donderdag 28 november 2019

Introduction to the Munsalvaesche Project - Quest for Wolfram von Eschenbach's Underground Grail Temple


To introduce this quest, the following announcement of a study trip with images and a map made in the summer of 2014 may suffice in order to gain the necessary interest and means to realize this  project. This summer a project for a travel guide called Grailways based on the same book as the study trip, namely "How the Grail Sites Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Historian" by the Swiss Grail researcher Werner Greub (1905-1997) had to be postponed to next year. 

Amsterdam, August 11, 2014 - In the framework of the  "Munsalvaesche Project - Quest for the Underground Grail Rock Temple" a small group of motivated grail researchers will embark from August 16 to 24, 2014 on a study and exploration journey from the Netherlands via Alsace, cradle of the medieval grail family, to the Arlesheim Ermitage (see map) just south of Basel, Switzerland, site of the proposed Grail area Terre de salvaesche with as its center the Grail palace Munsalvaesche from Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival

To be conducted by Robert Jan Kelder, founder of the budding "Willehalm Order of Knights of the Word" and translator and publisher of the book "How the Grail Sites Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach As a Historian", the final goal of this excursion is drawn from the groundbreaking research of this book by the Swiss anthroposophist Werner Greub (1909-1997). For in this thorough research report, based on an indication by the founder of the science of the Grail or anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner (1863-1925), the location of Wolfram's Grail palace Munsalvaesche is shown to be in the Arlesheimer Ermitage, an ancient Celtic holy place and cultural landscape. Accordingly, this excursion endeavors to again draw attention to – and also to eventually confirm by archaeological research – the scientific hypothesis that on an ancient Roman quarry in this Grail area the architect Titurel in the 9th century built this wooden Grail palace with an underground rock temple. Here the Grail brotherhood would have guarded and beheld the Grail and staged Christian mystery dramas, the climax of which would have occurred, according to Greub, in 848 underneath the Star Munsalvaesche, when Parzival became king of the Grail through the spiritual guidance of Wolframs enigmatic  Master Kyot the Provence, who would be none other than Willehalm from Wolframs epic poem by that name, the Frankish William of Orange, founder of the original House of Orange and patron saint of Celtic Christianity – a truly momentous albeit largely unrecognized event in the living tradition of  the Mystery of Golgotha​​, the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, heralding a new chapter in the spiritual history of mankind ...Or, as the hermit Trevrizent exclaimed to Parzival after he became Grail king (P. 798:1-15),:
A greater marvel never occurred, in that, after all, with your defiance you have wrung the concession from God that his everlasting Trinity has granted you your wish.”
And as Werner Greub comments: 

“With these words, Trevrizent indicates the actual new impulse in history, which became possible during the triple great conjunction in the constellation of Pisces. Until then all striving for the Grail was of no use. One had to be divinely summoned by Heaven to the Grail. This changed with Parzival. Through independent thinking and conscious striving for the Grail, Parzival himself created the preconditions so that the Grail could become his own. This is an absolute novelty, the actual great miracle of the history of the Grail. That is why Trevrizent says: groezer wunder selten ie geschah. - A greater marvel never occurred.” (p. 190 of his Grail Sites book)


Detailed Introduction to and History of the Munsalvaesche Project

The following introduction to this project is an adaptation of the detailed introduction written on May 28, 2009 on the occasion of  the presentation in the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam of the Grail sites book by Werner Greub (the letters and articles in the original German and Dutch included have been translated into English). This introduction with arguments both forward and against was mailed on the eve of Michaelmas, September 29, 2009 with an accompanying letter and enclosure to the management of the firm TAUW. This company published on September 5, 2006 a note under the title "Ground Tracer Reveals Soil Secrets Without Drilling" , of which the first two paragraphs went as follows:

"The Consultancy and Engineering firm Tauw is now employing ground tracer technique to more precisely locate underground objects and contaminants. After archaeological finds, Tauw ​​at the request of the municipality of Utrecht made measurements with this new technique to obtain exact images of the remains of a Roman military bath house located on the Hoge Woerd.
Using the tracer and radar engineering excavations, old locks, landfills, foundations and archaeological remains can be quickly and efficiently identified. The great value of this is that at an early stage an informed plan for the location can be drawn without costly drilling activities Research and final data processing can be carried out quickly and efficiently. Ground Tracer research is a highly important part of a research project. Continued drilling work can thus be used very specifically. Also, a similar coupling can be made with a representative surface, so that the overall picture becomes much more reliable. The final output is better and more accurate than other non-destructive research techniques."

