The Real Tomb of God: The Grail, The Ark, the Emerald Tablet, and the Forgotten Father of Mankind
by Tracy R. Twyman

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Tracy@DagobertsRevenge.com
http://www.dagobertsrevenge.com
P.O. Box 18331
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The mythology surrounding Christian Rosenkreutz, the legendary founder of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, may provide us with clues as to the location of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, upon which their Hermetic wisdom is based, as well as the famed relic of the Holy Grail, which this magazine is dedicated to. It may also shed some light on the mythological importance of the so-called "Hollow Earth" theory, and tell us the location of the body of a dead God or King. In question, the location of Rosenkreutz's tomb. He is said to have died at the age of 106, in the year 1484, and was buried in a secret vault, deep in a cave inside of a mountain, which was "lit by an inner (or artificial) sun." The location of this tomb was kept secret, until 120 years later, when it was discovered by a group of Rosicrucian brethren. Here they found a cache of sacred mystery writings, which became the core wisdom of their order. And yet, their wisdom is said to be based on the Emerald Tablet, begging the question of whether or not it was in fact the Emerald Tablet that they found. They also found the body of their master, "pure and unconsumed," his flesh having not decomposed one bit, but appeared to be made of candle wax. With the discovery of the tomb and the sacred mystery writings, the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, having been ostensibly dead since the demise of their leader 120 years previous, is born anew, and the brethren who have made the discovery take off to spread the news to all the corners of the Earth. Now as Christopher McIntosh points out in his book, The Rosicrucians, many elements of this story are very familiar. "The idea of a monarch or leader who is not dead, but asleep, and will one day awaken is a familiar one. It was applied not only to King Arthur, but also to such historical figures as Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa. In Rosicrucian legend, it is the Brotherhood which reawakens, while its founder, although ostensibly dead, remains undecayed as a symbol of his abiding influence through his followers." Indeed this "Sleeping God" or "Lost King" who will one day awaken/return is an extremely prevalent archetype. It has been applied to the Greek Kronos/Saturn, Satan/Lucifer of the Biblical legends, as well as Jesus Christ of the same, an entire host of Sumerian gods (which became, in Lovecraftian lore, the "Dead but Dreaming God Cthulhu"), and the "Fisher King" of the Grail Story, to name but a few.

But are their any other clues to indicate that this Rosenkreutz story may be a part of a much older tradition? A telling example can be found in the Adeptus Minor ritual of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In this ritual the aspirant is made to pretend that he is in fact the discoverer of Rosenkreutz's tomb. The Chief Adept plays the role of the dead Rosenkreutz, and at the height of the ceremony, is resurrected again. It is the Golden Dawn's version of the Masonic Hiram Abiff ritual, and that is important, for just as Hiram Abiff has been associated by the Masons with Osiris, and the Egyptian rituals that also involved feigned death and resurrection, so is Rosenkreutz in this ritual likened to Osiris as well. A quote from the ritual reads: "This place was entitled by our still more ancient fratres and sorores 'the Tomb of Osiris Onnophris, the Justified One.'"

Other details of the Tomb that are given in the ritual yield parallels even more shocking. The Tomb, says the ritual, has seven sides, upon which are written "emblems," etched on colored squares that appear to the naked eye to be "flashing." Behind each of these flashing squares is found a drawer, each one containing a part of the sacred mystery writings which are the Corpus Rosicianicum of the Brotherhood. In the midst of the tomb, directly over the body is a circular altar, upon which are inscribed the four figures of the Kerubim - The Lion, the Eagle, the Man, and the Ox - as well as the following queer phrases:

"Nequaquam Vacuum - Nowhere a Void
Libertas Evangelii - Liberty of the Gospel
Dei Intacta Gloria - Unsullied Glory of God
Legis Jugum - The Yoke of the Law"

Above the altar, shining down on the undecayed corpse of their founder, is the "artificial sun," expect that in this ritual, it is not described as a sun at all, but as a rose! To quote from the ritual: "Although in the Tomb, the Sun does not shine, it is lit by the symbolic Rose of our Order in the center of the first heptagonal ceiling."

As many Dagobert's Revenge readers are probably aware, this "inner sun" concept closely parallels a similar myth in regards to the so-called "Hollow Earth" myth. According to these legends, some of which are modern, while others surprisingly ancient, the sphere of the Earth is hollow, the Earth's crust being only 300 feet thick, beyond which a new world can be found, called Agartha, which can be entered at the North and South Pole, populated, according to some, by giants who live unto the ages of the Biblical patriarchs. In fact, according to some, like Olaf Jansen, this is the actual location of the Garden of Eden, the Abode of the Gods, located literally in the center of things, in the womb of the Earth, and atop a magical white mountain that appears over and over again in various mythologies, for this is the "World Mountain" that provides the axis for the Earth. This inner world is lit, according to legend, by an "artificial sun," or "The Smoky God," as it has been called, a ball of electro-magnetism that is said to provide warmth and light for the inhabitants of the inner Earth. and while this sounds like science fiction, it does actually have many parallels with the Biblical and Apocryphal stories of the Fallen Angels who, after the War in Heaven, were imprisoned in Hell, the Pit, located in the bowels of the Earth and ruled over by Satan, called, according to tradition, the Lord of the Earth. (Interestingly, in the Golden Dawn ritual, it is the "Lord of the Earth" who causes Rosenkreutz to rise again.) There are also many parallels in the world of Hermeticism and alchemy.

