A. Gadal - On The Path To The Holy Grail
The ancient Cathar Mysteries
In this book, the last patriarch of the Preceding Brotherhood describes the path of initiation as it was walked by the novices of the ancient Cathar Brotherhood, after they had withdrawn into the sanctuaries of Ussat-Ornolac in the valley of the Ariège.
By ‘On the path to the Holy Grail’ and [later] ‘the way of the stars,’ the Cathar Brotherhood indicated the one path of life, the return to the original state of life, the Divine-human state of the beginning, via the evangelical rebirth of water and the spirit.
The reader of this book will not experience any problem recognising in it the gnostic message of salvation of all ages, as it is propagated again in our time by the International Spiritual School of the Golden Rosycross, Lectorium Rosicrucianum.
By ‘On the path to the Holy Grail’ and [later] ‘the way of the stars,’ the Cathar Brotherhood indicated the one path of life, the return to the original state of life, the Divine-human state of the beginning, via the evangelical rebirth of water and the spirit.
The reader of this book will not experience any problem recognising in it the gnostic message of salvation of all ages, as it is propagated again in our time by the International Spiritual School of the Golden Rosycross, Lectorium Rosicrucianum.
XII
‘I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from Heaven, and it remained on Him. I myself did not Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me: "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ - John the Baptist [John 1:32,33]
Above the Églises of Ussat and the Cave of Ornolac, known as the Hermit, at a short distance from both of them, is a small, separate cave looking out over the valley and the lake of the Ariège, which is very well suited for long meditations.
This place had been chosen for the retreat and fasting to which the future Parfait was subjected before ‘his death as to matter’: the caterpillar was becoming a pupa.
It was a carefully selected place, simultaneously agreeable and austere, truly an ideal place to experience, with inner equilibrium, the crisis and the beholding of the Truth, which all prophets, all initiators and all initiates have known, before being returned to the material world to accomplish their Mission.
The Patriarch took Matthew to his new, temporary abode.
The cave had been equipped for its purpose: it was exposed to the sun during the day, a bed of leaves had been spread on the floor out of the draught, a large flat stone in the middle served as a table, and another stone served as a seat.
Acacias and terebinths covered the entrance, giving it a green appearance at all times.
‘Here is your place of retreat, my son. Make good use of the coming days; reflect on everything we have been allowed to teach you; finish the process of the maturation of the fruit that will soon appear to be very sweet, because you will then be worthy to eat of it to your heart’s content.’
The Patriarch returned to his numerous activities.
When Matthew had finished his first prayer, he looked out over the countryside from the entrance of his retreat.
From this high vantage point, he could see the whole valley and the lake, which appeared very small to him, and the mountain on the opposite shore, the rocks of which seemed to dissolve into its flanks.
According to his commendable habit, he quickly moved his thoughts to the most distant times:
He considered how, according to the testimony of the Ancients, natural rock temples already existed in Central Asia at that time.
He thought of the Mysteries of the Atlantean period;
of the Sun and Moon gods rising up from the mountains;
of the stones, caverns, alignments and Mystery places of the ancient Celts;
of the Cavern full of flowers and springs dedicated to the Creator;
of the general custom to use caves, crevices and craggy mountain formations for the Mysteries.
He fully understood that the most ancient Worship took place in natural or man-made caves, because they are utterly suitable for an encounter with the Almighty Creative Essence.
How beautiful and how beloved the Églises, his Églises, appeared to him!
The days of the retreat, which could have seemed long, seemed short to Matthew, due to his continuous state of ecstasy.
His eyes did not see. His soul, partly free from the physical body, continued its purification and regeneration.
It became beautiful and radiant. It increasingly withdrew from the earthly atmosphere.
Gradually, the Parfait discarded his animal body and built his soul body:
the work of the caterpillar forming the pupa.
However, it appeared to him that something was missing.
But what?
He did not know.
One day, a flight of birds swept down into the valley from the high mountains.
