Redemption: The quest for the Holy Grail is sometimes seen as a path to redemption for characters who have committed sins or transgressions. Finding or interacting with the Grail is believed to bring about spiritual healing and forgiveness.
The Chalice of Atonement from ACIM = The Holy Grail?
The Holy Chalice
“And He took a cup and when He had given thanks He gave it to them saying "Drink this, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." - The Gospel of Matthew (26:27-29)
"Let this cup be taken from me".
Excerpts from Kenneth Wapnick’s bio of Helen
A completely different set of images involved pictures of a chalice, sometimes gold and sometimes silver, but always with a bright light shining on it. At first these images frightened me because I associated them with sacrifice and loss, but I was silently but completely assured that they were really symbols of great joy. I did not actually experience much emotion related to them, however, but at least I ceased to be afraid of them. In A Course in Miracles, the chalice is used as a symbol of the Atonement, the Course’s term for the Holy Spirit’s correction of the belief in the sin of separation. The term (and therefore its symbol of a chalice) is deliberately set against the traditional view of atonement, which is that God demands suffering and sacrifice as payment back for our sin against Him. The chalice at the Last Supper, and Jesus’ supposed prayer during the “agony” in the Garden of Gethsemane—that his Father “remove this cup” (of his sacrificial death on the cross) from him (Luke 22:42)—thus have for two thousand years represented for Christians God’s plan of suffering and sacrifice. This was the meaning of Helen’s fear. Helen’s interest in the chalice surfaced again during the summer of 1973, as will be discussed in Part III.
You have perceived it (Atonement) largely as external thus far, and that is why your experience of it has been minimal. You have been shown the Chalice many times, but have not accepted it for yourself. Your major improper use of defenses is now largely limited to externalization. Do not fail to appreciate your own remarkable progress in this respect. You perceived it first as a vessel of some sort whose purpose was uncertain. You did notice, however, that the inside was gold, while the outside, though shiny, was silver. This was a recognition of the fact that the inner part is more precious than the outer side, even though both are resplendent, though with different value. The reader may recall Helen’s mention of the chalice in a letter to Bill regarding S, Bill’s friend whom she experienced so much difficulty in forgiving. The chalice of Atonement remained for her an important personal symbol of forgiveness. In A Course in Miracles, “the chalice,” though used only once in the published edition, is yet another example of Jesus’ aforementioned correction of the traditional Christian association of Atonement (and thus the chalice or cup from which Jesus drank) with suffering and sacrifice. Its single occurrence in the published Course comes in an important passage written shortly before Easter, and thus its message of forgiveness is couched in the Easter symbolism: Beside you i.e., Helen and Bill is one who offers you the chalice of Atonement, for the Holy Spirit is in him. Would you hold his sins against him, or accept his gift to you? Is this giver of salvation your friend or enemy? Choose which he is, remembering that you will receive of him according to your choice (T-19.IV-D.13:l-4).
Early in my conversations with Helen and Bill I mentioned this cave in passing. Immediately Helen “tuned in,” and began to describe in remarkably accurate detail the physical characteristics of the cave. She also, before I had a chance to say anything, stated that she felt there was something of great value in that left-hand corner. This topic grew to become almost an obsession, especially as Helen felt that the “something” could very well have been the chalice of the Last Supper. Although Bill was a little more hesitant, especially at first, he too got caught up in this “speleological mischagass” (as we grew to think of this episode later; incidentally, “speleology” refers to the exploration or study of caves, while “mischagass” is a Yiddish word that means exactly what it sounds like). He thought perhaps there was an important scroll to be found there, buried in a cylinder. I later learned that it was believed by some historians that this general area (Lower Galilee) was a hiding place for the new Christians who were fleeing the authorities and seeking secret places in which to meet after Jesus’ death. It was conceivable therefore, we thought, that some of the followers of Jesus may have come to this very cave.
On another level, I think Bill’s feelings about a scroll buried in a cylinder were displaced from the Qumran cave to the one on Mt. Netofa. Helen’s thoughts about a chalice—such a holy symbol in Christianity, the Arthurian legends, as well as in A Course in Miracles, where as we have seen, it is identified with the Atonement—were likewise displaced from her experience at Qumran, “the holiest place on earth.” As for me, I still feel there is something of value in the cave, but perhaps it was only of personal meaning, a meaning which was more than fulfilled by my experience in finding the ring. Of the chalice, scroll, or whatever is or is not buried there, we shall never know. The interior to the cave is sealed, and so, it seems, it should be. Let the dead bury the dead, as it were: the past—the form—is over; the content of love remains. All in all, therefore, the experience was an exercise of faith, having trust with no concern for the outcome. And if nothing else, the cave episode had bonded Helen, Bill, and me ever more closely.
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Excerpts from the Course
In the Urtext version of T-2:III, “The Altar to God,” Jesus talks to Helen about the “chalice of the Atonement.” First, he says that, “The Atonement can only be accepted within you…. You have experienced it largely as EXTERNAL thus far, and that is why your EXPERIENCE of it has been minimal. You have been SHOWN the chalice many times, but have not accepted it “for your self”.” …. “For perfect effectiveness, the chalice of the Atonement belongs at the center of the inner altar, where it undoes the Separation, and restores the wholeness of the Spirit.”
The chalice that Jesus is holding out is not a physical cup from which I drink in order to take him into myself. It’s a spiritual cup from which I drink in order to take into myself the Atonement, his perfect and final lesson: “the final lesson in which unity is restored” (M-14.3:10); “the final lesson he God’s Son need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation. (T-13.In.4:6). The chalice doesn’t belong on an altar in a church building, but on the altar of my mind. It’s all that belongs there, “where it undoes separation and restores the wholeness of the mind” (T-2.III.2:1).
“For perfect effectiveness, the chalice of the Atonement belongs at the center of the inner altar, where it undoes the separation and restores the wholeness of the mind. Before the separation, the mind was invulnerable to fear, because fear did not exist. Both the separation and the fear were miscreations of the mind, which have to be undone. This is what the Bible means by the restoration of the temple. It does not mean the restoration of the building, but it does mean the opening of the altar to receive the Atonement. This heals the separation, and places within you the one defense against all errors which can make you perfectly invulnerable.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.VI.6:1-6)
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I went to my dictionary to see what it had to say about the Holy Grail, and found that it is considered the “symbol of religious perfection, visible only to the spiritually and morally worthy.” My Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols offered this: Called a chalice… it is taken to be the cup of the Last Supper and the cup in which Joseph of Arimathea caught the blood of Christ on the cross…. the cup of salvation…. In Christianity the Grail is also the Sacred Heart of Christ. The loss of the Grail represents the loss of the Golden Age, Paradise, man’s primordial spirituality, purity and innocence. In Christian legend the Grail was given to Adam but was left in Paradise after the Fall. It is at the centre of Paradise and must be refound…. The quest for the Grail is the return to Paradise… the search for the Lost Word.
Here’s the picture that is coming to me: Traditionally in churches, the chalice (the symbol of the holy grail) is the cup of wine representing Jesus’ blood, which is drunk at the altar of communion. It’s a reminder of Jesus having died atoning for our sins, and thus of his role as our saviour. Here, in these passages from the Urtext, the chalice is of atonement––atonement in the sense of our realizing that “Paradise” was not lost; we did not do something sinful to cause our “fall” from Heaven; there is nothing to atone for; and our purity and innocence are intact. It is the cup of salvation, but not salvation from our sins, but from the belief in ourselves as sinful.