Author: Hettienne Grobler

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Day 1 of Walking with Mary 2020

Welcome to Day One of the ninth annual
Art Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes as well as the first day
of the online thirty day retreat of Walking with Mary.



Welcome to the Temple of Mary where we will dedicate ourselves to the Sacred Heart
of the Mother for the next thirty days. Together we will tend to the holy hearth within and fan the fires of  devotion and transformation. The Yoga of the Mother leads us to the mystical marrying of the physical and spiritual in the bridal chamber of the heart.

The first nine days are really double offerings as I am combining the 
Thirty Days with Mary with the Nine Day Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes.
  If it is too much for you and the posts are too long 
save the Art Novena posts to read in your after the thirty days
or whenever you have the time to do so.

Today we step into our sacred spaces. (See my previous posts on preparing and purifying which you can do before you sit down to start this communion with Divine Mary.)

Never underestimate the power of ritual and ceremony.
You only need a small table or surface on which to create your altar.
The ritual of preparing the altar, lighting candle and incense, etc
indicates to the subconscious and unconscious that you are now entering
sacred time and space.
I use white for my altar cloth and prefer a white candle.  You can add
the colours of the elements of each week if you choose to do so.
Work at your own pace.  You can catch up at any time.
If possible, enter into sacred communion with Mother Mary  more or less at the same time
of day every day.  The most powerful time for meditation is just before dawn
as the energies are new and fresh and it is a daily re-birth.  And on a practical level, one is
often too tired to do so after a long and busy day. But do not let that stop you.
If the practise does not fit in with your lifestyle then you will not keep it up, so no
hard and fast rules here!

The sun rising over one of the Mary shrines in the garden

I will try to keep things as simple and straightforward as possible.

I will start slowly by sharing only one or two sacred practises and rituals at a time.
These will build the heat in your inner furnace and ignite the sacred fire
slowly and gently.

The Immaculate Practise
This body of ritual and devotion is called
the Immaculate Practise of devotion to Mary

Today we will invoke a blessing and sacrament from Mary on our sacred work
to be done over the next month.  We will also sanctify our meditation shawl, rosary
(and/or mala) and any other items to be used as sacred altar. It is a good idea to place
 a glass or bottle of water on your altar.
You can drink this water after the
blessing ritual.
Should you want to, you can repeat this invocation daily.

After you have blessed your space, open the ritual with a prayer to Mary.

The opening prayer follows below.

In the Mysteries of the Mother
all the opposites are joined
Hail Mary
Ave Maria

When you have said the prayer with intent and focus,
pick up your rosary and repeat the daily mantra.
Please complete the rosary at least twice or a 108 bead mala at least once.
As you become more comfortable, or if you are already a seasoned meditator,
then repeat this mantra up to 3 times around the rosary.
For a mantra we use the rosary in the same way as we do a mala or prayer beads :
you move the beads one by one through your fingers, repeating the line of the mantra on each bead.

We repeat the mantra daily.
The more we work with a mantra, the more
it vibrates through our cells and energy and transforms our mind
and energy bodies.

Draw a card for the week and place  on your altar.
Keep the first card on the altar and we will add to it
with a draw from the deck every week.
At the end we will read all four cards together as a story.

Close your communion with repeating the prayer again.

As you feel your heart filled with peace and gratitude to the blessings received from
Mary, the Rose of the World, you can scatter some of your fresh flower petals, or sprinkle some of your blessed water, over her image.

thank you
thank you
thank you

And so it is.

The sanctification of our sacred altars

Mantra for blessing and sanctification

Ave Maria Sanctum Gloriae
Ave Maria Sanctum Gloriae
Ave Maria Sanctum Gloriae
OM

Repeat the full mantra 3 or 6 times.  You can keep count with your rosary
or prayer beads. Then place your hands on your shawl and move to the rosary
and all items on your altar.  Place your hands on the container with water.  If you choose
to drink the water afterwards, keep a small amount for the next day.  You can
daily add to the water and by the end of the thirty days you will have water
with powerful healing properties. 

You can add this healing (holy) water to your bath or food.  

Opening Prayer

In the Mysteries of the Mother
all the opposites are joined
Hail Mary
Ave Maria

Mantra
The Sanskrit word ‘mantra’ means protection of the mind.

Om Jai Mata Mary Ma

Sit quietly for a few minutes, just allowing yourself absorb the energy you have invoked.
Enjoy it …… feel the presence of the Sacred embracing you, flowing all around you.
We rejoice in our physical nature, appreciating this time to pause and remember the holy
purpose of our lives.  We feel gratitude for those travelling with us on this path of love
and freedom.  You are happy to be here in this peaceful inner place.  Let there be peace.  Gently refocus on the outer world and carry this peace with you into the world.

