The Womb of the Grail
In the Womb of the Grail: Parzival and the Fisher King
The story of Parzival is intricately woven with that of the wounded Fisher King, and in this paper I am presenting them as parts of the same image, held by the vessel of the Grail. After many healings had been tried and fail for the Fisher King’s wound (they are not the “elixir”), the message arrives that a knight (Parzival) will come and only he has the capability of healing the Fisher King. Even the Grail itself doesn’t heal him, it just keeps him painfully alive. When Parzival is questing the Fisher King is suffering, and the fate of the Fisher King is bound up in whatever Parzival does. The container which holds both the Fisher King and Parzival is the mother’s branch of the family, the feminine vessel which is all but dying and collapsing. Paradoxically, Parzival must leave his mother at the beginning of the story to pursue the life of a knight, from which his mother has protected him. Alchemically, to break out of the old container or vessel is a necessary movement in order to prepare the material for a new operation:
The unsatisfied longing of the son for life and the world ought to be taken seriously. There is in him a desire to touch reality, to embrace the earth and fructify the field of the world. But he makes no more than a series of impatient beginnings, for his initiative as well as his staying power are crippled by the secret memory that the world and happiness may be had as a gift--from the mother. It makes demands on the masculinity of a man, on his ardor, above all on his courage and resolution, when it comes to throwing his whole being into the scales. For this he would need a faithless Eros, one capable of forgetting the mother and of hurting himself by deserting the first love of his life. The mother, foreseeing the danger [of forgetting her], has carefully inculcated into him the virtues of faithfulness, devotion, loyalty, so as to protect him from the moral disruption
The story of Parzival is intricately woven with that of the wounded Fisher King, and in this paper I am presenting them as parts of the same image, held by the vessel of the Grail. After many healings had been tried and fail for the Fisher King’s wound (they are not the “elixir”), the message arrives that a knight (Parzival) will come and only he has the capability of healing the Fisher King. Even the Grail itself doesn’t heal him, it just keeps him painfully alive. When Parzival is questing the Fisher King is suffering, and the fate of the Fisher King is bound up in whatever Parzival does. The container which holds both the Fisher King and Parzival is the mother’s branch of the family, the feminine vessel which is all but dying and collapsing. Paradoxically, Parzival must leave his mother at the beginning of the story to pursue the life of a knight, from which his mother has protected him. Alchemically, to break out of the old container or vessel is a necessary movement in order to prepare the material for a new operation:
The unsatisfied longing of the son for life and the world ought to be taken seriously. There is in him a desire to touch reality, to embrace the earth and fructify the field of the world. But he makes no more than a series of impatient beginnings, for his initiative as well as his staying power are crippled by the secret memory that the world and happiness may be had as a gift--from the mother. It makes demands on the masculinity of a man, on his ardor, above all on his courage and resolution, when it comes to throwing his whole being into the scales. For this he would need a faithless Eros, one capable of forgetting the mother and of hurting himself by deserting the first love of his life. The mother, foreseeing the danger [of forgetting her], has carefully inculcated into him the virtues of faithfulness, devotion, loyalty, so as to protect him from the moral disruption
Cited: Eliot, T.S. The Complete Poems and Plays. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1958. Guggenbuhl-Craig, Adolf. “The Archetype of the Invalid and the Limits of Healing.” Spring. Dallas: Spring, 1979. Ref. also Eros on Crutches. Hillman, James. The Soul’s Code. New York: Random House, 1996. ---"Concerning the Stone,” Sphinx 5. London: London Convivium, 1993. ---Dream and the Underworld. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. ---Ed. Puer Papers. Dallas: Spring, 1979. ---Revisioning Psychology. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. Jung, Emma and von Franz, Marie-Louise. The Grail Legend. Trans. Andrea Dykes. Boston: Sigo P, 1986. Jung, C.G. Aion. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1968. ---Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Trans. Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Vintage Books, 1963. ---Mysterium Conjunctionis. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1977. ---Practice of Psychotherapy. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1985. ---Psychology and Alchemy. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1968. Wolfram von Eschenbach. Parzival. Trans. A.T. Hatto. London: Penguin , 1980.