The  accompanying letter to "the honorable board of TAUW", which remained unanswered, read as follows:

"Following the above TAUW note from 2006, I now contact you about The Munsalvaesche Project. This archaeological project, based on the pioneering Grail Research of the Swiss anthroposophist Werner Greub in his book" William of Orange, Parzival and the Grail - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a historian ", I have introduced in the enclosure. I hope this project can count on your interest and that on the basis thereof an even fruitful as interesting collaboration may occur, which can lead to the Hornikopf hill in the Arlesheimer Ermitage in Switzerland finally revealing its secret: namely that on an ancient Roman quarry half way up this foothill of the Jura mountains in the 9th century once stood Wolfram von Eschenbach's Grail castle Munsalvaesche with an underground temple, as indicated in Werner Greub’s book with the help of precise typographic instructions and detailed proofs (on the displayed map of Arlesheimer Ermitage the number 7 indicates the location of the Grail castle)."

The authority, which for the first time exhibited the Grail research by Werner Greub and made ​​it public to the world at large was not the original publisher, the Goetheanum, School of Spiritual Science in Dornach near Basel, but the local museum Trotte of the adjacent village of Arlesheim. This small museum celebrated in 1985 with a six-month-long exhibition the 200th anniversary of the once famous Arlesheim Ermitage as an Old English Garden, in which also attention was given to the findings of Werner Greub’s research on this ancient Celtic holy place as a Grail area. This was done by an exhibition text mounted above a display case with a copy of the book by Greub, tours of the Ermitage led by myself and an evening conversation with the author, which was repeated because of great interest. My text written for the exhibition was published on April 4, 1985 in the local weekly "Wochenblatt für das Birseck und Dorneck” with an illustration of a 18th century print of the Ermitage under the title "Arlesheim in the 9th century". The text (without the footnotes) read as follows:


Arlesheim possesses a more than thousand year old mystery tradition. For the Celtic Druids, Ottilia and Irish-Scottish Christianity, the knights of King Arthur and the Grail, the Friends of God, Rosicrucians and Freemasons have all left their mark in the Ermitage. In his booklet Arlesheim and Ottilia – History and Legend of a Village and its benevolent Patron Saint (Arlesheim, 1967) the author Hermann Jülich has described this.

The designation Grail landscape for this ancient mystery tradition of Arlesheim can become a living  experience, if in the company of Rudolf Steiner 1 one tries to understand under the term Holy Grail all that is associated with the Christian renewal of the mysteries of the Orient that have reemerged since the 4th century within the mysteries of the Occident.2 Then also the supposition that the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate was the one responsible for the construction of the irrigation system and the hollowing out of the rocky caves for the purpose of building a mystery center in the Ermitage gains credibility. For Julian, who around the middle of the 4th century resided for some time in his palace nearby Kaiseraugst on the Rhine, was passionate in striving everywhere to connect the pagan mysteries with a cosmic, sun-like Christianity.3
Among those conceding that the Grail events possess at least some kind of earthly reality, it is now generally accepted that the Grail Landscape Terre de Salvaesche as described by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his Parzival romance is situated in the Pyrenees (Montségur) where the essential Grail events are said to have occurred in the 12th century.4  Indications attributed to Rudolf Steiner, however, point to the direction of Arlesheim and the 9th century.5 But because no conclusive documentary evidence was thought to exist, this question remained unresolved.
With the publication of Werner Greub’s work ‘How The Grail Sites Were Found – Wolfram von Eschenbach and the Reality of the Grail’ 6, however, this situation has since then changed considerably. For with this research report based on a careful comparison of the original [Middle High German] Parzival text with the geographical and topographical reality of Arlesheim and surroundings and by means of numerous philological, astronomical-astrological and religious-historical studies, Werner Greub has attempted to verify what has been handed down by Rudolf Steiner from a purely anthroposophic mode of spiritual scientific research. As such, Werner Greub has made the results of his research on the Ermitage available as a basis for discussion for those interested:

The Arlesheim Ermitage was in the 9th century the Grail landscape Terre de salvaesche, the center stage of the Grail events that occurred during that period.

