Was the Holy Grail guarded by the Templars?

This was first suggested by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the beginning of the 13th century, featured in Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and has since become part of grail lore. It should be noted, however, that Wolfram uses the term templeisen, which would favor the translation "templer" (temple dweller) instead of Templar. We shall see at a later point that Isidor's "etymologies" were widely read during the Middle Ages, and that poets like Chrétien and Wolfram took their choice of words quite seriously. It would be wise not to underestimate these so-called "poets" either! In a world without books, newspapers, TV, and Internet, these traveling bards were the information network of their time.

A good example is Wolfram's ambiguous choice of l'aschantiure as an etymological key to identify his informant Kyot. Books have been written about this mysterious figure, because Wolfram credits him for having discovered the grail secrets. The popular translation into the French "le chanteur" (singer or troubadour) has failed to identify him, but our approach will favor "l'enchanteur" (enchanter, magician), which enables us to catch Wolfram's partner, the elusive "hare in the field of words".

If we analyze the word "templeisen", it does imply that the grail keepers lived in some kind of temple, but not the Temple of Solomon, which he would have said clearly. An important focus of our researches, because it is a historical fact that the "Templars" developed within the folds of the Church, while the grail symbolism favors the Gnosticism of the heretic sects that were widely persecuted and burned at the stake. We must also consider that Wolfram demonstrates an intimate knowledge of the crusades, while none of the grail knights behave like crusaders. Even their symbol, the "turtledove", implies a higher, spiritual theme, which like the grail ritual sets them apart from the Templar Order. We may see at a later point that Wolfram localized his "templeisen" at an ancient temple of the love goddess Venus/Aphrodite.

In other words, the Templars are unlikely candidates as guardians of the grail, but certainly qualify as seekers. Probably under secret orders of the Church. This hypothesis is also supported by the "skull and crossbones", a famous Templar symbol, which is linked to the grail secrets. Wolfram suggests that some Templars were initiated at a later date, but it remains controversial whether the Freemasons derived from the former or the latter. (Jewish sources that were independent from the Maurists and Bollandists, allow the theory that the poets were Pythagorean beggar monks). For starters, the Masons among you could shed some light on this, although it would be funny (and sad) if those that say they know nothing really know nothing!

back

Why was the Holy Grail never found?

For all we know it may have been found, but it all depends on what a Holy Grail really is. According to the medieval sources the grail could be a golden platter, vessel, cup, stone -- or something else. The most amazing properties of the grail are claimed by Wolfram who says that it gives the phoenix the power to be reborn from ashes. He also praises the wisdom of Pythagoras, Plato and the Sibyl, who allegedly taught in their time that the grail provides any food our hand reaches for, hot and cold, new food and old food, of domesticated animals and game. This symbolism invokes a philosophy and mythology of the ancients that is clearly meant as food for thought. Furthermore, it seems that Wolfram foresaw that everyone who searches for the grail, and writes about it, would come up with a different conclusion. Probably because of the wild speculations of his contemporaries. Books with such stuff fill our libraries, offering Celtic, Persian, English, Greek, German, Indian, or Jewish origins. And naturally, each conjecture is paired by another description of the Holy Grail itself. In other words, only if we discover what a grail really is, and only if our identification satisfies the original symbols, allegories and metaphors, are we the first to have achieved this lofty goal.

This much can be said: Forty years of research have persuaded your gatekeeper that the symbolism of the poets, which features a link between the above and the below, the macrocosm and the microcosm, must be an important clue. Based on the body of work on the subject: The Holy Grail has not been found -- because no one seems to know what it is.

back

Why should we succeed when others have failed?

Because it is the first interactive search for the Holy Grail -- is the first answer. Another reason is the privilege that we live in the Information Age. Eight hundred years ago, when grail romance was created, a poor man had to join a holy order to learn reading and writing. Aristocrats employed tutors, who usually were men of the cloth as well. Hence, an elite minority was educated by the Church and the general public kept in the dark. Before the invention of the printing press all books were copied by hand and kept in monastic and aristocratic libraries, which made it impossible for a commoner to get access.

