The Book of the Holy Graal By Arthur Edward Waite |
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| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. | IX
The Master Comes |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
| XVII. |
| XVII. |
 | The Book of the Holy Graal |  |
75
IX
The Master Comes
When a week had pass'd,
As earthly air of old at times gave up
Some blessed spirit in the guise of man,
Or—when all doors were shut—the risen Christ
Stood in an upper room, invoking peace
On true disciples, so life's native mode
And daily sequence to BEATA gave
One unto her as Master—not that man
Of vision with the chalice in his hands,
Knowing and known in unity. Some two
Or three mere shadows in the life of her—
Met there or here, at lecture or at home—
Brought them together, from design apart,
And something in the white-hair'd, travell'd man
Had drawn her father. So at the right time,
In the right way, by manifest design
Untinged, he came who saw and knew within.
Perhaps with open knowledge of her life
76
His silence notwithstanding, something spoke
Within her and bore witness to the heart
That neither waking life nor life of sleep
Were hidden from his inward eyes. She felt
Unveil'd before him who was veil'd to her,
Though not indeed as one who vests himself
In mystery, or willingly shuts fast
The doors of secret spirit or of mind.
He seem'd uplifted in the height of things,
Beyond all common vision, into rest
Of knowledge and possession in the still
And active centre. She had seen the soul
As one who on the threshold of a world
Looks down its vistas. He abode therein
And came not therefore with the types and signs
Of outward sacraments, in bread and wine;
As any spokesman of a church or creed,
Of any system warranted by man;
As bearing seals of mission, set on that
Or this—in high hypothesis—by God.
His the authority of very life,
Which makes no claim, but is and is confess'd.
The fountain-springs of self-hood and its notes
Were missing, and the impression so produced
Was not of one who has effaced the self
But, in the measures of a wider world
Increased, has come into a higher state,
Another heritage, a cosmic mode.
Being that she was, no special words of his
BEATA needed to communicate
This and things deeper than such terms convey.
His presence and its quality of life
Awaken'd. As the incense in the church
Entrances sense and thus the thurible,
Amidst the blessed fragrance over aisles
And nave, is counted nothing but goes by
Unheeded, so the Master as a man
Of flesh was in the nowhere and the naught
For her, but all—in silence or in speech—
The life-evoking quality of life
Which dwelt about him and for her was he.
Moreover, on his lips our common words
Took on another vesture. Had he talk'd
Pure trifles, idly as an old man might,
Or blended things which pass with things that stay
And matter, lest a woman in her youth,
Just raised from girlhood, find it hard to stand
In thought at full attention, still his words—
To her at least and others tuned like her—
With life vibrating, would have pass'd life on
And with deep modes of music stirr'd deep chords
Of very soul within.
Beyond all common vision, into rest
Of knowledge and possession in the still
And active centre. She had seen the soul
As one who on the threshold of a world
Looks down its vistas. He abode therein
And came not therefore with the types and signs
Of outward sacraments, in bread and wine;
As any spokesman of a church or creed,
Of any system warranted by man;
As bearing seals of mission, set on that
Or this—in high hypothesis—by God.
His the authority of very life,
Which makes no claim, but is and is confess'd.
The fountain-springs of self-hood and its notes
Were missing, and the impression so produced
Was not of one who has effaced the self
77
Increased, has come into a higher state,
Another heritage, a cosmic mode.
Being that she was, no special words of his
BEATA needed to communicate
This and things deeper than such terms convey.
His presence and its quality of life
Awaken'd. As the incense in the church
Entrances sense and thus the thurible,
Amidst the blessed fragrance over aisles
And nave, is counted nothing but goes by
Unheeded, so the Master as a man
Of flesh was in the nowhere and the naught
For her, but all—in silence or in speech—
The life-evoking quality of life
Which dwelt about him and for her was he.
Moreover, on his lips our common words
Took on another vesture. Had he talk'd
Pure trifles, idly as an old man might,
Or blended things which pass with things that stay
And matter, lest a woman in her youth,
Just raised from girlhood, find it hard to stand
In thought at full attention, still his words—
To her at least and others tuned like her—
With life vibrating, would have pass'd life on
And with deep modes of music stirr'd deep chords
Of very soul within.
78
A word indeed,
But one sufficed, wherever God's great Name
Was utter'd, for there flash'd through him to her
Light plenary from infinite of things,
As if it had been spoken from the heart
Of Heaven. The path, the end of all her quest
Were voiced therein. She felt the sacrament
Of simple words, and the dry bones of speech
Lived, moved: so utter'd in the depths of her
They traversed all her galleries and crypts.
She answer'd from the soul in sympathy
Of understanding love—at times with lips,
More often in that silence of the mind
Which answers fully through the speaking eyes.
So learn'd she and so grew. He spoke at times
Of Hidden Mysteries in Holy Church.
Then all distinctions between Church and World
Were brought to nothing; there was unity
Of Grace and Nature, being Grace in all;
And this was Nature raised upon the heights
Of holiness. On woman and on man
He spoke, and there was oneness in the depth
And height of consecrate humanity,
Sub specie amoris—so alone—
Regarded: all was kingship and high light
In the great vistas opening before
And round them. It recall'd that vision-state
When her soul open'd and the soul of him
Who stood upon the farther altar-side,
While far beyond that prefatory state
Lay other worlds of union, here reveal'd
To mind alone. And she remember'd too
That at the close of such high change in sleep—
She knew not how—the altar interposed
No longer; but they, standing side by side,
Prepared upon a predetermined path
To take their course and so perchance exchange
A state of soul far looking into soul
For two in one abiding self-immerged.
