Author: Hettienne Grobler

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Bridgit, Mary and the Sacred Marriage

SHE
Beckoning, calling
A beacon of light in the darkness.
 Winds swirling, moving white light blending with white cloth.
 A smile, a halo, hair or light?
 She is calling, walking ahead, leading, guiding, gently shining
 the Light.
I follow, one foot forward, then another,
tentatively, unsure, until finally,
breaking out in a run,
feet secure, heart pounding,
following blindly,
following Her. – Hettienne  Bhaktymayi Maria Ma – 2004

The year after I found Mary’s Well in
Glastonbury, I attended the International Goddess Conference in Glastonbury – the first of many to follow. That year the focus was on Bridie or Brigid and her swan.
If you have been following the story, you will know that Hestea/Vesta led me to St Brigit and Michael’s Tower in Glastonbury.
I stayed in the same bed n breakfast as before and this time I shared the space with Sister Mary McAleese, a Brigidine nun from Kildare!
From her I learnt that Brigit is also known as Brede or Mary of the Gael! You may remember my mention of the one book that made such an incredible impact on my life. I read ‘In this House of Brede’ by Rumer Godden when I was fourteen – I still own that copy. I have given many books away since, but never that one. I could not explain to you why the book was so important, other than that I always felt that there was a story behind the words that only I could ‘see’.
When those nuns told me that Brede was St Brigit, the key fitted the door and the following year I travelled to Kildare, Ireland to the sanctuary of St Brigit, Mary of the Gael.
The nuns are Brigidine nuns, living in Kildare in Ireland. They are part of a community known as Solas Brihde, devoted to the all-encompassing Celtic St Brigit : saint, poetess, protector and healer.
They have restored the original Brigit sacred pilgrimage site along with a small publication, guiding pilgrims in the power and symbolism of the pilgrimage to Brigit.
The original site dedicated to Brigit, Celtic Goddess, is still to be seen in the grounds of the Catholic Church
erected on the same site.

This shrine, near Kildare, was located near an ancient Oak that was considered to be sacred by the Druids, so sacred in fact that no one was allowed to bring a weapon there.
The shrine is believed to have been an ancient college of priestesses who were committed to thirty years of service, after which they were free to leave and marry.
During their first ten years they received training, the next ten were spent tending the sacred wells, groves and hills of the goddess Brigid, and the last decade was spent in teaching others.
Nineteen priestesses were assigned to tend the perpetual flame of the sacred fire of Brigid. Each was assigned to keep the flames alive for one day. On the twentieth day, the goddess Brigid herself kept the fire burning brightly.
The goddess Brigid was also revered as the Irish goddess of poetry and song. Known for her hospitality to poets, musicians, and scholars, she is known as the Irish muse of poetry.
The Feast Day of Brigid, known as Imbolc, is celebrated at the start of February, midway through the winter. Like the goddess herself, it is meant to give us hope, to remind us that spring is on its way.
The lessons of this complex and widely beloved goddess are many.
The Celtic goddess Brigid lends us her creativity and inspiration, but also reminds us to keep our traditions alive and whole. These are gifts that can sustain us through any circumstance.
Her fire is the spark of life. – taken from local literature.
Lighting the Perpetual Flame – A Brief history
A sacred fire burned in Kildare reaching back into pre-Christian times. Scholars suggest that priestesses used to gather on the hill of Kildare to tend their ritual fires while invoking a goddess named Brigid to protect their herds and to provide a fruitful harvest.
When St. Brigid built her monastery and church in Kildare she continued the custom of keeping the fire alight. For her and her nuns the fire represented the new light of Christianity, which reached our shores early in the fifth century.
Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) a Welsh Chronicler, visited Kildare in the twelfth century, he reported that the fire of St. Brigid was still burning in Kildare and that it was being tended by nuns of St. Brigid. Some historians record that a few attempts were made to have the fire extinguished but without success. It survived possibly up to the suppression of the monasteries in the sixteenth century.
The sacred fire/flame was re-lit in 1993, in the Market Square, Kildare, by Mary Teresa Cullen, the then leader of the Brigidine Sisters, at the opening of a justice and peace conference. The conference, entitled “Brigid: Prophetess, Earthwoman, Peacemaker” was organised by Afri, (Action from Ireland), a justice, peace and human rights organisation, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of St. Brigid’s Peace Cross Project. Since then, the Brigidine Sisters in Kildare have tended the flame in their Centre, Solas Bhride.
Kildare County Council commissioned a sculpture to house the flame in Kildare Town Square in 2005. The piece comprises a twisted column, which flourishes at the top into large-scale oak leaves, nestled into which there is a bronze, acorn cup holding the flame. The use of oak leaves symbolises both the Christian beliefs of St. Brigid and the earlier Druidic worship of the trees. Of course, the oak is also the namesake of Kildare, Cill Dara, Church of the Oak.
President Mary McAleese presided at the lighting of the Perpetual Flame in the Town Square on Feb.1st St. Brigid’s Day 2006. The flame was lit from the flame tended by the Brigidine Sisters in Solas Bhride. The flame burns as a beacon of hope, justice and peace for our country and our world. We still tend the flame in Solas Bhride. – extracted from www.solasbrihde.ie
I would like to quote from Riane Eisler’s Sacred Pleasure, Sex, Myth and the Politics – New Paths to Power and Love :
From the Sacred Marriage of the Goddess to Male Brides of God. In conformity with male dominator systems’ requirements, this tenet that woman is inferior to man pervades many mystical writings, both Eastern and Western. …inner contradictions also characterize most Judeo-Christian mystical writings. For in these monotheistic religions the female is deprived of all divine power, which is presented exclusively in male form. Yet, even despite such radical remything, there are still in the Bible many traces of both the Goddess and her sacred marriage, confirming the archeological evidence that Goddess worship (and with this sacral sex) continued to flourish in Canaan. For instance, Hebrew prophets are cosntantly exhorting their people against backsliding to the worship of the Queen of Heaven, railing against the ‘whore of Babylon’ and the sinful ‘daughters of Zion’. The Christian veneration of the Virgin Mary is a directly traceable to the ancient worship of the Goddess. And so also are a number of well-known Catholic saints, as it is to the Church’s co-option of earlier pagan deities that many Christian saints owe their origins. A well-documented example is the famous Irish Saint Brigit, who owed her great popularity to the fact that she was once the powerful Irish Goddess Brigit.
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La Feile Bride

