Roger Scruton

[RobSS]

Parsifal has been rebuked for killing the swan. He wasn't able to answer any questions, not even what his name is. The wisest Knight, Gurnemanz wonders if he is the one mentioned in the prophecy: "By compassion made wise, the pure fool; wait for him, whom I appoint." Might he be able to cure Amfortas's wound that will never heal? Gurnemanz leads Parsifal to the Castle of Infinity, where the ceremony of the uncovering of the Grail, the transcendental object at the end of time, is about to take place. May be what Parsifal will witness will awaken compassion in him? If you are called to the Grail, time will become space, but no road leads to it through the land.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by RobSS

[RobSS]

In the interview, in the video in the opening post, Roger Scruton discusses Wagner's philosophical insights that appear in may of his works. Scruton focuses mostly on Tristan and Isolde, and the the 16 hour long Ring Cycle, about the one-eyed Nordic god Wotan, the Ring that grants its owner rulership of the world, and the end of the world, known as Ragnarök, and there are many parallels in that epic Ring Cycle that mirror where our world is at, at the moment, but in the Ring Cycle, there is no spiritual salvation. All that happens at the end of the Ring Cycle, is that things revert back to where it all started, which is why it's called a "cycle". It just runs round in circles and there is no spiritual redemption.

 

Parsifal was Wagner's last music drama. It took many decades to compose and complete, and as Roger Scruton pointed out in the video, Parsifal breaks the eternal cycle of the Ring Cycle, but Roger Scruton refrains from talking about Parsifal as much as the other music dramas, not because it's less interesting, but because of the sheer depth of its insights, and ramifications to the world of its message. I've been studying the work since I first came across it in 1981, and since 1985, I've been studying the role of the character Parsifal, as a Wagner singer, and have performed parts of the role in public over the past 7 years.

 

The structure of the work is symmetrical. There are three acts. Act I is a mirror image of Act III. In other words, whatever happens in Act I, the reverse happens in Act III. Act II is completely different to the outer acts, Acts I & III. Unlike the two outer acts, which take place in and around the Castle of the Grail, Act II takes place in the castle of the black magician, Klingsor. Klingsor dispatches Kundry, his principle mind-controlled sex slave, to seduce Parsifal. The seduction culminates with a kiss that awakens compassion in Parsifal. He throws the sorceress aside, and they have a big theological argument on stage for about an hour, very similar to when the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, seduced Eve, but in this case, it's Parsifal. This kiss happens about halfway through Act II, so at the centre of the whole music drama, is a kiss.

 

In Act I, a wild boy shoots dead a swan. The wisest Knight, Gurnemanz, apprehends the boy and asks him a series of questions. The boy seems to know very little, not even his name. Gurnemanz wonders if this could be the boy referred to in a prophecy, so he leads him from the forest into the Grail Castle, to witness the uncovering of the Grail ceremony, carried out by the Grail King, Amfortas (see the video in the last post). This is the king who has a wound will never heal. After the ceremony, Gurnemanz asks the boy if he understood what he saw. The boy shakes his head and Gurnemanz tells him, "from now on leave our swans in peace, and find some geese, you gander!" Parsifal then leaves the kingdom of the Grail, and he's next seen in Act II, encountering "women of the night", in Klingsor's magic castle.

 

Act III is the same as Act I, except that Parsifal has already had the experience in Act II with the kiss. As in Act I, Gurnemanz encounters Parsifal in a forest. They recognise each other - both having aged considerably - and each tells the other what has been going on in the other's absence, since Parsifal was a boy. Gurnemanz describes a world that has now fallen into despair and confusion. Gurnemanz also recognises that Parsifal now has the Holy Spear, which he took from Klingsor.

 

In Act I, Gurnemanz led Parsifal from the forest into the Grail Castle, where time becomes space. The same happens in Act III. This is the point in the music drama where this takes place in Act III:

 

 

Edited December 25, 2021 by RobSS

[RobSS]

The story goes... when savage enemies threatened the realm of the faith, the Saviour's angel messengers gave Amfortas's father, Titurel, the Holy Grail and Holy Spear.

 

Only pure men were called to the service of the Grail, whose mighty power grants the strength to work divine salvation.

 

One man was denied service to the Grail. Klingsor expended much effort on becoming pure. He lived, secluded, in a valley, beyond which, a rich heathen land. No one knows what sin he was guilty of there, but he wished to atone and indeed become sanctified.. 

