LEONARD NIMOY: Before
we unlock the future, we must find the
keys to the past. I'm Leonard Nimoy. Join me and open the door
to "Ancient Mysteries," beginning now. For centuries, knights,
poets, and mystics have searched for a
magical vessel called the Holy Grail, the cup Jesus
drank from at the Last Supper. Is it possible this sacred
relic has survived for 2,000 years as a hidden treasure? Or could it be that one
of the ancient vessels displayed in museums throughout
the world is the Holy Grail? BONNIE WHEELER: If we think
of that one true Grail as being the cup used
at the Last Supper, there's no reason why that cup
would somehow have disappeared, not just from memory
as it did, but from literal physical existence. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Why has the Church largely turned its back on
the existence of the cup and the sacred powers
associated with it? What inspired King Arthur's
knights of the Round Table to look for the Grail in England
rather than in the Holy Land? Some have come to believe
that the Grail isn't an object at all, but a pathway to higher
consciousness and unearthly power. Ancient ruins and artifacts
are yielding new clues to investigators,
clues that suggest the history of the Grail
may, in fact, have begun long before the time of Jesus. And there is an
astounding new theory, which, if ever
conclusively proven, would rewrite the
story of Christianity. Its proponents insist
that the Grail is a symbol of a direct line
of descent from Jesus to this day-- that
Jesus had children, and his descendants
are among us even now. 2,000 years ago,
according to the Bible, Jesus and his disciples
gathered together for a Last Supper on the
night before his arrest and crucifixion. This final meal provided
inspiration for one of the most enduring mysteries
of this or any other time-- the legend of the Holy Grail,
the cup of the Last Supper. READER: Then he took a cup. And after giving thanks,
he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all
of you, for this is my blood of the New Covenant,
which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Matthew 26:27. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
As they drank, Jesus told His disciples
that one among them would betray him. With a final sip
from his wine cup, he then predicted his own
transcendence and immortality. What happened to the
chalice Jesus drank from that night,
the vessel that gave rise to the remarkable
legends of the Holy Grail? Evidence suggests the
fate of the holy cup may at least briefly
have lain in the hands of a wealthy and righteous
man named Joseph of Arimathea. READER: He went
to Pontius Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered
it be given to him. So Joseph took the
body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and
laid it in his own new tomb. Matthew 27:58. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Legend says that Joseph collected
Christ's blood in the cup of the Last Supper and
then, surprisingly, carried the cup to a land
nearly 1,000 miles distant, the British Isles. Why would he have undertaken
such an extensive voyage in an era when travel was
difficult, slow, and dangerous? Joseph of Arimathea
may well have been a merchant in tin, a metal
mined in the British Isles. This would explain
his journey and why he chose Britain as
the place where he would spread the word of Jesus. It was here at a place
called Glastonbury that Joseph of Arimathea
is said to have arrived with the holy relic
and founded Britain's first Christian church. But the ancient legends tell us
no more about Jesus' chalice. For more than
1,000 years, no one seemed to look for the
first communion cup, and no one claimed to find it. Then, strangely and suddenly,
in the 12th century, an extraordinarily
popular series of stories about the Grail began
to emerge in Western Europe. This body of literature
focused on the quest by heroic knights
searching for the cup from the Last
Supper, the cup which was then called the Holy Grail. It seems to me
that there are two events that at least foster,
if not give birth to, the Grail legends. One is simply and
prosaically that this is the point at
which fiction begins to develop in an extended way. The other is probably related
to a crusading spirit, and these two come
together in the romances. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
In the 12th century, thousands of knights went
on crusade to the Holy Land. Jerusalem was in the
hands of the Muslims. The Crusaders were
intent on winning possession of the sacred
sites of Jesus' life in the name of Christendom. As the Crusaders walked in the
very footsteps of their Lord, they developed a
fervent interest in the relics of his life. To touch the objects touched
by the hand of God Incarnate-- this seemed to be the
essence of sacred grace. One of the most extraordinary
objects the Crusaders sought was the holy cup from the
Last Supper, the relic that Joseph of Arimathea was
