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THE OCCULT DIGEST Chicago Illinois, U.S.A. August 1926 (pages 19, 40, 42)
Frater Achad’s [Charles Stansfeld Jones] Magical Interpretation of
P A R Z I V A L
POINT III.
The Redemption of the Redeemer
For such is the Ecstasy of the Touch of Death the Twin of Love.
(He tears open his dress.)
Behold me!—the open wound behold!
Here is my poison—my streaming blood.
Take up your weapons! Bury your sword-blades
Deep—deep in me, to the hilts! Ye heroes, up!
Kill both the sinner and all his pain:
The Grail's delight will ye then regain!
But there is no DEATH in the Hall of Ecstasy. Birth, Life, Death are not successive but One, for Time and Space are One.
And so, at the moment of Amfortas' greatest agony Parzival, the Redeeming Power, enters unperceived and unexpected.
There is much truth in the old saying, “The unexpected is sure to happen” and this is more and more clearly realized as we tread the true Path. True Ecstasy comes at the moment when all seems lost, for the partial and transient must disappear and become lost, e'er the Real appears. “For to each individual thing, attainment means first and foremost the destruction of the individuality.”
“Each of our ideas must be made to give up the self to the Beloved, so that we may eventually give up the Self to the Beloved in our turn.”—Liber IV.
Suddenly the voice of Parzival is heard:
One weapon only serves: The one that struck Can staunch thy wounded side.
The countenance of Amfortas, upon his hearing these words, now displays HOLY RAPTURE. He totters in ecstasy, while Gurnemanz supports him tenderly.
Parzival Be whole, unsullied and absolved! For now I govern in thy place.
The True Will unhesitatingly takes its rightful place, and since that Will is one with THE WILL OF THE UNIVERSE, Amfortas without hesitation accepts it.
Parzival Oh blessed be thy sorrows, For Pity's potent might And Knowledge' purest Power They taught a timid Fool. The Holy Spear Once more behold in this.
And as all gaze in rapture on the Spear held aloft by Parzival, he continues, in inspiration, as he gazes at its Point:
O mighty miracle of bliss! This that through me thy wound restoreth. With holy blood behold it poureth, Which yearns to join the fountain glowing, Whose pure tide in the Grail is flowing! Hid be no more that shape divine; Uncover the Grail! Open the Shrine!
Thus, and not otherwise, came Parzival into his own. The Temple of the Chalice of Ecstasy is now, for him, The Palace of the King's Daughter. For thus is it written: “When these shall have destroyed the Universe, then mayest thou enter the Palace of the Queen, my Daughter.” Then only shall we understand the nature of The Bride's Reception. For:
“The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”
Thus, and thus alone; amid Radiant Light, the Glowing of the Chalice of Ecstasy, the Rising of Titurel from the Tomb, the Death struggle of Kundry, the Homage of the Redeemed, the Praise of the Knights of the Grail, and above all the Benediction of the Dove of the Holy Spirit; is the final Work accomplished—
THE REDEMPTION OF THE REDEEMER.
QABALISTIC CONCLUSION Nothing now remains but for the scribe to bear witness to the strange Qabalistic “coincidences” connected with this Drama.
Was Wagner a great Qabalist? Were those from whom he obtained the sources of his information such? Who can tell?
Rather I would suggest that, being inspired, this Drama must of necessity conform to all truth, on all planes.
For there are certain Numerical Emanations, called the Ten Sephiroth, and there are certain Vibrations of a numerical nature connected with Words.
It is not my intention to write a treatise on the Holy Qabalah (those who wish to study this interesting subject may do so in “Q.B.L. or The Bride's Reception”), nor to describe fully the “Tree of Life”, nor the methods of drawing numerical meanings from words. The accompanying plate shows the structure of “The Tree of Life.
The Qabalistic teaching is that Malkuth—The Kingdom—The Animal Soul—THE FALLEN DAUGHTER must be RAISED through the Office of the SON—Tiphereth—The Sun—Harmony and Beauty, to the Throne of the MOTHER—Binah—Understanding—THE CUP, when she is again united to the FATHER—Chokmah—Wisdom—Will—THE SPEAR, thus absorbing all into THE CROWN—Kether—The Pure Light of the DOVE which descends upon their Union.
This is the Mystery of Redemption and of the Great Work, the Uniting of the Microcosm and the Macrocosm—Man with God.
