(3.3) “Galahad and the Grail” – The White Hart

(3.3) “Galahad and the Grail” – The White Hart.

Book Three: “The Achievement of the Grail“ (by “book” is meant a large section in this installment of Guite’s Arthuriad).

Stave Three: “The White Hart” (a “stave” is an old-fashioned term for the stanza of a poem, a verse in a song, or a chapter in a long story.)

Why is Malcolm Guite retelling the King Arthur saga, no less in the form of English ballads? He has gone on record as saying… The KA mythical tales echo something real about sin, redemption, and the hope that was broken in us and in the world that can be made whole again… Every generation that asks good questions of King Arthur legends gets good answers… The modern world could use a resurrection of the ideal of chivalry and honor… Ancient myths and stories aren’t just relics of a pre-modern imagination, they are carriers of truth we’ve forgotten how to see with modern eyes… Legends like these don’t distract us from the real world, they reveal it… These stories restore the spiritual elements that have been shorn away, and they renew their deepest meaning. The English ballads were composed in a poetic form that were made to be sung or chanted out loud. They are rhythmic and musical, and one gets the sense that with ballads, “the poem on the page is lying asleep. And the job of the reader is to wake it up and breathe into its being by reciting it out loud, because that physicality of sound and breath and speech is what it’s made for… Above all, enjoy it. Poetry is meant to give pleasure.” It’s clear that composing this first installment of the King Arthur saga was a labor of love for Malcolm Guite, and that, as he put it, “This is the tale that makes my heart rejoice.”

The White Hart – Also known in literature as the White Stag, we find here another otherworldly creature that is rooted in the ancient Celtic folklore. The elusive White Hart had golden antlers, glowed like the purest silver, and was often accompanied by four golden lions who served as bodyguards of some sort. This legendary Hart served many purposes in numerous legendary myths… the entrance into an enchanted world of adventure; the call to a spiritual awakening; the knight’s firm nudge out of comfortable courtly life into a transformative quest; the signal for a knight to engage in a challenge to his chivalry, courage, and moral purity; a symbol of spiritual redemption and Divine guidance; an unerring inspiration and guide during an important quest; a messenger of the Holy Spirit that is able to speak into a knight’s deepest longing for a transcendent life. In some ancient tales, the White Stag even represents Christ Himself, the mystical presence of God who is impossible to fully grasp but a faithful guide along the way. The White Hart enjoyed another interesting spiritual symbol… that of being a snake-eater, a serpent killer who engages in spiritual warfare and able to render the demons powerless.

The Story Line. As the five chosen ones, the four knights and Dindrane, continue to sail on the Enchanted Ship, Dindrane encourages them with visions she has had, “glimpses of what lies ahead.” She concedes that they will all continue to be drawn toward the Grail, but that each of the five may have different journeys getting there, “for each of us is free – free to respond, as wind and sail, free to bear fruit, and free to fail.” Dindrane speaks a word of prophecy over each knight… Lancelot will face a difficult trial, “a dark passage through the night before the rising sun;” Percivale and Bors will both face strife, and a “battle for a maiden’s life, a silver dish, and a blood-red knife;” Galahad will draw very close to peril as well as grace as he approaches the Castle holding the Fisher-King. Dindrane then envisions her own life in which she will not arrive at the Grail Castle to finish the Quest. She assures them that this mysterious and wonderful Ship will indeed bring them safely to the Grail, but first they must navigate through the Wasteland.

The Adventure Continues. But before the trials of the Wasteland come their way, they were witness to the miraculous creature that is known as the White Hart. As Dindrane was speaking to the knights, the wind changed, driving them into a peaceful bay where they anchored for the night. After sleeping on deck until the morning sun rose, they began to walk onto shore “with mingled fear and awe” into a mysterious woodland. They all sensed they had reached a sort of Paradise, almost as if they arrived on the shore of the Garden of Eden itself. Dindrne perceived that they had stepped into a land that was “in and out of time,” a glimpse of God’s grace before their trials soon to come. These sacred places have since become known as “thin places.”

** Thin Places. The traditional thin place as the Irish understood it has been described in many ways:  where the veil between heaven and earth is so thin as to be porous, permeable, practically transparent; where the space between the divine and the human has narrowed; where the boundary between heaven and earth has collapsed; where the wall between heaven and earth have become indistinguishable; where the doors between heaven and earth have cracked open enough to walk through, if only temporarily; the place where eternity and time seem to join together. Those descriptions of thin places have recently been expanded to include… wherever God has chosen to reveal Himself and make Himself known with unusual intimacy; wherever the sacred interaction with God’s presence is more pronounced and accessible; wherever the Holy Spirit is released in a particularly powerful way; a physical space where one can more directly and intensely experience God’s presence. “The thin place is where the veil between this world and the next is so sheer that it is easy to step through.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way).

