Monday, February 07, 2005
GRAIL LITURGY
Suzanne M. Rini introduces the "Grail Liturgy" in an online paper at the EWTN website titled "Hitler and the Occult: Nazism, Reincarnation and the Rock Culture." In speaking of the occult influence on Nazism, she writes:
[Edward C.] Whitmont claims that the lore of the swastika traces directly
back to the Knights Templars, who were routed by the Church for
allegedly satanic-like practices. The Templars were also
affiliated with the Grail myth, a major element of which was
worship of an ancient, Celtic/Teutonic god involving prescribed
rituals and prayers: "All this purportedly constituted a Grail
liturgy dedicated to reviving the ancient forgotten mysteries of
the old sacred tradition (ascribed to a legendary Aryan Thule)
from which the whole Indo-Germanic culture was supposed to have
originated."
She goes on to write:
Whitmont says...These new Templars claimed to guard and serve the Grail of the
racially pure blood and the Thule mysteries of the ancient Aryan root
race." Thus, the old god Cerannus would have had to be propitiated
with blood rites, upon which pagan renewal was always based. Hitler,
when he came to power, often had himself pictured in Grail regalia,
and set up some of his forces as "orders" of knights. It then becomes
possible to hypothesize that perhaps the ritual murders which took
place in the German concentration camps were seen, not figuratively
as they are by some historians, but literally as blood sacrifice.
Further into the paper she connects the Cathars with the Black Mass:
…Cathars are credited, even by the most Inquisition-hating historians as having been the first heretics to propitiate Satan as the god of matter. They are credited too, with being the first to celebrate the Black Mass and to offer human sacrifice, both of which were drawn upon by 19th century Satanists. It was the 17th century Cathars who introduced to devil-worship the ritualistic elements today passed off as ancient but which were unknown in both the early Christian centuries and in the Renaissance, when black magic became influential through the work of Pico de Mirandola, who believed that white magic was not efficient enough for the matters at hand. It was the ritualistic, propitiatory Cathar “tradition” which was adapted by the surge of Satanism that took place in the 19th century, well-described by Huysmanns in La Bas.
The paper conjures up visions of martyrdom which are unsettling to say the least. It is then not without concern that I discovered there is a "Grail Liturgy" online.
This liturgy is ecumenical in nature. The description of it that prefaces the liturgy itself uses the word "Catholic" in the sense of syncretistic "unity." The four directions make their presence known. A consecration is included. The service is patterned on the Roman Catholic Mass.
This liturgy is the handiwork of Jonathan Robinson, Director of the Grail Trust, and an Anglican priest with an M.A. in the study of religions. It has the approval of one Catholic priest who is quoted at the end of the liturgy saying:
"The Grail Liturgy has a cosmic dimension. It is a participation in God's communion with the whole Universe, and so of us with and in that Universe. What makes the Grail Liturgy unique is that it brings all the different dimensions of life into their relationship with the Christ.
An important feature of this liturgy is that it is not afraid of periods of silence as space for contemplative meditation. A priority of prayer is that we dispose ourselves to be open to God communing with us. The use of symbols in the liturgy, through which our senses are able to play a part, can lift us to a higher form of communion than any words.
For those who will take the risk of departing from the formula of the familiar parish Mass, their participation in the Grail Liturgy will be a nourishing spiritual experience."
Adrian B. Smith (Fr. Adrian Smith is a Catholic priest, and author of a number of books describing the interface between Christian beliefs and the emerging era of new consciousness.)
Are you ready to "take the risk"? The Grail Church is waiting for you. Among the options they offer:
...you can request a Letter of Recognition. This relationship is for people who are generally in agreement with us and want closer ties, but do not want to be structurally connected to our order - either because you are Desposyni yourself or you are connected with another ministry of Desposynic origin.
Desposyni? That would be Grail Christianity:
The Grail Religion might be best defined as a folk expression of the Messianic Christianity which existed among the Covenant Keepers of Davidic descent. They were known by ancient Church historians as the Desposyni: signifying that they were the Lord's kinsmen. Its theology was encrypted in the early legends of the Holy Grail and survives today in some branches of Celtic Christianity.
In this case the "Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail." Interesting website. They claim to be the "Desposyni", those blood relatives of Christ who believed they should rule. William H. Kennedy discusses them on p. 99 of Lucifer's Lodge:
The Desposyni believed they were the body, blood, and spirit of Jesus Christ and that they had the right to marry, to have children, to run the Church, and pass on papal leadership to their offsping. This heresy may have been where Celsus received the notion that Jesus was a sex fiend. Most likely this belief was a Desposyni tenet, which they used to justify their own sexual practices. Martin believed that they died out in the fourth century, but some may have survived and their congregations could have easily kept these sexual teachings alive in the Church by going underground.
The Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail mentions sexual teachings in the footnotes:
8. That Jesus Christ was phallic in marriage and had to be married, according to the Hebrew prophets, to be the true Messiah, [7]
9. That sexual union is meant to be sensual, fertile, and spiritual; it is not depraved nor is it Original Sin, [8]
10. That there are five religious rites: baptism, chrism, communion, redemption, and the bride chamber; and only in the Jamesian tradition can there be a completed liturgy, [9]
The Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail website does not offer a liturgy, but rather directs the believer to seek out the ligurgy in the didache Chapters 10 and 11. However for individuals who do not have the option of celebrating a Grail Liturgy:
If receiving Communion in a Church which does not acknowledge the Grail Church, make the sign of the double-cross (an X - "cross my heart and hope to die" by folding your arms across the breast or making the sign with your hand, and then make the crucifix) and say "Maranatha", a petition which means "My LORD [Jesus] has come; may my lord [a Desposynic head] come."
I have a vague memory of seeing someone receive communion with their arms crossed X-fashion across their chest. Whether they said "Maranatha" or not, I don't know. When I saw this done, I thought it looked odd and wondered what sect the person belonged to.
Jonathan Robinson's Grail Liturgy is linked at this Lutheran website, and at this Unitarian Universalist website. They offer their own version of it as well.
There is a Grail Centre in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth. This Centre is on the list of UK Christaquarian Groups. Here is the home page for the Christaquarians, "a growing resource for the study of New Age Christianity, Christian New Agers..."
It boggles the mind!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