I took this picture at full moon at Lourdes
Today is also the first day of the Ninth Annual Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes.
I started this tradition after my first visit to Lourdes.  

For the first nine days I invite you to read the piece devoted

to the Art Novena of Our Lady of Lourdes
and to add an image of Our Lady of Lourdes to your altar.

The theme of the Art Novena is the magic of the fairytale of Lourdes
and I will explore the secret wisdom and the hidden feminine
in fairytales and in the tale of Our Lady of Lourdes.



Fairy tales evoke images of childhood, magic, miracles, supernatural events and dreams coming true. For many of us the journey towards wholeness starts with the  impulse and desire to heal the Inner Child.  The inner child carries the openness and vulnerability of the soul and during our growing up years, these qualities become suppressed and hidden away.
And the feminine qualities of the inner child gets conditioned away from an early age, as we grow up in a patriarchal culture with masculine values of goal setting, achievement, physical beauty, material gain and advancement. These are all positive and essential qualities,  but without their counterpart feminine attributes, such as inner appreciation, imperfection,
chaos, individuality, compassion and nurturing, the inner world can become one of deprivation, depression and burn-out.

No-one knows for certain how old fairy tales are but the experts who have written on the history and meaning of fairy tales agree that fairy tales started to appear at more or less
the same time that Christianity started to oppress pre-Christian beliefs and religions which developed into the horrific Inquisition and eventually the witch hunts.

Unfortunately fairy tales have been mangled and their original stories changed to fit in with patriarchy – many of the magical and supernatural women characters have obviously also been demonized, as has the meaning of fairy and witch. But there are still some amazing resources and research available for those who are interested in exploring this fount of wisdom


Many, myself included, regard fairy tales as secret bibles of feminine wisdom and divinity. 

‘Magical beliefs were passed on by word of mouth,
behind ploughs, at spindles, on river banks and by hearths;
magical rituals were performed in kitchens, 
in bedrooms, by roadsides and on hillsides,
under cover of darkness’
                                          – Emma Wilby, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits
Hannah or Anna as the Great Mother Goddess
also known as Mother Goose and her sacred goose
VI of Roses in Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck

We are all familiar with Mother Goose and her nursery rhymes and fairytales. 
What better place to hide the Divine Mother Goddess in the guise of an old crone with a goose for a vehicle? The goose has many mythical connections in both Eastern and Western mythology.  In Hinduism it is the ‘hamsa’ and the ‘parahamsa’ meaning wild ganders and supreme wild ganders or swans; in Egyptian lore the sky was associated with the Mother Goddess. The goose is one of the most sacred animals in the ancient stories of goddess, along with the swan. To the pre-patriarchal ancient Egyptians, the sun was created by a goddess who turned herself into a goose and then laid “the golden sun egg,” In the first century BCE the ancient Celts were forbidden to eat the goose—due to its sacred connection to “the Sun Egg.” Just like Mother Goose, the Greek goddess Aphrodite  rode through the air on the back of a goose. There are also artwork depicting Aphrodite with geese at her feet.
In the Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck, a deck
Here is an extract from Mysteries of Mary tarot deck :
We also know the fairy tale of the goose that lay the golden egg. The egg has always carried the meaning of life and rebirth in ancient traditions.  It also symbolises new life and transformation.  The shape of the egg also has connotations as it is similar to the vesica pisces. Goose is a partial anagram of goddess and Mother Goose hides the word mother goddess. The mother aspect of the goddess is still present today in Mother Mary. Mother Goose is seen as the magical author of all the fairy tales, reminiscent of our understanding of the Shekinah or Sophia.


The Vesica Pisces shape of the area around
the Basilica of Lourdes

In the image above you can clearly see the mandorla or pisces vesica or fish shape
of the procession grounds around the Basilica. Religion and its stories and symbols reflect the wisdom and knowledge of the Divine which is imprinted on our Souls. We accept that we are created in the image of the Creatrix. That understanding has many layers of meaning to it and


one of them is that religion is born of the soul and that the events and beings of religious tales are a manifestation of above into this world which acts as a mirror : as above so below.


The story of the Bright Lady in  shining white Light that appeared to the starving little girl of Massabielles,  has all the elements of a fairy tale.  At Lourdes you step into the Otherworld;
into a Land of Enchantment where miracles are possible.


Amulets of Mary, Lady of Lourdes
The French Madonna on etsy.com



Contemplation and prayer for Day One :

Mary, cosmic being of  Light,
 manifests miracles,
opening the gateway from the world of light,
merges with your own heart,
infusing your vision and senses
with divine purpose.
In both the Christian and ascension belief systems, Mary was
assumed into heaven and transmuted 
her physical body into light.

