Abrac
Ace of Cups
I ran across an unusual tidbit from Waite that opens up a whole new way of looking at this imagery. According to R. A. Gilbert it was first printed in “the monthly journal The Unknown World from August to December 1894 and in April, 1895.” It has been reprinted four times that I know of in slightly modified form.
1. “The Hermetic and Rosicrucian Mystery”; Occult Review—Vol. 8, No. 4, October 1908
2. The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal—1909
3. The Holy Grail, History Legend and Symbolism—1933
4. The Alchemical Papers of A. E. Waite—1939
The full quote is posted below this introduction. It’s a lot to digest and I’m not sure I understand it fully, but certain themes seem sure. Waite describes the process of spiritual alchemy using symbolism from the Grail. The cup represents the body. The streams of water may be the Elixir, or the spirit within “transmuted” by the Elixir; to me it seems like a representation of the awakening of the Divine within. The five streams could symbolize “quintessence.” The dove descending with the Host is from a strange episode in Wolfram’s Parsifal. Wolfram is unique in all the Grail legends in that the Grail isn’t a chalice but a stone. Waite doesn’t use a stone in his Ace but does use the dove imagery. This is Waite describing Wolram's account in Parsifal:
The transmutation taking place within the cup is symbolic of a spiritual process taking place within the body and mind. This is evidenced by the need for “re-charging.” Below is the main quote from The Hidden Church:
I find the description of the newly-transformed spirit as " . . .at once feeding and itself fed;" quite fascinating in light of the imagery on the Ace; it's being "fed" from above by the dove and "feeding" the waters below.
I’m not exactly sure how the “W” and M fit into this scenario. The “W” might stand for Water. It’s a veil that conceals the M as the water is a veil concealing the true spiritual essence. M could be for Mem. Since Mem corresponds to Water this seems logical on the surface of it, but knowing Waite it probably went at least a step further. The Hanged Man—symbol of the Divine within awaiting awakening—corresponds to Mem. The Hanged Man/Mem correspondence is one of the few Waite didn’t change in his Fellowship of the Rosy Cross; it’s also located in the same position on his revised Tree of Life—Hod-Geburah. I'm not sure "Melchisedech" can be ruled out either. For Waite, the Eucharist which is according to the order of Melchisedech is different from that of the outer Church, it’s an “exalted” or Arch-natural one. The difference between the two can be a little tricky; Waite says the Sacrament of the Latin Church communicates "Divine Humanity" as opposed to "Divine Nature, or Substance" communicated in the Secret, Arch-natural Sacrament.
I ran across an unusual tidbit from Waite that opens up a whole new way of looking at this imagery. According to R. A. Gilbert it was first printed in “the monthly journal The Unknown World from August to December 1894 and in April, 1895.” It has been reprinted four times that I know of in slightly modified form.
1. “The Hermetic and Rosicrucian Mystery”; Occult Review—Vol. 8, No. 4, October 1908
2. The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal—1909
3. The Holy Grail, History Legend and Symbolism—1933
4. The Alchemical Papers of A. E. Waite—1939
The full quote is posted below this introduction. It’s a lot to digest and I’m not sure I understand it fully, but certain themes seem sure. Waite describes the process of spiritual alchemy using symbolism from the Grail. The cup represents the body. The streams of water may be the Elixir, or the spirit within “transmuted” by the Elixir; to me it seems like a representation of the awakening of the Divine within. The five streams could symbolize “quintessence.” The dove descending with the Host is from a strange episode in Wolfram’s Parsifal. Wolfram is unique in all the Grail legends in that the Grail isn’t a chalice but a stone. Waite doesn’t use a stone in his Ace but does use the dove imagery. This is Waite describing Wolram's account in Parsifal:
“The Graal is not a chalice—and much less a chalice containing the Blood of Christ: it is a stone, but this is not described specifically when it is first beheld by Parsifal. It is carried on a green cushion and is laid on a jacinth table over against the Warden. It is called the crown of all earthly riches, but that is in respect of its feeding properties, of which I shall speak presently. It is not termed a stone, which is the current account regarding it, till the Knight hears its history from the lips of his uncle Trevrezent. The names which are then applied to it are Pure and Precious, Lapis exilis (literally, Lapis exilix, but this is a scribe’s mistake and is nonsense), and it is also that stone which causes the phoenix to renew her youth. No man can die for eight days after he has seen it, and—although this virtue is forgotten in the case of Titurel, who is described as an ancient of days—those who can look on it daily remain in the appearance of youth for ever. It is subject, apparently, to a periodical diminution of virtue, and it is re-charged like a talisman every Good Friday by the descent of a dove from heaven carrying a Sacred Host: she deposits it thereon, and so returns whence she came."—Hidden Church of the Holy Graal, "The Latin Literature of Alchemy."
The transmutation taking place within the cup is symbolic of a spiritual process taking place within the body and mind. This is evidenced by the need for “re-charging.” Below is the main quote from The Hidden Church:
“It is not my design in this place to exhaust the sources of interpretation, because such a scheme would be impossible in this sub-section, and I can allude therefore but scantily to the many forms of the parables which are concerned with the process up to this point. The ostensible object—which was material in the alternative school—was the confection of a certain Stone or Powder, which is that of projection, and the symbolical theorem is that this powder, when added to a base metal, performs the wonder of transmutation into pure silver or gold, better than those of the mines. The Stone transmutes what is base, but in its own elements it has undergone transmutation itself, from what is base to what is perfect. In another form it prolongs life and renews youth in the adept philosopher and lover of learning. In this case it is spoken of usually as an elixir, but the transmuting powder and the renewing draught are really one thing with the spiritual alchemists. As it is certain that under any light of interpretation the Stone of the Graal is not actually and literally a stone—nor found in the nest of the phoenix—it may be held to follow as a reasonable inference that the Cup or Chalice is not a cup actually or literally, much less a vessel which contains blood, sang réal or otherwise. In like manner, if there is one thing which appears than another more clearly in the books of the Philosophers, it is that the Stone of alchemy is not a stone at all, and that the Elixir of alchemy is not a brew or an essence which can be communicated in ewers or basins. The Stone, on one side of its symbolism, represents more especially the visible sign of the mystery, and it is spoken of as offering two phases—of which one is white and the other red.