said to have taken to Britain, which became the central
theme of the stories told about King Arthur's renowned
knights of the Round Table. It's not surprising that
these stories of Arthur would provide a natural
home in which to stick the story of the Grail. No one could be better than
the Knights of the Round Table. Therefore, what group could
be better to try to undertake the quest of the Holy Grail? LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Mysteriously, the Grail sought by Arthur's knights had
extraordinary magical powers never mentioned in the Bible. It would appear
miraculously, hover in air, and disappear without warning. It served Arthur's
knights heavenly feasts of limitless ambrosia. Drinking from this cup promised
health and eternal life. Where did these mysterious
powers come from? Could the Grail have
arrived at Arthur's table from an even earlier time? A time even before the
birth of Christianity? A time when the religion of
the Celts prevailed in Britain? Celtic stories are littered
with magical objects, objects like stones and swords
and spears and cauldrons. When we look at all
Celtic mythology, all Irish and
Welsh mythology, we think of these magical
objects which convey the power of the warrior and king. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Many scholars believe the magical cooking
pots and wondrous cauldrons of ancient Britain's
myths and legends were forerunners of the Grail. The cauldron was the
centerpiece of the house, if you wish. The hearth kept everything
warm, and the cauldron which was over the
fire kept everyone fed. It's a very, very
important device. It is not just the
cooker or the stove. This is something that
actually keeps life and heat. BONNIE WHEELER: Those
cauldrons are very evocative, magnificent objects,
which are simply too decorative to
have been produced just for making supper. There has to have been a
ritual purpose that they played in the life of
communities of people, just as the Holy
Grail brings together the constant recycling
of Christian life through its liturgy. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): The
ancient Celtic god Dagda had a gigantic cauldron of plenty. This vessel was famous
for feeding warriors, much as the Holy Grail
fed Arthur's knights. When you look back to
the earlier Celtic period, you find again that
the earlier images of the Grail, the cauldrons,
are providers of food for very large companies. For instance, the cauldron
that is never exhausted. You can always get meat
or drink out of it. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
One legendary Celtic king, Bran the
Blessed, possessed a cauldron of rebirth. This cauldron was said to
give life to slain warriors and was so massive
it had to be conveyed on wheels or by chariot. Cauldrons possessed by male
gods were often associated with war and armies,
while cauldrons belonging to goddesses not
only offered feasts, but enlightenment as well. The magical attributes
of the Celtic cauldrons were adopted by
Christian storytellers, and a wondrous cup was born of
two powerful mystic traditions. It continues to inspire,
tantalize, and elude us. Sacred, magical, and
imbued with power, the very idea of the
Holy Grail captivated the world of the Middle Ages. The Grail became the centerpiece
of the legends of Arthur, King of the Britons, and his
knights of the Round Table. It was said the key to finding
the Grail lay in the character of the one who sought it. Only a very special knight could
sit in the unoccupied chair at the Round Table. The Siege Perilous,
or Perilous Seat, is a vacant seat
at the Round Table in many of the early stories. It is a vacant seat
that is reserved for the one who will
come and be the destined, the chosen Grail knight. That is Galahad. The vacant seat, therefore,
is a seat that no one can occupy except Galahad. And anyone who tries is
immediately either swallowed up by earth or consumed by flames. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): For
many years, the seat lay empty. Then the virginal knight Galahad
arrived at Arthur's court. On that very day, an
astounding event took place. The names of the knights were
engraved by an invisible hand on the backs of their chairs. And on the seat kept empty,
Galahad's name emerged. With Galahad present to complete
the fellowship of the table, another miracle now occurred. The Grail appeared at
the center of the table. Bathed in wondrous light,
the mysterious vessel hovered briefly, casting
a spell over the company. Then, as suddenly as it
appeared, it vanished. King Arthur vowed he
would find the cup again. His knights thundered
across Europe, facing every kind of peril as
they sought the elusive Grail. More than 100 valiant knights
perished along the way or succumbed to the temptations
of the outside world and never returned. Only three, led by Galahad,
arrived at the sacred altar where the Grail's final
mysteries would be revealed. Here, they held a mass. And as Galahad drank