Alchemy concerns itself with the search for the elusive "Elixir of Life," a sort of cure-all substance that is capable of bringing health, wealth, immortality, and spiritual emancipation to him who possesses it. Literally, it involves the transformation of base metals into gold, while figuratively, it involves the transformation of the dross of the unrefined Soul into the "Lapsit Exillis" - the Stone from Heaven. This stone represents perfection idealized, the amalgamation of opposites into a unified whole. And yet it is also called the Hidden Stone because it lies in the midst of all things, and men do not see it, giving rise to the parable of the "Stone that was Rejected" in the building of Solomon's Temple, which in the end becomes the cornerstone for the House of God. And this stone has also been equated with the sun, shining in perfect brilliance, ruling the Heavens like a King over his Realm.

Now the alchemical process, both the physical and the figurative, involves a stage called Dissolution, when the elements (or the base emotions and Ego of the aspirant) are dissolved, to be replaced later by purity of spirit, or Gold. This stage is symbolized by.. a Black Sun! And this black sun stage is equated with none other than Saturn, or Kronos, the Sleeping God buried in a subterranean tomb who is called "The Hidden One!" And this is precisely why the Elixir of Life is called "The Hidden Stone" - because it is hidden in the midst of this dross or base matter, the Black Sun, which, once dissolved, reveals the shining brilliance within. This dross matter is called the Prima Materia, the Original Matter from which all other forms were made. Yet the Black Sun has also been said to represent this Prima Materia, the Great Void from whence the Universe came. At the same time, the concept of the Black Sun arose some say because the ancient civilizations believed that the Sun dies at night as it set in the West, and descended into the Underworld, where it turned Black. The next day it would resurrect again in the East. They imagined the sun actually traveling underneath the Earth via a secret subterranean passageway, and had hieroglyphs depicting this. Significantly, there is an alchemical motto called "V.I.T.R.I.O.L," an acronym for Latin words which translate to "Visit the Interior Parts of the Earth; by Rectification Thou Shalt Find the Hidden Stone."

Is this Hidden Stone, then, the same as the Black Sun that lights the inner Earth, and the "Hidden Sun" which lights the tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz? Clearly, from the phrasing of the ritual, the Golden Dawn considers the Hidden Sun to be synonymous with the mystic Rose which is the symbol of their order. This Rose has always been equated, not only with the female vagina, but with the Holy Grail, which is also called the Hidden Stone and the Stone that Fell from Heaven, and is also believed to contain the Elixir of Life. So it would appear that these four symbols - The Black Sun, the Mystic Rose, the Holy Grail and the Stone from Heaven/Elixir of Life, all represent essentially the same thing, or at least portions of the same thing, stages in the same process. The fact that the rose is surmounted upon an equilateral cross could be seen as symbolic of its place "in the center of things," that is, figuratively, to be found in the deepest recesses of your soul, where resides the equilibrium of opposing forces; and literally, in the center of the Earth's axis. But is there any further evidence that ties this in more directly with the inner earth, the Holy Grail and a buried or "Hidden" god?

Yes, there is. Lots more. Some is to be found in the same Adeptus Minor ritual of the Golden Dawn, and the correlations are, in fact, pretty direct. In the beginning of the ritual it states:

"The Tomb is Symbolically situated in the centre of the Earth, Mountain of the Caverns, the Mystic Mountain of Abiegnus. The meaning of this title of Abiegnus - Abi-Agnus, Lamb of the Father. It is by metathesis Abi-Genos, Born of the Father. Bia-Genos, Strength of our Race, and the four words make the sentence: ABIEGNUS ABIAGNUS ABI-GENOS BIA-GENOS. "Mountain of the Lamb of the Father, and the Strength of Our Race."

As I have mentioned, the dead but dreaming God buried in a secret tomb who will one day arise is a recurring theme in many mythologies. There is even a similar story related in The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz , when the title character stumbles upon the tomb of the Lady Venus, her body lying undecayed in a Death-like slumber, an well-known attribute of Venus which has given rise to the tale of "Sleeping Beauty." More striking parallels, however, are to be found with Hermes, the God-Man who is said to have brought the alchemical wisdom of the Gods to mankind, and has thus been equated with the Egyptian Thoth, as well as with Enoch, the patriarch in the Bible who was allowed to go to Heaven and take the Elixir of Life, which caused him to live forever. Enoch also was allowed to write down the Secrets of the Gods upon a tablet, which was brought down to Earth and given to Noah to enlighten mankind. Hermes had a similar tablet, said to be the color of Emerald, and to contain all the secrets of alchemy known to the Gods. By revealing this hidden knowledge to Man, Hermes therefore has a Luciferian, Titanic and Promethean aspect to him. Hermes is said to never die, but to fall into periods of prolonged sleep, which he is awakened from at regular intervals by the periodic discovery of his tomb. The descriptions of the discovery of the tomb of Hermes, said to have been found by both Paracelsus and Alexander the Great, among others, parallel directly that of Christian Rosenkreutz's tomb, even down to the "mystery writings" contained therein, i.e., the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, upon which the Rosicrucian writings are undoubtedly based.

