THE FALCON OF SUMMER: What does it mean to be pure of heart? Answering this question is much more complicated than it might seem. For Wolfram von Eschenbach, author of Parzival, purity was a mindset, a way of being, an unfolding spiritual quest that leads to wisdom and compassion. Of all the Grail romances, it is only in Wolframs work that Parzival achieves the Grail, all other writers shift the narrative to focus on Galahad, the illegitimate son of Lancelot and the Grail Maiden Elaine of Cobernic. 

Lancelot wasn’t good enough because of his affair with Queen Guinevere. King Arthur wasn’t good enough. Even the Grail King himself, referred to as the Fisher King was not good enough to continue in his role as Keeper of the Grail. Perceval the original seeker wasn’t good enough, so who was? Only Galahad. Funny thing about Galahad is that he wasn’t mentioned at all in the early legends. He made his first appearance in the Lancelot Cycle, written many decades after the original by Chrétien of Troyes. 

So again, the question is, what makes a person pure enough to achieve the Grail? The unfortunate answer, being a Virgin. Courtly love, forbidden love, sacred sexuality, even love within marriage was seen as taboo. The Catholic Church forbid priests to be married and enforced celibacy at the Lateran Council of 1123. The Knights Templar followed soon after in 1128/9, the Latin Rule demanded both chastity and celibacy. Even the Cathars that emerged around 1146 required celibacy of their priests, and frowned upon sexuality as it reinforced the material world which they viewed as being evil, the domain of Rex Mundi. 

Revelations 14-4

These are they which were not DEFILED WITH WOMEN, for they are VIRGINS. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. 

The ‘they’ referred to are the 144 000 men which were redeemed from the earth by having the name of their Father written in their foreheads. 

Even sex within a healthy monogamous marriage doesn’t cut it. Only being as pure as Jesus, not because of his teachings or behavior, but because he didn’t have sex, ever, and neither did his mother, ever. Sex is the one thing that remains taboo regardless of a persons purity of heart. In fact the heart has nothing to do with purity, not defiling oneself with a woman does. 

I’ve posted a number of short articles on my page dealing with this issue in the build up to this post on Galahad. From Eve in the Garden to the Serpent represented as a woman, the so called Witches Sabbath, even Pervivals temptation deals with this exact issue. A woman does her best to distract Percival by offering him food, wine and her body. But because he is so pure and so perfect, he discovers the true identity of the woman, Satan himself. 

This negative attitude towards women and sexuality is repeated over and over ad nauseam. Let’s not forget that the Christian interpretation of God consists of three men. Angels are male. The Book of Enoch doesn’t say female angels descended from heaven and copulated with earthly men. And just by the way, women were to blame for the fall of the angels because of their alluring beauty. It’s all their fault, a belief that reached its peak during the prolonged Witch Trials. 

Mary Magdalene was only accepted because she repented. This belief is reinforced by the numerous legends that speak of her travelling to Southern France. The Penitent Magdalene. They may grudgingly accept her role as a teacher/preacher, the Apostle to the Apostles, but not really. The main focus remains on her role as Penitent and Patron Saint of Prostitutes. 

Groups like the Cathars focussed on her life as teacher, not necessarily as penitent. But whether their beliefs included her role as the mother of Jesus’ children, the bloodline myth, is highly improbable. It is even more unlikely that this extended to sacred sexuality as sex was frowned upon. Procreative sex was viewed even more negatively than masturbation, coitus interruptus, oral or anal sex. 

Their beliefs weren’t any different than those found in the Catholic Church and by extension the Knights Templar. The Cistercian’s created by Bernard of Clairvaux, co-founder of the Templars were almost even more strict about chastity and celibacy. The reason Galahad was introduced as the perfect knight was because of their influence in rewriting the Grail legends. 

Only Wolframs Parzival manages to unite worldly love and divine love. Both Parzival and his wife Condwiramus have their names appear on the Grail, not only Parzival’s. The one didn’t have to be sacrificed for the other. The integration of heaven and earth was indeed possible, the entire point of Alchemy and the Great Work. The Sacred Marriage or Divine Union wasn’t only possible, but essential to progress on the path and achieve the Holy Grail. Both an internal and external union of masculine and feminine principles.