Bridgit, Mary of the Gael, Goddess and Saint of Poetry, Crafts, Healing and Fire :
  Inpiration of poets, artists and artisans.



Brighid, excellent woman,
Sudden flame,
May the fiery, bright sun
Take us to the lasting kingdom.

Song of the Virgins of Kildare
St. Brigid’s church in Kildare was built on a site sacred to Brigid. 
Where Her eternal flame had once been tended by 19 priestesses, 
19 nuns took it in turn to each tend the flame for a day and a night. 
On the 20th day, the Goddess (or the saint) tended the flame herself.


February 2 is one of the great cross-quarter days which make up
 the wheel of the year. 
In the Northern Hemisphere It falls midway between the
 winter solstice and the spring equinox and in many traditions is 
considered the beginning 
of spring and in the Southern Hemisphere it is the 
beginning of autumn.

In Western Europe, this was the time for preparing the 
fields for the first planting.
 This was an important day for grain growing communities who 
depended on the crops of the earth mother. This is the time of year, 
when the ground is first awakened and the seed placed in the 
belly of the earth. 
The fields were purified and offerings were made to the goddess.

This medieval Anglo-Saxon plowing prayer was said by the 
farmer while cutting the first furrow.

Whole be thou Earth 
Mother of men. 
In the lap of God, 
Be thous as-growing. 
Be filled with fodder 
For fare-need of men.
The farmer then took a loaf of bread, kneaded it 
with milk and holy water and 
laid it under the first furrow, saying:

Acre full fed, 
Bring forth fodder for men! 
Blossoming brightly, 
Blessed become; 
And the God who wrought the ground, 
Grant us the gifts of growing, 
That the corn, all the corn, 
may come unto our need.


 February 2 is also Imbolc, and Candlemas,
 the holy day of Brighid, 
Goddess and Saint, La Feile Bride. (pronounced Breede)  

The Sacred Well and Shrine at Kildare

Brighid is a Goddess of many names. 
In Ireland She is called Brigid, Brigit, Brighid, 
Brid. In Scotland She is called Bhrighde, 
Bride Breo-Saighit, Brede. 
The Welsh call Her Ffraid and the French call her
 Brigandu.
She is called Brigantia by the Northern English 
and Bridget in Sweden. 
Her name is pronounced Brighid or Bree-id.  
Some have said that Her name may have come 
from the word Brihati, 
which means “high” or “exalted one” in Sanskrit. 
Her name in Gaelic means “fire tipped, exalted one, high one.”



