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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 of Mary Love – Day 8

Twelve days of Mary – Day 8

In honouring the dark face of the Black Madonna we honour
the darkness as well as the dark African mother of all humanity.
She is at one with the dark soil of the earth;
her power comes through the mountains, rocks, trees,
oil and milk.  We see her image carved in the wood of sacred trees;
she flows milk from her statues and sacred oil wells
still produce oil near her sacred caves and sanctuaries.
She is immanent in matter.

Mary Beth Moser writes ‘ as a power Source, she can restore power to those who need it.
It is up there for claiming. Her fierce power can help us become our authentic selves,
Remain, inviolable, protect the earth, resist dominant power, and demand justice.
Her inclusive power can help us embrace each other as siblings, children of the
same African mother.  Her ancient power can help us remember that
everything has its roots in the past and that we all come from what came
before us.  Her potential energy can help us remember our own potential, that
anything is possible – the grandest dream, the greatest change.
Her power of creation and destruction can remind us of the cycle of life,
death and rebirth.’
Her dark face reminds us of the power of darkness; the darkness of the unknown from
which everything comes; the darkness of below to which we must descend.’
On our wheel of colour-astro dealing the eighth card for
the eighth day of Epiphany, 2 January and the eighth house

Scorpio – October 24 – November 23
Colour – Violet
The planet – Pluto
The tarot card – Card XIII The Threshold (Death)
The eighth house of death
The eighth chakra of the Crown linked to the brain
And the spiritual centre of the reproductive organs
The colour of the crown chakra is violet, its complementary colour is orange
And its spiritual colour is pale orange

Meditation

 A tradition of transmission
The poem is a sutra
threading its way through us as we take shape
within its vocal texturing.
These urgent impulses of a veiled divinity
need a human face
to be the likeness of how love speaks.
We call that face poetry
but it is our life that is being revealed
from beyond its appearance.
The air is full of blossoms
and we have the same breath
of all the enlightened beings
who ever found out how to flower.
It takes a soul alchemy to portray those features
and to unwind the thread of love’s reality.
It takes a tradition of transmission
to create blooms from the prayers of our earth.
      – Eric Ashford

Today is the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
You may want to read my past posts for this special celebration
on my blog Cloister of the Heart under the label
Twelve Days of Mary

If  you click on this link it will take you to all the previous
Immaculate Conception celebrations on my blog
http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com/search?q=immaculate+conception

Beyond our physical and psychic being, we have
to discover our spiritual being, our eternal ground,
and there the mystery of love is fulfilled.
Some may come to this interior marriage by
way of exterior marriage, others are called
by the way of virginity, but all alike have to experience
the virgin birth, the marriage with God,
before they can reach maturity – Father Bede Griffiths
blessings
Hettienne
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Twelve Days of Mary – Day 7

Our Lady of Loreto

Icon of  Justice
In the Mysteries of Mary I shared the Mariamic tradition of 
 alchemy,  prophecy and vision starting
with the lineage of Miriam.
The Black Madonna symbolizes this prophetic tradition carried
by all women, starting with Miriam, and continuing through
the sybils, who were prophetesses before and after the
christian era.
At the sanctuary of Loreto, in Italy, the very black madonna
and national icon of Italy, stand the statues of
ten sybils in front of the ten Jewish prophets.
I also share images of the ten sybils on the facade of the
church of the oldest black madonna in the world, in the
Santa Maggiorre church in Trastevere, Italy on my Patreon.
www.patreon.com/thefrenchmadonna
The sybils of the black goddess Cybele is said to have prophesied
the birth of the Christ child.

The casa or house of Mary which is enclosed in the sanctuary of Loreto
can be seen as a metaphor the ‘enclosed garden’ and the ‘Shekinah’,
the feminine in-dwelling divine presence of the Jewish god as told in the Kabalah. 
 In Prague there is a little known exact replica
of the House of Loreto with a magnificent copy of the statue of
the Black Madonna of Loreto enclosed into an alcove in the wall of the little house.
Elizabeth Fiorenza uncovered the significance of the sybils in the sanctuary of
Loreto.  She discusses in detail in her book ‘In Memory of Her’ their significance.
In August 2017 I spent two weeks in Bologna visiting the tarot museum but also
participating the in the important 15 August celebration and pilgrimage
of the Black Madonna de Luce.  I shared many pictures on my IG feed
of how similar the sculptures of the sybils inside the Italian churches
are to the cards of the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck.
The litany of the black madonna of Loreto refers to the ark of the covenant.
Fiorenza interprets the story of Jesus and his mother, that his mother
sent him to do her work in the world.  She explains her theory that
Sophia was the god of Israel expressed in the language and imagery
of the goddess. Sophia’s messenger and son came with a message of
equality and justice for all outcasts, minorities and the oppressed :
women, the poor, the old, the sick and all living creatures.
The celebrations of the Black Madonna L’incoronata outside Foggia
takes place on the May 1, known as Mayday, the international
holiday of workers and also communist celebrations.

On our wheel of colour-astro we are dealing the seventh card for
the seventh day of Epiphany, 1 January and the seventh house

Libra – September 23 – October 24
Colour – Indigo
The planet – Venus
The tarot card –  Holy Wisdom (traditionally Justice)
The seventh house of marriage and partnership
The seventh chakra of the Third Eye
and the spiritual centre of the  adrenal glands
The colour of the forehead is indigo, its complementary colour is yellow
and its higher spiritual colour is golden-white



Meditation

Mother,
Make of my heart
A vast bed of peace
Where you can lay down your heart
and rest from the agony that harrows it
From all we are and continue to do,
As you comfort me, so may I comfort you
–  Andrew Harvey

blessings
Hettienne
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Twelve Days of Mary – Day 6

The Virgin of Juquila,
La Juquilita,
La Morenita de Juquila,
And originally the Most Pure Virgin of the Conception of Amialtepec.