Her divine presence infuses springs,
 rivers and entire valleys with the 
vibration of holiness and sacredness.

At Lourdes Mary created a sanctuary where we can touch 
and be touched by  
a force beyond our comprehension : 
a doorway into pure love.



blessings
Hettienne
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Walking with Mary QnA



I have received some questions about timing, structure and a few other tips.
If you are familiar with all these preparations, you can skip reading this post,
but I share here for those who are not so familiar with energy work.

Also keep in mind that this is a creative journey and you have the freedom
to change things around and to apply your own timing.  

I will be sharing with you some of my personal tools 
and practises which I garnered
through my experiences and 
intimate realisations over the years.
(You can read a summary of some of my experiences 
in the profile in the side column of my blogs)

I have found these practises and blessings to be of great value in my own journey towards self-realisation  and believe 
that they may be of value to you as well.
I am not teaching a specific practise complete in itself 
with precise lists of what you
have to do, but rather I will share with you 
some of the key practises and prayers
which you can adapt to suit your own truth.
Some aspects may seem particularly vague, but that is done on purpose
as it will enable you to fill the gaps with your own inner understanding 
and to stretch
yourself into ever-deepening layers of connection 
with self and the Divine.

May these practises and energy transferences (diksha) lead you to the threshold of your own wisdom.

Energy Clearing

I have previously shared with you to create your 
sacred space in advance before you start
with the meditations. 
It is also important to clear your space before you start with the consecration
of your altar and shawl, etc and before you receive the first mantra for the blessing (diksha) and meditations.

There are various ways of clearing your space :  
burning sage or mpepho (a local indigenous
plant in South Africa); burning aromatherapy oils; 
 holy water; sacred waters and salt.

My favourite way of cleansing is the following :



A whole lemon placed in the room and one on the altar. 
 I leave the lemons in place
for weeks (until it has naturally dried out).  
When the lemon starts to rot it has absorbed negative
energy and you have to put it into the compost or garden and replace it with another fresh lemon.

Lemons are powerful energy clearing fruit and 
one of the oldest holy fruits that we know.  
The lemon also aborbs the sacred energies of the activated altar
 and space and you 
can eat it as prasadh (blessed food) after your sacrament.

Secondly I use salt.  I place a bowl of salt on my altar and this is replaced with clean salt regularly.
It is also a good practise to sprinkle a bit of salt in the corners
 of the room and to sweep
them out regularly.  
You are all familiar with bathing in water with a few tablespoons 
of Epsom salts 
added to it.  I also add slices of lemon to my bath water or to my shower, especially
after I had done personal clearing or healing work on others.



In preparation of my sacred space and before any meditation or healing work, I burn frankincense
and myrhh granules or a good quality vegan incense.
I clear the entire room with the smoke of the frankincense.

I also clear my space by sprinkling blessed water on everything.

And music is also a powerful energetic cleanser.  We all have different vibrations
and resonate with different frequencies.  I have my favourite music which includes
classical music by Mozart and Beethoven, chants by Krishna Das and my
absolute favourite are the chants of Lourdes.  You can find these online :
Les 20 plus beaux chants pour la messe
and
Lourdes : 150 Ans de chants


Blessing of the Altar

Placing sacred items and images on your altar, sanctifies and blesses everything
that is within the energy field of those items.  If you work with a pendulum you can
prove this fact to yourself.  You can test the frequency and vibration of a space
without a sacred image.  
Then place the image or holy water or rosary which had
been used for prayers, back into the space and test the space again.
You may be amazed at the increase in vibration.  
Our cells consists mainly of water
and prana and these vibrate in resonance with its surroundings. 
That is why people
and their energy around us affect us so much.
Essential oils

I will share with you the secret recipes for meditation blends
during the weeks to come.
Candles and colours over the four weeks

You can keep the same candle for the four weeks or you can
change the colour and/or image of the candle that you work with..

Feel free to change the colour of your altar cloth and flowers too.

We will draw a card from the relevant suit of the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck
for each week, but you can use any image of Blessed Mary for your altar.


Week 1 – BLUE, white, silver
Week 2 – RED, green
Week 3 – GREEN, purple

Week 4 – GOLD, red


If you have any questions or you would like further support please write

blessings
Hettienne
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A month of walking with Mary – February 2020

Walk with Mary for thirty days



When you pray to Mary, mother of Jesus, you pray, without knowing it,
to the World Mother in her many forms. –  The Mists of Avalon
You are invited to join myself, the Hearthkeepers of the Temple of Mary
and the Walking with Mary community in a 30 day practice
with the metaphor, Sacred Presence and iconography of Blessed Mary. 

