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

Let us ascertain, at least, the direction in which the Quest of the Grail is to
be pursued, and hence the meaning of the vocation of Titurel, builder of
the Temple. It is through him that the transition from the Temple of
Solomon to the heavenly Jerusalem of John's vision is consummated. The
geste of Titurel is inseparable from the geste of the builders of the first and
second Temples, Hiram and Zerubbabel, just as the three hierophanies of
the Imago Templi are inseparable one from the other: the Temple of
Solomon, the Temple of the Grail, and the Johannine Temple which is the
heavenly Jerusalem. They are inseparable because each of them has
reference ultimately to the spiritual temple, the "inner Church", the
Ecclesia Johannis. Such also is the entire theology of the Temple of the
Grail.
3. The theology of the Temple of the Grail. The interpretation of the Grail
Temple is provided by Titurel himself in his great "speech from the
Throne", 245 where he reveals his doctrine of the Temple. The speech is
addressed to the young, so that they may put themselves at the service of
the Spirit with the virtue demanded by the Grail. True, the interpretation
that the poet, Albrecht von Scharfenberg, gives through the mouth of
Titurel is not exhaustive; it is essentially concerned with the theological
aspect, but it leaves the way open for subsequent interpretations. 246
What strikes one initially is the age of Titurel. The poet gives it as four
hundred years, yet he radiates the beauty, vigour and youth of a man of
thirty. The secret of this youthfulness is Titurel's identification with his
Temple: every man is always as old as his temple. The start of the
construction of the Temple signalled a second birth for Titurel, a dies
natalis on a higher level of being. The thirty years it took to build the
Temple will be his age forever, the perpetual flowering of his youth. This
is the norm of the Temple (cf. the lines by Vladimir Maximov which serve
as the epigraph to this book).
The second thing that strikes us, coming before the great explanation of
the Temple, is the importance assigned to the role of the archangel
Michael. On the one hand, there is the evocation of the angelic cohorts
245 Stanzas 510-586. Gudula Trendelenburg, op. cit., pp. 73 ff., provides an analysis
of these—an analysis the implications of which should be expanded into an entire
book.
. 246 Ibid., p. 80.
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THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
fighting under the leadership of the archangel Michael, an evocation
which forms the prelude to the hierohistory of the Temple: there is his
descent onto the high mountain of Sauveterre and the migration to the
same mountain of the Grail knighthood. On the other hand, there is
presented, as an afterword so to speak, the image of the archangel Michael
as he whose function is the "weighing of souls". 247 Just as the Qumran
Community sensed in its midst the invisible presence of angelic powers, at
whose side it waged war against the sons of Darkness, so the Templars of
the Grail partner the celestial militia. In the thirtieth year of its construction,
the Imago Templi leads the entry into battle. The weighing-up of what
has been gained in the course of battle leads from meditation on the
Temple that is being built to meditation on departure from this world.
Hence the emphasis placed on the archangel Michael's double role.
An interiorizing meditation discerns a virtue in every stone of the
Temple. It is this which, after the evocation of the Temple of Solomon
described above, enables the poet, in his "speech from the Throne", to
show the heavenly Jerusalem appearing through the Temple of the Grail.
At the same time, the connection between the Grail and the vocation of
those who guard it is confirmed. At each moment they offer to the Grail a
pure heart. The Grail knighthood makes them into men whose soul has
the virtue of a "diamond" (adamas). The word is not chosen at random:
there is an esoteric connection between what one might call "sacred
mineralogy" and mystical anthropology, the conception of man intrinsic
in the theology of the Grail Temple.
Because it is made up of all the precious stones that exist, the Temple
becomes the parable or the likeness of Man. The meaning of Titurel's
Temple lies in promoting the formation in man of the Temple, in investing
him with the Imago Templi. As the Temple is constructed of the most noble
materials, so should man be, since God desires to dwell in the human soul.
In the first place the parable concerns individual man. But it also becomes
the parable of the human community when, through the invisible action of
its knights, the Spirit makes the boundaries of the community of the Grail
coincide with the totality of the human community. An essential part is
played in the inner transformation of man by a meditation which interior-
247 This is a classic theme in the iconography of the archangel Michael, and represents
him holding the Balance in his hand (for example on the portal of the Sainte
Chapelle in Paris).
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