from the Holy Grail, Christ miraculously appeared. The vision of
the Grail occurred when Galahad was
able to look into it, and he saw a vision of Christ. BONNIE WHEELER: He stands
as an example as clear as any from the Bible
of pre-existing worth. He is whole. He is never broken by sin,
never broken by sexual desire. This takes him out of the
realm of the ordinary person and into the realm
of the chosen one. So Galahad becomes a
pattern for Christ. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Lancelot, the bravest warrior of all the knights,
put away his sword, wandered in the wilderness,
fasted, and prayed. Yet he was still
denied the Grail. It was because of his tragic
love for another man's wife, Arthur's queen, Guinevere. It was said that
he loved the world, and particularly
King Arthur's queen, more than he loved the quest. And the voice comes, a heavenly
voice, so many in the stories. Very conveniently tells
him he's not worthy. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Only the most pure is worthy to experience
the mysteries of the Grail. The holiest of objects, this
cup from the Last Supper was a symbol of the spiritual
path to fulfillment and oneness with Christ. Why, then, instead of
regarding the Holy Grail as a valuable
Christian relic, did the Church turn
its back on stories about the sacred chalice? Could the Grail
somehow represent a challenge to the
power and authority of the medieval Church? It was also a time
when people were questioning the spiritual
beliefs of Christianity. There were more heretical
groups and sects around at that time than almost
any other time before or since. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Some say the Church of Rome disregarded the Grail stories
because they glorified the Church in England. But perhaps the papacy's
feelings about the Grail were grounded in an
even more volatile issue-- the Church's attitudes
towards female sexuality. One of the Church's
great hatreds of the Grail was its association with
chivalry and with courtly love. Why? Because both were applied to
the veneration of womanhood, which, of course,
the Church despised. Grail texts show us a
world of masculine virtue and masculine power in
which the role of the woman is suppressed. Just as in culture, one saw
women's roles being suppressed and confined in society. One sees also in the Grail
stories the suppression and control of the
roles of women. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
The sacred chalice is thought by many to be
a symbol of the feminine. Everything having to do
with women and sexuality is reduced to that one image
that carries all the force of the feminine without ever
needing to have a woman, the Grail itself. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
The Church's opposition did not dissuade
those who continued to search for the Grail,
the cup of the Last Supper. Even today in England,
pilgrims still visit this site in Glastonbury
where Joseph of Arimathea's church once stood in the
belief that it was here he hid the Holy Grail. Thorn trees native
to the Holy Land flourish here in
Glastonbury, confirmation of the ancient story where
they are said to have sprung from Joseph's staff. To this day, interestingly
enough, a sprig from this tree is put on the queen's table
at Christmas every year. And that's a tradition that
goes back to the Middle Ages, certainly, if not earlier. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
In 1930, a blue glass bowl from Jerusalem was
discovered inside the well on the church grounds. Could this vessel
be the Holy Grail? JOHN MATTHEWS:
What is interesting is that the blue bowl has
become an object of veneration to people at Glastonbury. And until recently,
it was kept on display there where you could actually
go and see it and feel it. And there is a great
sense of something certainly wonderful about it. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Some, not convinced that the blue glass bowl
is the one true Grail, believe that the holy cup made
its way to Scotland, where it still lays hidden
inside a glorious chapel-- the magnificent Rosslyn
Chapel near Edinburgh, called the Chapel of the Holy Grail. Built to honor the remains
of one of the oldest noble families in Scotland,
many of those buried here were members of
the elite crusaders called Knights Templar. These warriors were known
as guardians of the Grail in the Grail romances. LAURENCE GARDNER:
Some people have said that there is
Grail cup hidden away in one of the pillars. In fact, the most likely place
of concealment for anything are the vaults
beneath the chapel. But these vaults are
completely sealed. There is no access
to them whatsoever. So for the time being, the
secret of the Rosslyn Chapel vaults remains a mystery. But the research continues. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
It seems fitting and natural for a holy relic such as the
Grail to be kept in a church. Yet Arthurian legend
