In Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Parzival” we learn that Parzival and his father, Gahurmet, were members of the House of Anjou – and that this French dynasty had descended from the lineage of Fisher Kings of the East. This is apparently what Guiot de Provense,Wolfram’s teacher, had discovered. After first studying the Grail legend in a Moslem university in Toledo, Spain, Guiot set out to find out more information regarding the legendary Fisher Kings and the true Bloodline of the Holy Grail. His search ultimately led him to the city of Anjou where some genealogical charts apparently revealed a line of Grail Kings that had begun with Lucifer and culminated in the House of Anjou. His findings later became public record when Richard the Lionhearted, a scion of the Plantagenet Dynasty that had its roots in Anjou, announced that his family had indeed descended from Lucifer – or as he said at the time, from the “Devil.”

What did the genealogy charts of Anjou reveal to Guiot? They would have shown a bloodline that came to Anjou via Melusine, a Scythian princess who had traveled to France from Scotland – one of the premier countries of Scythian settlement in Europe – and then married Rainfroi de Vere in establishing the House of Anjou. Through Melusine the Bloodline of the Holy Grail could be traced back through the Central Asia Scythians and then to Middle Earth and its towering mountain of Meru-Kailash - home of the original Grail Castle and Court of Fisher King Lucifer (aka Sanat Kumara).

Melusine’s Holy Grail Bloodline would ultimately spread into many royal houses of Europe since inter-marrying for empire building and supportive alliances was consistently observed on the continent. Moreover, it was no secret that all royals wanted to be descended from Melusine since special prestige came from being born into the Grail Bloodline. Thus, many royal houses sought to either prove their descent from Melusine or inter-marry into houses whose descent from the Scythian princess was well documented. One royal house that could prove a direct link to Melusine and the ancient Grail Bloodline was the House of Lusignan, a French dynasty that even lived within a castle that they claimed had been created overnight by Melusine and her Grail Magic. It was the famous Lusignan prince, Guy de Lusignan, who later became the last King of Jerusalem, thus claiming the ultimate crown of Grail kingship for himself and his family.Technically, the House of Lusignan still retains the Jerusalem Crown and the Grail heritage that comes with it, even to this day.

BTW - Melusine stares back at you from every cup of Starbucks Coffee. That's her in the logo.


© 2012 Mark Amaru Pinkham

Melusine (Alchemical Siren, Twin-tailed Mermaid)

Melusine (Alchemical Siren, Twin-tailed Mermaid)

A typical illustration of a twin-tailed siren or mermaid. This creature is associated with numerous stories and legends, and is imbued with symbolic meaning in alchemy.

The most common iteration of the siren is as Melusine, a creature from medieval legend. According to this legend, Melusine (sometimes, Melusina) was a beautiful woman with a disturbing tendency to transform into a serpent from the waist down while bathing; it is the discovery of this nature that always resulted in calamity.

As the story is most often told, the cursed maiden was discovered in the forest by Raymond, the Duke of Aquitaine, who is taken with the mysterious and beautiful maid, and begs her to marry him. She agrees, on condition that he never disturb her on a Saturday, when she bathes.  Raymond eventually grows suspicious of his young wife’s private doings, and spies on her- and his shocked reaction to her true appearance reveals his betrayal to Melusine, who transforms herself into a dragon and departs in a shrieking fury.

This story can be viewed as a metaphor for female sexuality, and the contradictory duality of the female nature as viewed through medieval eyes.

The same dual-nature symbolism is also at work in alchemy, which employs the siren as a more benevolent emblem of enlightenment: the siren of the philosophers. Alchemically, the siren’s two tails represent unity -of earth and water, body and soul- and the vision of Universal Mercury, the all-pervading anima mundi that calls out and makes the philosopher yearn to her.

Related Symbols: