The Holy Grail
Spiritual Literary Pilgrimage to Scotland Part 4: The Christic Academy, Lap of the Great Mother, and Grail Queen Sovereignty
I am not a Christian. In any religious sense of the definition.
I rejected Christianity for much of my life. As a kid, I visited my best friend’s Lutheran Church. Mainly, so we could continue to hang out over the weekend. And, sometimes drive her mom crazy with our secret language during the sermon. I was most interested in eating the freshly baked bread as Christ’s body and drinking a tumbler of wine. This sustained me until lunch.
Sometimes, the pastor let me drink from the community cup. The church’s holy grail. I knew, as an eight-year-old, this cup was special and different from the tumblers of wine. These moments were too rare to sustain my insatiable desire for more sacred experiences.
The Sunday School experience was less than inviting. The stories didn’t help me understand: Why I was here on Earth, what I was supposed to be doing, and why I sometimes experienced otherworldly phenomena.
Instead, there was a lot of focus on those who wronged Jesus and his miracles. The miracles I appreciated. Those seemed plausible in a magical world. What I didn’t understand was how a person could be rampant with rage while driving to church, but then become instantly transformed into the kindest person once they stepped inside. I viewed this as an affront to my sensibilities about the world.
I was too shy to ask questions. Instead, I sat quietly and observed whether other hypocrisies reared their heads. Too many to count.
My soul was thirsting for the feeling of God. Sure I wanted answers, but what I needed more was the felt-sense knowing there was something greater than me, looking out for me. I needed love.
I wished I would have been given this teaching from Mary Magdalene’s Gospel where Jesus says, in answer to Peter’s question about sin:
“Matter has no sin. Sin has no real existence; it is you yourselves who create it when, as in the nature of adultery, you are unfaithful to your true nature and act within the habit of your corrupt nature. That is why the gift of the Christ Light was put into your heart, and why I came into your midst, to restore every soul to its Source.” (1)
The Holy Grail
The most ecstatic, felt-sense experience of the Christ Light I ever received was at the Christic Academy near Fortingall, Scotland.
The Christic Academy is the place, according to our guide Alison and her teacher, where souls receive initiation and information.
The Christic Academy is a field of well-placed boulders.
I suspect most people drive by on their way to Edinburgh and miss it.
We enjoyed lunch at a lovely restaurant situated next to the oldest yew tree in the world. Then, we walked along the paved road to the field.
I stood for a short while at the gate to feel into which crop of stones to visit. Toward the far end of the field was a group of three stones. I placed my third eye on the first stone. A surge of light and energy entered my body. I jerked and shivered.
With my mind’s eye, I saw the energetic structure of the Academy. First, I saw the link between the three mounds forming a tetrahedron. At the center of the mounds, the apex of the top triangle reached up into the heavens. The apex of the bottom triangle reached down into the Earth. A column of light was created by energy coming down through the apex above and energy coming up from the apex below.
A portal of Christic Light!
Next, circles formed counter-clockwise around the mounds and created a dome of protection. The dome was made of small interlinking circles creating a stronghold of light.
I shifted positions, and leaned my back against the farthest stone. One of our group members wailed a piercing, deep cry of pain. The pain related to all women everywhere who had ever experienced abuse. She also cried for the grief of the Great Mother. With her wail, a group of ravens flew by. I felt the release move from the stones up into the cosmos. Goldenbear felt the energy go down to be restored and revitalized in the Earth’s core.
At the portal, a small group of us danced the dance of the Great Mother. The dance I received on the Isle of Mull during my visionary nap. Together, we brought in the essence of sacred union and danced in jubilation. We giggled and laughed.
Five of us lay on the grass around the portal to be nourished by the Earth’s vibrations.
Then, myself, Goldenbear, and Sophianada stepped to the center portal. We formed a figure eight or lemniscate with our hands. We placed our third eyes together and hummed with the energy of the portal.
Ecstasy, unlike I’d ever experienced, filled my soul, spine, and body! We all felt this together.
All at once, we shouted and danced holding hands. We sang and made joyful sounds. My womb lit up and filled with absolute joy! Each of us danced to our own rhythm. We smiled and yipped!
We were bathed in the absolute ecstasy of the Christ energy mixed with the Great Mother Goddess energy.
The Christic and Goddess matrix of light and sound.
The holy grail.
I would never again doubt my connection to the knowing intelligence that is greater than me. For years to come, I would invite the love and light of the Christ essence to fill me. Especially, during times of struggle and challenge. The Christ essence is always there, in all of my cells.
The grail lives inside each and every one of us.
The grail exists as the innocence of heart, generosity of spirit, and openness of mind.
Allowing light and sound vibrations of the Christ to flow through all of the cells of the body.
The living embodiment of Christ on Earth.
In Marion Zimmer Bradley’s book, The Mists of Avalon, she presents the holy grail as being birthed by the Goddess and then brought into the Christian tradition as a vessel to hold wine as Christ’s blood. What I find intriguing is this combination of the Goddess essence with the Christ light. (2)
It is this combination that expressed itself at the Christic Academy!
Toward the end of Bradley’s book, she describes the light emanating from the grail as something no one can possess. Everyone must find the grail on their own.
The truth is: No one can be the grail for you.
The grail is ignited through your personal divinity, within.
The light strings of the Christ and the Great Mother already exist within your body’s cells.
Let’s sing, dance, and celebrate them into life once again!
Lap of the Great Mother
There is a place in Edinburgh called Arthur’s Seat. It’s a tourist destination with a heart-shaped lake below a hill that used to be a volcano. Most people climb the hill to Arthur’s Seat. Perhaps to experience the possible birthplace of Camelot and receive a bird’s eye view of Edinburgh.