Robert J. Kelder

The exhibition was well attended and well received by the Swiss press. The Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich published a number of articles as well as the Basler Zeitung, which on June 12, 1985 reported on the evening conversation with Werner Greub, ending as follows:

"There are no documents nor ruins substantiating the thesis that the grail history has actually occurred. Consequently, Eschenbach's poem forms the ‘missing link’. But the audience seemed convinced that Greub was right., No critical voice, just a question of whether on the Hornikopf in the back of the Ermitage, where according Greub the Grail castle Munsalvaesche was located, there are ruins are quite. ‘The rock,’[where Parzival on his path to the Grail castle had to turn right] said Greub, ‘is gone, because gypsum was mined there.’ ’The Grail castle was a wooden building with room for four hundred knights. ‘Perhaps,’ Greub suspects, ‘there are some remains under the ruins in the quarry further down.’ One would therefore have to dig, but that requires a lot of money. That would be a case for UNESCO, which after all has funded the rescue of Abu Simbel in Egypt.  Salvaging a location that is as significant as the Grail castle in Europe, would have to be possible. But Greub’s research is very controversial."

How controversial Greubs findings are, mainly from academic quarters, is shown by the following letters (with enclosures) from June 7, 1985 by Dr. J. Ewald, the then active  archeologist of the "Amt für Museen und Archäologie" of the Canton Basel Land in Liestal, which he had delivered in Arlesheim, after I had, next to a request for information, also invited him to attend the evening conversation with Greub that day in Museum Trotte. Under the title Arlesheim and the "Grail" he wrote (in my translation from the German):

"You have on very short terms urgently asked about documents or inquired about our ‘Grail quest’ prompted by Mr. Greub in the summer of 1977. A newspaper article does not exist in our files.
I have made an effort to briefly survey the whole affair again including the files. Perhaps I would have even driven tonight to Arlesheim, if only to explain what archeology really is, and what people like Mr. W. Greub understand "archaeology" to be and wreak havoc on it!
Although I myself could to some degree sympathize with some of Greub’s notions such as descriptions of Orange, Arles, etc. (just because, or even though I have studied Middle High German and earned my degree in it years ago), the ‘archaeological evidence’ of W. Greub I must vehemently reject. What one is likely to suspect, is simply declared to be late-Roman and then one searches desperately for ‘Roman stone carving' on the rock steps, which arguably are partly caused at the end of the 18th century; because the ponds behind the Ermitage not dated, they must be 'Roman', the carp ponds constructed for the Druids, which are therefore also simultaneously proved to be such.
At the time I agreed to the request by W. Greub in order not to fall prey to the common E. v Däniken judgment:  archaeologists would anyway be blind and not dig where the real 'wise' and 'insiders' recommend it. We have dug and found no human artifacts. The conclusion of Greub, that this shows how good the Grail is hiding, has unfortunately nothing to do anymore with archeology and science.
From any reverent entering the site together with other believers and disciples, to whom I laboriously would have to show how and with what tools an archaeologist can work, I unfortunately do not expect anything. This has nothing to do with history and realistic considerations of finds. I must unfortunately say to you that my time for this is too precious for me.
Sincerely,
(Is signed) J. Ewald "

The first enclosure consisted of the description of four incisions or cuts done according to the instructions of Werner Greub on the western part of the Hornikopf below point 555.8, but which yielded nothing, hence the conclusion, "The quest for Munsalvaesche was temporarily discontinued."
The second enclosure was a topographical map showing where the four cuts were made.

Well, the now technologically obsolete soil survey of the district archaeologist J. Ewald is not decisive, because it only proves that nothing was found in the four specific cuts. The size of the Grail castle was much larger that surveyed and therefore Werner Greub may well have been right in saying that the Grail, or at least the Grail castle, " knew well how to hide itself." But from now on it should be possible, without spending too much money and effort, by means of “ground penetrating radar" and infrared spectrometry to renew the abandoned quest for the Grail castle Munsalvaesche and once and for all determine whether Werner Greub’s hypothesis is right that Wolfram von Eschenbach's Grail castle Munsalvaesche once stood on the Hornikopf.
Because if this turns out to be true, the underground rock temple, to which according to Wolframs Parzival, a steel door at the rear of the stage of the Grail palace was the entrance, must still exist and therefore findable.

In order to encourage this quest, which the Willehalm Institute want to restart under the name “The Munsalvaesche Project” with the required technical means (and staff), we provide a letter by Adalbert Count von Keyserlingk, son of the Count on whose estate  Koberwitz Rudolf Steiner in 1924 held his course course on biodynamic agriculture, a letter written in Stuttgart on September 5, 1985:

Dear Mr. Kelder, and at the same time, My Dear Friend Greub,
Many thanks for your information that you sent me on April 17, 1985 regarding the exposition on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Ermitage in Arlesheim.
From my youth on, I have occupied myself with just that area, made countless walks at all times of the day and night and came back each time enriched and endowed.
The accounts by His Excellency (General) von Moltke, Emil Bock and many others, also about their conversations with Rudolf Steiner concerning the Ermitage, I experienced partly at first hand and with Mr. Grosse, my school friend, I discussed the questions concerning this Grail area intensively.
Thus I was glad when the book by Werner Greub – to begin with, as announced, the first, exoteric volume – appeared. His destiny happened to lead him as an officer of a corps of engineers just into that this stretch of land that he was interested in, with the result that after thorough research he was able to motivate his hunches and experiences. A real knowledge of the truth of this ancient Mystery place arose in him – an important event in the entire field of Grail research.
At the time that the opinions about this first volume on the reality of the Grail began to diverge, I made a point of visiting Mr. Greub. We compared our studies concerning Mystery places, established that they were completely in agreement and confirmed our mutual sympathy.
The work of the publisher, however, this I had to counter, was such that if I had been the publisher, I would have been ashamed. But this has nothing to do with the contents.
After the destructive, yet in no way professionally motivated criticism by a schoolmaster appeared, I was angry on two counts. On the one hand, it seemed to me to have less to do with the actual contents of the book than with a general subjective, different approach, and on the other hand, it maintained generalities that were not in line with the thoroughness of the work. This reminded me of my own experiences with my book Koberwitz 1924*, although a negative review of it with passages quoted out of context suddenly caused an increase in sales.
If the writer of the criticism of Greub’s book, Mr. Lindenberg, would have taken up contact with the author and would have evaluated the first volume as part of a work that included a second volume, then untruths would have been avoided in the world to make room for an objective cognitional attitude, which is more than necessary in spiritual life. One is instinctively reminded of the destiny of the Parzival story (Willehalm) that apparently is only revealed to those who are inwardly connected with the secrets of the Grail.
I convey my best wishes for your plans and am with heart-felt greetings, your

Signed: A. Count Keyserlingk

For the so-called “Day of Ideals”, which was organized by, among others, the Dutch Christian-orientated daily newspaper TROUW on October 10, 2009 at the Passenger Terminal in the port of Amsterdam, I posted the first version of this introduction to the Munsalvaesche Project on the website of TROUW and entered it along with six other idealistic endeavors, such as “The New Position of Amsterdam – A Social Organic Civilization Offensive” and “The New Kingship – A Contribution to the Modernization of the Monarchy” hoping to make them better known and win over other potential co-workers and sponsors. However, it was all in vain…Were these projects aiming too high at the time?

Perhaps this Munsalvaesche Project will now, in view the threatening world situation and danger of a Third World War, no longer be overlooked. From a broader and deeper perspective, it can in the light of "The New Christianity" namely help raise awareness of the possible salvation of mankind on earth. The following anthroposophic-Christological thoughts drawn from The Gospel of John and the Fifth Gospel of Rudolf Steiner, with the help of the reference to the indicated links, can elaborate this to some extent:

With His crucifixion and resurrection, Christ became the spirit of the earth and the planet as a new sun His Body. Therewith the house-keeping of the earth i.e. the world economy has become an essential part of the task of The New Christianity characterized by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 Arnhem, Holland in the first of his three his lectures on “The Karma of the Anthroposophical Society and Content of the Anthroposophical Movement” as being the source of the inspiration in the spiritual world (in heaven) of anthroposophy (on earth).  In this light, the statement by Rudolf Steiner to Walter Johannes Stein, author of “World History in the Light of the Grail – The Ninth Century”, can be understood that the contemporary Grail impulse of our time consists in turning the current global economy based on greed and misguided by short-sighted materialistic thinking into a world economy driven by the love of mankind and the earth and guided by holistic social-organic thinking. This is the objective of the Willehalm Order of Knights of the Word, which on 28 May last filed a petition to Dutch King Willem-Alexander to supplement the Military William Order with a Civil one. How this new economic order can be realized Rudolf Steiner has shown in his course on World Economy in Dornach held for students of economics in 1922, and that one of his main students, the philosopher, writer and industrialist Herbert Witzenmann (1905-1988) further elaborated, e.g. in his introduction to the World Economy course: “The Just Price – World Economy as Social Organics”. It follows from this budding science of world economy that the whole earth, seen from a religious point of view  as of the body of Christ, has become from an economic perspective, the social organism with its three production factors nature, labor and capital, a social organism that through the formation of a world-wide network of economic associations consisting of consumers, traders and producers could ensure that through the balance of economic values just prices are generated.  A misunderstood, unjust world economy, particularly the rising tension between the main industrial powers of Great Britain and Germany was, besides the still unresolved problem of nationalities, especially in Eastern Europe and now also in the Middle East, the main cause for the outbreak exactly 100 years ago, of the catastrophic First World War.

The possible confirmation by an archaeological soil survey of the location of the subterranean temple of the Grail palace Munsalvaesche in the Arlesheim Ermitage in Basel, Switzerland and the accompanying metamorphosis of the Grail story of Parzival as mere legend to the historical reality of the Grail and Wolfram spokesman Kyot the Provençal as the medieval William of Orange, would be a powerful incentive to now finally take the Grail impulse of the 21st century seriously. But even in the unlikely case that nothing were to be found to collaborate Greub’s hypothesis or that no attempt at all will be undertaken to do so, the transformation of the present world economy based on the groundwork laid down by Rudolf Steiner remains a challenging enterprise with the highest priority for all men and women of goodwill and clear thinking.

Hopefully it is not already too late to thereby banish and outcast the dark forces that are under the leadership of the “unjust prince of this world” feverishly and incessantly at work to again unleash "a war of all against all.”




1 In his basic book Occult Science – An Outline Rudolf Steiner has named anthroposophy also science of the Grail. 
2 Rudolf Steiner The Mysteries of the East and Christianity. For another approach, see Rudolf Steiner’s lecture cycle Christ and the Spiritual World and the Search for the Holy Grail, both available from the Anthroposophic Press (USA) and the Rudolf Steiner Press in England.
3 This supposition is made by Werner Greub in his manuscript Vom Gralschristentum zur Anthroposophie Rudolf Steiners  (From Grail Christianity to Rudolf Steiner‘s Anthroposophy) which has not yet officially been published.
4 See e.g. Otto Rahn Kruezzug gegen den Gral (Crusade against the Grail, Germany 1933).  In the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by M. Baigent, R. Leigh and H. Lincoln (first published in London, 1982, Pocket ed. p.56) it is maintained without any precise reference that “Wolfram von Eschenbach, in one of his Grail romances, declares that the Grail Castle  (Munsalvaesche) was situated in the Pyrenees.”
5 In her memoirs Selbsterlebtes im Zusammensein mit Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner (Personal experiences in the company of Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner, published in Basle, 2nd  ed. 1977) Ilona Schubert writes that  Rudolf Steiner designated the whole area of the Arlesheim Ermitage as Grail territory where Parzival’s meetings with Sigune and his schooling with Trevrizent had taken place. According to Rudolf Steiner there were not one but several Grail castles. A further remark by I. Schubert, however, according to which Rudolf Steiner said that “the Grail Castle where Trevrizent and Anfortas guarded the Grail was situated in northern Spain and later on at Montségur in southern France” is difficult to rhyme with the location of the Grail castle as described by Wolfram. For it is clear from the whole Parzival context that Trevrizent as well as Sigune lived in close proximity to Munsalvaesche (e.g. “a mile or more”). If one comes to regard Parzival not as a fairy-tale, but a true geographically and historically based poetic document, it follows that Wolfram’s Munsalvaesche could not have been in Spain or France, but only here in Arlesheim. See also Emil Bock Studien zum Lebenswerk Rudolf Steiners (Stuttgart, 1961) and Walter Johannes Stein The Ninth Century – World History in the Light of the Holy Grail (London, 1991).
6 Werner Greub writes in this book that he was aware from the time of his youth of the historical truth of Wolfram’s epics. During World War II he had as a Swiss army officer his command post in the Goetheanum building from where his task was to reconnoitre the whole terrain in and around the Hermitage with its many grottos and caves for defense purposes, the same area that he was later to identify as the central Grail area Terre de Salvaesche.
* Koberwitz 1924 – Geburtstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft, Verlag Hilfswerk Elizabeth, Stuttgart 1974. This book about the birth of a new biological-dynamic agriculture through Rudolf Steiner in 1924 contains memoirs of Adalbert’s mother, Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk, her son and other participants such as Wilhelm Rath and Rudolf Meyer. In 1968, the same publishers brought out Gralburg (Grail Castle) by J. von Keyserlingk which included conversations with Rudolf Steiner and epilogues by R. Meyer and A.von Keyserlingk.