A. The Torah Sequence B. The Tarot Sequence. A. Can we not see the Grail as a metaphor for Understanding? Just like the Grail in "Parzifal", understanding is invisible to some and visible to others. It is invisible at some times and visible at others. In "Parzifal", the quest for the Grail has a formal structure. Numerically the pattern is contained in the following sequence:0 1 2 3 4 12 5 6 9 7 8 11 13 Cf.Origin of the Zodiac Number One is the original unity, (e.g. the garden of Eden) from which we fall into division (2). And recovery is the New unity, number Eleven. So between those stages is the false and fallen world of appearrances (3-8) the repeating Cancer-Capricorn Round. Parzifal's father, Gahmuret, is at first in the role of the Creator, Aries (0). Being before the first Place (Taurus 1) Aries has no place to stop. Hence Gahmuret first appears as leaving his home, and sailing away: "His anchor had never been dropped anywhere. He was never to find any place to dwell or to tarry." But he changes zodiacal character when he marries, becoming Taurus (1) unity, union. Then he marries a second time, having a son from each marriage, thus representing Geminii (2). Apparently Wolfram von Eschenbach started writing the story with stage Three, birth. And that passage is indeed replete with maternal images and reference to the goddess (Cancer 3). Gahmuret's second wife, and Parzifal's mother, Queen Herzeloyde, has just received the news of her husband's death. Grieving and lamenting, she tries to put on his bloody shirt. Her consort was her king, her now-fallen god, Leo (4). But her anguish finds comfort in the thought that she carries his son in her womb. Speaking in archetypal goddess format, she declares, "I was younger than he by far, yet I am his mother and his bride, bearing as I do himself and his life's seed here." She will give birth not only to his son, but to him again. In effect she is the mother of god, as she later expresses in nursing the infant: "The Queen of Heaven gave her breasts to Jesus." Cancer (3) is categorized as running-water. And in a wash of watery maternal motifs: "She clasped her belly and the child within...she tore her shift from her bosom and busied herself with her soft white breasts...'Milk, how loyal of you to have come! Were I not baptized already you would have marked my christening'... A fortnight later the Lady was delivered of a babe... "The Lady of the land besprinkled herself with the dew of her sorrowing heart, her eyes rained down upon her body... She rejoiced in the birth of her son, yet her gay spirit was drowned at sorrow's ford." (pp.65-67, Penguin)
Stage Four, the male archetype (Leo) begins when the teen-age Parzifal encounters four
knights, mounted and in splendid armor, and decides to become a knight himself. (p.72-3)
He goes to King Arthur's court and slays the Red Knight (red and gold are the colors of Leo).
That worthy has just snatched King Arthur's gold wine-cup from the table and ridden off with
it. He now waits for some warrior to come out and challenge him to battle for its possession.
(p.83-9) He has thus thematically killed the king-god and taken his place. In doing so, he
"accidently" spilled some of the wine (fertile, sacrificial blood) into Queen Ginover's lap.
After his death, the queen and her ladies woefully lament his loss, even though he has, at
least metaphorically, killed her husband. Archetypally, whatever knight wins in her combat
wins her, and becomes her "husband", her consort. (They lament with typical reference to
flowers, particularly red flowers, representing his blood.) (p.90-1) Thus the names of the
king, Arthur and the Red Knight Ither, are interchangeable. He is an archetype, not an indi-
vidual.
Pisces (12) is the next stage, the sign of universality. So Gawan encounters a universal mul-
titude, consisting of two armies in transit. Among them are many female camp-followers,
whose chastity-belts are referred to: "Some of them were wearing their twelfth girdle."
(p.177) Rather than steadfastly pursue his quest, Gawan lets himself be diverted by the
armies and follows them to see the action. And at the town they go to he meets a young girl,
whose virginity is emphasized. This is the stage of Virgo (5) and he tells her (Obilot) that
before she could give her love to a man she would have to be, "five years older". (p.191)
Soon after that event he meets another, slightly older woman, Antikonie, with whom he
reaches the verge of having a sexual liaison. This is stage six, Libra, partnership. But at the
last moment they are interupted by a rude mob intent on killing him. (209-10) Traditionally
the god and goddess were often ritually murdered (sacrificed) while mating. The same
theme seems to be in play later when he is attacked while lying on the Wonder Bed. (286)
Gawan meets a third woman, Orgeluse the beautiful witch, in the next stage, Scorpio (9).
