The Festival of Whitsuntide is of great importance in the Christian calendar. Its origins lie in the Jewish Harvest Festival (Schawuot), but Whitsuntide in the Christian sense has for many centuries been celebrated as part of the Easter Festival.

In the Middle Ages three days were set aside for it. Today, the days of Whitsuntide – 40 days after Easter – close the circle of Easter festivities. But what really is celebrated at Whitsuntide – quite apart from the different ceremonies and customs which originate from that time? What happened at Whitsuntide?

The answer to this lies in Luke’s Gospel in the New Testament. In Acts 2 a gathering of Jesus’ Disciples in Jerusalem is described: ‘And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to …, And it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues….’

The chapter goes on to describe how the Disciples, filled with the ‘fiery power of the Holy Ghost’, spoke of the ‘wonderful works of God’ in rousing utterances that were innately understood by people of different nationalities and languages. These words of the Disciples inspired many, even as they found the whole experience incredulous. Others initially suspected drunkenness. (Acts 2,13)

Without doubt, an event of great spiritual significance took place on that day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. The description of a descent of fiery or flaming tongues upon the Disciples – a picture also depicted in different forms by many artists - is certainly more than just a symbolic occurrence: The flame or spark above their heads represents a special light, and at the same time an exceptional connection to the Light or an enhanced ability of recognition. It is with justification that the Gospel describes the Disciples as having become ‘filled with the Holy Ghost’.

This event would also engender in the Catholic Church the ‘Sacrament of Confirmation’ (the Evangelical Church rejected confirmation as not instituted by Christ), which should bestow upon the candidate the ‘fullness of spirit as evidence of faith’ and thereby further emblazon the prior ‘Sacrament of Baptism’.

However, the Christian Churches mostly go a step further in their interpretation of the events in Jerusalem. Considering that Jesus had hinted to His Disciples in advance of the great Pentecostal experience (Acts 1,8: ‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…’), the descent of the ‘fiery tongues of the Holy Ghost’ upon the Disciples is also linked with another prophecy of Jesus. Towards the end of His mission He spoke many times of the coming of a ‘Comforter’ (John 16,7), whom He would send after His return home, and added the significant, well-known sentences: ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth!’ (John 16, 12-13)

The conclusion has been drawn that this prophecy of Jesus was also fulfilled in the Pentecostal experience of the Disciples with the coming of the ‘Spirit of Truth’, meaning the ‘Holy Spirit’. If this were true, then the Festival of Whitsuntide would today really be no more than a reminder of an outstanding and unique event, which was of importance only for the Apostles of Jesus and for their time.

Emerging Doubts

This widespread interpretation has justifiably given rise to doubts, inasmuch as the time sequence of events will not fit exactly together. We know for one thing, that the Festival of Pentecost in its present form and popular interpretation of events became Christian custom only a considerable time after Jesus’ earthly death. Above all there are numerous hints that the words of Jesus about the ‘Spirit of Truth’ mentioned by St. John cannot have alluded to the recent Pentecostal experience of the Disciples. This is made very clear in the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: ‘For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away!’ (1Cor. 13,9-10)

These words of Paul, from the Apostle’s glowing tribute to the great power of love, are not only evidently reminiscent of the statement of Jesus that the Disciples could not yet ‘bear’ (that is, grasp) all truth, but, what is more, make it clear that the Disciples themselves did not regard their Pentecostal experience as the coming of the ‘Spirit of Truth’. The letter to the Corinthians was written by Paul 20 years after the far-reaching event of Jerusalem, and especially the eloquent, self-assured Paul would not have spoken of ‘knowing in part’ if he and the other Apostles already felt that they had ‘been lead into all the truth’.

Furthermore, Jesus in proclaiming the Pentecostal experience (Acts 1, clearly spoke of the Power of the Holy Ghost that was to come over the Disciples, but not about becoming all-knowing. To consider this just a little: To be filled with heightened power may lead to a thirst for action and may smooth the path for many a high inspiration, it may also open fresh gates to perception, but a state of ‘standing in the power’ can in no way replace the process of learning and experiencing that leads to true knowledge. If this was the case, Jesus would not have needed to come to earth at all in order to teach mankind. One powerful ray from the ‘Holy Spirit’ would be sufficient to make everyone knowing with lightning speed and thus transform them into a God-willed state. Except that….all the Laws of Creation speak against this possibility!