 

Powerless to stifle the sin within him, he castrated himself. He then turned his hands to the Grail, but Titurel turned him out in scorn, at which, wrath taught Klingsor how his deed of shameful sacrifice could give him knowledge of evil magic.

 

He transformed the desert into a magic garden in which bloomed women of infernal beauty. There he awaits the knights of the Grail to lure them to sinful joys and hell's damnation. He gains control of those he entices - many he has ruined.

 

When Titurel, much burdened with age, had conferred sovereignty on his son, Amfortas, Amfortas could not wait to subdue this plague of sorcery. He went in search of Klingsor, but was seduced by a beautiful devil-woman who was under Klingsor's spell. As he lay with Kundry, Klingsor appeared and seized the unguarded weapon. As Klingsor fled, he wounded Amfortas in the side, a wound that will not heal. The Holy Spear is now in Klingsor's hands. If he can wound even a holy man with it, he fancies the Grail already firmly his.

 

 

[RobSS]

Parsifal is a work that can be understood on different levels. On one level, it explains the motives and agenda of black magicians behind the New World Order agenda. Leading humanity into temptation, they gain a control, which they hope will enable them to harness the fire that animates human life, and in so doing they hope to have ultimate control of humanity's destiny and the world.

 

They do much of this work through sex magic, and the most adept ones through denying sex (castration), in order to learn the deepest and most powerful dark aspects of the occult and the black arts.

 

Time, the weeping virgin and the broken column

 

In contrast, Parsifal also explains how these dark forces are overcome, and how a time portal can be opened up in order to allow communications with the Divine. The interruption of this communication is symbolised as the "wound", and the healing of the wound is the reinstatement of humanity having contact with the Divine. All of this is an outline of the macro and cosmic workings of Parsifal.

 

In the world of phenomenon, it's remarkable how everything is connected, and one chain of observable principles are mirrored further down the chain, so that the workings of the universe, the rotation of planets around suns, are reflected in the tiniest of things with the rotation of electrons around a nucleus. See this short video, What If Our Universe Is An Atom? 

 

On the personal level, the micro level, Parsifal explains how different parts of the body relate to each other. That would appear to be what Manly P. Hall, one of Freemasonry's most highly honoured adepts, came to understand. He understood the following:

 

The Holy Grail = the pituitary gland

 

The Holy Spear = the pineal gland

 

The Mountain of Salvation = the human body

 

The castle at the summit of Monsalvat = the brain

 

Klingsor's castle (the black magician) = the sex organs Muladhara

 

In his book, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall wrote: 

 

The key to the Grail Mysteries will be apparent if in the sacred spear is recognized the pineal gland with its peculiar point like projection and in the Holy Grail the pituitary body containing the mysterious Water of Life.

 

Mount Salvat is the human body; the domed temple upon its summit, the brain; and the castle of Klingsor in the dark valley below, the animal nature which lures the knights (brain energies) into the garden of illusion and perversion.

 

Parsifal, as the purified candidate, becomes the Master of the holy relics and of the sacred science for which they stand.

 

The Pineal gland - "The pineal gland, conarium, or epiphysis cerebri, is a small endocrine gland in the brain of most vertebrates. The pineal gland produces melatonin, a serotonin-derived hormone which modulates sleep patterns in both circadian and seasonal cycles. The shape of the gland resembles a pine cone, which gives it its name. The pineal gland is located in the epithalamus, near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two halves of the thalamus join. The pineal gland is one of the neuroendocrine secretory circumventricular organs in which capillaries are mostly permeable to solutes in the blood." (Wikipedia)

 

The pituitary gland - "In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a pea and weighing 0.5 grams (0.018 oz) in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The hypophysis rests upon the hypophysial fossa of the sphenoid bone in the center of the middle cranial fossa and is surrounded by a small bony cavity (sella turcica) covered by a dural fold (diaphragma sellae). The anterior pituitary (or adenohypophysis) is a lobe of the gland that regulates several physiological processes including stress, growth, reproduction, and lactation. The intermediate lobe synthesizes and secretes melanocyte-stimulating hormone. The posterior pituitary (or neurohypophysis) is a lobe of the gland that is functionally connected to the hypothalamus by the median eminence via a small tube called the pituitary stalk (also called the infundibular stalk or the infundibulum).