(259 ff.) These three women are the facets of the mother-goddess (Cancer 3) corresponding
to the three phases of the Moon, and to three zodiac signs:
Obilot virgin young moon Virgo e.g. Artemis (Diana
Antikonie sexual full moon Libra Aphrodite (Venus)
partner
Orgeluse witch old moon Scorpio Hecate
He marries the last of them, Orgeluse.
Parzifal in contrast meets the three archetypes in reverse order. Jeschute is identifiable
as Scorpio by relationship with her cruel husband Orilus (brother of Orgeluse). Orilus
bears a writhing Dragon as emblem on his shield. Then Liaze is a temporary candidate
for sexual partner, as Libra (6). And he finally marries Condwiramurs, the virgin (Virgo)
a much better choice.
It was in the sevice of Orgeluse that the Grail King Anfortas received his grievous wound.
(Referring back briefly to Finnegans Wake, the above triad of phases or masks of the
mother-goddess is alluded to in, "Polycarp pool, the pool of Innalavia..." (p.600).
Anna Livia and Anna in the Biblical book of Luke (3) are included.)
Sagittarius (7) ruled by Jupiter, seems to be represented by Gawan's great wealth as new
Lord of the Wonder Castle, starting with the rich Booth. (p.284)
Taciturn and uncommunicative Capricorn (8) is depicted in the silence of Gawan. He refuses
to greet or let-in his friend King Arthur, whom Gawan has urgently invited to visit. (p.331-3)
Eleven (Aquarius) the new unity or reunion, is shown in the several marriages (unions) that
take place (363) and in the reconciliation-of-opposites between Parzifal and his half-brother
Feirifiz. (371)
And finally, after King Arthur's court sort of vanishes, "I do not know how this army dispersed,
but [Parzifal and his two friends] rode away." (390) They rode away to the Grail Castle,
the alternative reality to the passing illusions of King Arthur's world. And at the Grail
Castle, Parzifal pronounces the healing words over King Anfortas. This is Parzifal's
"second coming" to the Grail Castle, where as its new Lord he is the Savior of sufferring
humanity. This is the stage of Aries (13).
Origin of the Zodiac Top Forum
B. THE TAROT SEQUENCE
The sixteen chapters of "Parzifal" march in step with the first sixteen trump cards of the
Tarot:
I. The Creator, Magician. Aries (0). The father of Parzifal, Gahmuret.
II. Sanctuary, The High Priestess. Taurus (1). Queen Herzeloyde appears in a powerful
role just as religious services (Mass) are ending. She makes a claim on Gahmuret to be
her husband: "After the benediction, Lady Herzeloyde stepped forward and laid solemn
claim to him." [p.57] Before this, a knight who was being held for ransom by others, takes
sanctuary, as it were, under her aegis, i.e. by sitting under an edge of her skirt or mantle.
(p.54)
[Although these page-references are from the Penguin "Parzifal", the translation published
by Random House seems to be appreciably better.]
III. The Empress. Geminii-Cancer (2-3). Like the woman in chapter XII of the Biblcal book of
Revelation, Queen Herzeloyde flees into the wilderness (taking her infant son Parzifal with
her).
IV. The Emperor. Leo (4). Parzifal becomes a worldly ruler (king) by marrying Queen
Condwiramurs, thus becoming the lord of her lands.
[There seems to be a matrilineal context throughout the book, in which young "kings"
have to win a queen's favor, bacause the women own the land. This pattern agrees with
the ancient religion of the goddess, Cancer (3) and her subordinate consort, Leo (4). But
that order is overthrown at the end.]
V. The Hierophant, High Priest. Virgo (5). Parzifal encounters the lord of the Grail Castle,
King Anfortas, who should be a hierophant, a knower of all knowledge, but unfortunately
is a lame (wounded) Leo (4). When they meet, the king is motionless on a lake. Motionlessness
is a theme of Virgo.
VI. The Lovers (partners). Choice. Libra (6). Parzifal makes a choice between the Grail Castle
and King Arthur's court, choosing to search for the former. His alter-ego, Gawan, whom he first
meets in this chapter, takes the opposite course, as it turns out.
VII. The Chariot, Victory, the Champion. Sagittarius (7). Parzifal and Gawan are champions of
opposite sides in a battle.
VIII. The Scales of Justice. Libra (6). Gawan must submit to judgement. And the scales are
named as the judge goes to court: "The king now goes to council...'Add your plighted word to
the scales!' " said his sister. (p.216)
IX. The Hermit, Teacher. Sagittarius (7). Parzifal encounters a religious hermit, who teaches
him about the Grail family.