 Imbolc, also called Oimelc [‘ewe’s milk’] marked the first 
stirrings of spring when young sheep were born, and when 
ewes came into milk. 
On this day, the first of the Celtic spring, Brigid was said to 
use her white wand to “breathe life into the 
mouth of the dead winter”, 
meaning the white fire of the sun awakened the land. 
An old poem stated; “Today is the day of Bride, 
The Serpent shall come from the hole.” 
An effigy of the serpent was often honoured in the ceremonies 
of this day, making it clear that Brighid had aspects as a 
serpent goddess. As the serpent sloughed its old skin and was 
renewed, so the land shook off winter to emerge restored; 
the snake symbolised the cycle of life. 
When Brighid’s cult was suppressed, 
then St Patrick had indeed banished the snakes [Pagans] from 
Ireland. However, Brighid’s popularity was so great that the c
hurch transformed her into a saint, allegedly the midwife of 
Christ and the daughter of a Druid who was converted to Christianity
 by St. Patrick, and who went on to found the Abbey of Kildare. 
Her festival became Candlemas when church candles were blessed. 
Brighid was invited into the home by the woman of the house, 
in the form of a doll or corn dolly dressed in maiden white. 
Oracles were taken from the ashes of the hearth fire, 
which people examined for a sign that Brighid had visited, i.e.
 a mark that looked like a swan’s footprint. If found, it was
 considered a lucky omen. 
The swan was an ancient attribute of the goddess Brighid. 
Many Irish homes still have a Brighid’s cross hung up somewhere.
 This was originally a solar symbol.

A small community of Brigidine nuns are keeping the sacred light
 of Brigit burning at 
Solas Brihde in Kildare.  I spent a week in Kildare, 
walking the pilgrimage of Bridgit, visiting her sacred well


Her favourite oak tree


a candle blessing at one of the stations of the Brigid walk





prayed at the Abbey of Brede



Weaving the St Bridgit cross is traditional on this day.


I found this step be step instruction on the site of the Brigidine sisters :

1.     Take the first rush/reed and hold it vertically.
2.     Fold a second rush/reed in half 
at the mid point of the first.
3.     Take a third and fold it around the second parallel to the first. 
This will now form a T-shaped piece, with one arm having one strand, 
the second having two and the third having three.
4.     Fold the fourth around the third to form a cross.
5.     Fold a fifth around the fourth, parallel to the single strand. 
Make sure you hold the centre tight!
6.     Continue folding each reed around the previous reeds.
7.     Work in a circular way until you have created enough of a woven centre. 
When your centre is as large as you want, hold in the reeds tightly so 
that the centre is tight and will hold the cross without any difficulty.
8.     Tie the end of each arm carefully and trim ends.



If you would like to read more about my pilgrimage to Brigid, 
Mary of the Gael and her presence in Glastonbury, please go here :  http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com/2011/04/brigidbrigitbridebrede-mary-of-gael.html
Carving of Bridgit milking a cow – on Tower of Michael,
                                                                                  the Tor, Glastonbury                                                                                  



A blessed La Feile Bride to you!!
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At the grotto I fell in line with the other pilgrims, waiting my turn to touch the walls of the cave and its dripping water. The atmosphere was light and joyful, although many stood and kneeled deep in prayer. As I approached the statue of Our Lady where She appeared to St Bernadette, I could feel an
intensification of the energy, a slight vibration and a humming sound. The closer I came, the louder the sound became. The sound was over and above the sound of the rushing waters.
As I put my hand out to touch the dripping water and I raised my eyes,
a column of light was visible to me,
shimmering and dancing.
My first impression was that it is a giant candle, but then my logical mind
realised that this is not possible.
The only way I can describe it is ‘a flame of living organic light’ :
Her Divine Presence made manifest in this world,
visible to my eyes.
And overwhelming and immense feelings which I am at a loss to name.
A feeling of such incredible fullness and completeness which has stayed with me ever since.

A hundred thousand harps take you
like wings and sweep you up out of silence.
And your primitive wind is blowing
the fragrance of your marvelous power
to every being and to every creature in need.
– Rainer Maria Rilke

This is how I described my experience at Lourdes!

Start saving your pennies for 2014! It would be wonderful if each member of The Temple of Mary could join in this pilgrimage, so, if it is your desire, put it on your wish list for Love to fulfill.