The form which the Emerald Tablet takes has been described in a variety of ways, each with a symbolic meaning which holds a clue as to the overall meaning. A 1609 portrait of the Emerald Tablet by Henry Kunrath portrays it in the form of words inscribed on the side of a mountain, with fire issuing from the top. The author is reminded of the mountain upon which (or in which) Moses inscribed the Tablets of Testimony, which in occult lore is traditionally equated with the Emerald Tablet as well, for there is a secret legend existing which states that Moses acquired the Tablet from the Priests of Egypt prior to the Exodus. One is also reminded of the reference to the "Mountain of Albi-genos" in which Rosenkreutz is buried, and which is inscribed with magical writing. As McIntosh writes in The Rosicrucians, "... a mountain covered with symbols is used as an allegory of the alchemical process." He also quotes the author Thomas Vaughn, who wrote about "a mountain situated in the midst of the Earth, or the center of the world, which is both great and small. It is soft, also, above measure, hard and stony. It is far off and near at hand, but by the providence of God invisible. In it are hidden the most ample treasure, which the world is not able to value." (Another, similar poem says this land was lit by a "midnight sun.") This mountain is clearly a representation of the aforementioned "world mountain," which is common to all cultures, and is often described as white, or sitting in the middle of a white island, thus the word "albi" is used in the Golden Dawn ritual, meaning white. This parallels, for instance, the Greek Mt. Olympus, the abode of the Gods which, according to Plato, was the largest mountain on Earth, capped with snow, and with four rivers issuing from its top, residing in midst of the Isle of Atlantis. This same mountain is said by Olaf Jansen to now sit in the center of the Earth, and the four rivers are the Euphrates, the Pison, the Gihon, and the Hiddekel, the same ones which flowed in the Garden of Eden. This symbolic mountain is undoubtedly the same one, in the center of the Earth, which this Mount in the Golden Dawn is trying to represent.

And yet, there is a real, existing mountain in the south of France which is worthy of the title "Mountain of Albi-Genos," and which is also rumored to house the Holy Grail. In fact, local legend says that the Grail has always been there, ever since a dove from Heaven had descended upon the mountain, split it open with its beak, and dropped the Grail inside. This is the Mountain of Montsegur, which was the last Cathari stronghold to give out, ending the Albigensian Crusade. This was the only crusade waged by Christiandom against people who were Christians themselves. The term "Cathar" was a catch-all term used by the Catholic church for the numerous Gnostic Christian cults that proliferated across the Languedoc region of France during the Middle Ages. As they grew in numbers, they gradually became a threat to the established order of orthodox Christianity. Finally, in 1208, the Pope declared war on any Cathar who would not immediately repent and convert to the True Faith. Most of the Cathars held true to their convictions and many of the local townspeople protected them from the crusading soldiers, for the Cathars were seen by the general public to be eccentric, but essentially good and moral people. Even the famous crusaders the Knights Templar refused to fight in this battle, and some say they actually assisted the Cathars secretly. The term "Cathari" means "The Pure Ones," as so they were also called Albigensians, purity being traditionally associated with the color white. Finally, the enemy was cornered, holed up in the mountain fortress of Montsegur, which eventually capitulated on March 1, 1244. The Cathars were immediately put to death. The leader of the Crusades, Simon de Montfort, issued the now famous order, "Kill them all. God will know his own." Thus, the Albigensian Crusade has been called the first genocide in history. But the night before Montsegur fell, a group of Cathar knights disappeared over the walls with the so-called Cathar treasure of the Holy Grail, which they deposited, according to rumor, inside one of the many caves in Montsegur.

Now fast forward to WWII, in which France is occupied by the Nazis, and a young German author, researcher and S.S. Lt. named Otto Rahn is sent by the Nazis to Southern France to look for the Holy Grail, which many in the Nazi hierarchy are eager to possess. The Nazis, it will be recalled, also believed whole-heartedly in the theory of the Hollow Earth, and sent expeditions down to Antarctica looking for the entrance. Furthermore, the Nazis had great admiration for the Cathars, especially their disciplined lifestyle, vegetarian diet, and sophisticated Gnostic theology. In fact, there were elements within the Nazi hierarchy who were hoping to resurrect the Cathar religion. So it was only natural that Otto Rahn would go looking for the Holy Grail at the place which the Cathars were said to have left it - Montsegur. He also knew that in the Grail romances of the Middle Ages, the Grail is said to reside in a castle at the top of Mount Salvat, which Rahn believed to be the same as Montsegur. So he stayed for a number of years, off and on between 1928 and 1931, exploring the caves of Montsegur and the tunnels of the surrounding Languedoc, even the village of Rennes-le-Chateau. Interestingly, another group of people were also exploring Montsegur at this same time. This group was known as the Polaires, a secret mystical society (influenced by Rosicrucian and Martinist teachings) that at one time included the author Rene Guenon, another Hollow Earth believer. And what were they looking for at Montsegur? Why, none other than the tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz, which according to a local newspaper, they suspected to be in the nearby ruined castle of Lordat.