tells us the sacred cup was housed not in
a church, but in a remote and mysterious castle. The Grail castle was
said to be a fortress set atop a holy mountain. Perched precariously on
a rugged peak in France, the citadel at Montsegur
may well have once been the home of the Holy Grail. In the 13th century,
members of a sect called the Cathars
used this outpost as a last desperate refuge
from the pope's armies. In 1165, their sect was
condemned as heretical by a Church council, in large
part because Cathar culture saw women as the equals of men. Cathar women owned
and inherited property and preached the Gospels, just
as women of the early Church had preached. The Vatican launched a
crusade against them, and vast papal armies
descended on the region. Over the next few
decades, a generation was lost, tortured and killed
in the tens of thousands. The Cathars were
also reputed to have the cup from the
Last Supper, which they venerated as a symbol
of the perfectibility of man and woman. For 35 years, the papal army
of the Albigensian Crusade had slaughtered Cathars and
other people in the region, all in their attempt to discover
the secrets of the Holy Grail. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): After
a horrendous 10-month siege by the pope's armies, the
Cathars made their last stand on the ramparts of Montsegur. 200 people were dragged
down the mountain and burned to
death at the stake. The fortress was
sacked and destroyed. Afterward, the
pope's army carefully sifted the ruins for the
Grail, but it was never found. What was found was
an enticing clue on the wall of a cave
beneath the citadel-- a carving of a cup. Had the actual cup
been destroyed, or was it smuggled out
at the last moment? On the very night
before the castle fell, two or three of the
knights are said to have escaped over
the battlements, down the steep walls, and into the
caves which riddled the hill underneath the castle. They took with them
something of great importance to the Cathars. It may have been documents. It may have been
an actual object. But tradition says that it was
something to do with the Grail. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): The Montsegur legends say nothing more about
the whereabouts of the Grail. But the mystic
German poet Albrecht described another Grail site--
an extraordinary circular palace embellished
roundabout with jewels and located near a
bottomless lake, where he said the Grail could be found. For many years, scholars
presumed the castle in his poem was pure fiction. Then in 1938,
archeologists in Iran unearthed a startling discovery. They came upon the circular
remains of the Throne of Arches, ruins that bore
an uncanny resemblance to the castle
Albrecht described. Set atop the holy
mountain of Shiz, could this Persian temple
have been the Grail castle? Legend says the Throne of Arches
was built by a Persian king to house one priceless
relic of Christianity, Jesus' cross from
the crucifixion. Could the temple, known
as the Takht-i-Taqdis, have housed another
Christian relic? The description of the
building of the Grail temple resembles in so many
details the Takht-i-Taqdis that modern scholars have
suggested that this may have been one of the
origins of the idea we have of the Grail
citadel, the Grail temple, the Grail castle. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Like the castle of poetry, the Takht was domed,
roofed with gold, and encrusted with sapphires. It had astrological
charts and constellations of stars outlined on
the ceiling in jewels. Beneath the ruins, explorers
found a unique onyx-like crust, which eerily recalled
the poem's description of an onyx mountain. Even more bizarre, the
lake in the volcanic crater beside the Takht was bottomless,
just as the poem said. If the Takht is
the Grail castle, could the Grail itself
have actually survived? There was a Last Supper. Why shouldn't there be a Grail? I think the question is
whether that was an object made of wood, which might have
disintegrated by now, or if it was a metal object. Was it reused in
some other form? LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Surprisingly, there are a number of cups
said to be the Holy Grail displayed in museums
throughout the world. Among them is a wooden bowl in
Wales called the Nanteos Cup. Ironically, this ancient
relic has been almost entirely destroyed by reverence. This is a cup made
out of wood, of which there is not much left today. It does exist, but
there's not much of it. Because since it was
considered to be holy, over the centuries
people drinking from it, either to heal themselves
or simply to worship, bit off little pieces and
hid them in their mouths so they could take
them home as relics. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Another candidate for the one true
Grail is the Antioch Chalice on daily
display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some museumgoers believe they