The Holy Chapel in the Thin Place. As the five Questers tentatively walked into the woodlands, they heard an enchanting voice that beckoned them onward into a clear glade in the forest. There they were stunned to see four golden lions gently strolling into the open space with them, and in the midst of the lions was the great White Hart, “the mystic creature, half-divine.” The fabled Stag had golden antlers with fire in it eyes as it moved peaceably into their presence and then past them. Following the White Stag was an ancient holy man with snow-white hair, a well-worn cloak, and was carrying an oaken staff. He introduced himself as a servant of the sacred White Hart that had a “holy silver sheen.” They followed the old hermit as they came to a chapel, into which the four lions and the White Stag entered soundlessly. The ancient monk then invited the knights and Dindrane to enter the chapel as well to celebrate the Holy Mass, and to hear what words from the Lord might be expressed within the chapel. On a beautiful altar inside the chapel was set the bread and wine, with each corner of the altar being guarded by one those sacred lions. The stag remained standing behind the altar, even whiter than the pure white altar cloth. As the holy man sang the Communion Song, the altar was transformed into a throne, and the four lions changed into the Ox, the Eagle, the Angel, and the Lion. And then, even more dramatically, the White Hart transfigured into the shining Christ on the royal throne! Immediately after this vision of Jesus, all the heavenly creatures disappeared, leaving behind light-filled chapel windows and songs of praise in the chapel air. As each of the five Questers meditated on what they had just witnessed, they realized that each of them were “wounded, fallen, yet most dear,” and “in the image of the Savior fair.”

** What is the Holy Mass? Some churches use the term “Mass” to refer to the entire liturgical worship service that includes the sacrament of the Eucharist, or Communion. The word Mass is the Latin term spoken at the service that means, “Go, you are sent forth.” The Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, is often called ‘Communion’ because:

1. The eucharistic communion is with Christ and all its participants;
2. By sharing in the Body of Christ, Christians are united to Jesus and one another;
3. The Eucharist makes the unity of the Church a reality;
4. Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all are partakers of the one bread;
5. Because there is one loaf, our many-ness became one-ness;
6. Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us…Rather, we become unified in Him;
7. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are, instead He raises us to what He is;
8. By partaking of one broken loaf, the emblem of our Savior’s broken body who is the only true bread that came down from heaven, we coalesce into one body, we become members of Christ and one another;
9. Those who eat the outward elements make a profession of having this communion, of belonging to God and to one another;
10. Communion signifies the participation and fellowship believers have with Christ and with each other through the shared experience of the meal;
11. Communion brings about a spiritual union as believers participate in the reality of Christ’s presence in the elements.

“The blessing-cup which we bless, is it not a communion of, a sharing in, the blood of Christ? Is not the cup of wine for which we thank God a joint-participation in the blood of Messiah? And the loaf of bread which we break, is it not a fellowship in the body of Christ? And though we are many, we all participate with each other by eating from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

** Made in God’s Image. Mankind was created in the image of Christ, and it still is true, no matter how damaged the image due to sin. The full renewal of all creation, including us, awaits the Lord’s returning at the Second Coming. In the meantime, the Jesus Christ has begun the lifelong process of renewal by appearing in the flesh, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead. Those who accept the Holy Spirit through the Father and the Son are in the process of being restored to the original image of Christ in us. As we follow the Lord Jesus, we are being changed, transformed into His very image, restoring what was lost through sin. “God destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of His Son.” (Romans 8:29). The Cross began the restoration through the forgiveness of sins. We are in the process of being continually renewed into the likeness of Christ, and we move from one degree of glory to the next through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The longer we follow Him, the closer we get to the full image of Jesus. At the Lord’s return, we will join all of creation in the final restoration of all things for all eternity. We will be fully restored into the likeness of Christ and will be just like Him. The Lord’s work of the final restoration will renew all of creation, returning to the state of the world before sin entered Paradise. (Acts 3:21; Colossians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 3:18 and 4:16; 1 John 3:2). “Christ is the image in which man was made, and toward which man is moving.” (Orthodox Study Bible notes).

The Four Creatures at the Altar: There has been an ongoing tradition in the Christian Church since the 2nd century that the four creatures from Ezekiel’s vision (1:10) each represented an author of a Gospel in scripture. It’s technically called the “Tetramorph,” and it has changed somewhat through the centuries. For many, the Four Evangelists were symbolized this way… Matthew by an angel (a winged man), because his gospel opens by explaining the humanity in Christ’s divinity through His genealogy; Mark by a winged lion, because his gospel opens with John the Baptist roaring like a heavenly lion; Luke by a winged ox, because he emphasized Christ’s sacrifice; and John by an eagle, because he quickly began his Gospel with a higher theology of Christ’s divinity that soared to the heavens. The four living creatures in John’s vision of the Apocalypse are much the same (Revelation 4:7).

Prophetic Words from the Holy Priest in the Chapel. The old monk then invited the Questers to reflect deeply on what they have just witnessed. Galahad soon spoke of this land being an island of God’s grace blessed “by Heaven’s fleeting kiss.” The old man then advised them that a bridge would soon bring them back to the other land, that other realm they know so well. He encouraged them with these words… “But Christ goes with you when you go, for you have touched His hem.” The holy man then explained that these four creatures around the altar represented the Gospels that must always be kept “as sentinels and signs… But most of all, in trial or fear, the chapel of your heart must bear, like mine, the true White Hart.” The ancient priest then blessed them and sent them away to continue their holy Quest, explaining that the Enchanted Ship will return when they need it. For now, he instructed them that there are deeds yet to be done on land. The old holy man led them to the mysterious bridge, bid them good-bye, and they each crossed over the bridge off the heavenly island, never to see the holy monk again.