Contrary to his habits, Matthew attentively followed their flight and tried to recognize the species.
Suddenly, while the birds followed the meanders of the valley, one bird separated itself from the others and headed for the Cave of Retreat, the Cave of the Acacia.
This struck Matthew at once and he did not lose sight of the bird that approached him without haste, in a smooth and regular flight.
‘O, a dove!’ he said to himself.
This word confused him so much that he fell to his knees, while keeping his eyes on the symbolic animal.
‘The dove!... The dove!...’
It was as if a total change had come over him.
An inner rapture overwhelmed him.
With inner vision he saw the dove coming into the cave and descending onto his head for a moment. Then it flew away as graciously as it had come. It followed the valley and vanished on the horizon.
What a sublime spectacle!
He came to his senses again and cried in ecstasy.
‘The dove!... The Paraclete!...
O Christ, I thank you!...
My God, hallowed be Your Name!...’
From that day on, Matthew showed an even greater ability to master himself. His self-examination widened the circle within which the knowledge of his Brothers was usually contained.
A new faculty was added to his consciousness. It permitted him to proceed resolutely to a higher degree of Initiation.
In this period of solitude in which he found himself, he did not neglect to roam on spiritual heights scarcely known to him yet.
Thus he achieved clear insight concerning the profound historical roots of what he had been taught.
‘The Soul that is purified by the Light enters the domains of the Living Water.
On this Living Water, the luminous Ship of the Moon sails.
In order to enter the heavenly realms, the Soul must embark on this luminous Ship of the Moon.
And then, another Light Ship, the Sun, will continue further, ever further, into the Fire of Life.
Then the Soul has returned to its origin, to the Kingdom of Light, to Paradise.’
Then everything he had not yet understood became clear to Matthew: in a drawing that a Brother of the Temple of the Spirit had drawn on the wall of the Cave he saw:
A barque on an ocean of purified souls; and in the middle of the boat stands an iesmonresch held by a strong hand, with an Eagle on the left and a Christ monogram on the right.
It represents the Christ Column, the Light-Ship of the Sun. It is the Earth that, thanks be to God, has been saved by the Resurrection.
The Eagle of the Divine Spirit, the Tree of Life, the Barque of Isis, the Light Column, all these pictures, roughly drawn with a few lines, but with a strong hand and enlightened insight, were consciously absorbed as to the profound meaning the Ancients had expressed in them.
He realized how great the value of the total Heritage was, a Heritage of which he had become a participant, a Heritage linking him with the Atlanteans, Hindus, Persians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. Sitting at the entrance to the cave in the evening, lifting his eyes to the starry sky, he undoubtedly found there the Christ Demiourgos, whose Heavenly Power has wrought Creation.
Above all he liked to contemplate the life of Mary Magdalene: how she had reached Provence, and had settled with the Taruscs on the Rhône, the brothers of the Taruscs of the Sabarthez, from whom Matthew was a worthy descendant.
A mystery was hidden in all of this that he would like to have solved.
More or less automatically his thoughts turned to the Golden Chalice of Jesus, and subsequently he could no longer imagine the Holy Chalice apart from Mary.
Then he could imagine the successive events:
Mary, who was present when Salome presented John the Baptist’s head to Herodias, cried loudly: O, Mystery of all Mysteries! For the eyes that had been closed until then, opened wide and looked at her.
Mary, who after having returned to her room, shook her robe and ... shuddered at the sight of the drops of John’s blood falling on the fabric.
Mary, who was urged to go to Magdala by an unknown force and thence ask Herod’s permission to return home.
Mary, who was glad to be back home and see beautiful Galilee again, where she could forget her past life and licentiousness. Mary, who was accompanied by the mysterious Egyptian Ahmosi, who supported her when she fainted on hearing the first stroke of the hammer drive the first nail home. Mary, who for a long time stood with a bowed head and pale-faced before Mary, the Mother of Christ.
Mary, who knelt down when she heard Christ’s divine words:
`Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.'