Observe, her Master never chose a theme
But one sufficed, wherever God's great Name
Was utter'd, for there flash'd through him to her
Light plenary from infinite of things,
As if it had been spoken from the heart
Of Heaven. The path, the end of all her quest
Were voiced therein. She felt the sacrament
Of simple words, and the dry bones of speech
Lived, moved: so utter'd in the depths of her
They traversed all her galleries and crypts.
She answer'd from the soul in sympathy
Of understanding love—at times with lips,
More often in that silence of the mind
Which answers fully through the speaking eyes.
So learn'd she and so grew. He spoke at times
Of Hidden Mysteries in Holy Church.
Then all distinctions between Church and World
Were brought to nothing; there was unity
Of Grace and Nature, being Grace in all;
And this was Nature raised upon the heights
Of holiness. On woman and on man
He spoke, and there was oneness in the depth
And height of consecrate humanity,
Sub specie amoris—so alone—
Regarded: all was kingship and high light
In the great vistas opening before
And round them. It recall'd that vision-state
79
Who stood upon the farther altar-side,
While far beyond that prefatory state
Lay other worlds of union, here reveal'd
To mind alone. And she remember'd too
That at the close of such high change in sleep—
She knew not how—the altar interposed
No longer; but they, standing side by side,
Prepared upon a predetermined path
To take their course and so perchance exchange
A state of soul far looking into soul
For two in one abiding self-immerged.
As one with office to discourse thereon,
Nor ever spoke as teacher. That and this
Of each high subject out of this and that,
Among the seeming accidents of things,
Issued, and self-presented unawares
Became their theme which heaven-born wisdom's art
Seal'd with great Nature's own simplicity.
Music of words which subtly work'd their spell
Outside all conscious knowledge or intent,
And silence after as at end of song:
I know not which gave most, but both had light
And warmth of teaching for the need she had,
80
And—as a tree of many roses draws
The life-increasing dews—drew springs of speech
Within, or sheen of subtle silences,
As rose from golden sun derives at once
Beauty and nutriment. So too, as this
Gives forth a royal fragrance in return,
She radiated quick with sympathy,
True understanding, answers from the heart.
Thus was there antiphon and fair response
Continually between them, and behind
The outward Church of Nature and of Grace
She pass'd in spirit to the Church within,
And through such incense of the Master's words
Beheld the Blessed Mystery of all
Inward experience taking outward form.
The Sacramentum ineffabile,
The Holy Graal upheld by priestly hands
Shone out dilucid over altar height.
But afterwards alone, in worship rapt
And ravish'd, reverent over radiant Cup
Bent the adoring face of him who stood
Before her in the many-mansion'd House,
While she, Pyx-Bearer, held on virgin breast
The great white secret which is Bread of Life.
This aspect ceased. Thereafter, side by side
Standing, the sacred vessels glow'd in light
Together. Then a little while, and then
One vessel only, which was Pyx and Cup,
Till this dissolved, and Christ between them stood
One moment's space. Valete, time and life,
All separate sense of being and of thought;
But that which was and is and is to come
Abode alone in them and they therein—
Eternal Life in Christ.
And ravish'd, reverent over radiant Cup
Bent the adoring face of him who stood
Before her in the many-mansion'd House,
While she, Pyx-Bearer, held on virgin breast
The great white secret which is Bread of Life.
This aspect ceased. Thereafter, side by side
81
Together. Then a little while, and then
One vessel only, which was Pyx and Cup,
Till this dissolved, and Christ between them stood
One moment's space. Valete, time and life,
All separate sense of being and of thought;
But that which was and is and is to come
Abode alone in them and they therein—
Eternal Life in Christ.
But thence return'd
Within the normal measures of our life,
BEATA MEA, by the reasoning mind,
Discern'd in part and very far away
That in some sense to be hereafter known
Her nature answer'd to the Bread she bare
And must be changed into the Bread of Life,
While he—brought strangely into worlds of dream—
Stood in some deep relation to the Cup
He carried and must suffer change himself,
Till that which answer'd to its wine became
The Wine of Life, Blessed and Holy Graal.
Within the normal measures of our life,
BEATA MEA, by the reasoning mind,
Discern'd in part and very far away
That in some sense to be hereafter known
Her nature answer'd to the Bread she bare
And must be changed into the Bread of Life,
While he—brought strangely into worlds of dream—
Stood in some deep relation to the Cup
He carried and must suffer change himself,
Till that which answer'd to its wine became
The Wine of Life, Blessed and Holy Graal.
83
Below the life of sense:
Of all creation Thou art life and plan,
The essence and the immanence.
But, ah, for us the hidden Godhead sleeps
In cosmic Nature and is veiled in ours,
Till something calls it from unsounded deeps
To rise within us and unfold its powers.
Then shall great Nature stir
And putting sleep for us away from her
Shall also wake.
How shall that morning break?
O not in East or West alone
And not from here or there:
At once and everywhere
The Christ Who comes within is seen and known,
The Voice of Life is heard,
Life of all life and Word.
O admirable Presence, Voice Divine,
Thy world is ours and mine;
And to Thy light, transfigured, shall respond
In light the worlds without us and beyond.
| The Book of the Holy Graal | |