This practise is based on the initiations into the Temple of Mary
for the past ten years, and the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck.
(You do not need to own the deck to participate)

Each Thirty Days with Mary is slightly different, but the basic
outline stays consistent.

This year we start on Monday 3 February with the
Nine Days Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes.
The novena has been a tradition on my blog
Cloister of the Heart for the past ten years.

You can participate wherever you are and you can spend as much time as you can afford to on the daily practise.  The month of Walking with Mary will include special prayers, contemplation, spiritual exercises and tools to uncover your own Sacred Heart and strengthen your relationship with 
the Blessed Mother Mary.
This is a free event and open to everyone
Over the next few days I will share here a few items that you have to collect and prepare beforehand.
If you own the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck and/or the  Amulets of Mary Healing Oracle,
you can bring them to this retreat.
We will consecrate our decks and we will set up a special Walking with Mary altar.  

Subscribe to this blog on the right hand side under the tab ‘subscribe by email’ and you will receive weekly blog posts setting out the teachings of Mary and her many roles;  I will share sacred healing practises with you and you will receive instructions on how to do the Silent Heart meditation and how to receive the Sacred Heart diksha which you will practise on a daily basis.
You will experience the flowering of peace and joy and you will see the changes in your personal life unfold as you walk these thirty days with Mary.
The outline of these thirty days are :
Week 1 Monday 3 February to Sunday 9 February 2020
Mary the Immaculate Conception
Our Lady of Lourdes

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Week 2 Monday 10 February to Sunday 16 February 2020 
The Sacred Heart of Mary 
and the archetype of Mary as the Holyrood

Celebration on 11 February of Our Lady of Lourdes feast day

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Week 3 Monday 17 February to Sunday 23 February
Mary as Sophia, Our Lady of Wisdom, Shekinah

Celebration on 18 February of Bernadette Soubirous – this is the original
feast day of Mary’s promise to Bernadette

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Week 4 Monday 24 February to Sunday 1 March
Mary Queen of Roses, the Earth and Theotokos



blessings
Hettienne
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Preparation for Walking with Mary Feb 2020

Thirty Days with Mary
Meditation shawl and rosary
#thirtydayswithmary

The Temple of Mary started off as a community of people who felt called by the Great Mother.  For four years I offered initiations in person during three and four day retreats in the 
Western Cape, South Africa.  As I worked on the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck I started to offer the dikshas* and initiations on-line to a wider group of people.  The Thirty Days with Mary is part of the first initiation into the Temple of Mary.  This is a course of self-initiation. In the ancient mystery schools these initiations were conferred upon initiates by priests and priestess.  But a new mythos is being born in our consciousness and we are each and everyone to midwife this birth within ourselves.  These practises and initiations are expanded into deeper mystical practises,
meditations and teachings on Patreon.  You can enroll in the Order of the Dove online
initiations and become an initiate and a Hearthkeeper in the Temple of Mary.

In these Thirty Days with Mary you will enter and re-enter into a direct and personal relationship with the Divine and in particular Holy Mother Mary.

I will share with you the initiation mantra as well as the mantra through which you can receive the dikshas and blessings.

An initiate is one who chooses to turn his or her focus inward, into a metaphysical reality and upward into a wider context and upward into a higher consciousness.
An initiation is a ritual which takes the initiate through a doorway and threshold from the mundane ordinary reality into the sacred life.   
You can share on Instagram with #walkingwithmary.  I invite you to become part of the
Walking with Mary community on Instagram on the page @walkingwithmary.  You can also
follow me @thefrenchmadonna.  On Facebook I share on both the Mysteries of Mary tarot, the Black Madonna tarot and also on The Temple of Mary pages

Creating a sacred space
It is a powerful practise to have a sacred space in which to meditate and focus on your activities. 
You can prepare this space beforehand with a special chair or space on the floor to sit on.
If you already have a meditation shawl, place it in your sacred space.  I suggest that you find
a special white shawl with which to cover your shoulders and/or head.  
Create your altar with candles, incense, an essential oil burner, fresh flowers and of course a statue 
or image of Mother Mary.  You will probably add to the altar over the thirty days.  
Blessing and consecration of space and items

Bring your Mysteries of Mary tarot deck or any other deck, as well as your
Mary oracle charm sets, a rosary or mala or prayer beads 
On the first day of this journey I will share with you the diksha to bless and
consecrate all your items.  
You need to gather the following items :

Mysteries of Mary tarot deck or any oracle or tarot deck that you want to work with
Mary healing amulet set if you own one (you can create your own – see my blogpost
on www.hergracesacredart.com)

meditation shawl
rosary or mala or prayer beads
a few fresh lemons – at least one or two 
one or two cups of coarse sea salt

fresh flowers

candles :  white, blue, green, red and gold (you can use just one colour if you prefer)

small bottles of essential oils : eucalyptus, lemon and rose
a journaling book
a couple of old magazines, calendars or picture books for cutting out images
*diksha is a blessing or energetic transference of spiritual power and spiritual gifts (siddhi)
blessings
Hettienne
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Order of the Dove



Mary has her own folk mythology unrelated
to the mainstream Christian myth.
In the mythological sense she is like the goddesses
in all cultures of the world.
The legends about Mary illustrate that Mary
is a force in people’s lives.

