By Sol Aris - Forum Discussion Here

Some time ago I became involved in some research which can be loosely termed "the Quest for the Holy Grail". For a long time I put off seriously considering what the Grail really is, because the short answer to that is that I’m still not really sure.

So I knocked together this little monogram with the various most commonly encountered possibilities, from which we can choose what we like best.

Before proceeding, we should remember that the search for the Grail has often been viewed as being strictly symbolic for our general Thirst for Enlightenment. We have always sought a better understanding of the forces that control us, and many have said that the Grail is not an artifact at all, but only symbolizes the knowledge we can attain. That explanation definitely fits in my case, because while researching this material I’ve already learned more than I even thought possible. And yet I feel there’s more to it than mere symbolism

The Holy Grail has traditionally been held by the public to be the cup from which Jesus shared the wine with his disciples during the Last Supper. And later Joseph of Arimathea used the same vessel to catch the blood of Jesus from the cross. This view got wide acclaim twenty years ago in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark, part III", where this old cup of Jesus is found at the end by Indiana Jones in the ancient cave city of Petra in southern Jordan.

But serious researchers of the Grail have known since earliest times that the Grail is no simple cup, or in fact probably not any single artifact at all. In the past it was convenient for Alchemists and scholars of the Hidden Arts to have everyone believe that the Grail was merely a holy relic, the Cup which Jesus used. At the same time, they were looking for the "real Grail", which they knew to be something else entirely.

The fact that today anyone can easily find out about the Grail not being a mere drinking cup, is just another indication that we live in a time when all the ancient secrets are being revealed. What Medieval Alchemists had to spend their whole lives studying is now available at the push of a button, if one looks for the right keywords.

Some early myths, like the medieval epic about Percival/Parsifal, link the Grail with other Christian relics, such as the Spear of Longinus, with which the Roman soldier reportedly pierced Jesus during the crucifixion, as well as various "pieces of the True Cross", and items like the Shroud of Turin. The prevalence of tales about such relics is understandable during the time of the Crusades, when many people where bringing home artifacts from the Holy Land.

Possessing special Holy Relics would obviously lend importance and an image of power to their owners. But the Grail which the Knights Templar found seems to have done more than just lend them prestige in name. Nine poor knights sworn to poverty and owning only one change of clothes each, dug for a couple of decades under the remains of Solomon’s Temple. They found "something" and brought it to Europe, and subsequently became for two centuries one of the most powerful organizations Medieval Europe knew, their wealth and influence rivaling that of the Vatican itself. What had they found that suddenly changed them so? Probably no mere cup, or spear-tip, or piece of wood.

2.
According to Dan Brown’s "The Da Vinci Code" and the earlier works of Lincoln/Baigent/Lee and others on which it was based, the Grail is the Bloodline and Offspring of Jesus Christ, venerated in early Europe through the worship of Mary Magdalene who had arrived in Gaul with Jesus’ child. The Grail is a Chalice, which is a symbol for the womb of Mary and the Bloodline of Jesus the man, who was a descendant of King David according to the New Testament.

This legend holds that there was an actual Physical Grail connected with this as well, which was some sort of a treasure trove that the Knights Templar found under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the early Crusades, kept it in France until early 1300’s, and then hid it in the Roslyn Chapel in Scotland. These were "several caskets" containing documents which, according to those sources, provided an "unarguable proof" for Jesus having fathered children, who later became the Merovingian Kings. The actual bones of Mary Magdalene (who had died in France, but according to some accounts was later buried in Palestine) were added to this store, and comprised the lot taken to Roslyn.

I generally buy the arguments about the Merovingian bloodline of Jesus and Mary, but I don’t believe that this is the entirety of the Grail. Fully accepting this theory turns the Grail into a strictly Christian religious story, what would make it largely unimportant for most people alive today.

The majority of the world is not Christian, and even in the "Christian countries" most people would call themselves "secular" in this age. So although the theory of Jesus having direct descendants is very intriguing to play around with, it would not make such a big difference for most if such a descendant was *proven* to be alive today. In our technocratic society people simply no longer care about such things as much as they used to, and the revelation would not be nearly as shattering as the hype for the Da Vinci movie makes it out to be.

I feel it stands to reason therefore, that the Real Grail should be something much more bombastic than that, something that even in today’s world would make everyone take notice.

3.
Laurence Gardner takes the Merovingian Bloodline notion further, and contends that the “sacred chalice” of Mary Magdalene is a much later meaning ascribed to the Grail. Whereas the Original Grail was the actual "secret food of the Gods", which he calls Star-Fire. He claims that the "bloodline of Jesus" is important not only because Jesus is considered the Messiah by some people, but because the earlier Davidic line was weaned on the Blood of the Annunaki, the actual menstrual blood of the Annunaki females, who were responsible for giving birth to the first human hybrids. It sounds gruesome, but allegedly this blood had certain qualities which can help improve current human DNA in many ways.

Although widely dismissed as a quack by serious writers on both sides of the academic spectrum, Gardner’s "Star Fire" series is a most fascinating read, and he accepts many of Sitchin’s ideas about the Annunaki as fact (http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/starfire1.html  ).

Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn, who disagree with most of Gardner’s findings, have produced another compelling and well-researched theory, according to which the ancient mages perpetuated their knowledge through secret brotherhoods, whose symbols consistently appear as snake-related imagery in the folklore and art of many cultures. The two researchers postulate that medicine and healing formed an important part of that tradition, and that the Grail is seen as primarily a system of potions which these people used to perpetuate their life, health and genes. (http://www.phil.fah-designs.com/serpentgrail/index2.html  ).

