Lancelot first experiences the Holy Grail as Galahad is presented to King Arthur. "In a ray of light appeared the Grail, hovering. It was veiled, but every knight, damsel, king, and queen in the room felt its wonder."
After King Arthur's death, Guinevere sends Lancelot away to become a hermit-monk. According to Sir Thomas Mallory, in Lancelot's final years he exhibited phenomenon that is often ascribed to saints and ancient yogis. From Mallory's report, I inferred that during his solitude Lancelot must have found the Holy Grail and attained states of higher consciousness. However, Lancelot has been abandoned by his once-adoring public who blame his affair with Guinevere for the fall of Camelot.
Lancelot's dilemma became the genesis for Lancelot's Grail. When a man who is scorned and rejected attains enlightenment, what is his obligation to reveal his knowledge, and with whom can he share it? The appearance of a brother and sister at his hermitage gives him the opportunity to pass-on what he has discovered without having to reenter public life. So Lancelot undertakes training them how to penetrate the veil that obscurs the portal to Self-Realization.
The challenge in writing Lancelot's Grail was terms such as karma, energy, and Shakti, familiar to today's reader, would not be known, and could not be used by characters living in Britain in 550 AD. After the book was published, I wanted to further explore how enlightenment is understood and pursued by other cultures. My solution was for my protagonist to journey to a land where Oriental holy men use and can explain such words. Thus was born Lancelot's Disciple. Although, the book is fiction, the terminology, meditation practices, and techniques in Lancelot's Disciple are authentic.
Lancelot’s Grail is a novel about two siblings’ journey to enlightenment after they discover Sir Lancelot living as a hermit and uncover his knowledge of the Holy Grail.
Alura and Frith, abandoned at an abbey as children, have grown up in social isolation and are desperate for a new life.
Sir Bedivere, desolate over the knights’ abandonment of the Round Table after the fall of Camelot, has come up with a plan.
Sir Lancelot, abandoned by his once-adoring public, has found enlightenment while living as a hermit.
Their lives converge when Frith leads Sir Bedivere to Lancelot’s hermitage. There, they learn that Lancelot has found the Holy Grail – within himself. Bedivere tries, without success, to persuade Lancelot to come help him rebuild the Knights of The Round Table. After Bedivere departs, Frith begs Lancelot to teach him, hoping to become a knight. Soon Alura joins them, hoping to snare herself a husband.
Lancelot, torn between a desire to be left alone and an obligation to pass his knowledge on, agrees to teach them, but soon realizes that everyone simply wants to use him. Yet, seeing the spark of awareness growing in Alura and Frith, he persists and leads them on a quest to penetrate the barriers in themselves that keep them from attaining the Grail.
Then Alura falls in love with Lancelot and incites an angry mob. Bedivere urges Lancelot to flee, but Lancelot stays, struggling to finish his work with Alura and Frith in the little time he has left.
Under Lancelot’s tutelage Alura and Frith come of age, but the ideas presented in Lancelot’s Grail invite the reader to reconsider what coming of age really means.
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Read examples of Lancelot’s teachings from chapters 26 & 28
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Frith and Alura are brother and sister who discovered Sir Lancelot living as a hermit in Lancelot's Grail. Together they uncovered his knowledge of the Holy Grail, and trained as his disciples. Now their story continues in this compelling sequel.
When Lancelot's spiritual mantel consecrates Alura, Frith is left wondering why the same didn't happen to him. As she becomes established in her seat of Self, Frith resigns himself to remain at the abbey and watch over his sister.
Then, Jacob, a Jewish merchant sent by their father, comes to take Frith on a journey along the ancient Silk Road. A reluctant Frith leaves the Christian abbey he has always called home to sail with Jacob to the Mediterranean city of Tyre.
With four knights for protection, the men caravan to Samarkand, the Central Asian capitol of the silk trade. There they meet the Sultan, a wealthy collector of Oriental holy men.
Frith is invited to study at the Sultan's newly formed mystery school, where he is tutored by a Taoist, a Buddhist, and a Hindu Swami. Overwhelmed by metaphysical experiences he receives from them, Frith becomes nearly catatonic during the journey home, causing Jacob to consider revealing hidden Jewish mysticism to set Frith right.
Once back in Britain, Frith must sort out his confusion, attain the Holy Grail, and reconnect with his saintly sister waiting at the abbey.
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