. Characters and oddities come to the fore and recede. Quizzical apparitions appear to beg recognition and are disclaimed. At the heart of it is the challenge to Perceval, a knight of "conspicuous excellence," to ask a particular question when he meets the Grail king.
Like other Celtic kings, the Grail king is symbolically married to the feminine image of the land. It is through union of the masculine spirit with the feminine landscape, or matter, that fertility of the land is assured. In this story, the old Grail king is maimed - masculine spirit has failed. The feminine landscape, thus abandoned, lies in devastation.
Enter the young hero Perceval. Perceval brings sun-consciousness, the bright masculine spirit that quests. Although he is surrounded by suffering, on his first encounter with the Grail and the maimed Grail king, he fails to ask what is wrong. Like so many, he sees the pain of another, but cannot respond to it. He is turned away from the castle and the suffering continues.
On his second encounter in the Grail castle, Perceval personifies a mature sense of discernment. He witnesses the painful situation before him and asks what ails the Grail king. In that single ripe moment, Perceval is able to make conscious the silent suffering that surrounds him. When he takes the anguish of another to heart, his voice gives form to the right question.
The compassionate question witnesses the wound and renders the king whole. As the Grail king's suffering becomes visible, the king is once again enspirited and disembodied meaning finds its home. The maimed king springs up healed.
It is not just the king who heals - the landscape is green once again. The king's spirit is revived and reunion with the landscape is possible. Perceval's empathetic question returns vigor to the wintry wasteland, sun consciousness brings rebirth - at the same moment that the winter solstice renews the promise of the coming spring.
It is destiny that the old king, the aged solar year steps aside. The young sun hero Perceval steps up to take his place as the guardian of the Grail. But in some versions of the Grail legend, there is one task remaining for Perceval.
Perceval has a half-brother, Feirefiz, who is strangely coloured black and white. Before Perceval may take up the kingship of the waxing year he must fight the heathen Feirefiz. Feirefiz's colouring of black and white marks this as a dual of the dark half of the year with the light half.
And indeed Perceval, the ascending Oak King, victors over Feirefiz, the Holly King, ruler of the dark waning year. But Perceval does not subjugate his brother, he establishes a relationship with him. Thus, opposites are held in a fruitful relationship, their energies fueling the turning of the year's wheel.
The Grail story is a legend of return, of the inner journey and the birth of light from dark nature. The quest lives on. The Grail is not an artifact of church or community but the rich container of each person's destiny. It still calls to individuals of true heart.
We can each be a hero, in this or any other season. When you sense the suffering of another, or when someone has made a mistake - bring their suffering to light, not to accuse, but to witness, to share and to thoughtfully ask "what ails you?"