12:48 a.m. - 2004-07-25
Chalice
There has been a theme running through my life for several months now. The imagery and the circumstances seem to reflect the story of the Fisher King. The Fisher King or the Wounded King is an ambiguous figure that has many facets evolving out of the the legend of the grail. Fisher_King. The story itself has earlier echoes in both Celtic and Greek legends. Chiron and Bran. Metamorphosis and The Mabinogion if you want to read the books yourself.
In short the Fisher King was the guardian of the grail. He lived in a castle that was sometimes there and sometimes not. A wound in the Scorpio portion of his anatomy caused hime unending suffering and caused his kingdom to become a wasteland. Several threads of stories spin out from this point depending on the writers of the middle ages one follows. The short version of the story is that a young naive knight arrives at the castle and is received with great honour and hospitality by the Fisher King. During the evening feast a strange procession moves through the great hall. The young knight fails to ask what the significance of the three items carried in the procession are. As a result the opportunity for the king to be healed is lost. When the young knight learns of his "failure" sometime after leaving the Fisher King's realm he goes on the legendary quest to find the meaning of the grail. Eventually after many adventures and epiphanies he returns finds the king and relases him and the kingdom from the spell they suffered under. There are all sorts of jokes about men and failing to ask for directions when they are lost but we won't go there tonight dear diary.
According to mystics the story is the tale of the transformation of the Fool in the Tarot, through the Hanged Man and the Tower to the fully fledged guardian of the Grail. Or one could look at the Da Vinci code for another perspective I suppose. The Nag Hammadi is a good source book to follow that line of enquiry.
Anyway there have been several instances of me finding myself in a stiuation where simple questions need to be asked but there is always a barrier to the asking. Politeness, the power of the person one needs to approach, the fear of hearing the answer among others. In each case the image of the procession in the court of the Fisher King has flashed into my mind and I have tried to ask the questions I need to anyway. Not comfortable but in my mind it beats being lost on a circular journey for years that leads back to the beginning of the journey anyway. Transiting Pluto is conjuncting Natal Venus and my Ascendant in my astrological chart for the last time right now and it seems as though I have reached that point of truth and testing. Still don't know whether I have even asked the right questions to be honest.
I asked the Fishing Guide to the Stars Astrofish for his perception of the story tonight and I'm still mulling our discussion over. Astrological in nature for the most part, peppered with the philosophical and our personal experiences as well. I think I'll sleep on it for a while - the month of August seems like a good choice for that. Never mind. Good Night dear diary.
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