" A mandala can be used in support, either at the same time or successively, of a concrete ritual or an act of spiritual concentration or, again, of a technique of mystical physiology. This multivalency, this applicability to multiple although closely comparable planes, is a characteristic of the Centre in general. This is easily understandable, since every human being tends, ecen unconsciously, towards the Centre, and towards his own Centre, where he can find integral reality - sacredness. This desire, so deeply rooted in man to find himself at the very heart of the real, - at the Centre of the World, the place of communication with Heaven - explains the ubiquitous use of 'Centres of the World'. (In archair societies)... the habitation of Man was assimilated to the Universe, the hearth or the smoke hole being homologised with the Centre of the World; so that all houses, like all temples, palaces and cities are situated at one and the same point - the Centre of the Universe.
A whole array of myths, symbols and rituals emphasizes with one accord the difficulty of obtaining entry into a centre; while ont he other hand another series of myths and rites lays it down that this centre is accessible. For example, pilgrimage tot eh holy Places is difficult; but any visit whatever to a church is a pilgrimage. The Cosmic Tree is, on the one hand, inaccessible; but on the other it may be found in any yourt. The way which leads to any "Centre" is strewn with obstacles; and yet every city, every temple, every dwelling-place is already at the centre of the Universe. The sufferings and the trials undergone by Ulysses are fabuolous. Nevertheless, any return to hearth and home is equivalent to Ulysses' return to Ithaca." Images and Symbols, Studies in religioius Symbolism. Miecea Eliade, 1991, Princeton University Press.
My return to the Centre was accomplished by means of a tide of serendipety. Each time over the course of this journey that I have tried to force the pace, I have been thwarted and to the very last minute my way was barred until I accepted to avert my eyes from the Goal (or Grail) and trusted to fate.
Like Ulysses, I was wrought by remorse and guilt and pain. Like Ulysses, I cried and pleaded. Like him I showed heroic courage and fortitude and saved my companions from assault and malefice. I prayed and I despaired. I sang my saga in sorrow and despair. Not being heard, not being embraced, I dreamt over many years, decades and cycles of a redeeming smile of welcome. Eventually, I resigned myself to the baseness of real life: trial and tribulation, storm and anger, selfish design and contempt was all I met with. Until one winter's day teh sun shone and I was able to be heard and to be seen. I visited the sacred place of my childhood dreams, I was cherished and admired and today, back in my workaday life of normal good-and-bad, back in the real life with its many unbreakable ties, I lie. satisfied of having arrive in Ithaca, alive and still hopeful, still intact, still weak and still strong - arrived caring for my immortality. And see: I asked that question, didn't I? - who is the Grail for?
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