The indications are that two different pronouncements of the Son of God are at issue here: One speaks of the power of the Holy Ghost, that is, the special Pentecostal experience which was about to happen, and at another time Jesus spoke of the coming of the ‘Spirit of Truth’. The latter was to coincide with a heightened enlightenment, a recognition of the Truth, which the Disciples (and likely all humanity at the time) were still unable to grasp because of their state of development. The road to true knowledge can, however, only be prepared in the course of the presence on earth of a ‘world-teacher’, and suggests that the proclamation by Jesus of the ‘Spirit of Truth who will guide into all Truth’ should be linked with the Son of Man, who was proclaimed more than once – already in the Old Testament - for the ‘time of the Judgment’. Jesus spoke in this connection of the ‘Spirit of Truth’: “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.’ (John 16,

In brief, let us proceed from the basis that this second pronouncement of Jesus did not concern the imminent Pentecostal experience of his Disciples, but was meant for quite another event, lying in the more distant future. This, of course, does not detract from the religious commemoration of the great Pentecostal experience at Jerusalem. However, it brings an important shift of perspective: The conception is prevalent in Christian churches that only what the Apostles were able to receive from Christ Himself or through the fiery tongues of the ‘Holy Ghost’ can be accorded true Divine Revelation. This assumption is in the end also the basis of the special status accorded the Whitsuntide Festival. At issue thereby is not enlightenment or revelation but rather a special stream of power: What really did the Disciples experience on that day in Jerusalem? What kind of secret is concealed behind the Whitsuntide Festival?



The Quest for the Grail

The answer to the question is to be found in the importance of

the ‘Holy Grail’ for Creation. But – and this is where we close in on a century-old question – what really is the Grail? In manifold investigations about the Grail that have lasted generations, references have been made time and again to the mission of Jesus: the ‘Grail’ as the Chalice at the Last Supper and in which the blood of the Son of God had been caught at the crucifixion. ‘Grail seekers’ surmise that this goblet through its special reference to the life of Jesus must possess supernatural power, with properties of dispensing blessing and healing the world. An inestimable number of works of music and literature bear witness to such thoughts, and ‘Grail mysticism’ carries with it an unprecedented fascination.

However, there is no historically verifiable reference that the entire ‘Grail tradition’ originated in the life of Jesus. A poetical origin of the Grail legends is much more likely, such as the group of legends about King Arthur (AD 500 approx.), where the search for a ‘vessel of immortality’ may well have been the example for the later ‘Grail quest’. But what matters here are not historical researches alone. For although there are no verifiable references to connect the concept of the ‘Holy Grail’ and Christianity (such reference is not clear even with the medieval Cathars), while attempts have continued for centuries with the greatest enthusiasm to establish such a connection: Does it not suggest that connections are variously perceived which exist in the spiritual sense, but which are simply difficult to grasp in the earthly sense? Let us for once disregard all attempts to find or are meant to have found the ‘Grail’ in any material goblets, vessels, stones etc., and focus our examination of the Pentecostal experience of the Disciples of Jesus on the question of the spiritual importance of the Holy Grail.

In this regard let us try first of all to understand that great experience, and envisage: Still very inwardly perturbed by the unexpected early return home of their master, strengthened and filled with confidence by the appearance of Jesus after his death on the cross and with the great task in their hearts to go out into all lands and proclaim the glad tidings, the Disciples were at Whitsuntide in a special way open to spiritual happenings. The power of the “Holy Ghost” which came upon them and kindled a blazing enthusiasm within them, found in the souls of Jesus’ faithful the best prepared soil and spurred them on to step out and speak about the Omnipotence of God – in such a way that appealed to all, even those in whose hearts the Word of Christ had not yet entered….

In summary, this is one way to describe the central event of Pentecost in today’s parlance. It does not follow from the narrative handed down in the Bible that the special power was only at the disposal of the Disciples – and just as little that it was presented to them through a special and unique (as would suggest an arbitrary) event! This thought leads us to a decisive question: Was the Pentecostal experience – as it is often interpreted – really a ‘miracle’? Did the Creator intervene in a special way in world events to make possible an outstanding experience for some few human beings? Or is there another, more credible explanation for the events in Jerusalem?

Arbitrariness or Lawfulness?

This question is decisive for the reason that it touches upon the very foundations of our image of God. Do we want to believe in a God who meddles in our fate, to whom through his Omnipotence everything is possible and who can arbitrarily also annul the natural laws? Many believers today are willing to envisage their Creator in this manner. One only needs to consider the way of praying. Yet it is a certainty that a Creator who needs to intervene in His perfect Works by acts of miracles could be called neither great nor perfect. Let us therefore decide on an infinitely more sublime image of God, which becomes recognisable from the working of the Laws of Creation!

