429 - Martin Shaw - Longing and Mystery: The Quest for the Holy Grail
The Symbolic World
Jonathan Pageau
4.8 • 933 Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
YouTube version: https://youtu.be/3qDkPUsle3M
COURSE: The Quest for the Holy Grail with Dr. Martin Shaw
In the dark heart of January, when the nights are long and the world draws close, Dr. Martin Shaw returns to Symbolic World Courses for an intensive week-long journey to tell one of the greatest stories of the Medieval imagination: Parzival and the Holy Grail.
Register now: https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/courses/the-quest-for-the-holy-grail
Cost: $160 USD
Dates of live course: January 12-16, 2026
Time: 12 PM-2 PM EST, except for Lecture 3 (January 14) which will be at 4PM-6PM EST
Links:
-Pre-order Martin Shaw’s upcoming book, Liturgies of the Wild, to get an exclusive chapter: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741189/liturgies-of-the-wild-by-martin-shaw/
-Martin’s other books, including Snowy Tower: https://drmartinshaw.com/books/
Events:
-February 13-15, 2026, Orthodox Christian Arts Festival (Praise for the Beauty) in Texas, with speakers including Martin Shaw and Deacon Seraphim Richard Rohlin: https://www.orthodoxartsfestivaldfw.com/
-January 27, 2026, London, The Temenos Academy. Seeing the Patterned World: the Cosmos as Layered Microcosms, a talk by Jonathan Pageau with Dr. Martin Shaw in the chair. £10 General Admission. The Art Workers' Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT. Doors open at 6.10 pm, lecture begins at 6.30 pm. https://www.temenosacademy.org/events-programme/seeing-the-patterned-world
Some other links of things mentioned:
-Jonathan and Dcn Seraphim’s recent course on Dante’s Paradiso: https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/courses/dantes-paradiso
-Jonathan’s analysis of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Part 1: https://youtu.be/Rg5RDZ7mMKo and Part 2: https://youtu.be/1ch1T24-W7Q
-The Monks and Pirates discussion with Andrew Gould: https://youtu.be/WjMadP6DScM
-Universal History: The American Religion episode: https://youtu.be/0_RKBPaQAyk
Timestamps:
00:00 - Coming up
00:32 - Intro music
02:00 - The cost of conversion
05:49 - What is the Grail
10:05 - Other hints of the Grail
15:30 - To remain veiled
17:45 - Who the stories are for
19:42 - The place of chivalry
24:46 - The Holy Virgin
29:31 - Longing
34:12 - Weakness has a seat at the table
36:48 - Liturgies of the wild
43:42 - Christianity in publishing
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My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson: https://matthewwilkinson.net/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I remember saying this once, in your incompleteness is your authenticity. You don't have to |
| 0:06.1 | stay there. We're working on theosis, but in your incompleteness is your authenticity. Get to know |
| 0:12.5 | yourself in that fashion. And then know that against all conceivable odds, God is still |
| 0:19.7 | in utterably interested in you. That's my miracle. It's like, how can that fella even gaze in my direction, you know, at this point? But somehow, somehow he does. Music, The The This is Jonathan Pejot. Welcome to the symbolic world. Hello there. Well, this is Martin Shaw and I'm afraid whatever you had planned for January, scrap it. |
| 1:04.0 | I am returning to symbolic world gleefully with one of the great stories of our time, |
| 1:10.0 | the epic of Parsivell, the story of the Holy Grail itself. |
| 1:15.1 | Over five nights, I will be telling the tale. These will not be dry lectures or PowerPoint presentations. |
| 1:23.1 | This will be wild, old, philosophical storytelling in its deepest dimensions. It is life-changing stuff, |
| 1:32.1 | this story. I've written a book about it. I've been studying it for 20 years. I've told it all |
| 1:37.9 | over the world, but I have not shared it with you. I've not shared it with symbolic world. |
| 1:43.3 | So what else would you want to do in the great wintering time, |
| 1:47.0 | but to sit at the feet of this wonderful story and let me be your guide. |
| 1:52.0 | I'll see you there. Hello, everyone. I'm here with the legendary Martin Shaw. |
| 2:03.6 | You know, it's very exciting. There's a lot of wonderful things happening with Martin. |
| 2:10.6 | He is going to give us a retelling of the Grail Story. You can check it out. |
| 2:16.6 | You know, it's kind of like a class where every |
| 2:18.8 | single day you can sit in the evening with Martin and listen to him, give you a retelling of |
| 2:24.9 | Parciful, and at the same time give his insight and his analysis. So that's coming, but also |
| 2:31.6 | Martin has a new book called Liturgies of the Wild, |
| 2:35.0 | which I was very fortunate to get a reader's proof. And so Martin, yeah, it's wonderful to see |
| 2:41.3 | you be so successful. Thanks for talking to me. Thank you, Jonathan. I am the longest |
| 2:47.1 | overnight sensation of all time. Ah, I'm really happy, though, because, you know, I'll be honest with you, you know, when you kind of |
... |
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