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| Photograph taken by myself during procession at Lourdes |
Visionary or apparitional culture is no static force, a cultural ‘given’ that people can join as members.
It is dynamic, responding to contemporary political, social and religious realities
and shaping those realities, and is also shaped
by the individuals who identify themselves as Marian devotees
and visionaries.
Visionary culture is a confluence of Catholic devotions, symbols,
and traditions of innovative responses to modern
contexts of negotiations among social, religious and interpersonal
forces of the interactions of apparitions believers
and apparition doubters and of the loving
and guiding influence of Our Lady, who for believers is imminently present.
Visionary culture is a worldview, a palette of practices, an understanding
of the cosmos, a palette on which individuals paint
the stories of their lives.
Extract from Out Lady of Emmitsburg by Jill Krebs
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| Photographs taken by myself during procession at Lourdes |
‘I realized that all the powers of the Mothers, of Tara, Durga, Kali are in Mary.
She has Tara’s sublime tenderness;
Durga’s inaccessible silent calm force;
the grandeur and terribilta of Kali.
But Mary is also a woman,
a poor woman
and a human mother.
In her the full path of the sacred feminine is lived.
In her we have a complete image of the Divine Mother,
an image at once transcendent and immanent,
other-worldly and this-wordly,
at once mystical and political and practical.
In Mary the Divine Mother comes to earth and lives on earth
and lives, the passionate, strong, serious,
simple and transforming life that shows us all how to live.
Mary is the bridge between heaven and earth,
between the human and the divine worlds,
between human and divine justice.”
Andrew Harvey in The Return of the Mother
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| Mary statue in my garden in Durbanville South Africa |
A puja is a ritual dedicated to the worship of one’s personal deity.
As in all ritual there is a certain set of actions;
each one designed with a particular focus and effect
in mind. In these Thirty Days with Mary we
are devoting our focus, intent, emotion,senses,
passion and vision to evoke our
spiritual selves and to connect with our
own divinity.
Through repeated entry into the spiritual realms
we shed the perceptions and projections of the mind
and access a wider vision, a deeper connectedness to
all of life and transpersonal wisdom.
In preparation of the puja I am sharing the following prayer with you.
You can incorporate it into today’s practise and you may want
to memorize it for the puja to Holy Mary.
Tomorrow I will share the puja with you.
Please gather fresh flowers, incense or a smudging stick,
a bell, or a drum or a music instrument,
a glass of water and something to eat which you can
place on the altar.
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She is the Eastern Gate
VI of Holy Rood |
Hail Queen of Heaven
Hail! Lady of the Angels
Salutation to Three, root and portal
Whence the Light of the world has arisen
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
I am the maiden of the joy
I am song in the wind and rain upon the rocks.
I am fair love and holy hope
and the flight of the dove.
I am earth, betrothed
I am Mystical Rose.
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
I am the Mother of mystery
I hold opposites together
I birth children and sever the cord with my teeth
Those I love I send away to their lives
I am the cauldron of fire and the cup of milk
I am the two-edged sword
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
In me Sophia speak :
I am the marriage of opposites
I am beauty,
right order in creation,
the balance of all being.
I contain all the secrets whose names are beads,
I am the cosmic necklace.
I am the daughter of silence and
I bring forth the word of truth.
I am the serpent and the dove.
I am the soul of the Christ
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
I am the flour and I am the hands
that kneed the dough.
I am the fire and the loaf.
I offer and I am offered.
I eat and am eaten.
I am food for the world and
I am the world.
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
Hail Queen of Heaven,
Hail! Lady of the Angels
Salutation to Thee, root and portal
Whence the Light of the world has arisen
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
We continue with the Immaculate Practise for the full thirty days.
The discipline of a daily repetitive spiritual practise
contains the mind and frees the soul to explore the other realms
of Divine Love and Wisdom
blessings to you
Hettienne
