Temple and Contemplation brings together for the first ... - ImagoMundi

THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
nowned. 235 In the country of Sauveterre {Salva Terra) rises a high mountain
named Montsalvat. 236 King Titurel has surrounded this mountain with a
high wall, and on its summit he has built a splendid castle, the Gralsburg.
Here he decides to found a temple for the Grail. 237 Up to this moment, in
fact, the Temple has not yet been established at any definite place, but
floats between heaven and earth, held up invisibly by the Angels. The
building incorporates all kinds of precious stones. Gold predominates, and
the furniture is of aloe wood. The stones are chosen according to the
standards of Pythagorean art and the science of Heraclius. 238 The rock of
the mountain is onyx. When all the grass and earth are removed, the onyx
surface shines as brilliantly as the Moon. One morning, there appears on
this surface the complete plan of the Temple, projected from heaven. The
plateau itself forms a base two toises thick. 239 Between the edge of the
plateau and the Temple wall, there is a space five toises wide all around.
Vertically, the building forms a high dome, supported by columns of
bronze. It is completely covered with gold and precious stones, whose
inner significance will be discussed later on. The windows are surrounded
by beryl and luminous crystals. The panes are coloured or encrusted with
precious stones, and dim the brilliance of the light. The roof is also of gold,
encrusted with precious stones so that its glare should not blind the eye.
The Temple of the Grail was built with the help of Heaven, like the
Temple of Solomon, Templum Throni Dei, in Jerusalem, the stones for
which were brought to the site already cut, so that no displeasing sound of
hammer or chisel should be heard during the building of the Temple. The
same goes for the builders of the Temple of Titurel: everything was sent to
them by the Grail.
The high central dome is covered with sapphire, representing the celestial
dome in all its azure brilliance. It is studded with carbuncles which
sparkle in the darkness of the night like stars. It contains an image of the
235 L.-I. Ringbom, op. cit., pp. 21 ff, has a lengthy summary of it.
236 Here again, the form we are adopting once and for all is Montsalvat.
237 We cannot here recall the details of the hierology of the Grail: its descent from
Heaven in the care of the Angels, the Templars who guard it, etc. Cf. the
translation of Parsifal by S. Tonnelat, op. cit., book IX, vol. II, pp. 36 ff.
238 Rather than "Hercules", whose position in all this would be somewhat puzzling,
whereas the name of the emperor Heraclius is familiar to all the alchemical
tradition. He already appears in the Hermetic version of "Salaman and Absal"; cf.
Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, op. cit., p. 210 note 10.
239 A toise was equal to about two metres.
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THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
Sun in gold and an image of the Moon in silver, both of which, set in
motion by an ingenious and secret clock, perpetually progress through a
marvellous zodiac. Golden cymbals herald the succession of the days.
The entire Temple forms a vast, high rotunda, divided into a number of
chancels, each of which projects towards the outside. Some manuscripts
give the number of chancels as seventy-two; others give it as twenty-two.
We must again remember that both figures have their arithmosophical
significance and can in no way be opposed to each other. To object to the
gigantic proportions of the building with seventy-two chancels would be
to forget that the Temple of the Grail is located at "the meeting-place of
the two seas", on the "Earth of Light", and not in the world where the
laws of physics prevail. In each chancel, the altar is orientated, that is to
say, turned towards the East. The main chancel is also turned towards the
East, and is double the measurement of the others (in the version of the
twenty-two chancels, we thus have a total of 22 + 2, or 12 X 2 = 24); it
surpasses the others in sumptuousness, and is consecrated to the Holy
Spirit. The one immediately beside it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary,
that is to say to eternal Sophia. The third chancel is consecrated to St.
John. The chancels that follow are dedicated to each of the other eleven
apostles. The four evangelists are represented by four statues of Angels,
whose high, widespread wings direct attention to the celestial Throne.
Three portals give access to the Temple, one to the west, one to the south,
and one to the north. Above the western portal is an organ of extraordinary
construction and power.
Finally, at the centre of the rotunda is the Holy of Holies, a small
building which, like a microcosm, reproduces the entire structure of the
great Temple, except that instead of several chancels, it has a single altar.
The towers flanking the great Temple on the outside are here replaced by
ciboria holding images of the saints. In this Holy of Holies the Grail is
kept, floating in suspension, so that the space below forms a large sacrarium.
The architectural relationship between the great Temple and this microcosm
is the perfect figure of the relationship between the outer and inner
Temples in man as a microcosm. A meditation which interiorizes the
vision of the Temple built by Titurel bestows on it its perfect mystical
significance, and another relationship, which reduplicates this Temple,
corresponds to it. The appearance of the whole Temple in fact corresponds to
the appearance that a Gothic semi-rotunda would assume if it were made
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