 

Hormones secreted from the pituitary gland help to control growth, blood pressure, energy management, all functions of the sex organs, thyroid glands and metabolism as well as some aspects of pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, water/salt concentration at the kidneys, temperature regulation and pain relief." (Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by RobSS

[RobSS]

"If now from some part of the great Creation in dire distress, suffering and ardent appeals rise to the Creator, then a Servant of the Vessel is sent forth as a bearer of this Love to intervene helpingly in the spiritual need. What floats merely as a myth and a legend in the Work of Creation then enters Creation as a living reality.

 

Such missions, however, do not often occur. Each time they are accompanied by incisive changes and great upheavals. Those who are thus sent bring Light and Truth to the erring, Peace to the despairing; with their message they stretch forth their hands to all who seek, offering them new courage and new strength, and guiding them through all Darkness up to the Light. They come only for those who long for help from the Light, but not for the scoffers and the self-righteous." (O. Bernhardt)

[RobSS]

"Our world and everything in it could be a myth, nothing but pure imagination, because from a quantum perspective applied to the insight of Yogis in ancient India, particles appear to be more like thoughts than things." (David Ash, theoretical physicist) 

 

Consciousness created matter – not the other way around!

 

[RobSS]

If Parsifal were to appear in the world at a critical time, it wouldn't be surprising if he were a complete outsider and someone who bore both extremes of colour, black and white, within his ethnicity. As a messenger of God, it would be the Divine's way of telling the world that in the Divine reality, race does not matter.

 

 

[RobSS]

 

 

 

[RobSS]

We live in very unusual times, but I've always known such a time would arrive. In December 1987, I had a spiritual experience that was the same as Parsifal's experience in the middle of Act II. Over the following years, I came across more and more information that made sense of what I'd experienced. Round about 1992, I came across a German book by O. Bernhardt called, "The Grail Message". One chapter was called, "The Holy Grail". The following is a translation:

 

 

"Parsifal is a great promise! The defects and errors which the poets have added to the legends through their too earthly way of thinking distort the true essence of this figure. Parsifal is identical with the Son of Man, Whose coming the Son of God Himself proclaimed.

 

As a Divine Messenger with His spiritual sight blindfolded, He will have to go through the most bitter hardships on earth, outwardly a man among men.

After a certain time, when His spiritual sight is restored, He will inevitably recognise His origin and therewith Himself, as well as clearly realising His mission. This mission will also bring redemption to those who are seriously seeking, and goes hand in hand with a stern judgment.

 

[...]

 

The ethereal part within the World of Matter is what men call the beyond, thus what lies beyond their earthly or physical capacity to see. Both, however, belong to the Work of Creation and are not eternal with regard to their form, but subject to change for the purpose of renewal and regeneration. At the summit of the eternal Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality stands the Castle of the Grail, spiritually visible and tangible, because it is still of the same species of spiritual substantiality. This Castle of the Grail contains a Sanctuary which lies on the outermost border adjacent to the Divine Sphere, and is thus of still finer consistency than the rest of spiritual substantiality. In this Sanctuary, as a pledge of the eternal Goodness of God the Father, as a symbol of His Purest Divine Love, and the point from which Divine Power issues, stands the Holy Grail!

 

This is a chalice in which it bubbles and surges unceasingly like red blood without overflowing. Enveloped as it is in the most Luminous Light, it is granted only to the purest of all spirits in the Realm of Spiritual Substantiality to look into this Light! These are the Guardians of the Holy Grail! If it is said in the legends that the purest of men are destined to become Guardians of the Grail, this is a point about which the blessed poet has drawn all too earthly a picture, because he was unable to express himself differently!"

 

(O. Bernhardt "The Grail Message", "The Holy Grail")

 

[RobSS]

Jesus Christ:

 

"Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth, it is for your benefit I am going away. For if I do not go away, the helper will by no means come to you; but if I do go my way, I will send him to you.

 

And when that one arrives he will give the world convincing evidence concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgement; in the first place concerning sin because they are not exercising faith in me; then concerning righteousness, because I am going to the father and you will behold me no longer; then concerning judgement because the ruler of this world has been judged.

