Mystical Experience of the Holy Graal - Palamidessi vs Guénon Analysis

see contradictions everywhere, they may doubt it. This is always about the return from the outside to the inside, in relation to the state of the world at a given epoch or, more precisely, of this portion of the world that is in relation to the traditional form considered; this return does not apply, moreover, here, except to the esoteric side of tradition, the exoteric one being, as in the case of Christianity, remained without apparent change; The important point for us and which seems to us absolutely cannot be doubted, is that the origins of the Graal legend must be traced back to the transmission of certain traditional elements of a more properly initiatic nature, from Druidism to Christianity. Having this transmission taken place regularly, whatever its modalities may have been, such elements became from then on an integral part of Christian esotericism. The existence of this in the Middle Ages is certain: proofs of all kinds abound for those who know how to see them and their refusal due to modern incomprehension, whether it comes from partisans or adversaries of Christianity, proves nothing to the contrary. As for the Graal under the specifically Christian aspect of the legend, its connection with the heart of Christ, of which it contains the blood, is too evident for one to insist further on it. In all traditions, "Heart of the World" and "Center of the World" are equivalent expressions; moreover, there is nothing contradictory in this for what we have already said about the "third eye" since, the heart being considered the center of being, it is in it that the "sense of eternity" really resides; but we naturally do not think we can dwell in this place on the concordance of these different symbols, nor on the relationship with certain "localizations" corresponding to different degrees or spiritual states of the human being. but it is precisely through the esoteric side that effective links with the supreme center have been maintained, in the same sense in which these links necessarily imply the consciousness of the essential unity of all traditions, which could not fall within the competence of esotericism whose horizon is always limited exclusively to a particular form.

MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE OF THE HOLY GRAAL
We now come finally to the writing we present tonight entitled "MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE OF THE HOLY GRAAL". Finally we have all the necessary elements to understand in general terms how this Notebook fits in. Meanwhile we can say that Tommaso Palamidessi does not deny Guénon's analysis of the Graal as traditional doctrine and spiritual state at the same time. To facilitate a first approach to the subject in question we will say that the Graal is, in allegorical and symbolic sense, the Archeosophic Tradition, essential unity of all esoteric traditions of the ancient and modern world. When we speak of loss or disappearance of the Graal, it means that in certain epochs, lacking the historical conditions for the Tradition to be understood and guarded and taught, such Tradition with all that it entails withdraws from the initiatic centers already known, even if it continues to make itself felt moderately. However, it corrects and clarifies the Guénonian vision because in Tommaso Palamidessi's conception the Graal does not refer to a simple human spiritual state however sublime, it does not refer to a simple however excellent "SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE" but to a true and proper "MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE". Primarily the Graal is the revelation of a Mystery continuously recalled by all Graal texts, but hardly understood and which is the Mystery of the Trinity.

WHAT IS A MYSTERY
The Graal - says Tommaso Palamidessi - is a High Mystery. But what is a "Mystery"? In archeosophic terminology the mystery is a truth that transcends the created intellect. In substance the Mystery is something that cannot be understood by Man either rationally or meta-rationally, inscrutable by man because ontologically superior to Man himself. God is Mystery. The Mystery cannot be understood, it can be deciphered, but essentially it can be experienced with what is precisely a MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE.

HISTORICAL, INTERIOR AND METAPHYSICAL GRAAL
Therefore, according to Tommaso Palamidessi the Graal has various coherent aspects among themselves. There exists in fact:
• a historical Graal;
• an interior Graal;
• a metaphysical Graal.

HISTORICAL GRAAL
Of the Historical Graal he provides an accurate reconstruction of the passages of the relic until it was stolen in 1101 by Baldwin I. Apart from the symbolism of the sacred cup, the Graal was guarded for many centuries in Caesarea of Palestine, that Caesarea by the sea halfway between present-day Haifa and Tel Aviv, in which there was a rich library and personalities such as Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem, Origen who several times had the Graal in his hands: Christ's cup stolen centuries later, when Baldwin I in 1101 besieged the city and put the Turks to the sword, demanded the famous cup as booty. Baldwin I, brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, was made king of Jerusalem. He was prince of the Franks and guardian of the Holy Sepulchre. The historian William of Tyre, writer of the events of the first Crusade, attributes to the Genoese the theft of the relic, since with their fleet they had participated in the Crusade. He then adds to this historical reconstruction also a description made by the German mystic Anna Caterina Emmerich during her visions. The chalice is described as having a special mysterious workmanship, made of an unknown material, singular, compact like that of a bell and not worked like usual metals. She says it was saved in Noah's ark during the Flood, and then to Babylon. Melchizedek possessed it and brought it among the Canaanites. He used the cup when he offered bread and wine to Patriarch Abraham, and transmitted it to him. The great chalice passed to Egypt and was possessed by Moses. Later it belonged to the Patriarchs who drank a mysterious liquid from it in the rite of giving and receiving a blessing. At a certain moment, Emmerich always narrates, the cup disappeared and was rediscovered by Serapia, called Veronica, to be used by Jesus in the Last Supper. After the crucifixion, this...