If one proceeds from the fact that immutable laws rule Creation – science and religion are quite at one on this point at least – and in a logical train of thought arrives at recognition of the Creator as the originator of these laws, and therefore regards the concepts ‘Will of God’ and ‘Natural Law’ as one and the same, then there simply cannot exist any divine arbitrary acts, separate interventions, annulment of the laws or anything similar. Because how could God will anything against His….Will? Against this background we must proceed from the point after all that the outpouring of power at Whitsuntide was also a lawful event. But what was its significance? A glance into the content of the most important Grail sagas can help us further here: A central event is the regularly carried out unveiling of the Grail, coinciding with an outpouring of power or life-giving ‘nourishment’.

Does this picture show the sought after connection? Might it be possible that in the poetry and legends an event is portrayed which actually takes place in more elevated spiritual planes? It actually is part of the nature of poetic inspiration that something non-earthly is received and is condensed into a work, so that the particular road to truth and recognition, which leads via the arts, is regarded as basically important. Would it be conceivable then that the Disciples of Jesus through their special spiritual situation could more deeply participate in a spiritual event which concerned the entire world? Was it a power-giving ‘unveiling of the Grail’ which they co-experienced? In Richard Wagner’s operatic work ‘Lohengrin’ the Grail is depicted as ‘heavenly chalice’, and in the famous ‘Grail narrative’, the unveiling of the Grail is pictured as a great, annual event that is accompanied by the appearance of the Dove – being the visible form of the ‘Holy Ghost’. The Christian Festival of Whitsuntide stands likewise – as is made clear by many pictorial portrayals of the event – in the closest connection with the ‘Holy Dove’. Does it allow for the thought that this outpouring of power known as the Pentecostal experience was a regularly recurring event, or rather is? But what role does the ‘Holy Grail’ play in Creation altogether? In which connection does it stand with the ‘Holy Ghost’?



"Unveiling" of the Grail

Any real enlightenment about spiritual events and answers to

questions of that sort cannot be reached by scientific routes, and one does well, to give preference in these areas to the revelation as a source of knowledge. Consistency and logic within the thought processes, can and should be retained absolutely for evaluating the validity of a revelation.

A comprehensive illustration of the Holy Grail was given for the first time in the “Grail Message” by Abd-ru-shin and thereby light was also shed on references between the sagas and legends and Christianity. In this work it is stated: “The existing interpretations are not without great ethical value, but they cannot claim to be an explanation of the legends, much less to approach the truth about the Holy Grail. Nor is the Holy Grail meant to be the cup which the Son of God used during His last meal with His Disciples at the end of His Ministry on earth, and in which His blood was afterwards caught when He was on the cross! This vessel is a sacred memento of the Son of God’s sublime work of redemption, but it is not the Holy Grail of which the poets of the legends were mercifully granted to sing praises. These legends have been misinterpreted by mankind!”

In what follows, Abd-ru-shin describes the “Castle of the Grail” which contains the Holy Grail as the “only point of connection of Creation with the Creator”. The Holy Grail is “the point from which Divine Power issues” and “symbol of His Purest Divine Love”. And it is further stated: “From time to time on the Day of the Holy Dove, the Dove appears above the Chalice as a renewed token of the unalterable Divine Love of the Father. It is the hour of communion which brings about the renewal of power. The Guardians of the Grail receive it in humble devotion and can then transmit this magic power.

On this depends the existence of the whole Creation!

It is the moment in which the Love of the Creator radiantly flows forth in the Temple of the Holy Grail, bringing new life and a new urge to create, pulsating downwards and diffusing itself through all the Universe. A trembling and a holy awe, with forebodings of joy and great happiness, vibrate through all the spheres. Only the spirit of earthman still stands aside, without intuitively sensing what is happening particularly to him at that moment; or in what a dull-witted manner he accepts such an immeasurable gift, because the limitations he imposed upon himself through his intellect o longer permit him to grasp such greatness!

It is the moment when a new supply of vital energy is sent out into the entire Creation!

It is the necessary, ever-recurring ratification of the Covenant between the Creator and His Work! Should this supply ever be cut off, should it ever fail to come, inevitably all that exists would slowly dry up, grow old and disintegrate. The end of all days would then come, and only God Himself would remain, as it was in the very beginning, because He alone is Life.