 

I have many things yet to say to you, but you are not able to bear them at present. However, when that one arrives, the spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak of his own impulse, but what he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things coming. That one will glorify me, because he will receive from what is mine and will declare it to you." (John 16:7-14)

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by RobSS

[RobSS]

"Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents." - Ludwig van Beethoven

 

 

[RobSS]

Parsifal and Schopenhaurian philosophy

 

"Other writers (particularly Bryan Magee) see Parsifal as Wagner's last great espousal of Schopenhaurian philosophy. Parsifal can heal Amfortas and redeem Kundry because he shows compassion, which Schopenhauer saw as the highest form of human morality. Moreover, he displays compassion in the face of enormous sexual temptation (Act 2 scene 3).

 

Once again, Schopenhaurian philosophy suggests that the only escape from the ever-present temptations of human life is through negation of the Will, and overcoming sexual temptation is in particular a strong form of negation of the Will. When viewed in this light, Parsifal, with its emphasis on "Mitleid" (compassion) is a natural follow-on to Tristan und Isolde, where Schopenhauer's influence is perhaps more obvious, with its focus on "Sehnen" (yearning). Indeed, Wagner originally considered including Parsifal as a character in Act 3 of Tristan, but later rejected the idea."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal#Schopenhaurian_philosophy

 

[RobSS]

Parsifal and Greek Myth

 

https://www.monsalvat.no/greek-myths.htm

 

Quote

Prometheus - the Redeemer Unbound

 

On 28 February 1877, Richard gave Cosima, his wife, to read the second Prose Draft of Parsifal, which he had just completed. She recorded her reactions in her diary: This is bliss, this is solace, this is sublimity and devotion! -- The Redeemer unbound!

 

Prometheus, like Amfortas and Telephus, had a wound that would not heal. As punishment for Prometheus giving fire to man, Zeus had him chained up in the Caucasian mountains. Every day, an eagle came to Prometheus and bit him in the liver, which grew again every night. In his Prometheus trilogy, of which only Prometheus Bound has survived, Aeschylus developed him into the creator and saviour of mankind. Although he gave them fire, Prometheus took away their knowledge of the future. In the next part of the trilogy, Prometheus Unbound, Zeus allowed Prometheus to be freed. Heracles shot the eagle and freed the titan from his chains.

 

R[ichard] says to me, "Prometheus' words, 'I took knowledge away from Man' came to my mind and gave me a profound insight; knowledge, seeing ahead, is in fact a divine attribute, and man with this divine attribute is a piteous object, he is like Brahma before the Maya spread before him the veil of ignorance, of deception; the divine privilege is the saddest thing of all." [Cosima Wagner's diary entry for 29 November 1871]

 

Prometheus, unbound, appeared on the title page of the first edition of Friedrich Nietzsche's first book. The ideas presented in that book, The Birth of Tragedy, were either ideas that originated with Wagner, or which Nietzsche developed during and after conversations with Wagner. Nietzsche contrasted the myth of Prometheus with the Biblical myth of the Fall. Prometheus, a male character, committed sacrilege by stealing from divine nature. His was an active sin. Eve, a female character, allowed herself to be deceived. Hers was a passive sin. To Nietzsche's observations might be added, that through Eve's fault mankind gained the knowledge of good and evil, whereas through Prometheus' actions mankind lost the knowledge of the future.

 

In Wagner's letter to King Ludwig of 7 September 1865, he suggests (but with considerable caution) that Adam-Eve-Christ might be compared to Amfortas-Kundry- Parsifal. The analogy is certainly not an exact one. It seems that Amfortas' sin was an active sin, like that of Prometheus, and he too was punished with an unhealing wound. Kundry is not tempted, as was Eve, but rather she is a temptress. The common theme is knowledge. 

 

One day there arrives a young man whose distinguishing characteristic is his lack of knowledge. Parsifal lacks even the knowledge of good and evil; perhaps he represents pre-fallen, paradisiacal human, still in a state of dreaming innocence?

 

 

 

[RobSS]

Parsifal, The Jungle Book and the transition from the age of Pisces to the age of Aquarius

 

As with Fool characters in general, Parsifal also shares characteristics with Mowgli, the wild Indian boy from Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" stories (1894), about a boy who's brought up by a pack wolves in the jungle. Parsifal was also a wild boy brought up away from civilisation and the world of men.