Mary, who softly spoke to her brothers: `Come, let us go from here!... We have no longer the right to be here.'
Mary, who anointed her Lord with true, precious oil of nardus, and who wiped his feet with her hair, as was told by John the well-beloved Apostle.
John continues: `But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.'
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother: ‘Woman, behold, your son!’
Then he said to the disciple:
‘Behold, your mother!’
In this Matthew recognised a divine Command:
‘Mary is the mother of the Church of Jesus, of the Church of the Spirit.
John, the son of Mother Mary of the Church of the Spirit, became the Head of this Church;
and Mary Magdalene…?’
‘…But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.’ Mary was still there, with a cup in her hand; and her tears fell on the feet of Christ, and she wiped them off with her hair as if she wanted to anoint the divine Body.
‘Yes!...Yes!...The Cup!... The Blood of Christ!...Mary!...’
That was the meaning of the long look Jesus had given her, after having entrusted John with his Mission. This was the Mission that Mary had received from Jesus Christ.
John and Mary Magdalene both had understood their Mission:
The first one: to take care of the Church of the Spirit;
the second one: to keep and serve the Chalice, the Holy Grail.
Then the events followed one another quickly.
Mary Magdalene, was brought to Rome on a ship of Ahmosi along with Martha, Trophimus and Maximinus; then to Massilia on the banks of the Rhodanus (Rhône), with the Taruscs, in the region of Tiberias, along with these brothers of the Taruscs of the Sabarthez...
Mary settled in a mountain cave, just as her Master had done, and worked so hard and well on her task in Gaul that people from the Rhine to the Pyrenees came to look for the Holy Balm. This caused the Via Aurelia to be crowded with pilgrims and envoys of the tribes.
In the meantime, the last High Priest, the Great Adept of Thebes, had left Mary and her retinue in Rome. Ahmosi had returned to Egypt to die there with the last Hierophants of Hermes.
‘O Egypt! O Egypt!’
At this moment Matthew saw, just as Ahmosi had seen, the eternal Hope, the God of Love!
One evening, the Patriarch came to announce that the end of his sojourn in the Cave of the Acacia had come. His retreat would now be concluded in Keplèr!
Matthew followed the Master along the Path to Bethlehem!
Above the Églises of Ussat and the Cave of Ornolac, known as the Hermit, at a short distance from both of them, is a small, separate cave looking out over the valley and the lake of the Ariège, which is very well suited for long meditations.
This place had been chosen for the retreat and fasting to which the future Parfait was subjected before ‘his death as to matter’: the caterpillar was becoming a pupa.
It was a carefully selected place, simultaneously agreeable and austere, truly an ideal place to experience, with inner equilibrium, the crisis and the beholding of the Truth, which all prophets, all initiators and all initiates have known, before being returned to the material world to accomplish their Mission.
The Patriarch took Matthew to his new, temporary abode.
The cave had been equipped for its purpose: it was exposed to the sun during the day, a bed of leaves had been spread on the floor out of the draught, a large flat stone in the middle served as a table, and another stone served as a seat.
Acacias and terebinths covered the entrance, giving it a green appearance at all times.
‘Here is your place of retreat, my son. Make good use of the coming days; reflect on everything we have been allowed to teach you; finish the process of the maturation of the fruit that will soon appear to be very sweet, because you will then be worthy to eat of it to your heart’s content.’
The Patriarch returned to his numerous activities.
When Matthew had finished his first prayer, he looked out over the countryside from the entrance of his retreat.
From this high vantage point, he could see the whole valley and the lake, which appeared very small to him, and the mountain on the opposite shore, the rocks of which seemed to dissolve into its flanks.
According to his commendable habit, he quickly moved his thoughts to the most distant times:
He considered how, according to the testimony of the Ancients, natural rock temples already existed in Central Asia at that time.