This process is related in the legend. How everything must grow old and decay if the Day of the Holy Dove, the “uncovering” of the Grail, does not recur is even hinted at in the description of the growing old of the Knights of the Grail, during the time in which Amfortas no longer uncovers the Grail till the hour in which Parsifal appears as King of the Grail.

Man should cease to regard the Holy Grail as only something intangible, for It really exists! The human spirit, however, owing to its nature, can never behold It. But the blessing radiating forth from It, which can be and is being passed on by the Guardians of the Grail, can be absorbed and enjoyed by those human spirits who open themselves to it.”



Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The interrelation of this happening with the so-called

“Outpouring of the Holy Spirit” at Whitsuntide, is likewise elucidated in the “Grail Message”. With a view upon the (regularly repeating itself) renewal of power for the Creation, it is stated in it:

"It is the moment, in which new Divine Power streams into the Holy Grail for the maintenance of Creation!

For some moments the “Holy Dove” appears above the Grail. This is the spiritually visible form of the presence of the Holy Spirit, which directly belongs to the “form” of the Holy Spirit, and is therefore a part of this “form”.

Just as the Cross is the spiritually visible form of Divine Truth, so is the “Dove” the visible form of the Holy Spirit. This actually is the form, not merely an imaginary conception! This renewal of power by the Holy Spirit, the Living Will of God which is this Power, recurs every year at a certain definite time (….)

This renewal may also be called the outpouring of power, thus the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit or, still more explicitly, the outpouring of power by the Holy Spirit, for it is not the Holy Spirit that is poured out, but the Holy Spirit pours out the power!

Now the Disciples were assembled on this day in commemoration of heir ascended Lord Who had promised to send the Spirit, that is, the Living Power. The fact of their commemorating provided an anchorage for this, an anchorage for the event which took place at this time in the Primordial Sphere, enabling the Living Power to descend to a certain and corresponding degree directly upon the disciples on earth, who had assembled in devotion and accordingly adjusted themselves to it. All the more so as the way to these disciples had been opened up and smoothed by the life of the Son of God on earth!

And for this reason the miraculous happened, which could not otherwise have been possible on earth, and the experiencing of which is related in the Bible. The evangelists were able to describe their own experiences but not the actual happening, which they themselves did not understand.

The festival of Whitsuntide has been instituted by Christians in memory of this occurrence, without their ever suspecting that at this approximate time each year the Day of the Holy Dove occurs in the Grail Castle, that is, the day of the renewal of power for the Creation by the Holy Spirit. Naturally this does not always correspond exactly with the Whitsuntide holiday as figured out on earth, but at its approximate time.”

With these explanations, the mystery of the Festival of Whitsuntide has lost all its inexplicability, and there is no reason here either, to suspect any arbitrary act by God. But even more: From the description of the Holy Grail, a basic structure of Creation becomes visible, which one can – after the principle of “as above, so below” – consistently find again in every natural happening: Because just as the entire Creation is dependent upon God and at its “highest point” is connected through the Grail Castle with the Divine sphere, so is also within Creation every “lower”, therefore denser, material plane dependent upon the one lying above, of finer material. Deeds for instance can only be done, if thoughts have preceded them. Moreover, we can find everywhere a clearly defined point where the lower, denser plane is closest to the upper, finer one: It is the brain, which forms the fine-material thoughts to gross-material deeds, it is the heart, which combines the physical blood circulation with lung circulation, it is – to name an example from technology – the transformer, which translates a higher tension into a lower one.

Even in areas where man might believe not to have to listen for his own actions to the working of nature, like in the area of social interaction, the basic principle of power transfer does show itself here and there. In the hierarchical structure of an organisation for instance, the lower decision-making level is dependent on the higher one, when one is concerned with solving problems. The leader standing at the top of his reporting-level has at certain, regular times to make contact, at conferences perhaps, with the next higher level, from where he regularly receives his orders, directives and authorisations; receives in a figurative sense thereby “power”, which serves the further working in his own arena.

All these parable-like illustrations make clearer the Creation- principle of the hierarchical transfer of power, which has its point of origin in the Holy Grail.

In future the festival of Whitsuntide might perhaps not just remind us of a special event in Jerusalem (where the assembly of disciples coincided exactly with the “Day of the Holy Dove”), but also of the all-maintaining power of the Creator, upon which we are totally dependent during every second of our existence. In the realisation, that the Creator presents us ever anew with His all-encompassing power, Pentecost, the “Festival of the Holy Dove”, should really count as the highest and holiest of festive days.

culled from grail-uk.net