are laying eyes on the very cup Jesus used at the Last Supper. Whether simple wood
or richly bejeweled, how can we know which
cup is the true Grail? For that to be
recognized, we would have to have certain great
miracles occur in regard to it, as happened in the
medieval texts. The objects that we have
that have been identified as the Grail are venerated and
revered, but so far as I know, no miracles have occurred
as a result of them. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Perhaps one day, someone will prove
conclusively that one cup or another is the
chalice from the Last Supper. But will this be the Holy Grail? After 800 years of
searching, the true nature of the Holy Grail continues
to mystify those who seek it. As lore of the Grail
continues to evolve, it takes surprising,
even shocking turns. Some believe that
the Grail is not an object at all, but a family
tree with an astounding origin. The Holy Grail, they say,
refers to nothing less than the descendants of Jesus. According to one
hotly debated theory, Jesus was married
to Mary Magdalene and they had three children,
whose families went on to become the rulers of Europe. As a historian and
genealogist, I've spent many years
studying various aspects of the Holy Grail. This has occurred mainly
because of my interest in the European
sovereign structure, a structure that
has its roots bedded deep back in biblical history. The Holy Grail was the
descendant bloodline of Jesus. This bloodline came into Europe. It became many of
the noble families and sovereign
families of Europe. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
It was a discovery made in the Holy Land
in the 20th century that believers say
substantiates their claims. In 1947, a young shepherd
found an extraordinary treasure near the shores of
the Dead Sea-- clay jars full of priceless
manuscripts hidden in a cave for nearly 2,000 years. Called the Dead Sea Scrolls,
these ancient documents tell a story about the time of
Christ differing in many ways from that given in
the New Testament. It is this story
that may hold the key to the mystery of the Grail. The Dead Sea Scrolls
provide a vivid glimpse into the daily life
of a long-lost sect of heretical Jews
called the Essenes. After reviewing the
manuscripts, some conclude that Jesus was a
member of this mystical sect of healers. If he was an Essene,
Jesus would have had a firm religious obligation
to wed and father children. Other priceless ancient
scrolls discovered in Egypt seem to reinforce the theory. READER: And the companion of
the Savior is Mary Magdalene. He loved her more than
all the disciples. He used to kiss her
often on the mouth. The Gospel of Philip 63:31. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Could the Grail stories have been a code used to inform
people in the medieval world that there was a
competitive Church run by the descendants of Christ? A Church that had been
forced underground by the strength of the papacy? What Rome had done was to
create a Church that was set up on a male-only
principle, a principle of apostolic succession
from St. Peter. So at no time was it ever
in the bishops' interests to promote or make
known to anybody that, in fact, this other
church of the descendant heirs existed. In fact, historians from the
first to the fourth century have recorded for us to read
today that the Church of Rome actually issued directives
to their generals in the field to seek out and
persecute and put to the sword the descendant heirs of Jesus. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): According to the bloodline theory,
when Jesus was crucified, his pregnant bride,
Mary Magdalene, escaped across the Mediterranean
to what is now southern France. As late as the 15th
century, the story of Mary Magdalene coming
to France with the Grail was part of Christian lore. Many believe that when
she came to Europe, she did indeed bring a
great treasure with her. But it was not a chalice. It was the unborn child of Jesus
Christ growing in her womb. The troubadours of Provence
called Mary Magdalene the "grail of the world." And the Church knew
that in their songs, any veneration of womanhood
was, in actual fact, a veneration of Mary
Magdalene, the wife of Jesus. And as such, they were promoting
the dynastic bloodline. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
If it could ever be proven that Mary Magdalene
bore Jesus children, the implications would
be immeasurably profound. But many scholars disagree
with the bloodline theory. Of Mary Magdalene, we
have another tradition. And we have the Gnostic
tradition of her being one of the most intelligent of the
disciples, in that it is she and Jesus who have long,
intimate conversations about all kinds of things,
well above the heads of the other disciples. But I don't think that is
the same as saying that they have a child together. When we talk about the
Grail as a feminine object, it's quite appropriate to do so,
and this does certainly fit in very well with earlier
