Quest and Question: Perceval and the Grail

The mediaeval French stories of Perceval and the Grail comprise a set of propositions and a set of refutations of those propositions probably because they were seen as heretical and subversive. The propositions envisaged the coming of a messianic knight who recovered the Holy Land, saved Christendom from threats both and within beyond its borders, particularly the violence and brutality of Christian knights who lived by the corrupted code of chivalry, used his prowess to defend the vulnerable, characterised as feminine, and became Christendom's leader before being called to his spiritual home. This messianic knight arose from ranks of ordinary mortal knights through the transformative process of monastic spirituality to become a 'warrior monk' who surrendered his mortal will to the divine or at least a spiritual adviser. His spiritual path revealed what was called either 'the secret things and hidden thoughts of heart and mind' or the 'shadow(s)' through the agency of the divine within which was characterised as feminine. This feminine divine was based upon the Virgin Mary and her relationship with this messianic knight was defined by Her relationship to her Son whom She described as Her Father, Son and Lord. To engage in this process was to acknowledge both Her and the 'hidden' side of the psyche and to maintain celibacy which other knights, even the best in the world, were unable or unwilling to do. The relationship between Her and the knight who followed Her was described in terms of the 'sacred marriage' in which She manifested as Maiden, Mother and Lady and enhanced his prowess in arms so that he overcame all opposition.  Her relationship with those who denied Her was described in terms that I have called the 'profane marriage' in which She enhanced the hidden side of the psyche which was exposed to reveal such knights as insensitive, brutalised and violent and who visited death upon the vanquished and 'waste' upon society.