If this is not enough to conclude that the Tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz was believed by these occultists to be the location of the Grail, this should tie up the loose ends. The information comes from a remarkable book by Col. Howard Buechner called Emerald Cup - Ark of Gold: The Quest of S.S. Lt. Otto Rahn of the Third Reich. According to Buechner, Otto Rahn did discover something in the caves around Montsegur, just as Parzival had discovered the Holy Grail in a cave near Montsalvat. Buechner says that Rahn found the landscape to parallel exactly Mount Salvat in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, and writes that, "The grotto and certain other rock formations in the story bear the same names as those in a massive cave near Montsegur." This is interesting because it is also recorded that Eschenbach visited nearby Rennes-le-Chateau prior to writing his book. And it was the clues in that book which, according to Buechner, led Rahn to make his first awesome discovery. Writes Buechner:

"He explored the grottoes of an area known as Sabarthez, notably the grottoes of Ornolac and the massive cavern of Lombrives. Here he found a huge chamber which was known to the local mountain people as the 'Cathedral' because it had served as a meeting place for the ancient Cathars. In the main hall was a great stalagmite known as the 'Tomb of Hercules.' In a third grotto, that of Fontenet, was a stalagmite which was white as snow. It was called the 'Altar'... Deep within the grottoes of the Sabarthez he found chambers in which the walls were covered with characteristic symbols of the Knights Templar, side by side with the well-known emblems of the Cathars... One very interesting image which had been carved into the stone wall of a grotto was clearly a drawing of a lance. This depiction immediately suggested the bleeding lance which appears over and over again in Arthurian legends, and which is, of course, the Holy Lance which pierced the side of Christ at the crucifixion."

The reference to the Tomb of Hercules is interesting because of the implication that a God is buried within the mountain, just as Rosenkreutz is buried within the mountain of Albigenus. Furthermore, Hercules, like Hermes, was another one of those "Luciferian" gods that went about spreading knowledge and civilization to men all over the world. Far from being the dumb jock that modern conceptions depict him to be, with the physique and mentality of a WWF wrestler, Hercules was actually very wise. In fact, according to Plato, he was one of the kings of Atlantis. And just as Hermes possessed a magick stone which fell from Heaven (according to legend written on a jewel out of Lucifer's crown) and which had strange electro-magnetic properties, and which has been associated with the Holy Grail, Hercules also possessed a Heavenly stone, and a special golden cup that he put it in! Writes Ignatius Donnelly in his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World:

"The Magnet was called the 'Stone of Hercules.' Hercules was the patron deity of the Phoenicians. He was, as we have shown elsewhere, one of the Gods of Atlantis - probably one of its great kings and navigators... Hercules, it was said, being once overpowered by the heat of the sun, drew his bow against that luminary: whereupon the god Phoebus, admiring his intrepidity, gave him a golden cup, with which he sailed over the ocean. This cup was the compass, which old writers have called Lapis Heracleus. Pisander says Oceanus lent him the cup, but Lucian says it was a seashell. Tradition affirms that the magnet originally was not on a pivot, but set to float on water in a cup. Some even see a compass in the Golden Fleece of Argos, and in the oracular needle which Nero worshipped... Hercules was, as we know, a god of Atlantis, and Oceanos, who lent the magnetic cup to Hercules, was the name by which the Greeks designated the Atlantic Ocean. And this may be the explanation of the recurrence of a cup in many antique paintings and statues. Hercules was also represented with a cup in his hand... So oracular an object as this self-moving needle, always pointing to the north, would doubtless affect vividly the minds of the people, and appear in their works of art. When Hercules left the coast of Europe to sail to the island of Erythea in the Atlantic, in the remote west, we are told , in Greek mythology, that he borrowed "the cup" of Helios, in with which he was accustomed to sail every night. Here we seem to have a reference to the magnetic cup used in night-sailing; and this is another proof that the use of the magnetic needle in sea voyages was associated with the Atlantean Gods."