It must be affirmed further that in virtue of a very high mysticism there is an unity in the trinity of the stone—or powder—the metal and the vase. The vase is also the alchemist, for none of the instruments, the materials, the fires, the producer and the thing produced are external to the one subject. At the same time the inward man is distinguished from the outward man; we may say that the one is the alchemist and the other the vessel; it is in this sense that the art is termed both physical and spiritual. But the symbolism is many times enfolded, and the gross matter which is placed within the vessel is the untransmuted life of reason, motive, concupiscence, self-interest and all that which constitutes the intelligent creature on the normal plane of manifestation. Hereof is the natural man enclosed in an animal body, as the metal is placed in the vessel, and from this point of view the alchemist is he who is sometimes termed arrogantly the super-man. But because there is only one vessel it must be understood that herein the Stone is confected and the base metal is converted. The alchemist is himself finally the Stone, and because many zealous aspirants to the Art have not understood this they have failed in the Great Work on the spiritual side.
The schedule which now follows may elucidate this hard subject somewhat more fully, if not indeed more plainly: There are (a) the natural, external man, whose equivalent is the one vessel; (b) the body of desire which answers to the gross matter; (c) the aspiration, the consciousness, the will of the supernatural life; (d) the process of the will working on the body of desire within the external vessel; (e) the psychic and transcendental conversion thus effected; (f) the re-action of the purified body of desire on the essential will, so that the one supports the other, the will is again exalted, and therefrom follows this further change—that the spirit of a man puts on a new quality of life, becoming an instrument which is at once feeding and itself fed; (g) herein is the symbol of the Stone and the Great Elixir; (h) the spirit is nourished from above by the analogies of Eucharistic ministry—that is to say, the Dove descends from Heaven carrying the arch-natural Host to renew the virtues of the Stone; (i) the spirit nourishes the soul, as by Bread and Wine—that is, the Bread is taken from the Graal; (k) the soul effects the higher conversion in the body of desire; (l) it comes about thus that the essence which dissolves everything is still contained in a vessel, or alternatively that God abides in man.”
It must be affirmed further that in virtue of a very high mysticism there is an unity in the trinity of the stone—or powder—the metal and the vase. The vase is also the alchemist, for none of the instruments, the materials, the fires, the producer and the thing produced are external to the one subject. At the same time the inward man is distinguished from the outward man; we may say that the one is the alchemist and the other the vessel; it is in this sense that the art is termed both physical and spiritual. But the symbolism is many times enfolded, and the gross matter which is placed within the vessel is the untransmuted life of reason, motive, concupiscence, self-interest and all that which constitutes the intelligent creature on the normal plane of manifestation. Hereof is the natural man enclosed in an animal body, as the metal is placed in the vessel, and from this point of view the alchemist is he who is sometimes termed arrogantly the super-man. But because there is only one vessel it must be understood that herein the Stone is confected and the base metal is converted. The alchemist is himself finally the Stone, and because many zealous aspirants to the Art have not understood this they have failed in the Great Work on the spiritual side.
The schedule which now follows may elucidate this hard subject somewhat more fully, if not indeed more plainly: There are (a) the natural, external man, whose equivalent is the one vessel; (b) the body of desire which answers to the gross matter; (c) the aspiration, the consciousness, the will of the supernatural life; (d) the process of the will working on the body of desire within the external vessel; (e) the psychic and transcendental conversion thus effected; (f) the re-action of the purified body of desire on the essential will, so that the one supports the other, the will is again exalted, and therefrom follows this further change—that the spirit of a man puts on a new quality of life, becoming an instrument which is at once feeding and itself fed; (g) herein is the symbol of the Stone and the Great Elixir; (h) the spirit is nourished from above by the analogies of Eucharistic ministry—that is to say, the Dove descends from Heaven carrying the arch-natural Host to renew the virtues of the Stone; (i) the spirit nourishes the soul, as by Bread and Wine—that is, the Bread is taken from the Graal; (k) the soul effects the higher conversion in the body of desire; (l) it comes about thus that the essence which dissolves everything is still contained in a vessel, or alternatively that God abides in man.”
I find the description of the newly-transformed spirit as " . . .at once feeding and itself fed;" quite fascinating in light of the imagery on the Ace; it's being "fed" from above by the dove and "feeding" the waters below.
I’m not exactly sure how the “W” and M fit into this scenario. The “W” might stand for Water. It’s a veil that conceals the M as the water is a veil concealing the true spiritual essence. M could be for Mem. Since Mem corresponds to Water this seems logical on the surface of it, but knowing Waite it probably went at least a step further. The Hanged Man—symbol of the Divine within awaiting awakening—corresponds to Mem. The Hanged Man/Mem correspondence is one of the few Waite didn’t change in his Fellowship of the Rosy Cross; it’s also located in the same position on his revised Tree of Life—Hod-Geburah. I'm not sure "Melchisedech" can be ruled out either. For Waite, the Eucharist which is according to the order of Melchisedech is different from that of the outer Church, it’s an “exalted” or Arch-natural one. The difference between the two can be a little tricky; Waite says the Sacrament of the Latin Church communicates "Divine Humanity" as opposed to "Divine Nature, or Substance" communicated in the Secret, Arch-natural Sacrament.