X. The Wheel of Fortune, Zero-Sum System. Capricorn (8). Gawan stops at a tree where a
wounded knight and his lady repose upon the ground. He soon ascends a spiral path, and after
descending it, goes back to the tree (accompanied now by Orgeluse). There the wounded
knight leaps up when Gawan has dismounted, and rides off on Gawan's horse. This loss is
exactly compensated for by gain when Gawan soon gets his horse back.
XI. Strength, Detachment. Acquarius (11). A serene woman easily closes the jaws of a raging
lion, the jaws of appetite. This should be the place of the newly united human individual.
Instead, Gawan enters the Wonder Castle, where after being threatened by a lout dressed in
fish-skin pants (representing the weak side of Leo) he has to fight with a lion (the strong
side). In short it is a "Samson" chapter, recalling that Biblical judge in position number XI
in the book of Judges.
XII. The Hanged Man, Sacrifice. Pisces (12). Gawan nearly becomes a sacrifice when he and
his horse fall into a swift and deep stream as they try to overleap it (in the service of
Orgeluse).
XIII. Death and Regeneration. Aries (false 13). A squire tries to fight his way through a
crowd to reach King Arthur. Perhaps it is to kill him, as suggested by some stories in "The
Golden Bough" (by Sir James Frazer). If we consider the misfortune of King Vergulaht, when
he and his horse fell into water (p.206) and he lost both horse and clothes as a forfeit to his
falconers, metaphorically implying he lost his life as well --- then perhaps the squire who
fought his way through to King Arthur (p.325) also lost his life, and was thematically returned
to life by Queen Ginover (the goddess) when she gave him new clothes and horse and money.
This reading, that the squire intended to kill the king, tends to be confirmed by the great
concern shown by King Arthur's mother (residing in Gawan's Wonder Castle) about the
possible import of the message sent by Gawan, via the squire, to her son. A further fit in
the same vein occurs when King Arthur later brings his army to visit Gawan, and Gawan shuts
his doors and hides.
XIV. Interchangeability. Geminii-Cancer (2-3). Parzifal takes the place of Gawan in a
fight. (p.351-3)
XV. The Devil. Scorpio (9). Parzifal's brother Feirefiz is apparently cast in the role of
the Devil here. Not that he deserves it by his own behavior, but he is constantly referred
to as "the Heathen" or "the Infidel" as in, "The Infidel did much hurt to the Christian".
[Page 368 and repeated word-for-word on the next page.]
XVI. The Destroyed Tower, overthrow of the worldly kingdoms. Scorpio (9). Parzifal as
Savior becomes Lord of the Grail Castle, restoring King Anfortas to health. The world
of King Arthur's court is forgotten.
ADDENDUM
Regarding the character of Parzifal's half-brother, Feirefiz, we might say that the latter is
at first in the role of Geminii (2). His mottled black and white skin depicts the Geminii
principle of polarity, a pair-of-opposites. But at the end of the book he is in the character
of Acquarius (11) the redeemed or re-unified human individual, the reconciliation-of-opposites.
This is indicated by saying,
"He stayed at the Grail Castle eleven days, and on the twelfth he departed." (p.407)
In the Torah sequence, number Eleven is the twelfth position.
The character of King Anfortas as Leo (4) --- in addition to his brief appearrance as Virgo
(5) in chapter V --- Anfortas representing all of suffering humanity, waiting (like Prometheus
on his crag) to be saved --- is reinforced by comparing him to Absalom, son of King David.
(p.395) Absalom is portrayed in the Bible as a typical Leo royal or divine sacrifice.
"Now in all Israel there was no one to be praised so much for his beauty as Absalom...
he cut his hair off at the end of every year." (2 Samuel 14:25-26)
"Absalom was riding his mule and the mule passed under the thick branches of a great
oak. Absalom's head got caught in the oak and he was left hanging between heaven and
earth, while the mule he was riding went on. Someone saw this and reported to Joab, 'I
have just seen Absalom hanging from an oak.' ...Joab...taking three darts in his hand, he
planted them in Absalom's heart, while he was still alive, deep in the oak tree...Soldiers
then came in close, struck Absalom and killed him."
(2 Samuel 18:9-15)
The oak was the tree most commonly used for such ritual murders.
Further, the progress from original unity (number One) to the regained unity (number
Eleven) is noted thus:
"He Who for St. Sylvester's sake bade a bull return from death to life and go, and
Lazarus stand up, now helped Anfortas to become whole and well again."
P.395
The "bull" is Taurus (1) and the story of Lazarus occurs in chapter Eleven of the Gospel
of John.
Top Origin of the Zodiac
Paul Albertsen
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