In these few paragraphs, Donnelley has therefore summed up an explanation for why the Holy Grail is associated with a stone, a cup, the sun, and the Emerald Tablet. We see also why the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, as "Guardians of the Grail," would have been called "Navigators," as well as why the lodestone is sacred to the Freemasons, the inheritors of that tradition. What has not been explained is why the Grail is still associated with a bloodline, and why is the Emerald Tablet, if it comes from this solar stone, green? Well, as we've explained in other articles throughout this issue, these Gods of Atlantis were the same as the ancient Antediluvian kings in the records of the Sumerian, Egyptian and Indus Valley civilizations. These "Gods" intermarried with their subjects and became the inheritors of those thrones. The descendants of the divine-human offspring became the lords over all the various kingdoms of the Earth, even unto this day, and the bloodline became known as the Grail Bloodline. This bloodline became associated with the symbols of the stone and the cup, which were also used to symbolize the secret knowledge of this race, passed down to their descendants throughout the generations. Furthermore, the electro-magnetic properties of the stone are associated with giving life to the inanimate. Thus Donelly writes, "We find that Ouranus, the first god of the people of Atlantis, devised Baetulia, contriving stones that moved as having life, which were supposed to fall from Heaven. These stones were probably magnetic loadstones; in other words, Ouranus, the first god of Atlantis, devised the Mariner's compass." Furthermore, earlier in the same chapter Donelley says that the Egyptians referred to the lodestone as the bone of Hareori, and iron the bone of Typhon, who were both descendants of Rhea, the goddess of the Earth, and writes:

"Do we find in this curious designation of iron and loadstone as 'bones of the descendants of the Earth' an explanation of that otherwise inexplicable Greek legend about Deucalion, 'Throwing the bones of the Earth behind him, when instantly men rose from the ground, and the world was repeopled?'"(i.e., after the Flood?)

This may shed further light on certain legends concerning the Black Sun, which also has strange electro-magnetic properties, and is also conceived of by many who believe in it as the Mother (or Father) of a particular race of man. There is even reference to the Children of the Black Sun as having unique sanguinary properties, meaning that their blood is literally made from the light of the Black Sun, which according to some is called "The Green Ray." Here we may find a connection to the color of the Emerald Tablet, made out of a hitherto mysterious material also said to possess such electro-magnetic properties. Furthermore, this may explain the origin of Howard Buechner's conception of the Grail as an "Emerald Cup." The fantastic properties of the Black Sun also link closely with the Holy Grail, being able to entrance those who gaze upon it, and supply limitless sustenance for them. And Hercules's cup was made of gold, just as the Ark of the Covenant, which also had these electro-magnetic properties, and is also rumored to have contained the Emerald Tablet, was also plated with gold. Of course, gold is highly conductive, and the gold plating must have been instrumental in the function of the Ark as a machine. The Ark also had another purpose: the throne of Jehovah, who was said to be actually living in between the Cherubim. And yet, Olaf Jansen said that Jehovah's throne was seated in the midst of the Black Sun. Is it possible to synthesize the idea, set forth in Arktos: The Polar Myth by Joscelyn Godwin, that there are two "Grail stones," one larger than the other, which keep in contact with each other via a magnetic link, with the concept that Jehovah was merely "talking to" his subjects, from his real throne inside the Earth, via an electromagnetic hologram communication, and that, as it was expressed in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," it acted as "a radio for talking to God?" Is it possible that the Black Sun, the seat of Jehovah's throne, is the larger Grail, whereas the Ark, a sacred gold-plated vessel containing the Tablet, is the smaller Grail? Perhaps the ancients, after discovering the lodestone, conceived of the concept of the electromagnetic spectrum, and a ball of energy in the center of the Earth from whence it all issued. They may have even figured out how the compass behaves when sailing over the poles, and perhaps, how it behaves as you go beyond the poles and into the world within. Is this what ancient man meant when he talked about sailing to the ends of the Earth, where the Gods lived?

Who knows. We do, however, find an interesting example of the "Two Grails" theory in Howard Buechner, for as the tale of Otto Rahn's discovery continues, all of these disparate elements are tied together quite nicely. Writes Howard Buechner:

" Rahn must have discovered something which caused him to espouse a strange theory. He came to the conclusion that the Emerald Cup was only one Holy Grail, while in fact there was another... The second Grail, according to Rahn, was a Stone, or more specifically, a collection of stone tablets... on which was written the wisdom of the ages or the ultimate truth, but in a language that no one could decipher (the mountain covered with symbols?) ...In ancient times, the word "Gorr" meant "Precious Stone," and "Al" meant "a splinter" or "stylus" with which to write. Hence came the contraction to Gorral or Graal, meaning Precious Engraved Stone."

This parallels another Ancient Sumerian myth which is written about in Egyptian Civilization: It's Sumerian Origin and Real Chronology, by L.A. Waddell, which he equates with the myth of the Holy Grail. Waddell writes: "The earliest known specimen of historical Sumerian writing [is] the votive inscription on the trophy stone-bowl or 'Holy Grail' captured from the Serpent-Dragon worshippers by the first Sumerian King Zass, Ukusi, ot Tur (Ar-Thur) and engraved by his great-grandson King Udu of Kisk about 3245 B.C." This itself also corresponds nicely with Buechner's description of the first Grail, the Emerald Cup, as having been inscribed with cuneiform (Sumerian writing) and handed down "by God" to Melchizidek, that biblical character who used it to serve wine to Abraham and who was undoubtedly one of the Priest-Kings of Ancient Mesopotamia.