In those days, anyone who wanted to read a certain book would have had to walk to Paris or Rome, for example, if they could not afford a horse. Besides, many works were lost at the fire of Alexandria, like Aristotle's writings that had to be retranslated from the Arabic. Other important books were not even written yet. And women were excluded altogether, unless they joined a holy order, because their fate was to bear children and tend to the household.

The general public was even excluded after the invention of the printing press because all important religious, philosophical and scientific works were written in Latin. This had the practical purpose to allow an educated elite to communicate across language barriers. The German astronomer Kepler, for example, was able to correspond with his Italian colleague Galileo. It also gave the Roman Church control over international holdings, political interests, and congregations all over the world. This practice continued well into the 20th century, notably in medicine and religion, and is still used today to keep information from laypeople.

Everything changed with the introduction of cars, trains and airplanes, and even more dramatically with the internet, making our planet a global village. Now, a Coptic monk, an Eskimo fisherman, and a Tamil Tiger could all be reading these words and decide to join our project. And yes, they would be welcome! In celebration of the brotherhood of man -- and with equal emphasis of the sisterhood of woman!

 During most of the eight centuries since Chrétien, it would have taken decades to research what we can often do in a day, or in seconds on the web. Then there was another "obstacle" we tend to overlook: The Holy Roman Inquisition, which lasted in some countries well into the 19th century. Only during the 20th century were the advances made to allow research of almost any given subject, by almost anyone. The other advantage of the information age is that most libraries are now open to the general public. Information is easily accessible if a search is properly conducted, or in the sense of the grail tradition, if the right questions are asked. As libraries are being linked to the growing Internet every word that was ever put down in writing can soon be accessed by anyone in the world. In the near future we will be able to extract the essence of human wisdom through word processing. Yes indeed, the "The Stone Of The Wise" has been found at last.

Your gatekeeper, who is going to facilitate this "First Interactive Search for the Holy Grail", has spent over forty years of his life on the quest. He has lived in many countries and researched in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. In 2007, extensive field research was conducted in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, the prior one focused on Greece and Israel.  Original manuscripts are usually examined at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. (Note: They are still at rue de Richelieu!) Older published work is reviewed at the New York Public Library and the UCLA Young Library in Los Angeles.

In other words, we can easily succeed for the first time in history where others have failed. We can find the grail in a matter of weeks or months -- but only with your interactive participation. So please, get with it and do your share!

back

Is the Holy Grail connected to a lost treasure?

It must be said here and now: Only because an immense treasure was lost is there a Holy Grail and a body of work known as grail romance. It probably was the treasure of the Visigoths, taken as booty during their sack of Rome in AD 410. Many details are documented, including a written account of what the Romans paid to Alaric as ransom prior to the actual sack. It included 5 000 pounds of gold and 30,000 pounds of silver. The gold alone would have a value of over 80 million Euros today, not counting the immense archeological value of the artifacts and coins.

But this was merely a prelude, the sack and destruction of Rome was to follow and is described in the works of Orosius, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and others. They lamented that the "End of the World" had come, and even that "Rome deserved her fate". We can safely say today that the value of the entire booty would even put Bill Gates to shame. In fact, many writers speculate that it included artifacts from Solomon's Temple, like the menorah the Romans took during their sack of Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Christian era. There is a marble relief inside the Arch of Titus in Rome, which depicts captured Jews who had to carry these holy objects through the city. Little else is known about the treasure -- it seems to have vanished without a trace.

According to a legend, part of the treasure was buried with Alaric in Italy (Busento). Then the Visigoths settled briefly in south-western France, north of the Pyrenees, from where they conquered Spain in the company of the Alans, Suebes and Vandals. The fate of the treasure has been the subject of much speculation by Gerard de Sède and other masters of conjecture, and is featured extensively in Holy Blood, Holy Grail as pertaining to the Holy Grail or legendary Cathar treasure. But their treasure would have been spiritual and not contain any Roman loot -- for good reasons that pertain to the grail secrets.
 

back

Why should we search for the Holy Grail?