 

In Mowgli's many adventures, he encounters King Louie, "the king of the swingers", and "the jungle VIP". He's an orangutan and leader of the jungle's primates. King Louie didn't feature in Rudyard Kipling's original stories, but he did in Walt Disney's 1967 cartoon animation, and in the more recent 2016 live adaptation. In the two films, Louie guards an ancient temple in the jungle - a metaphor for astral reality coinciding with human society.

 

Desiring knowledge, King Louie kidnaps Mowgli. He wants knowledge of the "red fire", also referred to as the "red flower", the spirit that animates Mowgli. In the Disney film, he sings:  

 

Now don't try to kid me, mancub
I'll make a deal with you
What I desire is man's red fire
To make my dream come true
Now, give me the secret, mancub
Come on, clue me what to do
Give me the power of man's red flower
So I can be like you

 

The more recent 2016 live adaptation version of the film gives more details... King Louie offers Mowgli protection from the man-eating tiger, Shere Khan, in return for the secret of making the "red fire", which he and his fellow primates plan to use in order to take over the jungle. In a scene surprisingly similar to the Devil's temptation of Christ, King Louie says:

 

We're on level ground here.
I'm in charge. And I've got a plan.
You are a man-cub who wants to live in the jungle.

 

Mowgli:
How do you know that?

 

King Louie:
Kid... I got ears.
My ears got ears.
You wanna live here?
You need a people to protect you.
Only I can protect you...
And I will, for a price.

 

Mowgli:
I don't have anything to give you.

 

King Louie:
I think you do. What?
Look around, man-cub.
I got everything.
I have plentiful food...
Endless treasure...
Command vast legions.
But there's one thing I don't have...
And that's the one thing...
You can give me. The red flower.

 

Mowgli:
I don't have that!

 

King Louie:
You're a man, aren't you?
That's what makes you a man.
You can summon the red flower...
And control it.

 

They told me not to go near the red flower.
You know why they say that?
Because once you have it, you rise to the top of the food chain.
Nothing in this jungle can stand up... To the red flower.

 

Mowgli:
Please, I just wanna go.

 

King Louie:
Now, don't try to kid me, man-cub
I'll make a deal with you
what I desire is man's red fire
to make my dream come true
now give me the secret,
man-cub come on!

 

Mowgli's natural intelligence and physical skills, are valuable to all the jungle animals. Those that respect and altruistically protect Mowgli even gain human-like qualities. In the Jungle Book, Mowgli is a "new" Christ figure. He represents what potentially any person could be, if that person were 'hot'.

 

Another telling of the story appears in the 1942 Technicolor action-adventure film version of "The Jungle Book", directed by Zoltan Korda. In this film, Shere Khan is portrayed as Cain, who as described in the book of Genesis, killed his brother, Able. In the introduction to the film, the narrator describes Shere Khan:

 

"The Tiger - the killer the man eater, the villain who first brought murder to the jungle clan - Shere Khan.

 

It's said that in his first kill, when he was Cain to some poor Able of the glades, when he ran from the scene of his crime, the trees and creepers whipped him with their branches and striped his yellow hide with the mark of Cain. This evil lord must have his dish-lickers his bullies for attendants; the jackal and the hyena, hungry for the scraps of the murderous master's feast." (from the 1942 version of "The Jungle Book", directed by Zoltan Korda)

 

Max Heindel, an American occultist, astrologer, mystic and Rosicrucian, wrote that Freemasonry originated with Cain, who was "the son of a widow". He wrote, "They have lost their spiritual sight and are imprisoned in the forehead of the body where it is said Cain was marked; they must wander as prodigal sons in the comparative darkness of the material world, oblivious to their high and noble estate..."

 

At the end of the Disney story, the jungle is severely damaged by a fire. Mowgli is confronted by Shere Khan, but Mowgli sets fire to his tail. Shere Khan, terrified of fire, runs away.

 

Baloo and Bagheera take Mowgli to the edge of the Man-Village, but Mowgli is hesitant to enter. Mowgli, however, quickly changes his mind when he sees a beautiful young girl approaching alongside the river, to fetch water. Accidentally dropping a water pot, Mowgli picks it up for her and follows her into the Man-Village to be with his own kind.