Sadly, according to Buechner, Rahn was not destined to discover his first Grail, the Emerald Cup. He died under mysterious circumstances before he was able to, some say with the complicity of the Nazi hierarchy. Instead, they sent the swashbuckling Otto Skorzensky, "Chief of Germany's Special Troops," who allegedly found it with little difficulty on March 16, a day sacred to the Cathars. Buechner relates the story in which "the local descendants of the Cathars" happened to be on top of the mountain celebrating some mystical rite when the S.S. helicopter came down to scoop up Otto Skorzensky and his treasure. "At exactly high noon on March 16, 1944, a small German aircraft appeared. It flew over Montsegur several times, dipping its wings in salute. Then it used skywriting equipment and formed a huge Celtic cross in the sky. The Celtic Cross was a sacred emblem of the Cathars."

The entirety of the treasure actually consisted of several things, including: "Items which were believed to have come from the Temple of Solomon which included the gold plates and fragments of wood which had once made up the Ark of Moses... Twelve stone tablets bearing pre-Runic inscriptions, which none of the experts were able to read... and a beautiful silvery cup with an emerald-like base made of what appeared to be jasper. Three gold plaques on the Cup were inscribed with cuneiform script in an ancient language." Much of this treasure, he writes, was, "buried deep beneath the castle wall of Heinrich Himmler's Grail fortress, Wewelsburg.... According to persistent rumors, at least part of the treasure was sent to the 'Externsteine,' where it was sealed off in one of the many grottoes which pock-mark the great rock formation."

As to what happened to the Grail afterwards, Buechner relates that after a time spent at Wewelsburg in which it "is believed to have been exhibited to Himmler's innermost circle of senior Knights of the Holy Lance on several occasions," the cup was then removed, for safety reasons, and "was then carried by submarine (U-530) to Antarctica where it found repose in a cave of ice in the Muhlig Hoffman mountains." This cave thereafter became known as "The Emerald Cave." And supposedly this cave lead into a secret tunnel that went all the way down into the inner Earth. A stone obelisk about one meter high and "made of polished black basalt" was placed at the entrance to this cave and bore the inscription: "There are truly more things in heaven and 'in' Earth than man has dreamt. (Beyond this point is Agartha.)" This was prepared by Professor Karl Hauhofer. Inside this obelisk was supposed to be placed the Emerald Cup itself. But instead Hauhofer wrote a note onto a piece of parchment detailing the actual location of the Cup, and put that inside the obelisk instead. Perhaps the Cup itself was actually placed somewhere amongst the kingdoms of the Earth's interior.

That the Grail should find its repose in the center of the earth is only fitting, considering the fact that, as I have previously argued, the Grail, especially in its form as a stone, has always traditionally resided there, and represented the same things that the inner Earth and its "Central Sun" represent. In Julius Evola's Mystery of the Grail, the Holy Grail is synonymous with the "Victory Stone" of the monarchs of this inner kingdom. The Grail Castle, with its Grail King or "Fisher King," is located in a supernatural world that is "in the midst of things," yet invisible to all but the elect. According to many traditions, this is located on a "Spinning Island," the "White Island" of Avalon, which England (also called Albion, meaning white) has come to be associated with. However, Evola equated the image of a spinning white island with the Polar Myth of the Island of Thule, or with Atlantis, and the spinning around an axis is symbolic of the "central kingdom" of Agartha. The centralness of this kingdom represents equilibrium, and equality of opposing forces, especially male and female, good and evil. It is the combination of these opposing forces that creates the "Elixir of Life," the Stone of the alchemists, which is equivalent to the Grail, and which represents the powers of both Good and Evil which are the property of the Gods and their human offspring, the "Grail Kings." The stone is also a symbol of their rightful rule, like the Stone of Scone upon which English monarchs are coronated, which incidentally is also a stone that fell from Heaven, and is believed to be the same stone that Jacob was resting his head on when he saw a vision of a ladder to Heaven, with angels ascending and descending. (This is the Biblical passage from whence came the term, "This Place is Terrible," which is written on the outside of the church at Rennes-le-Chateau.) To Evola the "Grail Kingdom" represents "the invisible regnum and the Supreme Center of the world," the True and Rightful rule of the True and Rightful King of the World. This also equates with the symbols of Paradise or the Garden of Eden. Knowing what we know about how the "Gods" ruled as Kings over an international government in the Antediluvian age, and thereafter passed true kingship onto their human descendants, this Grail kingdom can be said to represent the Golden Age of their rule, prior to the Flood and the intermarriage of Gods with human females. The Grail itself, as the Stone of Heaven, represents the Divine foundation upon which this kingdom is founded, the stone from Lucifer's crown, which was given to man by rebellious angels, and which embodies (a) the principles of royal, solar and divine leadership, (b) the secret spiritual doctrine of equilibrium, or Hermetic alchemy, which was meant to be the exclusive property of the Gods and their royal human inheritors, and (C) the actual transmission of royal (and thus divine) genetic material in the form of a bloodline. In this aspect it can be seen as both the Grail cup (or vessel, womb) and as the Stone (or blood) which is contained in that cup. Incidentally, many representations of the Grail show a stone inside of a cup, which has evolved into the Sun or "Holy Host" descending into a cup, which is a popular Catholic icon. Thus, is it not possible to see the Hollow Earth as such a vessel for the Grail stone in the form of the Black Sun? In many traditions, the Stone that Fell From Heaven was originally a white stone, but became corrupted and turned black, in some versions, at the moment that Abel's blood hit the ground after being slain by his brother Cain. Such a story surrounds the Muslim Kaaba stone, for instance.