This is the most important question of all! The answer is in your heart. It could be that the loss of Alaric's treasure would also become our gain. In the Gnostic sense for both, the material and the spiritual rewards. That we must seek the lost treasure so that we can discover these higher, spiritual values. Our only problem is that we might find the former before the latter, which would make us rich and keep us ignorant. Let it be noted here and now that only a third of the treasure is yours to keep, after taxes, if you should find it before our Interactive Search is completed! A third must be donated to a local charity, and a third belongs to your gatekeeper to fund a non-profit foundation for continued researches. Please bear in mind that thieves will be prosecuted under the full extent of international law.

You should also be warned of other risks: Only if your heart is pure (true) and your mind free (from indoctrination) will the ancients treat you kindly and show you the way. Otherwise, you may loose your way and mind. This means that you must start out as a fool like Perceval who was told to forget the "good lessons" of his mother. Only then will you find your way out of the darkness and to a bright window in time where the cosmic keys to other dimensions await you. Always remember that there are no short-cuts through the ancient maze. You too will have to spend time in the dangerous pitfalls and dungeons of sinister minds, but if you allow yourself to see both, the allegorical thorns and roses, you should have the time of your life.

Once you have mastered Quadrivium you will trap the elusive Phoenix, and like the fourth monkey, the least loved, jump on the back of this fabulous bird. If you can grasp its red and golden feathers, it will take you on a cosmic ride through to time and space: From Abraham's Ur to Imhotep's Heliopolis, Hammurabi's Babylon, Ahab's Baal, Solomon's Temple, and other exotic places, until you reach the real Temple of the Sun. As we witness the death and rebirth of this eternal creature, the ancient magic will conjure up a vision of a Holy Grail in the evening sky. But only as phantasmagoria of medieval mystics -- because it is only a prelude of more important things to come.

Yes, great fun is guaranteed for all! Aside from the Phoenix and Christmas Star, we will follow other "flying allegories" like noisy magpies, crows and raven. The magpie will take us to the Griffons that guard Caucasus gold, and a winged female Sphinx will take us from Greece to her earthbound mate in Egypt, to solve silly riddles about crawling babies, startled hares, a watchful falcon and (in a more serious vain) a bleeding goose, and a very sad and hairy cynocephalus. This is why Wolfram joked that the grail is a magic feeding-dish that serves the most delicious soul food we can possibly desire: hot and cold, new and old, of domesticated animals and of game. In a satire of fellow poets, he quotes Plato and the Sibyl who recommended to "accept old wisdom as new", and by praising Pythagoras as the "wisest man since Adam", so we would understand the meaning of the esoteric triangles that are hot and cold.

You will probably want to start with Master Chrétien who established the rules of our quest. His prologue opens with the parable of the seed, to lead us to the graal, a shining, golden platter, decorated with the most precious stones on earth and in the sea. It shines so brightly that the light of the candles in the grail castle fade like stars, when sun or moon are rising. This link between macrocosm and microcosm, of what is bound in heaven and on earth, relates to the cosmic and Solar symbolism of the Holy Grail in medieval terms. But if the many corruptions of the French texts make you feel insecure, turn to Wolfram's "second opinion". It is the only version that made it though the centuries unchanged.

If you have no interest in allegorical speculation and clever "mind games", because the above seems more like poetic nonsense to you, you should probably enter the labyrinth via the KYOT GATE. Try "Kepler" for starters, because it is a bit more cerebral in the comparison of fact and fantasy. The German astronomer describes this process as finding a "grain of truth in the dung of superstition", a dead give-away that he knew about Michael's pearl and followed the wisest man since Adam. Anyway, if you're really sharp, check Kepler's treatise de nive sexangula. It's truly about nothing, as you will see, until you get the bigger picture. If you had a natural aversion against Latin in your school days, like your foolish gatekeeper, you may have to wait until we post the English translation. Then you'll really know why we must search for the Holy Grail!

back