The main Formula of the Great Work, that of the Rose and Cross, is symbolised in the Great Order as 5°=6°. This refers to the Microcosm and the Macrocosm as the Pentagram or Fivefold Star on Unconquered Will and the Hexagram or Six-fold Star. The Work is to discover their equivalence, and to unite them.
The first stage of this Union occurs in TIPHERETH, and is accompanied with the feeling of Ecstasy. This Sephira is that of the SUN, and is necessarily connected with the Solar Numbers of which 6, 66, and 666 are the Scale. This is the Sphere of the Crowned King—The Son who unites in himself both Glory and Suffering.
But since there has been, what we may term, a change of Office in the Great Hierarchy in this New Aeon, we find that the Number 418 which is the numeration of “ABRAHADABRA” the Word of the Aeon is also particularly attributed to this Sphere, since it represents perfectly the formula of 5°=6°. (See Sepher Sephiroth, Equinox Vol. I. Number VIII.)
Again 777 is a number representing alike “The Flaming Sword” and the Unity of all things including the World of Shells. In Greek Qabalah it corresponds to the word STAUROS—The Cross.
It is worthy of notice, and most careful consideration, therefore, that with slight adjustment of spelling, the Names of the principle characters in the Drama have an extraordinary significance.
TITUREL, Founder of the Grail Order, adds to 666. MONSALVAT, the Mountain of Salvation, adds to 666. GAMURET, the Father of Parzival, adds to 666. AMFORTAS, with his Cross of Suffering, adds to 777. KLINGSOR, who represents Choronzon (333) adds to 333. GURNEMANZ, Conductor of the New King, adds to 418. PARZIVAL, The Pure Fool, adds to 418. KUNDRY and GUNDRYGGIA, alike add to 290.
In the above the Hebrew equivalents of the letters and the old spellings of the names are used. With small study of the Qabalistic System and the Grades of the Order based on the Tree of Life, the significance of the above will become more and more apparent to the Student. An extended treatise might be written on the subject, but that is not the intention of the author at this time.
Now, there are several spellings of the name Parzival; the one I have adopted being that of Wolfram von Eschenbach, from whom Wagner derived the Drama. The usual spelling—Parsifal—is interesting since it adds to 388, which, with the addition of 500 (Final Mem. The Water of the Great Sea of Understanding), becomes 888. By Greek Numeration 888 is the number of Jesus the Christ.
But there is another spelling, much more significant, and probably the oldest of them all. PARCHVAL, the numeration of which adds to 326.
It will have been noticed that the most important Points of the Drama are connected with THE CUP—Understanding—Binah the THIRD Sephira; The SPEAR—Will—Wisdom—Chokmah the SECOND Sephira, and THE HEART—The Castle of the Grail—Tiphereth the SIXTH Sephira. If we examine these Spheres on the Tree of Life we find they form a Descending Triad representing the Bowl of The Chalice of Ecstasy, the points of which are 326.
Now 326 is the Numeration of IHShVH—The Hebrew Jeheshuah—Jesus—The God-Man or Redeemer. This Word also symbolises the descent of “Shin” the letter of the Holy Spirit into the Four Lettered Word IHVH—Jehovah—The Ineffable Name and the Formula of the Four Elements. Thus PARChVAL symbolises the whole process perfectly; the Descent of Spirit into Matter and also of the Redemption.
It also shows the transition to the New Aeon, there being a connection between this old spelling and that of Parzival the formula of the present time. For the central letter of the word PARChVAL is “Ch” in Hebrew Cheth, which spelt in full is 418 the numeration of Parzival, and of the Word of the Aeon, his Magick Formula.
I need only add that The DOVE—Kether—The Crown—when shown above the bowl of the CHALICE (in its natural position on The Tree of Life) together with Yesod—the Foundation and Malkuth—The Kingdom, as the stem and base of the Cup; completes the Qabalistic Design. This arrangement clearly shows how the Chalice is one with the Tree of Life and filled by the Holy Spirit.
The numerical proof is not, however, quite complete—indeed it could never be completed—but let me draw your attention to the word Grail. The old spelling is GRAL and here we find G—the letter of The Moon—and R—the letter of the Sun, coupled with AL, the Great Name of God.
Turning once more to our Qabalistic Design of the Cup drawn on the Tree of Life, let us examine the Numbers of the Sephiroth involved. We shall indeed discover the “Chalice of Ecstasy” for we obtain 1 + 2 + 3 + 6 + 9 + 10 = 31, which is the numeration of both AL and LA—God and Not—Key to the Mysteries both of the Old Aeon and the New and when properly understood the
Final Formula of
ECSTASY. |