 –  extracted from The Breath, the soul, the Divine female
by Rasa Luzyte

Mary’s presentation in the Temple of the Dove
from the Suit of Vessels
Sacred Mysteries of Mary Tarot
www.hergracesacredart.com

My card from the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck 
depicting the young Virgin Mary as
Temple priestess in the Temple of the Dove
as told in The Mystical City of God:
Joachim and Anne set out from Nazareth, 
accompanied by a few of their kindred and bringing
with them the true living Ark of the covenant,
the most holy Mary,
borne on the arms of her mother in order
to be deposited in the holy temple of Jerusalem.
They arrived at the holy temple, and the blessed
Anne, on entering, took her Daughter and Mistress
by the hand, accompanied and assisted by Joachim.
All three offered a devout and fervent prayer
to the Lord, the parents offering God their daughter,
and the most holy Child.
She heard a voice saying to her :
Come my Beloved, come my Spouse,
come to my temple where I wish to hear they
voice of praise and worship.
The mystical city of God 
by venerable Mary of Agreda
I offer various tiers on www.patreon.com.
You can become part of the Walking with Mary community
or follow the creation of the Black Madonna tarot deck.

I have opened up the Hearth of Mary to those who hear the Sacred Call
to become a Hearthkeeper in the Order of the Dove.
Monthly discussions, temple training, recorded meditations and initiations into the spiritual
path of the Temple of Mary.

You can read more on www.patreon.com/thefrenchmadonna

blessings
Hettienne
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Twelve Days of Mary – Day 12

Did you ever realize that the young woman

who appeared in the 16th century  
to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill was pregnant?
The type of robe she wears is the style
that was worn by pregnant mothers in that time.
There are little ties above the waistline that seem to be
meant for gradually letting
out to make room for the growing fetus.

This young woman asked the Indian man to go to his bishop and ask 
that a chapel be built in the place that she appeared.
She told him to climb to the top of the hill in chilly December
and bring her  the roses growing there.
He did that and she arranged the roses inside his tilma – 
the rough cloak that he wore.
He took this to the bishop because he thought it was the
sign she was giving him to prove her request was real.
But when he opened the tilma and the roses
spilled out at the bishop’s feet,
there was an image covering the inside of the garment –
a picture of the woman herself –
the same image that hangs today
in the basilica that was built for her.

In this picture the woman is wearing a dark robe
that is covered with the starry constellations of the night sky.
Her inner garment is rose, the color of dawn.
The type of robe she wears is the style
that was worn by pregnant mothers in that time.
There are little ties above the waistline that seem to be
meant for gradually letting
out to make room for the growing fetus.
So here is a woman who
gives us a vivid image of her identity.
She shows us, rather than tells, that she is the cosmos itself,
actually Earth taking on a persona.
She is Earth pregnant with the coming human!
She reveals that she is actually Spirit that has covered
herself with a robe of matter, as each of us has done, as well.
Without the robe she has put on,
we would not see her at all;
Spirit is imperceptible without its partnership with matter.
So here we see an image of Earth Herself,
robed around with the stars and galaxies of space!
And beneath the outer robe,
the other,
inner one peeks through – enlightenment –
the coming of Dawn.

If we are not convinced from that,
she stands on the moon
– our moon – and is lighted from behind with the rays of our sun,
so that she is truly “the woman clothed in the sun,”
from the ancient scriptures. (Revelations 7:12)
The sun both clothes her and gives its reflected light to
all the orbs covering her robe and to the moon, as well.
Her coming caused quite a stir in the 1500’s for the Aztecs and created waves of
conversion to the Christian faith. But they were not yet prepared to
know that this message was for all the years to come when we could now see
even more into the stunning revelation.
The tilma, made of very crude cactus fiber should have
lasted about 40 years,
but it is still intact and carrying its image, with its message for our time.
Conversion to Christianity was just the beginning of the
story of how God comes to humanity. We learn from the
Christian story a more universal,  larger story
that is for all people at all times.
God is an inner coming,
 as most religions of the world will agree.
We welcome that Presence into our beings as a woman welcomes a gestating child.
But the Coming is never over.
It is the cosmos itself that is pregnant with all of us
and gives birth to us one by one.
As we evolve communally, the new human comes into existence,
but it is always an inner coming to each one personally.
The Woman clothed in the sun is Earth herself,
having come to enough consciousness
to be able to communicate this fact to us. 
It wasn’t possible before that moment because we had not grown
enough in our sense of identity for this amazing miracle to happen –
the revelation of the Lady who is still calling us to come
and see and ponder this truth.
                                                          


Pisces – February 19 – March 20
Colour – Magenta
The planet – Neptune
The tarot card – The Hanged Man
The Twelfth House of
The twelfth chakra in the energy system is under the feet,
grounded into the earth and the spiritual centre are in the feet
The colour of the chakra is magenta, the complementary chakra is white
and the higher spiritual colour is pale
A blessed feast day of Nuestra Signore de Guadulupe on this full moon!

blessings
Hettienne
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Twelve Days of Mary – Day 11

My vision for the Black Madonna tarot deck is to translate the yearning
for the sacred marriage and inner union into a deck of sacred altars
and shrines, together with poetry and  love songs to the Black Mother.
I plan on recording a cd of sound journeys and meditations
that will form part of the deck.
Today I share with you the Black Madonna delle Gallini,
Madonna of the Hens of Paganini

t

One of the Seven Sisters, the famous Black Madonnas of Campania.
The story goes that an image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was found buried beneath the earth. It was located by a flock of hens in the 16th century, who scratched persistently at the soil where the icon was located until it was dug out. Between 1609 and 1610, eight miracles were performed by the icon, including the healing of a cripple who was visited in a dream by the Madonna.  The miraculous image is displayed year-round. However, the wooden statue, seen in the film below, is only revealed during this feast and another in September. The doors of the sanctuary are closed from Easter until the feast day while the statue is unveiled and a throne set up in her honor. The feast begins when the doors to the sanctuary open. The procession occurs on Easter Sunday. The statue of the Madonna is placed on a chariot which is driven by motorbike. Devotees, either people of Pagani or pilgrims, make offerings to the statue. The traditional offerings are live birds, such as hens, doves, turkeys, or peacocks; or rich peasant food, including savory torts made of salami and eggs. Mothers bring their children to the Madonna to be blessed and protected by her. The procession, including the statue now covered in live birds, moves throughout the city streets and alleyways. It passes by shrines called toselli, such as the ones seen here and here, which are set up in honor of the Madonna. These are often draped with satin and lace, and sometimes contain paintings or small statues of the Madonna to whom prayers and food offerings are made. Of course, throughout the feast, the tammurriata is played and danced in honor of the Black Madonna.

Some traditions draw between the the older woman and her hen in the presepe with the agricultural goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, maiden goddess of the underworld. In African-American folk magic, hens’ feet are used to protect against harmful tricks because of the scratching they do in the ground. If someone has laid a harmful powder or charm against you in your yard where you are likely to walk over it every day, thus poisoning yourself through your feet, the scratching of the hens (literally or magically) helps to tear that power up out of the earth. It would be a stretch to say this practice and the Madonna of the Hens share a common point of origin. But the image of the hens’ feet digging magic out of the ground resonates nicely with the popular legend of the hens clawing at the buried icon of the Madonna.
Acknowledgement and thanks to the website https://www.italianfolkmagic.com
On our wheel of colour-astro dealing the eleventh card for
Aquarius – January 20 – February 19
Colour – pale coral
The planet – Uranus
The tarot card – The Magdalen (The Tower)
The chakra above the head  


Meditation

Oh Mother, Our Lady of the Hens!
Please lay on me Your healing hand!
Figlio
Oh Figlio” Come, She will heal your throat
Figlio, you can not call this a feast, unless you buy the flowers
The Madonna knows how to choose Her feast day

– from Alessandra Belloni’s Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna

blessings
Hettienne

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Twelve Days of Mary – Day 10

The spider has always been a powerful symbol of this world and its illusions as well as its ties that bind and the various connections that we inadvertently create. The spider has been depicted in story and myth as both creator and creatrix of our world of the mind. The spider’s web is also held as metaphor for a variety of connections and matrix.
In Ancient Egypt, the spider was associated with the goddess Neith as spinner and weaver of destiny, and this is also true for the Babylonian Ishtar and the Greek Arachne and the Roman Minerve.
Then there is the story of the weaving competition between the goddess Athena and Arachne. The Greek “arachne” (αράχνη) means “spider”, and is the origin of Arachnida, the spiders’ taxonomic class in biology. In Hindu myth, the spider represented Maya, virgin aspect of the Triple Goddess, spinner of magic, fate, and earthly appearances.
The female spider’s habit of devouring her mate led to identification of the spider with  the death goddess. Maya transformed into Kali-Uma.
In Aztec myth the spider was symbolic of the souls of warrior women who descend to earth and devour all the men. Another dark association with the spider is that in the myth of Odin, it represented the gallows, called Odin’s ‘fate’ i.e. his death.

In the Vedic philosophy of India, the spider is depicted as hiding the ultimate reality with the veils of illusion. Indra’s net is used as a metaphor for the Buddhist concept of interpenetration, which holds that all phenomena are intimately connected. Indra’s net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels. 
When Indra fashioned the world, he made it as a web, and at every knot in the web is tied a pearl. Everything that exists, or has ever existed, every idea that can be thought about, every datum that is true—every dharma, in the language of Indian philosophy—is a pearl in Indra’s net. Not only is every pearl tied to every other pearl by virtue of the web on which they hang, but on the surface of every pearl is reflected every other jewel on the net. Everything that exists in Indra’s web implies all else that exists. – Alan Watts
The spider’s web was likened to the Wheel of Fate and the spider to the Goddess as a spinner, sitting at the hub of her wheel.  
During my recent pilgrimage to Southern Italy I reconnected with the tammorriata and pizzica tarantata and its powerful rhythm. It is believed that women suffering from depression and auto immune disorders (to name a few) have been bitten by the mythical tarantula, a very poisonous spider. The poison of the spider creates a malaise which can be cured through entering into deep ecstatic states induced by dancing and the pizzica rhythm of the tarantella dance. The music is created by the use of the frame drum and castanets. The dance holds many sexual connotations and movements and it awakens deep-seated memory of instinct and emotion. 
If you are interested in reading more about the tradition of the tarantella in Southern Italy I recommend the book ‘Dances with spiders; crisis, celebrity and celebration in Southern Italy’ by Karen Ludtke as well as Allesandra Belloni’s Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna. 
The tarantula or spider in this shrine can be viewed as the dark mother creatrix. The one who creates this world and its web as our nemesis. We can also look at it is the sacred web of illusion that challenges us to find our own potential and uncover our own divinity. For this time and place, the dark side of the mother has been hidden from our view with all our focus on the positive and joyful aspects of life. But that is only half the picture. In order to awaken and to live in awakened consciousness we have to acknowledge and find that which is hidden in the shadows within ourselves and within our society. We have to address all that which makes us uncomfortable and allow life to stretch us beyond that which we believe to be our limit.   In this current era of patriarchy and its inequalities between races, classes, gender and with 
its focus on material wealth and of course, ultimately, power, we have to feel 
the pain of those around us and shake that web. Compassion only comes alive 
when we become aware of our own pain and suffering. The holy web of the spider 
clearly shows us that we are all connected. Somewhere in your energetic body 
you will feel the pain of the planet as well as the pain of someone who is 
being suppressed.

  
On our wheel of colour-astro  dealing the tenth card for 
Capricorn – December 22 – January 20
Colour – Black
The planet – Saturn
The tarot card – Black Madonna (The Devil)
The house of wealth, career, public image, success
The tenth chakra is in the  palm of the left hand
And the spiritual centres are  in the knees
  
Meditation
  
Cauldron of Love
Dark, dark, swirl the waters
 in the black Cauldron.
He looks into its smooth surface
 and sees only
the  reflection of imperfection.
No, he cries, madly swirling
the waters
breathing his poisonous breath
into the words,
‘you are not good enough’,
‘you need to be more, better, taller, thinner, kinder,
sadder, happier, angrier, slower, faster, whatever,
you need to be perfect,
you need to be more like Her’
Slowly he crawls away, never looking back,
ignorant of Her Divine reflection in the
blackness of the dark waters of the Cauldron of Life.
                                               – Hettienne Grobler

blessings
Hettienne
  
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Twelve Days with Mary – Day 9



Maria Santissima 
L’Incoronata
The Crowned One

She is also known as the Mother of the Poor


When I sat down in front of Her She spoke to me from a deep
and powerful place.  I instantly felt that I had known Her forever
and that She had known me forever.
I have created two shrines for Her in this deck as She is
so important to me.

The story goes that a thousand years ago, a Count who was hunting in the woods
followed a deer and found it prostrate in front of a great oak tree.  The tree
became luminous as if on fire and the Madonna appeared in the light and said
‘Non temere io sono la Madre di Dio’ 
which means ‘Do not fear I am the Mother of God’.  This is very similar
to the message of Guadulupe to San Juan.

A peasant hung a cauldron filled with oil in the tree and She blessed the oil
with healing powers.  The oil kept on regenerating in the cauldron and lasted
for many years.  Many pilgrims came and anointed themselves with the miraculous
oil and reported many healings. The sanctuary still supplies pilgrims with oil
blessed by Her presence. The oil is known as the Blessed Oil of the Madonna.