For me, it was the Lap of the Great Mother, on the other side of Arthur’s Seat that drew me more. Many of us climbed up to Arthur’s seat which was a square boulder. After the group photo, I invited those interested in honoring sacred union to join me at the Lap of the Great Mother. I was joined by Ellowan and Goldenbear. We celebrated our experiences of sacred union by making offerings to the Earth.
Two crows held post at the spot where we were to have our sacred union ritual. A flat stone served as our make-shift altar. We each spoke our beloved’s names as we placed gems, feathers, and an onyx jar onto the altar.
We placed our foreheads to the stone and toned. We spoke about releasing the old ways of the masculine and feminine. To bring forth the sacred union of powerful embrace — power with rather than power over.
As we were nearing completion, two women passed through our circle. One had a dog similar to my mother’s springer spaniel. She spoke a kind hello. The other woman was mysterious. When Ellowan asked her name, she gave us a foreign-sounding name and said it meant, “No name.”
We concluded that the Goddess, the Great Mother, has no name.
I found a thorny bush, potentially a hawthorn bush — the same as the wine we made in my dream vision from the Great Mother. This bush, for me, represented the protection of all sacred sites. I dug a small hole with a rock under the bush and placed a little velvet purple bag of small rose quartz inside the hole. I received the gems as a gift from a friend years ago. These tiny crystals came all the way from Israel.
Our trek led us down the opposite side of the hill. We found an abandoned well made of stone. We placed our hands over it and spoke to the healing of Earth’s waters. Further down, we found an active well dripping behind an iron barricade: St. Margaret’s Well.
We surmised how hundreds of years ago, pilgrims followed a wellspring pathway and anointed themselves along the way to Arthur’s Seat.
We sang to the waters. We offered our saliva — which is a Native American practice. Goldenbear offered a shell. She received the words, “Most people offer me money, but you offer my love which shall be returned to you in great abundance.”
Walking The Royal Mile was filled with spontaneous priestess ceremonies. One of these was clearing out dark, skewed, and stuck energy from St. Gile’s Cathedral. I had to sit for a long while to find my center because I was spiraling out. A vortex was swirling around me upon first stepping into the atrium.
We stood in front of the largest stained glass window and toned from low to high to help clear the energy. The sun came into the window directly after we toned. The next day, two women from our group visited St Giles and said the energy felt great.
On The Royal Mile, I also found my cape.
On the Isle of Mull, Charlotte led a meditation where she invited us to envision wearing a cape signifying our connection with the Christ light, our true divinity, and our destinies. At that time, a cape didn’t reveal itself to me.
In a little shop with East Indian proprietors, I found my cape. The color of my cape is white. Reflecting all light.
Charlotte also invited us to ask for our true names representing our paths. The only thing I heard was: I am nothing.
After meeting the woman of “no name,” I sense that my path is the path of the Goddess, the Great Mother. This is why the Great Mother invited me into her temple early in the trip. Nothing is also the void. The essence from which all things are birthed and all things dissolve into a new form. I am walking the path of the Great Mother embodying the Christic Diamond Light.
What Does Being Sovereign Mean?
On the last day of our trip, Alison held a sacred ceremony in a beautiful room of the hotel in Edinburgh. We became Grail Queens. We received our Christic crowns in service and responsibility to the Christ Love and Light. (And for me, the essence of the Great Mother combined with the Christ Light.) One by one, we shared sacred messages and received majesty and love. We received gifts of carnelian. We each embodied our Christic Diamond Light.
Since then, I have considered what it means to be a Grail Queen. For most of my life, I struggled with the fact my name, Regina, means queen. A great uncle used to call me Queenie. As a kid, that made me feel special. But in truth, I didn’t know what it meant to be the queen of my life.
Until this day of the coronation, I generally had pushed the meaning of my name aside. Yet, the meaning often whispers to me.
A whisper of who I am as a transformational healer/guide/teacher with a keen sense of Knowing.
Sovereignty is becoming a trendy word these days in spiritual circles.
What does it mean to be sovereign?
If you are like me and have experienced any form of victim consciousness ruling your life, then being sovereign seems like leaping across the Grand Canyon.
The more I access my center and feel it in my body as life force, the more I am sovereign.
The more I have agency, by making choices from my Knowing, the more I am sovereign.
The more I am present in the moment with emotions stirring, the more I am sovereign.
The more I am connected to the Christic love and light while also being rooted with the Great Mother, the more I am sovereign.
By establishing the root of being and accessing my inner knowing, I experience the joy of creative prosperity.
Being a Grail Queen means I embody the Christic Diamond Heart. I walk my path with heart, to the best of my ability. I walk with integrity, honesty, and compassion. I guide others to find the inner holy grail of their true nature, so they too can walk a mystical, magical life on Earth.
An important closure about friendship: Two women, in addition to the ones mentioned in this article and the previous pilgrimage parts, were also pivotal to helping me stay grounded, feel protected, and share laughs.
Penny Ann and Mary E. were kind in their support during the trip. Their presences helped me to ground after mystical experiences. I felt protected around them too. During bus rides, we were able to be silent in contemplation while also gracious with laughter. I appreciated their generousity of kindness and sharing their spirits. We shared a delightful meal together on the night before the coronation.
I continue to hold a special place in my heart for the friends I made during the trip. May we come together again to renew our connection.
References:
(1) Nahmad, Claire, and Bailey, Margaret. The Secret Teachings of Mary Magdalene. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 2006, page #196.
(2) Zimmer Bradley, Marion. The Mists of Avalon. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982.
If you missed Parts 1, 2, or 3; Here they are:
