The Fisher King

 The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden: Understanding the Wounded Feeling Functions in Masculine and Feminine Psychology. (San Francisco CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993)

 Robert A. Johnson is known for the masterful insights of his short, entertaining books about the relevance of myths in our lives. His Understanding Your Own Shadow, reviewed earlier, is perhaps the best book out on dealing with our shadow side. He, She and We are equally well-respected. In this book he juxtaposes the wounded Fisher King from the Parsifal myth and the Handless Maiden (a tale interpreted by Clarissa Estés in Women Who Run with the Wolves and by Marion Woodman.) Men’s and women’s are similar in some ways, and surprisingly different in other ways.

The fisher king wound is in the male, generative, creative part of a man’s being. The wounding of the feeling function is the price we have paid for the cool, precise, rational and scientific world we have won at so high a cost. The wounded person finds live bearable only when engaged in some contact with the unconscious, through activities like poetry, artistry, teaching and healing. They do not heal the dreadful wound, but they make life bearable while one makes his way to the true healing.

 The handless maiden’s wound is also in her generative and feeling part, but it results in an inability to do in the world. This may be due to patriarchal culture, but as Marion Woodman points out, a woman’s inner masculine can be as great a tyrant as any man! She loses her hands after her father makes a bargain with the devil for material wealth. Similarly, our materialistic, machine culture is destroying the woman and the man’s inner feminine. To gain a bargain, like material comfort and luxury, at the expense of some inner value is extremely dangerous.

 The solution is to take the suffering inside as an interior event, instead of blaming other people or institutions for the problem. There, we can work on it and undertake our process of healing.

The Holy Grail is one of the most enduring symbols in medieval Christian legend. It stirs in the imagination images of Knights of old, Arthur's Round table, the glory to the Quest, and the power of God. It's popularity has survived even today, where it can be found in films, books, video games and Monty Python. The Grail is by its very nature, mysterious, and it is that mystery that still intrigues historians, mythographers and poets, and it is that mystery into which I intend to dip my academic toe. The Legend of the Grail The story of the Grail varies greatly from author to author, but for purposes of clarity, but most versions share a few central points. I draw the basic Grail story from these: At the Last Supper, Jesus filled a vessel with wine and passed it among his disciples, instructing them to "drink his blood." Later, as Christ was removed from the cross, Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of the Savior in this vessel. Fleeing Jerusalem, Joseph carried the cup with him, some say to England, to Glastonbury, others say to the Pyrenees. There he established a castle, and his family and descendants were made guardians of this vessel, this Holy Grail. Later, by some accounts during the reign of Arthur, a knight, called Percival or Parzival, the son of a widow, goes in quest of the Grail. He comes upon the Grail Castle, which is guarded and inhabited by an order of Knights, and is ruled by a lame man, wounded in his thigh, called the Fisher King. The area surrounding the castle is a desolate wasteland, and the King is dying. Percival is invited to dine in the castle. It is a strange meal indeed. It begins with a procession, which included many wondrous things, and finally a man carrying a lance dripping with blood and a woman carrying the Grail. The grail supplies food for the full company of knights, and somehow sustains the dying King. After the meal, Percival sleeps, and when he awakes, finds the castle abandoned. After searching for many years, Percival discovers the truth about the Grail. He finds out that the Fisher King is his uncle, and that Percival had been "called" by the Grail to be its new protector. Had he, Perceval learns, asked, "Who does one serve with the Grail?" the old King would have been healed and his land replenished. Some say that Percival again found his way to the castle and asked the Grail Question, others say he never completed his quest.