The eighth house of the wheel relates to the kundalini; the spiritual energy
that runs up the spine and forms a plume of light above the head.  This is depicted
as a crown or a halo in holy ones and in some traditions it is known as the
tail of the peacock.  In tantra, the esoteric Hindu tradition, amrit is the ‘oil of bliss’
which is secreted by the secret gland in the brain.  At times the amrit
can be tasted as a drop that falls on the tongue through the chakra in the palate of the mouth.
But it is also known as the healing and regenerative substance secreted by a
brain that has been infused with spiritual energy.



On our wheel of colour-astro dealing the ninth card for
Sagittarius – November 23 – December 22
Colour – White
The planet – Jupiter
The tarot card – The Guardian Angel (Temperance)
The house of  benediction, spirituality, religion, travels and expansion
The ninth chakra is in the palm of the left hand
and the spiritual centre of the spinal cord and kundalini
The complementary chakra colour is yellow and the spiritual
colour is the tail of the peacock or golden-white


Meditation

I breathe

You fill my nostrils
I sigh
You fill my lungs
May I receive your Love
Blessed am I
I move unexpectedly
to catch a forbidden glimpse of your face
May I sit at your feet
Blessed am I
I dedicate to You
my Heart
I give to You
the keys of my Soul
May I receive your Light
Blessed am I
I commit to you every step I take
Every realization I gain
I offer to you
My warrior poet
Every word that tumbles from her lips
May I receive your Radiance
Blessed am I
I offer to you
My art
The stroke of my paintbrush
You hold my hand
I become the canvas
You the paint
May I receive your Presence
Blessed am I
My heart belongs to You
As does my Soul
Every step is dedicated to follow
Through the freezing light
of the Underworld
into the forbidden garden of delight
facing demon and dragon
listening for the call
Oh my Beloved
Lead me into the perfumed garden
Into the temple of my soul.
               –  Hettienne Grobler

blessings 
Hettienne
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Working with the cards of the colour wheel – twelve Days of Mary

Twelve Days of Mary has been a celebration on my blog
Cloister of the Heart since 2010.
This year I am sharing Black Madonna shrines
which will become the Black Madonna tarot deck.
And I am also sharing with you the colour energy system
that I have been using for many years.
The twelve days leading up to the feast day of Guadulupe, and the
twelve days of Ephiphany correlate to the twelve astrology
houses through the year.  Each one of the 12 houses relate
to a chakra, its colour and a spiritual chakra in the human body.
These colours can be seen in the human aura with the subtle senses
and with special equipment.  Each house has a ruling archangel,
a major archetype, and these are contained in crystals, flowers,
herbs and plants and so on.  And of course in the system of the tarot deck.
The twelve shrines that I am sharing may not end up in
those positions of the deck as the deck is still very much a work in progress.
In the post following this one I am sharing Day 9.
I thought this is a good time to explain the idea behind the colour wheel and how you
can your cards that you pull daily, a bit more.
You can also pull all 12 at the end of these 12 days or at the end of the year.
Here is a chart of the colours of the energetic system that I work with.
Each card for the twelve months of the year is supported by
by a complementary supportive card and each card has a
spiritual partner.  As we work with a colour system we look at
the colours.
For instance, if you start the year in Aries on 21 March the card that you drew in the position of the Emperor applies to the red root chakra. The root chakra applies to our tribe, our family, our foundations and how grounded we are in our life. Its complementary colour is violet (which is the colour of the crown chakra); the card that you pulled for violet on the wheel (i.e. the eighth house, house of death and rebirth, Scorpio) will influence the first card. The crown chakra is the highest in-body chakra and it relates to inspiration, enlightenment, access to the higher realms, subtle senses, wisdom and so forth.  And then thirdly, the higher centre, the brain, is your guiding light for this period. This is will be the card for the colour white, which is the ninth house, the planet Jupiter, the sign Sagittarius and the traditional card of Temperance. Immediately the two sides of the brain comes to mind, linked to Temperance and her idealogy of balance and tempering.  
The chakras work in pairs with its dualities in play. When you bring the knowledge of the third, spiritual centre in, you work alchemical magic!! The two becomes the three! You can put the cards into the sacred triangle like this :

Here you are presented with an entire picture, open to interpretation. 
 And this formula applies to each period of the year.  
Now you can see how the three archetypes of the cards can influence you and that you can move into a position of empowerment by utilising the third archetype at the apex of the triangle.
Does it make sense? Let me know if you would like me to go deeper and to explain this further. (We will continue to go deeper in The Order of the Dove on my Patreon)
I hope that you find this introduction useful. I am sharing charts of the qualities
of the colours etc on Patreon in the days to come
blessings
Hettienne