The Elucidation-The Goddess Sovereignty and the Grail Quest

The Grail Legend, as we have come to know it, concerns a mysterious wound in the genitals of the Grail King, also known as the Fisher King. We are told that his wounding caused the land to become the Wasteland, where the rivers stopped flowing, the animals bore no young, and nothing would grow. Furthermore the wound would heal only when a certain knight found his way to the Grail Castle, and asked the Fisher King the right question. Then, and only then, would the wound heal, and land becomes fruitful once more.  This potion of the Grail Legend is about the wound in the Sacred Masculine, and it is only half of the story!

What about the other half of this much-celebrated legend?  This equally significant, yet much unsung portion of the Grail Legend is known as The Elucidation, and it is entirely about the Sacred Feminine. In this story she is called Sovereignty, and she is the Land itself. It contains an abundance of marginalized and unacknowledged material about the Goddess of the Grail Legend. The Elucidation stands side-by-side with the story about the Grail King. As we link these two halves, the Grail Legend is transformed into an original and cohesive whole that now includes the Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Masculine.

This story chronicles the wound in Sovereignty’s domain. It contains information that is essential to a full understanding of how the Wasteland came into being, and how the land was ultimately healed.  It sings of Sovereignty’s sacred wells, which were abundant throughout the land, and of her Well Maidens who performed service to the people as Sovereignty’s holy women. In the old language they were known as les demoiselles de puis. 

Then follows a tragic lamentation about the rapes of the Well Maidens, and destruction of the holy wells by a king who betrayed his sacred bond of trust with Sovereignty. Through his actions, and those of his henchmen, he inflicted a devastating wound in the psyche of the Land.  Next we learn how Sovereignty removed her Presence, and her Court, to a place far away, and the land fell into waste, and became the Wasteland.

But wait, and don’t despair!  Our story does not end here. There is one more chapter, which tells us how the Wasteland was healed, and Joy was restored. The solution may surprise you. There is a clue in something that C. G. Jung once said, “The individual is the makeweight that shifts the scales.”

Are we living in a Wasteland today, and are there implications within The Elucidation, which can help us through this dark chapter in our humanity? Please join me as we explore the Feminine side of the Grail Legend, the wounding of the land, and the healing potential contained in this story.

Here are two sources, which may help you unpack The Elucidation, as you prepare for this presentation.  The first is the PDF of a translation of the text by William W. Kibler, PhD, and introduction by Norris J. Lacy, PhD, each respected scholars and translators of French medieval literature.  The second is a book by the preeminent scholars of the Grail Legend, Caitlin and John Matthews, The Lost Book of the Grail: The Sevenfold Path of the Grail and the Restoration of the Faery Accord. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2019.  

See you at the Court of Joy!