This is a very preliminary outline of the itinerary and dates. The dates may vary by one or two days either way, depending on the cheapest available flights. I will towards the end of 2013 look for affordable flights and for specials to Paris – these often come up at R5000-R6000 per return flight. I will use my past travelling experience in France to find us affordable accommodation and modes of travel. Meals can be al fresco and picnic style which will not cost a fortune. A budget of R15000 should be enough to cover everything (flights, accommodation, meals and travel) including shopping. But again, it depends on the rand-Euro exchange and we will see closer to the time.

Dates : Saturday 18 May 2014 – Friday 31 May 2014

The month of May is sacred to Mary.

You can read about some of my pilgrimages on the below links :

there are more if you are interested (search pilgrimage, mary magdalene, paris, lourdes, sarah la kali, notre dame, sare coeur)

Chapel of the Miraculous Medal
When I visited this chapel I wrote about my wonderful experience, bathing in Mary’s Love while sitting there. 
Soon the images seen by my eyes disappear and only a brilliant golden light is visible. The light has a silver rim to it and it is alive and palpable with wisdom and knowledge which cannot be translated into words. This is the Presence of Divine Mary. The light translates into my physical body and energetically there is deep movement in and through my body. Then my heart fills with a feeling that seems physical. Everything and everyone around me is bathed in this beautiful light and they all glow in love. The Light becomes stronger and more powerful and I see the intense Light at the centre of it all and also at the centre of each and every person. And the quality of this Light is Good and only Good – pure and beautiful and innocent! And it does not matter what happens on the exterior : nothing can corrupt or diminish that Light which is you and me. – http://www.path-of-divine-love.com/2012/10/mary-grace-of-miraculous-medal.html

We will visit :

PARIS

Notre Dame de Paris
Sacre Coeur de Montmartre
Chapel of the Miraculous Medal
La Madeline Temple
and
Chartres of the famous Chartres Blue glass and the Black Madonna!
Yesterday we visited the Sacre Couer in Montmartre along with hundreds of tourists. The beautiful and sacred atmosphere of the church was virtually non-existent with tourists disobeying the instructions not to take photographs, children touching everything, you get the picture. However, my daughter and I was determined to immerse ourselves in the energies and we were not disappointed. We both felt the light humming in our hands and arms as we approached the beautiful golden statue of Mother and Child. It felt like a door opened in my chest and throat and a million birds flew out, suffusing myself with the Love that includes everyone and everything. Next we entered the Virgin chapel. The walls were covered in images of the sacred woman in Her different roles and aspects. The compassionate and nurturing energy was intense and palpable. The air here was cool and soothing and it felt like an expanse of space. We stayed as long as we could. – http://www.path-of-divine-love.com/2012/07/drinking-from-waters-that-truly-quench.html

Travel by air or train to Marseille and then to Saint Maximin de la St Baume where we will stay at the old convent next to the Basilica de Madeleine



and from there to Saintes Maries de la Mer for the Sara la-kali Festival on Friday 24 to Sunday 25 May
and then on to Lourdes

I Love You Always
Blessings
Hettienne Bhaktymayi Maria Ma
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shadow and light

 
The opposites of shadow and light
Our initiation into new clear seeing and knowing is not complete until we have mastered
or until we have been mastered by the sacred marriage of the opposites of the shadows and the light.
Achieving this is not obvious and simple as we are confronted everywhere
with the polar opposites of joy and sadness, poverty and abundance, rage and peace and
the space between these polar opposites seem to widen every day as one gazes
into the world of mankind.

Here I am, living in a world where children are conditioned from an early age that Chicken Little
actually wants his throat slit for you to have him for dinner;
where the bottom line is always profit and profitability and therefore
it is sanctioned to treat farm animals without kindness or mercy
and it is acceptable to torture animals in order to put a new kind
of hair shampoo on the market, and the list goes on and on.

And on the other hand, I experience bliss (ananda) whilst sitting in my garden,
listening to the birds in the tree above me;  bliss as in all-consuming,
rapture that makes every nerve and every cell and my soul scream
with the ecstasy of the gods;  this world and its shadows
disappear as I become a humming, vibrating pillar of living
bliss and everything is light and only light.
and not just light, but that which is Go-od, beyond words,
beyond intellect, Go-od.

And then I return and I am back in this world
seeing beggars at every robot;
listening to other’s emotional and mental pain;
and I cannot find the words
and I lack the fire to create art that may explain
that which I have come to know
as the Infinite Heart
which is the tabernacle of this world
of polar opposites of shadow and light.

