The identity of the Holy Grail is endlessly and pointlessly disputed,
since the man who introduced it to the canon of Arthurian literature died
before saying what it was.
I used to think it represented spiritual enlightenment, but
since I now believe ultimate enlightenment to be synonymous with oblivion, it
would seem inappropriate to render it as any kind of symbol. And so I have to
revise my definition downwards a notch.
Now I’ve come to think of it as the one person in the world
who can teach, by virtue of their very presence, the nature of pure love. In
short, it’s about the search for the other half of our being. Some see this as
the Christ figure, others as God. I don’t; I read St John
of the Cross differently. To me it’s male:female, lover:beloved, without object
or subject, without position or pre-eminence, but with dual polarity to achieve
completion.
It’s that kind of day: a waving and watching kind of day; a
sad but fulfilling kind of day. Camelot has claimed the Grail, but not forever.
And there’s nothing melo- about the drama.
5 comments:
It's spring here!
Now, I just arrived in a rather giddy mood and you've stopped me in my tracks Jeff! That's a beautiful definition, I will ponder some when I am feeling a little more sensible...
Please don't be stopped, Mel. Go Spring!!! Same here. No being sensible. Bad for one.
I'm being worse than weird today. Blame the person I told you about.
Live, learn, live, learn, live...
Phew!
Awesome, thought provoking post, JJ.
Two questions and a comment
1)When you say (if I understood correctly) enlightenment = oblivion, does that mean to be enlightened is to be unaware of one's own existence?
2)Pure Love. Are we not complete on our own? Do we come into this world as 1/2? And what about man-man, woman-woman lovers? DO they not have a place in your paradigm?
POW! ;-) Who loves ya, baby?!
I LOVE your BIG, new blog picture! Where did you take it?
I heard birds singing early this morning for the first time since last summer. Lovely,lovely.
Shalom,
BTD
I know Jeff, it's endless isn't it!
How did everything go with Mr landlord's agent?
Is that the fabled Mill Lane?
1) Actually, Bree, I was careful to say ULTIMATE enlightenment. My belief is that the end of the road is reaching a point at which there is no longer any concept of individuality, but only total awareness of undifferentiated being. Such a concept is way beyond me at the moment, but I assume it would exist outside space and time, and have no concept of other. And I can’t know this, so I might be wrong.
2) I have to sidestep this, simply (and only) because it’s far too big a subject for a post comment. It would involve expressing opinions and judgements on the whole hetero/gay issue without doing full justice to the complexities. Likewise with the question of whether we’re whole on our own, or whether the opposite polarities are necessary for completion. Let me keep it simple, therefore. Over the past few months I seem to have finally discovered the first stirrings of pure love. It came to a head today, and led me to the view I expressed very briefly in the post. As I currently understand the concept, I’m sticking with what I said.
3) The picture was taken at a village called Matfen in Northumberland. It seemed an appropriate banner pic for March, and it’s bigger than usual because I had to convert it to a jpeg in order to crop it. That altered the way it uploaded.
The birds here are singing their courtship songs.
Mel: Post coming up about Mr Landlord's agent. See reply to Bree re. location of banner pic. If I'm able to stay here, I'll be taking some pictures of the local area a bit later in the year, and I'll post a selection to the blog.
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