It is this corruption of the stone that is symbolized by the Dolorous Stroke that in the Grail legends wounds the Fisher King, usually in the crotch or thighs. At this point the king loses the ability to properly perform his regal function (which is symbolized by his loss of virility, i.e., ability to pass on his royal blood), and the entire kingdom falls into a deathless sleep which is known as the Wasteland. This is analogous to the expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the sinking of Atlantis, and which may represent an actual historical event, in addition to a symbolic principle. The king thereafter must continue to nurse his festering wound, which will not heal, and can never die until the Chosen Knight comes to liberate him by learning the secrets of the Grail and taking up the mantle of kingship himself. His kingdom exists in a similar state of perpetual malaise, until the coming of a chosen hero, who will liberate the dying king and resume the proper function of kingship, thus bringing stability and equilibrium to the land. Again, these are common themes in world mythology. Most notably analogous to the story of the Fisher King is that of Kronos (Saturn), who, writes Evola, "after having been the Lord of this earth, the King of the Golden Age, was dethroned and castrated (that is, deprived of the power to beget, to give life to new stock). He still lived on, though asleep, in a region located in the Far North, closer to the Arctic Sea, which was also called the Cronic Sea." Keeping this in mind, it is interesting to note that in many of the Grail romances, the Fisher King complains that his wounds become more painful when Kronos is dominant in the Heavens. It is also noteworthy that Saturn is called "The Hidden One," thus alluding perhaps to his seclusion inside of the Earth, and that many researchers have equated him with the prototype for Satan, given that he was horned, rebellious, and cast down into the Abyss (the Chronian Sea) to become Lord of the Underworld. Also note that, like Satan, he was also called "The Lord of the Earth," and that Saturn and Satan may be etymologically linked, as many have argued. Furthermore, Saturn is also called the "Lord of the Mountain," and so is Satan. And is that not what we're talking about when we speculate about a dead god being buried in Montsegur, or in the center of the Earth? Interestingly, the phrase "Rex Mundi" appeared in the parchments that were found at Rennes-le-Chateau, and the Cathars accused the Catholic Church of secretly worshipping Rex Mundi in the form of Jehovah, the Earth's creator, whom they regarded as an evil demi-urge. And of course, Jehovah, as "El Shaddai," was also the Lord of the Mountain. Moreover, as we have previously noted, the "Black Sun" stage of alchemy is attributed to the powers of Saturn, where his "element," sulfur, is mixed with the "element" of Hermes, mercury. Hermes, of course, was representative of the light-bearing aspects of Lucifer, whereas Saturn represented more of the "Dark Lord" aspects of what we would now call the Devil, as ruler over the Underworld and the Abyss. While figures such as Hermes, Saturn, Hercules, and the others we've discussed so far were undoubtedly separate people in history, and were at one time the Kings of Atlantis, because they all had similar titles, attributes and teachings, and ruled over the same global empire, they have gotten blurred together in the mythic consciousness of legend. Thus, the sleeping, half-dead gods who inhabit the subterranean tombs of Saturn, Satan, Hermes, Hercules, and even Christian Rosenkreutz (as an embodiment of Osiris, the solar God-King) could all mythically represent the same fallen kingdom, which, having lost the Grail and its mandate to rule, has occulted itself, gone underground, become invisible, or fallen asleep, until such time as the proper individual shall come along to liberate him/it. Then the sunken kingdom shall rise, the dreaming lord shall awake, the phoenix rise from the ashes, and the proper universal balance shall be restored. In the meantime, the secret royal doctrine is kept alive by the initiates/descendants of that Sleeping God (the same doctrine that is written upon the Grail in its form as the Emerald Tablet, or Gorral.) It is in this light that Evola examines the myth of Christian Rosenkreutz, writing that, "Having withdrawn into a cave which becomes his tomb, he wanted his tomb to be left alone until the right time came, namely, 120 years after his death. Since Rosenkreutz allegedly died in 1484, the discovery of the cave and of his tomb occurred in 1604; This is more ore less the time in which the Rosicrucian movement begins to be known and emerges in history, as if it literally sprang from beneath the ground."

