Mary as the Bride on St Bridget’s feast day and
celebrating the feast of candles
in my garden shrine
Today is the first day of the final week of
Thirty Days with Mary.
It is also of course St Bridgits Day and in the Northern Hemisphere
it is Candlemas and Imbolc.
Here in the South it is Lammas or the Harvest Festival.
So today’s post is a slightly longer one.
One of my Bridget collage cards.
I have a special devotion to Bridgit and spent a few days in Kildare,
visiting her sacred well and the hearth. I have written about this
pilgrimage on my blog Cloister of the Heart
(http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com)
For today I have created a special altar for Bridgit
as well as for the Priestesshood of the Temple of Mary
that we celebrate during this final week of the Suit of the Roses.
Bridgit is the Moon card in my deck and I included the
Brigit cross and the claidagh in the shrine.
In Glastonbury (Avalon) she is known as Bridie, the virgin goddess
and she can be seen in the landscape riding on the back of a swan.
I brought these back from Kildare. The small altar on the right
is a copy of the big altar that stands at the beginning of the pilgrimage
at Brigid’s well. Here you can see some of my offerings, along with those
of other pilgrims when I visited.
To honour my own relationship with Bridgid/Brede/Bride
that has deep roots in Glastonbury and its miraculous hawthorn tree
I included the spiral goddess on my altar.
The hawthorn branch is from my garden.
The fourth week is dedicated to the Suit of Roses.
Through the ages the goddesses Isis, Venus, Aphrodite and the Shekinah
had been called Great Rose, the Rose Queen, Flower of Venus,
the Rose Garden, the Cosmic Rose and the Mystical Rose.
The rosary is a universal form of prayer and present in many religions.
In the Bhagavad Gita it is said that the Universe is a necklace and the string
is the Atman that holds all things together. The Hindu rosary is sacred to
Sarasvati, Goddess of language. Sarasvati hears the words of the prayers
and she is the Word. The Buddhist rosary has 108 beads, so does the Hindu
mala and this number represents the cycles of the universe. The Muslim rosary
has 33 beads for the 99 names of God.
The rose is an ancient symbol sacred to the goddess, to the feminine
and the Wisdom tradition. Sacred places often carry the perfume of
roses and mystics experience the fragrance of the rose during ecstatic
moments.
During my first San Garmano pilgrimage I visited the church
and body of Padre Pio and when I meditated in the sacred space
I was engulfed with the fragrance of roses. It was so strong
I will never forget it. During my visit to the Rosa Mystica shrine
a few years later I was attracted by the strong perfume of roses,
only to discover that the fragrance was coming from the statue of Padre Pio.
I also write about the fragrance of roses and honey at Lourdes
and in Lisieux at the body of St Terese and those who went with me
had the same experience.
The radiant Lady of Lourdes stood over a wild rose bush
and she appeared with golden roses on her bare feet. Her image made
in roses appeared on the inside of the cloak of Juan Diego of Guadulupe.
The original rose flower used to be an open flower with five distinct
petals. The five petals are similar to the inner core of an apple when cut in half;
you can clearly see the pentacle. The apple is also a traditionally feminine
symbol. The shape of the five petals and five segments in the apple’s
inner core, is similar to the five pointed pattern that Venus forms in her
orbit when she gets closest to Earth.
These last seven days are dedicated to Mary, the Great Rose,
the Rose Queen, Rose of Divine Love, the Rose Garden
and Our Lady of Love and Beauty.
My altar for the week – I chose the Priestesshood card
Today we draw the fourth card for the Thirty Days of Mary.
Place all four cards in a row on your altar and start writing the story.
You may find that by the end of the thirty days you will be adding
more insights into the story.
One of my Imbolc collage cards.
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
Glory is the one who is our home
Glory for the presence in our hearts
Glory since the mystery transcends all words.
all songs, all signs
Glory is the hope that makes us live
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
Glory is the wonder that we were and are
and will become
Glory is the Spirit who invades our bones
and makes them shine
Glory in the wind and in the fire
Glory in the one breath
giving life to all the world
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
Glory in the rising earth
Glory embracing what we lost
Glory in assuming who we are
Glory in the woman who is whole
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
blessings
Hettienne
