from the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Daily Meditation 9/5/22 They quote Carol Pearson: Awakening the Heroes Within.
Many times in our lives, we find ourselves in the position of the Fisher King. Something is not right. We feel wounded, disconnected from ourselves, and our kingdoms reflect our inner state. Often, we do not initially notice our own wounding; we just find ourselves unhappy with our lives. Answers that previously worked for us no longer serve. . . .
The part of us that is fragmented, split, and wounded—that knows of the splendor of the Soul, but cannot connect that splendor with our everyday lives—is the Fisher King. The young knight [Parsifal in the Germanic version] is the seeker in each of us, yearning for the Grail [DM team: the soul, our True Selves]. The Grail offers the capacity for renewal, forgiveness, and transformation. It also is within us.
This meditation took me back to some work I did a number of years ago:
From The Feminine of History is Mystery:
the chalice well: up a narrow lane, and through a garden, the path leads to an intimate, virginal setting. the well itself is sheltered by bushes and low trees, neither too carefully pruned nor allowed to run wild, the water runs through an underground pipe to emerge through a lion’s mouth into a basin. two elderly ladies, in country tweeds with country voices are filling their water bottles, otherwise there is peace at last. i sit on a log behind the well and peace and joy well up inside me, all burdens laid down. i had come to glastonbury expecting some revelation of power and knowledge and find this simple delight instead. so humble, and so real, and no words, no words at all. every time I think of the chalice well i smile.
from The Feminine of History is Mystery, lefthand page opposite righthand page 78the real sacred thing at glastonbury is the well; the tor and the abbey were built because it existed, but there is neither power nor joy in either of them now. there is a legend that the holy grail was once at glastonbury — the well, the well itself is the grail, so blindingly obvious that our grasping senses fail to see, but i could not see the grail in the well if it did not already exist inside of me.
from The Feminine of History is Mystery, lefthand page opposite righthand page 79
From the script for the Audio-Visual presentation: Sacred Sites of Ancient Keltia:
GLASTONBURY is an ancient sacred site, woven about with legends of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, a place sacred to the Great Goddess. The old, old mother of earth gives lavishly with both hands, stones, water, roses, and goes on giving, though stones crumble, springs dry up, roses fade and wither.
Below Glastonbury Tor there is a spring, flowing with iron-rich water, the blood of the earth – the menstrual blood of the Great Mother, who is called Annis, Danu, Ishtar, Belili. Her blood is gathered in a great silver bowl, chalice of inspiration, cauldron of rebirth. And through the magic of time, by which all things change yet nothing is ever lost, the Cup of the Last Supper, and the Cauldron of Kerridwen have coalesced, run together like drops of quicksilver, and become that mystical vessel and chalice, the Holy Grail – that offers to each a very personal nourishment, that brings to each the possibility of reuniting the scattered fragments and being reborn as a whole person.
Note: the lefthand pages of the book, and the script are written by tuning into the lefthand side of my mind and writing what I hear. I am taking dictation from … my soul? the right-hand side of the brain? spirit?