pre-Christian ideas of what the Grail might have been. But I'm not sure
that interpreting it in quite such a literal
fashion, the idea that the Grail is the
container of the Holy Blood therefore means that the Holy
Blood is literally a bloodline. I don't think it's necessary
to interpret it in that way. One of the things all the
stories in the Middle Ages are very firm about is that
the Grail is an object. It is not a line of blood. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Advocates of the bloodline theory
claim that the Church did everything it
could to suppress materials related to the Grail. It went so far underground
that, in fact, its secrets were conveyed by symbols and
graphics and secret watermarks which were moved
around among people who knew what they were looking at. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
One prime example, some say, is the tarot, a deck
of mystical cards which appeared in northwestern
Europe in the 1300s. The ace of cups is
marked with an M. Could this Grail symbolize Mary? And the death card features
a skeleton galloping atop a wild ass over
the pope, the king, two cardinals, and a bishop. Could the tarot have been a
kind of flash card catechism for the medieval
heresy of the Grail? Is that why, even
today, some still think of playing cards as
tools of the Devil? Those who believe that
Jesus' offspring founded many of the famous houses
of European royalty also claim that some
members of the holy family may well have disappeared into
the mainstream of commoners and walk among us
today, never suspecting that they might be the
descendants of Jesus The cup Jesus drank from at the
Last Supper, a magical pagan vessel of plenty, a
sacred bloodline-- the Holy Grail has
taken different forms in different traditions. Perhaps the Grail itself,
whatever its form, is not nearly as important
as the path one takes to discover its true nature. The key to this interpretation
may lie hidden in the very word "Grail," which in
turn could derive from a medieval French
term, "gradale." The gradale was a platter used
to bring food to the table at intervals during a feast. "Gradale" came to mean "step
by step, degree, gradually." According to this
interpretation, the Grail is not
something to be attained. It is a symbol for a
gradual, progressive journey of self-improvement
towards enlightenment and spiritual power. NORRIS J. LACY: The quest
for the Grail-- or, in fact, any other quest-- suggests
a quest for self-discovery. You are finding yourself
at the same time you're finding a Grail. And it is development and
perfection of the human spirit at the same time as it
is a great challenge for any knight to find. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): Once
embarked on this Grail quest, there is a time
for contemplation and a time for action. The quest is arduous
and uncertain, and it is easy to
stray from the path. Most of King Arthur's
knights of the Round Table succumbed to the faults
of rivalry, greed, ambition, or carnal lust. Ancient wisdom warns against
shortcuts off the true path, such as the use of black magic. Instead of enlightenment, such
practices will hurl the seeker to destruction and damnation. The true path is
marked by questions which force the seeker
to deep contemplation. Sometimes, this
question is given as, whom does the Grail serve? And there are various answers
to that, such as yourself, or indeed the king,
or indeed the world. So there are many
different answers. But the effect of
asking the question is actually more
important than the answer. Proper curiosity and
asking the right question is always the
hardest achievement for any thoughtful person
and for anyone attempting to be educated in mysteries. And I think this is
why the question always accompanies the Grail search. Because unless the question
is within your heart-- what is wrong? How can help be brought to
the situation-- and that provides the vessel
into which the answer, the grace, the healing,
the restoration, can come. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): The quest for something like the Grail
is not unique to Christianity or the West. Cultures and religions
throughout the world prescribe systematic
practices by which aspirants can transcend the physical and
move towards enlightenment, eternal truth, God. Today, for many, the
lure of the Grail is as strong as it was for the
Knights of the Round Table. The spell endues
despite, or perhaps because of, modern beliefs. We live in a culture
in which we're told all explanations
should be rational, in which we prefer
logical thought. The Grail represents
the other to that. It is not rational. It's impervious to
logical thought. It is a luminous object
connecting us to another world. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Whatever its form, whatever its ultimate meaning, the Holy
Grail is an enduring emblem of humanity's enduring
belief in something greater than humanity itself. [theme music]
