by Mara Freeman, M.A.
Why are we still fascinated by stories of the Holy Grail told long ago in the courts of medieval Europe? It’s my belief that the Grail myth persists throughout the centuries like a recurring dream that must be brought fully to consciousness, understood, and resolved. This is the theme of my latest book, Grail Alchemy. As mythologist Joseph Campbell said, the quest for the Grail is “the founding myth of Western civilization.”
The Grail is a sacred vessel as old as creation. A rounded container, it belongs to the family of symbols – bowl, cauldron, vat, well, cup or crucible – which are all images of the divine feminine, the Mother Goddess whose womb holds the waters of life, found as far back as the Neolithic era and in cultures from ancient India to classical Greece. In Celtic myth and legend, this hallowed icon of Western spirituality has its origins in the magical cups which have life-giving and protective properties and more often than not, these cups belong to goddesses or female spirits.