And for those who are seeking the infinite within themselves
and this life,  evidence of the Shadow is obvious. 
They struggle with their own seeking for that fleeting moment
of peace and joy;
they are confronted with a mind that undermines their own efforts
and yet, and yet
 each time they return to that deep center, each fleeting moment that they 
glimpse the possible joy and freedom, the potential for bliss,
each time that they taste the bliss during meditation.
they are convinced that it is there, within reach
beyond
the suffering and the pain.
 
 
Every time that I am pervaded and posssessed by ananda, by living ecstatic bliss,
I am overtaken by the knowing that I am linked to an
immaculate power which pervades my consciousness and carries
my body and soul and heart to levels of rapture that
can only be translated as divine ecstasy.
 
And thus I live in two worlds,
the one sacred and the other profane
and I move between the two
like a revolving door
 
And I understand that by abiding in this reality,
by my body and soul becoming ananda,
living in two worlds simultaneously,
I am a bridge between divine and human,
that which connects
that which unites
in other words,
a living sacred marriage.
 
 
 
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The Sacred Marriage

The Sacred Marriage – Living with the Tension of the Opposites
First moonflower to open in the Mary Garden
and it did so during the Full Moon this November ’12
Duality implies that there is always a perception of two.  As long
as there are two, a polarity exists.
The mind believes it cannot stand both, so it always chooses
‘a corner’, one of the two.  
Your wholeness lies in seeing both sides of the polarity.
When you are caught up in an uncomfortable position,
or you are stuck in a painful behaviour pattern, ask yourself
‘what is the opposite of this?’  ‘what is the other side
of this polarity that I am not seeing?’
This world is one of duality.  It is polarised
into negative and positive poles and like a
pendulum, it swings,  What comes around, goes around.
What goes up will come down again.
The poles spin and so positive behaviour will turn into
negative behaviour and vice versa.
We are attracted to the positive and repulsed by the negative.
With the result that the negative gets suppressed and denied
and pushed down into the subconscious.
As long as the negative or positive is suppressed, it will attract
and repulse, hidden from your consciousness.
The transformative work is to bring the unconscious into the conscious.
to become aware of patterns, addictions, stories, belief systems,
and undesired feelings.
The work is to remember that you are infinite consciousness,
capable of being with everything as it is.
The work is to release you from your limiting personality
structure which is keeping you locked into a straightjacket
of shoulds and shouldn’ts.
The work is also to let go of the idea of a separate self that exists outside
the will of God or the Divine True Self.
‘I am whole, complete and unlimited’
As you look at any given situation from both the positive and both
the negative;  when you look at both sides of the polarity
and when you live with the tension of the opposites,
that tension becomes a suspension bridge
which carries you over the valley of death.
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The Sacred in the Ordinary

You and your ordinary life is sacred and it contains 
everything that you have been searching for.
All the sages and mystics over time have always pointed this out with stories
and poetry.  But very few ever believe them.
Often one seeks the sacred and the glorious in places other than
the present, ordinary humdrum of daily living. 
Often the seeking is driven by a longing to escape the humdrum
of ordinary living;  or one seeks in order to prevent disaster
from striking again or to prevent the feelings of loss, betrayal, humiliation and
death.
But the truth of the matter is that discomfort, unhappiness, boredom, death,
dying, pain, cruelty, injustice and more is an intrinsic part of life.
The so-called spiritual life does not exempt you from this.  Enlightenment
does not mean that you no longer feel the pain of the world.  It is probably
true to say that  that the less self-centred you are, 
the less self-absorbed and the less occupied with
your own self , the greater the sensitivity, the greater
the empathy and the deeper you feel the pain in the broken heart of the Mother.
But then it is also true that he deeper and more intense you feel, 
the greater the call to add to the world in some way or another;  
not for glory and fame, nor power and money, 
but to add beauty and wisdom in some form to this world.
And herein lies the crux of the matter.
As the selfish heart is crucified, it flowers with Love and Mercy.
Once again quoting Thomas Merton :  It is precisely anguish and 
inner crises that compel us to seek the truth, because it is
these things that make clear to us that we are sunk in the hell of our
own untruth.
Moments of absolute bliss and joy are the golden children of a sacred marriage. When the heart truly
feels, the heavens open.
When the flesh and Spirit meet, a transformation takes place
 and the profane is no longer ordinary, but sublime!
The sacred and the profane affect one another – the two circles intersect – two worlds meet
and join
or sometimes shown as the triple
and we see the
mendorla of the Mother