 

The final scene of Disney's "The Jungle Book" is similar to a scene described in the New Testament, in which Jesus instructs Peter and John to "go and prepare for us to eat the Passover". Jesus tells them to find a room for the meal by following a man carrying a jug of water... "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters." (Luke 22:8-10)

 

In Matthew 28:20 it states "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age". What's being talked about is the "End of the Age", the end of the age of "Pisces", and the beginning of the age of Aquarius. The symbol for the age of Aquarius is the "Water-bearer".

 

[RobSS]

"It has been rightly said that myth is of greater authenticity than history because it deals with the timeless realities of the soul, instead of with the pale reflections of these realities on the illusory screen of time and fact." (Stephen A. Hoeller, "The Fool's Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot", p.12)

 

The Fool (The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck)

 

[RobSS]

More insights regarding how Parsifal dealt with the problem of evil, from Max Heindel, a Christian mystic, in a lecture, "The Mystery of the Holy Grail", where he notes the following: 

 

We have also the symbol of the spear which was the cause of the wound from which the blood flowed. This was stained with the cleansing blood, which made it a talisman that could be variously used. During the reign of Titurel the Grail mystery was powerful; but when the Grail was given over to Amfortas, son of Titurel, he went out armed with the holy spear to slay Klingsor. He then ceased to be harmless; he wanted to pervert that great spiritual power and use it to slay an enemy. Even though it was an enemy of the good, it was not right to use that power for that purpose, and therefore the power turned against him. He had ceased to be chaste, pure, and harmless, and then the power gave him the wound that would never heal. So it is also in other cases.

 

In a different lecture, he wrote:

 

Amfortas could not have fallen if he had been harmless, but he was contemplating a misuse of the spiritual power symbolized by the spear. He was going to use it without due discrimination against Klingsor; therefore, it reached upon him and wounded him. The black and the white magician both use the same force - a spiritual power - and it is as impossible to use a spiritual force to harm a spiritual man as it is to drown a fish in water. Therefore, when Klingsor hurls the spiritual power--the spear--at Parsifal, it floats harmlessly above him and Parsifal directs it against the Castle only, not against Klingsor.

 

The good cannot use good for direct destruction of evil, but only indirectly by showing them the greater power of Good.”

 

[RobSS]

Parsifal and the redeemer

 

By Dieter Borchmeyer (an excerpt from the Royal Opera Guide on "Parsifal")

 

The analogy between Christ and Parsifal should be drawn only ‘with a good deal of caution’, Wagner stressed. He later opposed Hans von Wolzogen’s view that Parsifal was a reflection of the Saviour: ‘I didn’t give the Redeemer a thought when I wrote it’, he is said to have told Cosima on October 20, 1878.

 

Wagner himself, then, clearly stated that he had never for a moment thought of regarding Parsifal as God or of making him a figure of redemption. There is not a single passage where a reference to the ‘Redeemer’ could mean anyone other than Christ.

 

Parsifal is plainly conscious of the distance that separates him, as a sinner, from his Saviour: ‘Redeemer! Saviour! Lord of Grace! Can I my sinful crime efface?’ The closing formula, ‘Redeemed the Redeemer’, can in no sense be interpreted to mean that the new redeemer Parsifal has superseded the old one, in the way that each new Grail king replaces the previous one.

 

If Parsifal participates in the redemptive acts of God, it is in the manner of a Christian saint, rescuing the Saviour, who is immanent within the Grail, from the guilt-tainted hands of Amfortas. This closing formula, which is in no sense enigmatic, in spite of speculative attempts to inflate its meaning, can be easily interpreted on the basis of the text itself, and specifically of the so- called ‘Saviour’s lament’ in the second act: ‘Redeem me, rescue me from hands defiled and guilty!’

 

Having placed himself in mortal hands in the shape of the Grail and having assumed material form as a sacred object, which itself now stands apart from all action, Jesus needs a pure individual to redeem Him. This act of redemption is a restitutio in integrum which finds visual expression in the reunification of two objects that had become separated, namely the Spear and the Grail — the weapon which had wounded Jesus in the side and the vessel into which His blood had flowed.

 

The ending marks the return to a beginning whose intensified recurrence is the restoration of a perfect primordial state. The blood that now flows from the Spear is no longer that of a sinner but of the Redeemer; Spear and Grail become a single entity in this sacred blood, and Amfortas’s wound is healed when touched by the same Spear that had earlier caused it; the Grail fellowship is restored; Klingsor’s alternative world is exorcised, and Nature returns to her paradisal innocence (Good Friday magic).

