This new verse adaptation of the Parzival legend by Séamus Maynard was written with the intention of supporting all those wishing to understand the Grail mysteries more deeply. It is written in verse, so it can be worked with artistically as well. Class plays, group recitation, and individual artistic explorations are also possible ways of utilizing this work.
As a figure, Parzival symbolizes the spiritual initiation of the individual human being in our age of consciousness, rife with the complexities and subtleties of a life fully lived. The Holy Grail, that singular aim that leads Parzival into the world, can be seen as a symbol of the transformed and spiritualized human heart. Iambic pentameter was chosen for this rendering of the story - the poetic meter that most closely reflects the human heartbeat. The esoteric and spiritual underpinnings of this epic journey can support greater insight and understanding of the path of initiation.
Book forward by Lisa Romero. Illustrations by Ella Manor Lapointe.
Read the Introduction to the book.
Séamus Maynard is an actor, writer, and musician. He completed his degree in acting at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and has trained intensively in the Michael Chekhov Technique, and in speech formation with speech artist Christopher Garvie at the Artemis School of Speech and Drama in West Sussex England. Currently, Séamus teaches the art of speech at Inner Work Path events (www.innerworkpath.com) and supports and facilitates the arts program on behalf of Developing the Self Developing The World (www.developingtheself.org). He recently co-authored a distance learning course called Speech and Drama as Living arts (www.EduCareDo.org). Séamus also offers a number of classes and workshops for children, adults and young adults, in his community in upstate New York.
Ella Manor Lapointe is a visual artist and children's illustrator. She trained in the Neue Kunst Schule (New Art School) in Basel, Switzerland. Since 2007 Ella has worked as a freelance artist and illustrator with work featured in various publications, includingStella Natura, a biodynamic planting calendar, Das Goetheanum, a weekly magazine based in Dornach, Switzerland, with international distribution, and has fulfilled commissions for postcards, art prints, and illustrated stickers around seasonal themes for children, for Waldorfshop.EU, based in Germany. In 2020 Ella created illustrations for the children's book Tiny Tin Elf by Eric G Müller(Alkion Press).The graphite drawings in this book came into being while listening to recordings of Séamus speaking the text. Each pictureattempts to resonate with the whole episode's unfolding.To see more of Ella's work you can visit her website: http: //ellapointe.com.
LISA ROMERO is an author of inner development books and courses, a complementary health practitioner and an adult educator who has been offering healthcare and education enriched with anthroposophy since 1993. From 2006 the primary focus of her work has been on teaching inner development and anthroposophical meditation.Through Inner Work Path Lisa offers lectures, courses and retreats for personal and professional development, in communities and schools worldwide. Inner Work Books has published 'The Inner Work Path' focusing on meditation practice, 'Developing the Self' written after many years of working with Waldorf teachers to support their inner work and pedagogical understanding of child development, 'Living Inner Development' offering an understanding of the inner experiences and results of various inner development exercises, 'Sex Education and The Spirit' to help awaken an understanding of our communal responsibility for the healthy development of gender and sexuality within society, "Spirit-led Community" which introduces spiritually healthy guidelines for lessening the negative influence of technology on the inner life, and "A Bridge to Spirit - Understanding conscious self-development and consciousness-altering substances". In May 2020, EduCareDo launched a new year-long subject course written by Lisa - Inner Development for World Development.