The world is the very ground for our experience of the sacred.
But in order for the ordinary to become luminous and to have
meaning, we have to infuse it with meaning.
Thomas Merton writes about the loss of symbolism as follows :
All classic shapes have vanished
from alien heavens
where there are no fabled beasts
no friendly histories
and passion has no heraldry
I have nothing to translate
into the figures of night
or the pale geometry
of the fire-birds
If I once had a wagon of lights to ride in
the axle is broken
the horses are shot
As we spiral inwards into ourselves, to find the Immanent God, we 
simultaneously spiral outwards to meet the Divine in the world. As we
clean the glass that is darkly veiled with the ideas of being an individual,
focusing only on me, myself and my own suffering, 
believing ourselves to be unconnected to everyone and everything else, 
the seed is watered and fed and we grow into that
tree that gives shelter and food to an entire village.
In order to find the sacred in the ordinary, to spiral inwards
to meet the immanent Self, two seemingly separate and opposing
worlds have to collide in order to meet
In order to enter into the Nothingness within,
a death has to be embraced as the egocentric life
dies in the Void
As we strip the layers and layers of self-absorption
and self-delusion
and we come alive to the ordinary, the small profane
acts of living and ordinary life
as we become poor in spirit, 
and humble in mind,
we meet the Sacred in the Ordinary.
And here, from this place,
your every act is an act of devotion and worship
here you live your passion
without expectation of an appreciative audience,
you sing your song for nobody.
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
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From the Underworld to the Next

an exciting new blog from one of the members of The Temple of Mary …….

The Journey Begins
This blog crept up to you from the vast echelons of the collective we like to call the internet. This is how it starts. They ask me to give you descriptions of what it is that is happening here, but who am I to try? I can’t, wait…No, it has nothing to do with what I believe I am capable of: I won’t, I will it not. However, I am not so stupid as to believe that this entry will evade being forced to represent the greater whole it forms part of, so I will allow that and maybe even embrace it, a little, for a while.

Great men are seldom spoken of and I do not wish to change that truth. In fact, what you will find offered here is always, probably, mystifying and sometimes maybe even disenchanting. This disenchantment will not be my fault, as you will see: here, I indulge in the moral frivolity of guilt not because I wish to apologise but rather because I would like to allude to, what I believe right now, is imminent.

I, here, believe that the words found in this entry will be demanded of to represent what is and what will be. I don’t actually care if it does or does not. I cannot express this better than a man we are best to be cautious of, if we trust what they say is best, but as you will see, I believe, I have little regard for what they say must be considered “best”.

What I am saying here is this: the reader of my blog is expecting a wall which does not want to be climbed to be constructed here. This is what we expect from any being which takes itself to be an authority or, in other words, human. They tell you that you are ruled by what they call nature and its “laws”. You must accept these laws to live well, live good. You must not fret at the insurmountable walls posed by its laws, there is no point in this, you are better off accepting it. Just accept it. Just accept that you are descended from apes and are ruled by the same, normal, natural, desires. Accept that two times two is four, it is the law of mathematics, do not bother challenging it.

But, we may ask, and here we encounter one of the men I would like to speak of against all good reason, what if…what if “I don’t happen to like those laws and that twice twice two is four?” Here, we encounter the “lazy devil” and he is not the laughing kind. A brooding, miserable, being who has very little consideration for what is “best” for him. We will encounter more of these men here, you can be sure, one may even say that this organisation you are, here, encountered with aspires to the heights of these type of men (and be sure that I, as do they, shed no regard for the “gender” here). However, caution to those who trust my words: what do I know? Indeed, I have caught myself listening to Nietzsche’s, another man we are best not to speak of, “malicious bird” who twitters: “What do you matter? What do you matter?”. Now, I hope you see, this wall does not care if you will to climb it or not, whether you will to believe that you may or not. If you will: do, be dared!

Now you know why I do not apologise and why I do not, here or anywhere, matter. I do not wish to place upon you the curse of law. This you may question, this you may vehemently disagree with: you demand this curse! “Well, so much the better”.Here, you are presented with an entry as a disgusting agreement with the man who wishes to dismiss nature and its laws as becoming “too human” becoming a calculable, necessary, path. We will find nothing as light as what they consider to be “best” here, we will not find humanity here. Instead, we will find wanderers such as the great Zarathustra who knew that: “There are a thousand paths that have never yet been trodden—a thousand healths and hidden isles of life. Even now, man and man’s earth are unexhausted and undiscovered.” Then, there is walking to do, then: let us walk!

