Via Maria – The Way of Maria, the path of Mary
The physical world and all of creation is sacred and a gift of Grace. The Divine is present in all things and all things are in the Divine.
God is both Mother and Father, Lover and Beloved and the Absolute One
This physical universe is a manifestation of the Love of the Belove;
God and Goddess, Lover and Beloved in an eternal embrace of ecstasy.
Our highest values are Love, Wisdom and Beauty.
Through spiritual practise (sadhana),
devotion (bhakty),
divine inspiration and
commitment to keeping the flames of inspiration and spiritual vision al and
compassion in the world and taking the work out into the communities as Flamekeepers of the Temple of Mary, we find our true selves.
This is a path of bhakty (devotion and worship), mysticism and creativity. We express our devotion and worship through acts of dance, song, mantra, ritual sacrament and puja; we access the Divine within ourselves and everything through deep meditation, through Vision and Beauty (the highest expression) as well as through contemplation on the suffering and painful challenges of our daily lives.
We express our love for and devotion to the Divine through acts of creativity and compassionate giving. This is defined in the following text :
Let my every word be a prayer to Thee
Every movement of my hands a ritual gesture to Thee
Every step I take a circumambulation of Thy image
Every morsel I eat a rite of sacrifice to Thee
Every time I lay down a prostration at Thy feet;
Every act of personal pleasure and all else that I do,
Let it all be a form of worshipping Thee.
From verse 27 of Shri Aadi Shankara’s Saundaryalahari
Via Maria draws from many traditions. There are many wells in the sacred Ganga and we drink deeply from all these wells, bringing together many pieces of the greater picture. We use wisdom from occult Christianity, the teachings of the Cosmic Christ and the Cosmic Mother, the Tree of Life, Hindu Tantra, Bridal Mysticism, the Gnostic teachings, and Goddess religions amongst others.
In prema,
Ave Maria