He thought of the Mysteries of the Atlantean period;
of the Sun and Moon gods rising up from the mountains;
of the stones, caverns, alignments and Mystery places of the ancient Celts;
of the Cavern full of flowers and springs dedicated to the Creator;
of the general custom to use caves, crevices and craggy mountain formations for the Mysteries.
He fully understood that the most ancient Worship took place in natural or man-made caves, because they are utterly suitable for an encounter with the Almighty Creative Essence.
How beautiful and how beloved the Églises, his Églises, appeared to him!
The days of the retreat, which could have seemed long, seemed short to Matthew, due to his continuous state of ecstasy.
His eyes did not see. His soul, partly free from the physical body, continued its purification and regeneration.
It became beautiful and radiant. It increasingly withdrew from the earthly atmosphere.
Gradually, the Parfait discarded his animal body and built his soul body:
the work of the caterpillar forming the pupa.
However, it appeared to him that something was missing.
But what?
He did not know.
One day, a flight of birds swept down into the valley from the high mountains.
Contrary to his habits, Matthew attentively followed their flight and tried to recognize the species.
Suddenly, while the birds followed the meanders of the valley, one bird separated itself from the others and headed for the Cave of Retreat, the Cave of the Acacia.
This struck Matthew at once and he did not lose sight of the bird that approached him without haste, in a smooth and regular flight.
‘O, a dove!’ he said to himself.
This word confused him so much that he fell to his knees, while keeping his eyes on the symbolic animal.
‘The dove!... The dove!...’
It was as if a total change had come over him.
An inner rapture overwhelmed him.
With inner vision he saw the dove coming into the cave and descending onto his head for a moment. Then it flew away as graciously as it had come. It followed the valley and vanished on the horizon.
What a sublime spectacle!
He came to his senses again and cried in ecstasy.
‘The dove!... The Paraclete!...
O Christ, I thank you!...
My God, hallowed be Your Name!...’
From that day on, Matthew showed an even greater ability to master himself. His self-examination widened the circle within which the knowledge of his Brothers was usually contained.
A new faculty was added to his consciousness. It permitted him to proceed resolutely to a higher degree of Initiation.
In this period of solitude in which he found himself, he did not neglect to roam on spiritual heights scarcely known to him yet.
Thus he achieved clear insight concerning the profound historical roots of what he had been taught.
‘The Soul that is purified by the Light enters the domains of the Living Water.
On this Living Water, the luminous Ship of the Moon sails.
In order to enter the heavenly realms, the Soul must embark on this luminous Ship of the Moon.
And then, another Light Ship, the Sun, will continue further, ever further, into the Fire of Life.
Then the Soul has returned to its origin, to the Kingdom of Light, to Paradise.’
Then everything he had not yet understood became clear to Matthew: in a drawing that a Brother of the Temple of the Spirit had drawn on the wall of the Cave he saw:
A barque on an ocean of purified souls; and in the middle of the boat stands an iesmonresch held by a strong hand, with an Eagle on the left and a Christ monogram on the right.
It represents the Christ Column, the Light-Ship of the Sun. It is the Earth that, thanks be to God, has been saved by the Resurrection.
The Eagle of the Divine Spirit, the Tree of Life, the Barque of Isis, the Light Column, all these pictures, roughly drawn with a few lines, but with a strong hand and enlightened insight, were consciously absorbed as to the profound meaning the Ancients had expressed in them.
He realized how great the value of the total Heritage was, a Heritage of which he had become a participant, a Heritage linking him with the Atlanteans, Hindus, Persians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. Sitting at the entrance to the cave in the evening, lifting his eyes to the starry sky, he undoubtedly found there the Christ Demiourgos, whose Heavenly Power has wrought Creation.
Above all he liked to contemplate the life of Mary Magdalene: how she had reached Provence, and had settled with the Taruscs on the Rhône, the brothers of the Taruscs of the Sabarthez, from whom Matthew was a worthy descendant.
A mystery was hidden in all of this that he would like to have solved.