I commit myself to the inhumanity of these dangerous men and in this you witness my siding with the promises of lovers. Here, you find me straying from The Path. Come one, come all, this is a sight appreciable to anyone: if you dare. This my journey from the underworld to the next! I start my journey with a parable, read it…my friends. Will love and be willed love:

“Wake and listen, you that are lonely! From the future come winds with secret wing-beats; and good tidings are proclaimed to delicate ears. You that are lonely today, you that are withdrawing, you shall one day be the people: out of you, who have chosen yourselves, there shall grow a chosen people and out of them, the overman. Verily, the earth shall yet become a site of recovery. And even now a new fragrance surrounds it, bringing salvation—and a new hope.” By: Friedrich Nietzsche. From: Thus Spoke Zarathustra: On The Gift-Giving Virtue: 2.

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Our Lady of Ngome, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa


1st Encounter. 22nd August 1955. Feast of The Immaculate Heart of Mary.


Shortly after Holy Communion, Mary stood before me, very close-by. Everything was seen in spirit. I was drawn into another atmosphere. Mary showed Herself in a wonderful light more beautiful than the sun. She was robed all in white, flowing veil from top to toe. Upon Her Breast rested a big host surrounded by a brilliant corona radiating life. She was a living Monstrance.
Mary stood upon the globe, hands and feet invisible. I felt like entering a cloud, drawn by Mary, away from the earth. I had my eyes closed but I saw so much light that, for several days, I was very much dazzled by the beauty and light that I had seen.



Mary said the following:

“Call Me ‘Tabernacle of The Most High’. 

You too are such a Tabernacle, believe it. 




as recounted by Sr Reinolda May
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Prayer to Sophia

SoulCollage(R) image made by Bhakty Hettienne Ma.
for more on SoulCollage(R) www.path-of-divine-love.com
Prayers to Sophia
by Joyce Rupp
O Dancer of Creation,
the earth awakens to an urgent call to grow.  In the hidden recesses of my 
wintered spirit, I, too, hear the humming of your voice,
calling me, wooing my deadness back to life.
……….
Tell me, Wise Awakener,
why is it easier to believe in a stem of new grass,
or the opening bud of a fresh purple crocus,
than it is to believe in the greening of me?
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Conquering the Dragons

 
CONQUERING THE DRAGONS
 
When you are controlled by the dragon/ego/parasite, you are a mind-controlled slave of your own fears and defensive habits.  Your behaviour is predictable and often painful or you experience a complete absence of vitality.
 To be free of dragons, you must develop and exercise will, or intention.  Will is the ability to exercise choice in your life, rather than being controlled by the dragon.  Will is necessary to become a spontaneous and creative  human being.  Will is the dynamic focus that makes things happen in your life.  Will helps you manifest your vision.  Without a vision you have no hope of transforming the dragon because you do not know where you are going or why you are alive.
 Vision is only possible when you see the big picture of how your actions influence the world around you.  The context or background of your life is the ground upon which your will acts.
 Will represents the masculine qualities of life and the context or background upon which you act represents the feminine or magnetic qualities of life. 
Masculine will is only productive when it works in harmony with the feminine, supportive context of the big picture.  In the same way, the context of life is inert unless it is acted upon by the will.  Vision is the product of will and context working together.
The necessary ingredient to get will and context to work together is gratitude, also known as recognition.
 Gratitude in your own life brings your intentions into harmony with your life.
 The greater respect you have for your life and for all that lives, the greater the possibility of transforming the dragons to live in freedom and joy.
 
WEAPONS
 Each dragon has its weapons, but the most powerful weapon to conquer any dragon is mindfullness  and meditation.
 The dragon uses the constant chatter in your mind to control your personality.
A disciplined mind cannot be controlled against its wishes.
 You can remain free if you remember what feeds the dragon so that you know what to deprive them of.  Dragons thrive on fear and fear comes from perceiving that you are separate.  Any kind of discrimination and judgement feeds the dragons.  To judge that you are better than others feed the dragons.  To judge that you are inferior to others feed the dragons. To be judgemental is to separate yourself from others, and when you do that you make your love conditional.