Whatever ingredients formed this ancient Elixir of Life, the "Holy Grail" we’re looking for today may well contain the exact chemical formula for duplicating it. The Grail as the bearer of the original Annunaki (or "Shining Ones", as Gardiner and Osborn call them) blood or chemistry is an altogether more universal idea and thus seems more fitting for this Great Quest, but there’s still more.

4.
Graham Hancock has put forward a very strong case that the Holy Grail of Templars’ is actually the old Ark of the Covenant, which the Hebrews made in the desert during the Exodus, and which was kept in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem up to a certain time (http://www.grahamhancock.com/library/sats/default.htm).

The history of the search for the Ark is long and convoluted, and is eloquently summarized in many books, so I won’t go into it. Hancock and other authors trace the Ark’s path from the Jerusalem temple through Elephantine Island on the Nile in Egypt to Axum in Ethiopia, or to places like Rennes de Chateau in France and Roslyn, Scotland.
(By the way, if anyone’s interested, there’s an absolutely amazing story these days about one Ron Wyatt who found the Ark a few years ago, buried in Jeremiah’s Grotto near the Old City of Jerusalem.

http://www.arkdiscovery.com/aocstory.htm  I don’t know quite what to make of it, the documentation is too extensive for it to be a complete fake. This is the same guy who found Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat earlier.)

I myself buy into Sitchin’s (and Gardner’s) idea that the Original Ark was a communication device between humans and Annunaki. The wandering Hebrews did not have a permanent Ziggurat Temple such as in Egypt or Babylon, where their God (in fact an "Annunaki" or space-traveler) would ordinarily reside in the city. Instead they were given the plans to build a "mobile communicator", which they could use to call their God from anywhere.

The original Ark is described as giving off some sort of a dangerous radiation, whether familiar to our science today or not, but definitely harmful for people who were not properly protected. The book of Exodus lists an extensive garb which special people had to wear before approaching the Ark. There’s even a story of Aaron’s own sons who were not properly attired near the ark, then got ill and died as a result.

The Grail as the Ark of the Covenant is a much more likely theory, because the Ark would surely be a powerful "magical" device, which could’ve been somehow responsible for the sudden rise to power of the Knights Templar in Europe. If it were a radioactive machine of some sort, a product of an advance science, it could surely command respect from the average Medieval European.

And yet the Ark of the Covenant is also a relatively "new" thing in the Middle East, because it was made only during the Exodus, which took place around 1300-1500 BC, depending on which theory you follow. ;;At that time the civilizations of Sumer and Egypt had already amassed all their Great Secrets, which we’re trying to uncover today.

The early Hebrews themselves were heirs to that ancient legacy of Arcane Knowledge. In those days, the Ark had significance only for them, and if found today it would be meaningful only to a relatively small number of Jewish and Christian Fundamentalist believers, and archeologists. Whereas once again, I would like to see the "Holy Grail" having a more universal value for all of humanity and not for a select clique, even a large one.


5.
It seems to me that the Real Grail would have to be something of entirely mind-shattering proportions. It should be the ultimate legacy for Mankind in these Latter Days.

It is this: an unarguable proof that God the Creator of the Universe is not the same God who is the Creator of Man.
See, God the Creator of the Universe is not the kindly grey-haired man with the flowing beard from Michelangelo’s paintings. Instead, "It" is a Formless Void, the Endless Tao, Vonnegut’s "Universal Will To Become", or whatever name of such nature that you happen to like. It’s not a being at all, it has no shape, and nobody you can call by a personal name.

Whereas "God the Creator of Mankind" were beings that the Sumerians had called "Annunaki" and the ancient Egyptians "Neter" - travelers from other stars who came to Earth to mine some minerals, and needed some efficient and low-paid workers for this. For this purpose, they "created" the species Homo Sapiens, us, by splicing their genes onto an advanced species of ape already extant on Earth at that time, and known to us today as "Homo Erectus", the pre-man.

This process, as well as the subsequent teaching of "civilization" to the thusly evolved primitives, was carried out by one of the Annunaki named Enki. His early symbol was the intertwined snakes, which symbolized the double-helix structure of our DNA, comprised of one "human" and one "Annunaki" strand. This symbol later came to be known as the Caduceus, the staff of Enki in his new guise as Hermes.

Before becoming Hermes, Enki was known as Thoth in ancient Egypt (I actually like to spell it ’Toth’, as it’s easier to pronounce), and he wrote down all of his knowledge in a series of "instruction manuals", which the mysteries say are buried in the caverns under the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau. This body of work has been referred to by some as “the Emerald Tablets of Toth”, but it has other names.

I feel that "the Grail" which the Templars found is nothing short of some of those manuals, which were previously in the possession of King Solomon, who hid them under the Temple. The manuals would contain all the scientific knowledge available to a star-faring race, and would probably go far beyond what we know today, to say nothing of the science known in Solomon’s day or in Medieval Europe.

If these "manuals" were written in a way for a layman to understand, the possession of such knowledge could give anyone power beyond our imagination, and that’s exactly what the Knights Templar got. It’s also what King Solomon had, and hence all the stories about his control over "Genies" and other "principalities". It was merely scientific control over certain forces of nature, which he attained by following the instructions in the manuals.

So, the bottom line: I’ve come to believe that the "Holy Grail" is a series of instruction books, written by Toth/Enki/Hermes himself. They are written in such a manner or on such a media, that would leave no doubt as to their extraterrestrial origin. Therefore, their find would also be proof of "alien contact"