In light of what has been examined in this article, we can now understand all of the many forms that the Grail has taken in various myths, and the various interpretations, none of which are really at odds with the others. Rather they all point to the same symbol of the primordial, perfect kingdom ruled over directly by the Gods during a Golden Age, which has since fallen into a state of deathless sleep, and which is waiting to be restored via a chosen avatar who is of the very bloodline of the primordial (antediluvian) kings themselves. The symbols of the Grail as a cup, as a bloodline, as a spiritual experience, a secret doctrine, and as a stone, even a tablet upon which secret characters are written and which may appear inside of a sacred vessel (such as the Ark of the Covenant), which itself becomes synonymous with the Grail - they all go together to form a complete whole. This may even give us an understanding of why the word "Ark" is used to describe both the vessel which carried Noah, and that in which Moses placed the Tablets of Testimony, which many believe to be the Emerald Tablet, not the 10 Commandments. Oddly, it is according to the same tradition that we hear the Emerald Tablet was given to Noah by Enoch prior to the Flood, and thus Noah's Ark may have carried the Tablet as well. Herein lies the significance which I am about to point out: the Ark, which carries with it the Grail (in the form of the Emerald Tablet) also contained the seed of preserved life.

One will recall that Moses, one of the rumored possessors of the tablet, also had his own life preserved by a floating vessel, namely the basket of bulrushes in which he was placed upon the Nile by his mother, wishing to save him from slaughter. This is based upon an older, similar story about the Babylonian King Sargon the Great, but it also brings to this author's recollection the story of Osiris, who, after being murdered by his brother Set (an older version of the Cain and Abel story) was chopped up and dumped in that very same Nile. Later, all of the parts were rediscovered by Isis, except for the penis, which was substituted (like the substitution of the Lost Word in Freemasonry), and she then used his dead body to conceive the child Horus. Now Evola sees in this post-mortem coitus a hidden reference to the repopulation of the Earth after the Flood. Does this explain why Kronos (another dead-but-not-really God who lost his penis in a fight) is referred to as the Forgotten Father? The Fisher King in the Grail story, who we now see clearly represents Kronos, was also castrated by his brother (the evil Klingsor), and also turns out to be the ancestor or "Forgotten Father" of many of the characters in the story, though most of them were not aware of it (having forgotten.) One should also look again at the Greek myth of Deucalion, who repopulated the post-diluvian world with stones called "The Bones of the Earth," and the fact that the Egyptians referred to loadstone as "The bone of Hareori," who was a son of Osiris. Is this not enough to indicate that the dead or sleeping lord that in so many legends lies beneath the Earth, under the seas, or inside a mountain was associated by our ancestors with the repopulation of the flood-drenched Earth - moreover that they saw him as their very ancestor, or at least, the ancestor of their royal and priestly castes? The Forgotten Father was also in many traditions buried with a magic stone (the stone that fell from Heaven, the Emerald Tablet, the loadstone that repopulated the Earth, etc.), which contained secret wisdom teachings, possessed strange electromagnetic properties, and was itself associated with the repopulation, as well as the vessel (the Grail or Ark) that carried it. Thus, all of these things: the stone/tablet, the ark/vessel, and the bloodline of the Forgotten Father all came eventually over time to be called the Grail, while in certain cultures, the myth of the dead but dreaming lord and his magnetic stone evolved into the Lord of the Earth and the Black Sun ruling over a subterranean kingdom. With this conclusion, it is easy to note that the word "Ark" is contained in "Arktos," the Great Bear constellation that marks the North Pole (as well, supposedly, as the entrance to the inner earth), and also in "Arcadia," the Greek term for paradise that pops up so frequently in the Grail researchers. And with this hypothesis, we can also understand why Rene d'Anjou and others chose to represent the secret doctrine of the Grail wisdom with an underground stream, as well as a tomb, and why Poussin chose to mark that tomb with the words "Et In Arcadia Ego." Thus we have found the real Tomb of God, and we need not pinpoint its specific location.

In conclusion, it is this author's finding that the various myths describing the Grail in multiple forms are all part of the same corpus, and that these various forms compliment rather than contradict one another. Moreover, the Grail legend is as old as history itself, and is integrally connected with the universal tale of a race of Gods who intermarried with mankind and passed their secret doctrine of hidden knowledge onto certain members of our race, but were thereafter imprisoned inside the Earth. An equally integral part of the myth is that these sleeping gods shall some day awake and their kingdom rise again, just as the rediscovery of the Grail shall bring an end to the Wasteland and restore rightful kingship, bringing with it a new Golden Age. Then again, their kingdom may already be here, and men do not see it, as Christ said in the Gospel of Thomas, being invisible to all but the elect. Thus it remains the responsibility of those who feel worthy to receive these secrets to reach out and grab them, for they remain the divine inheritance of all who are children of the Forgotten Father.

Tracy Twyman is the Editor of Dagobert's Revenge Magazine. She is currently writing a book, together with Boyd Rice, on the mysteries of the Holy Grail. They have traced the Grail legend, as well as the royal bloodline of Christ with which it is associated, back to the ancient kings of Atlantis, and a race of "gods" who created human civilization as we know it, perhaps even modern man himself.