More or less automatically his thoughts turned to the Golden Chalice of Jesus, and subsequently he could no longer imagine the Holy Chalice apart from Mary.
Then he could imagine the successive events:
Mary, who was present when Salome presented John the Baptist’s head to Herodias, cried loudly: O, Mystery of all Mysteries! For the eyes that had been closed until then, opened wide and looked at her.
Mary, who after having returned to her room, shook her robe and ... shuddered at the sight of the drops of John’s blood falling on the fabric.
Mary, who was urged to go to Magdala by an unknown force and thence ask Herod’s permission to return home.
Mary, who was glad to be back home and see beautiful Galilee again, where she could forget her past life and licentiousness. Mary, who was accompanied by the mysterious Egyptian Ahmosi, who supported her when she fainted on hearing the first stroke of the hammer drive the first nail home. Mary, who for a long time stood with a bowed head and pale-faced before Mary, the Mother of Christ.
Mary, who knelt down when she heard Christ’s divine words:
`Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.'
Mary, who softly spoke to her brothers: `Come, let us go from here!... We have no longer the right to be here.'
Mary, who anointed her Lord with true, precious oil of nardus, and who wiped his feet with her hair, as was told by John the well-beloved Apostle.
John continues: `But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.'
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother: ‘Woman, behold, your son!’
Then he said to the disciple:
‘Behold, your mother!’
In this Matthew recognised a divine Command:
‘Mary is the mother of the Church of Jesus, of the Church of the Spirit.
John, the son of Mother Mary of the Church of the Spirit, became the Head of this Church;
and Mary Magdalene…?’
‘…But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.’ Mary was still there, with a cup in her hand; and her tears fell on the feet of Christ, and she wiped them off with her hair as if she wanted to anoint the divine Body.
‘Yes!...Yes!...The Cup!... The Blood of Christ!...Mary!...’
That was the meaning of the long look Jesus had given her, after having entrusted John with his Mission. This was the Mission that Mary had received from Jesus Christ.
John and Mary Magdalene both had understood their Mission:
The first one: to take care of the Church of the Spirit;
the second one: to keep and serve the Chalice, the Holy Grail.
Then the events followed one another quickly.
Mary Magdalene, was brought to Rome on a ship of Ahmosi along with Martha, Trophimus and Maximinus; then to Massilia on the banks of the Rhodanus (Rhône), with the Taruscs, in the region of Tiberias, along with these brothers of the Taruscs of the Sabarthez...
Mary settled in a mountain cave, just as her Master had done, and worked so hard and well on her task in Gaul that people from the Rhine to the Pyrenees came to look for the Holy Balm. This caused the Via Aurelia to be crowded with pilgrims and envoys of the tribes.
In the meantime, the last High Priest, the Great Adept of Thebes, had left Mary and her retinue in Rome. Ahmosi had returned to Egypt to die there with the last Hierophants of Hermes.
‘O Egypt! O Egypt!’
At this moment Matthew saw, just as Ahmosi had seen, the eternal Hope, the God of Love!
One evening, the Patriarch came to announce that the end of his sojourn in the Cave of the Acacia had come. His retreat would now be concluded in Keplèr!
Matthew followed the Master along the Path to Bethlehem!
About : Antonin Gadal
http://www.gadal-catharisme.org/
http://www.goldenrosycross.org.au/authors/authors_AGadal.htm
Buy : http://www.amazon.com/Path-Grail-The-Ancient-Cathar-Mysteries/dp/9067322857
http://www.gadal-catharisme.org/
http://www.goldenrosycross.org.au/authors/authors_AGadal.htm
Buy : http://www.amazon.com/Path-Grail-The-Ancient-Cathar-Mysteries/dp/9067322857
Translated from Dutch Op weg naar de Heilige Graal
Original title: Sur le chemin du Saint-Graal
International School of the Golden Rosycross
Lectorium Rosicrucianum Bakenessergracht 11-15
2011 JS Haarlem, The Netherlands
2011 JS Haarlem, The Netherlands
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