Rose Window Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris
Many voices tell us the same message in different languages, symbology, hidden messages and at times obscure poetry. One has to keep in mind that there is always power at play. When you have something that someone else wants, you are holding the power. This is also true for the ‘spiritual’ journey. There is only one way to ‘know’ and that is to trust your heart and to disobey the Judge.
Seemingly a simple and straightforward step, to trust yourself, but as we know, layers of conditioning have distorted your mind and has led you to believe in the ‘other’ within. At all times you are self-conscious and aware of watching yourself or being watched by others and acting on the assumption that you are separate from ‘God’ and that there are others who know better or more.
When you discover that you are the ‘other’ and that all beliefs in separation grows from your own mind, you face an inner chaos and darkness which seems impossible to navigate and survive. And it seems easier and simpler to hold onto someone else’s belief system or to jump back into trying to control your physical reality.
True knowing is not an intellectual activity. The left brain that continually analyses and tries to make sense of what is going on, depletes your energy system; breaks down your immune system; opens you to accident and events that is hurtful. The left brain ‘rapes’ and plunders the psyche, the Soul within, the heart which is intrinsically part of the One Heart.
This inner division grows into a web of characters and sub-personalities and the inner child (the heart self) becomes stressed and falls into childhood patterns of thinking and reacting. You may feel overwhelmed and disheartened by the ‘state of affairs’ when you look upon ‘the wasteland of the lands ruled by the wounded fisherking’. Indeed, fairy tales and myths, mystics and religions alike, have been telling us that we are living in the age of the mind, the brilliant Sun, that scorches the land in the absence of the rain of mercy.
In the alchemical process we are shown the importance of becoming the one. Or I should say, realising the One. The duality is created by the mind – the One exists at all times, behind the shadow play of the mind. And remember, this is not an isolated case of Maya; this is a collective group mind that has developed through the Age of the Father.
The first step is to become one in the personality self. To end the voices of dissension and self-sabotage; to unite under the Beloved leader within and to obey each and every command of the heart, without question. One could call this Answering the Call.
Once you have answered the Call, you have to stay with the course, despite the winding labyrinth that your journey takes. Here you will face many adversaries : distractions, fear, doubts, suspicion, and running after every red herring that crosses your path.
But it is to stay focused, with your eyes fixated on the symbol of the Beloved, reminding yourself that this work demands the tempering and forging of the sword (the symbol of the mind that serves your healing and highest purpose).
The symbol of the Beloved in the Temple of Mary is indeed the Eternal Bride, the Beloved Goddess and the Sacred Feminine, the Feminine Soul of the One. The qualities of the feminine are wisdom, beauty, mercy, grace, compassion, nurturing and feeling : an all-embracing Self that creates and births the alchemical container through Self-Acceptance and Self-Love.
The centre of the alchemical process is the hermetically sealed container and the ability to live with the pressure and the tension of the ‘cooking process’. Indeed, the many layers of the self will be melted down and this is not a glorious process. It will invoke fear and resistance in you; you will try every trick in the book to escape this certain dissolution of the walls of the castle; and you will fall and you will fail. But you always have the choice to return to the Great Work and to pick yourself up from the last fall and to take the next step.
The Great Work is the Hieros Gamos, the Sacred Marriage between self and Self; Heart and Mind; Psyche and Eros; God and Goddess.
You right now, already know yourself as all of the above, you are just not aware that it is indeed conscious and present. Who is looking through your eyes right now? Who is reading these words? Who is it that feels great love awakening within your heart?
Maria Sophia is one of the oldest names of the Goddess in Sanskrit. Maria Prophetissa is the oldest known Alchemist in our mythical history. She is the Soul, the Shekinah, the in-dwelling Divinity and Presence in you. The undivided One.
Why do we refer to Her as feminine? Why do we use gender at all? Why the Great Mother and the Goddess?
Do not be blindsided by the terminology : symbols are a way of describing that which we cannot describe with words. Words limit our knowing and experience as it puts us back into the left brain. By stepping into the imagery through ritual, ceremony, movement, sound, contemplation and witnessing our feelings, we immerse ourselves into the Knowledge of the One : the One who is closer than your own breath.
This is a small taste of what you can expect during the first initiation of the Temple of Mary, during the weekend of 7 September. A weekend of awareness and direct experience; simple and practical exercises to awaken the inner knowing; ritual to stir the unconscious and bring the Love to light – a balance between structure and free flowing. You will receive a note book which you can read in leisure after the retreat and keep with you as a guidebook. This weekend will be the first of many – each designed to deepen the knowing of Love and to support you as you step out on your path of Soulful purpose and meaning.
All energy blessings (diksha), darshan and any blessings that you receive during this weekend, you may use for your own healing and the healing of others; you may freely pass it on to others and you will be shown how to do this.
In Grace