 

It is a Christian Utopia which goes back to the late classical idea whereby all things are restored at the end of time.

[RobSS]

The link between Kundry, the Mother of the Matrix, and the association between Parsifal and Frodo in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings".

 

I came across the following in an old theatre program of an English National Opera production of Wagner's Parsifal that I saw, at the Coliseum, in London, in 2011:

 

"Act II takes place in his [Klingsor's] Magic Garden, initially dominated by a gauzy front-cloth depicting a giant pelvis, in the centre of which, like a spider patiently poised in his web, sits the magician Klingsor, summoning up Kundry to attempt to seduce him [Parsifal], as she once did Amfortas."

 

Like Frodo, Parsifal escaped Kundry's seduction and embrace. Frodo experienced serious injury, so did Parsifal experience any injury in his encounter with the Mother of the Matrix?

 

Wagner's libretto doesn't say a great deal in answer to that question. All that's known is something Parsifal mentions, after many years of wandering through the labyrinthine paths of the world, and his mind, he finds himself back at the domain of the Grail, on Good Friday morning. At first, Gurnemanz doesn't recognise the stranger, dressed in dark warrior's apparel because it's been like half a life-time since he last encountered Parsifal - the wild boy who killed a swan with his bow and arrow. When he recognises Parsifal, Gurnemanz asks, "To whom sought you the way?" Parsifal answers:

 

"To him, whose deep laments I once heard in foolish wonder, to bring him salvation I presume to think myself ordained.

But - oh! - not finding the way of salvation, I strayed from the path, driven off course by a savage curse; countless dangers, battles and conflicts forced me from the path, even when I thought I knew it well.

Then I began to doubt that I could save the holy relic; in its defence, many times, I let myself be wounded; while I never dared to bear it in combat;
unprofaned I kept it at my side, that which I now bring home, gleaming before you bright and noble; the Grail's holy spear."

 

Parsifal says nothing about having been wounded by Kundry, or Klingsor, in his castle, but he does mention that he was cursed by Kundry. The curse would've been most intense at the time when Kundry first cursed him, but as he draws closer to the Grail, the curse loses it's power and effect. Parsifal also mentions that he was wounded in his subsequent wanderings in the world. No doubt, he encountered and was attacked by lost knights who tried to prevent him from fulfilling his mission.

 

But Parsifal has the Holy Spear that he took from Klingsor, and with it he has the power to heal. Once Amfortas is healed, the sterile land is rejuvenated. Parsifal's mission is to restore the King, and make his lands fertile again. Creativity and life will once again abundantly flow throughout the kingdom.

 

In the Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Sam were able to combat Shelob with a special sword ("Sting"), and a special light from the Phial of Galadriel.

 

Parsifal has the Holy Spear and the light from from the Grail. What power does the Grail have?

 

The best description of the power of the Grail comes from Lohengrin:

 

In a far-off land, inaccessible to your steps,
there is a castle by the name of Montsalvat;
a light-filled temple stands within it,
more beautiful than anything on earth;
therein is a vessel of wondrous blessing
that is watched over as a sacred relic:
that the purest of men might guard it...

 

It was brought down by a host of angels;
every year a dove descends from Heaven
to fortify its wondrous power:

it is called the Grail, and the purest, most blessed faith
is imparted through it to the Brotherhood of Knights.

 

Whosoever is chosen to serve the Grail
is armed by it with heavenly power;
the darts of evil prove powerless against him,
once he has seen it, the shadow of death flees him.

 

Even he who is sent by it to a distant land,
appointed as a champion of virtue,
will not be robbed of its holy power.

 

Because the world has strayed so far from the light of the Divine, Shelob's dark cosmic fibres and strands are causing a thick black fog of corruption and confusion to fall upon the world, but anyone, and Everyperson, has the potential to keep the light of the Grail alive, and burning bright within. Eventually, the evil will be totally banished from the world.

 

I could be wrong, but belief can be a very powerful thing.

 

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was published in 1954, but the idea of the mother of the matrix being a spider has been around for a long time.

 

Below is a photo of Kingsor's magical fortress, in a production of Parsifal, directed by Wieland Wagner, from the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, in 1951. It shows  Kundry in the foreground with Parsifal in the centre of a web...