According to local stories the Virgin of Juquila arrived in Oaxaca, Mexico
from Spain two hundred years ago – a small statue of only two feet tall.
Some say the local priest brought her from the Phillipines. He gifted
the statue to one of his house servants who was very devoted
to the Dear Dark Lady.  She soon became famous for working
incredible miracles and she gained a huge following.
Many years later the clergy of the Church decided to build 
a chapel for her.  She was installed in the chapel near
Juquila and some years later the chapel was destroyed by a fire
but she survived.   She was moved into the church in the town
of Juquila, and on completion of the reconstructed chapel,
she was moved back to her original home, but miraculously
she re-appeared in the church in Juquila.  This happened
three times and it was accepted that she possessed great power.
Jaquila is an isolated place in the mountains and it is not easy
to get there.  Yet, thousands of people visit and promise to return
each year.  Devotees often crawl the last two kilometers and
arrive with bloody knees.
‘Like the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Lady of Juquila has a heart for the local people and their land; one can sense in the devotion a certain populism and even anti-clericalism, reflective of the Virgin’s desire to be at home with local peasants rather than imprisoned in a church. She feels for them, grants their requests, and wants to be their mother. Even after papal coronation of the devotion in 2014, the devotion remains one that is deeply tied to a people and a place. 

Hence the crowd that gathered there in Salinas, California, this year. A community leader described to me how residents take turns caring for the image, but this weekly rosary was a summons to the entire community of Oaxaquenõs to bring their prayers before the Virgin. They spoke their petitions aloud: “for safety on our streets,” “for our young people” and “for healing.” They named the mysteries, each spoken by a different person leading the prayer, and responded antiphonally. They prayed the Fatima prayer after each decade as well as the prayer of St. Michael. They ended with a beautiful litany of the Virgin. I followed along on my rosary app in Spanish, promising myself that I would learn the prayers by heart for the next opportunity.

Now, when I finger the rosary that I always carry with me — a rosary made by women from Oaxaca — I join my prayer to theirs.

Afterward, many came forward to receive a flower and brush it against the image of the virgin, in order that it be a sign to a loved one of the mother’s protection. Watching them, I called to mind the words of the song that the sisters sang: “with all my soul.” Many of these people lack documents and are fearful of being deported. They live amid violence — a park nearby bears the name of a child killed in gunfire — and economic uncertainty. Many have fled places where there is even more violence, and they bare their souls to the Virgin in the hopes that she might grant them safety, solace, perhaps even a measure of comfort.

Now, when I finger the rosary that I always carry with me — a rosary made by women from Oaxaca — I join my prayer to theirs. Virgin of Juquila, “to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.”

Reprinted with permission of National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company, Kansas City, MO. NCRonline.org. Dr. Tim Muldoon is Catholic Extension’s Director of Mission Education.

Today is the sixth day of the Twelve Days of Mary and it also relates to the sixth day of the Epiphany of 31 December.On our wheel of colour-astro we are dealing the sixth card for
Virgo August 24 – September 23

Colour – Mary Blue

The planet – Mercury
The tarot card –  Lady of the Lamp (Hermit)
The sixth house of service and health 

The sixth chakra of the throat and the spiritual centre of the  Intestinal Tract The colour of the throat is blue, its complementary colour is orangeand its higher spiritual colour is golden yellow
 Lady of the Lamp 
  This card has bearing on today as well as the the time period of Virgo for your personal year in 2020 but also to the area of that house, the chakra, the spiritual centre etc. At the end we will look at and explore all 12 cards, how they support each other, complement each other and how they will affect our year.

Meditation 

  It is time to feel love for yourself, for the world around you and every creature and being. It is time to walk the blessing way in the steps of Wisdom.  Today we take hands and take the risk of opening our hearts to possibilities hidden yet manifest right before our eyes.  She sings words of unity and hope, of wonder and beauty.  What does it mean to live together with Wisdom? It is to live fully awake to the centre of all the contradictions of our times, while refusing to be defined by them, nor accommodate ourselves to them.  Julian of Norwich said ‘for when I am home with Her I can take my ease, for nothing is bitter in Her company.’  She also said ‘we are not to solve the contradiction, but remaining in the midst of it, in peace, knowing that it is fully solved, but that the solution is secret, and will never be guessed until it is revealed.’

blessings
Hettienne

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Twelve Days of Mary – Day 5

 Cybele

 She walked with lions and rode astride one and her
priestesses rode in a chariot drawn by lions.  On her throne,
with a cymbal in her hand, she was flanked by lions.
She was the mother goddess of fertility and her special places
were the forests and the mountaintops.  Holding a tambourine
she inspired wild ecstatic dancing.
As Mistress of Animals she was accompanied by lion.
Her lover/son was her priest and one who renounced
the patriarchal world.

The priestesses of Cybele was also called the Sibyls.
Sibilla is the Latin form of the name of Cybele,
Anatolian mother goddess who was brought to Rome in the form
of a black menhir. Cybele’s priestesses used bee honey in sacred rituals;
as prophetesses they foretold that her black stone will be
taken to Rome as a sign of victory and ‘on the fourth day
of April, two hunderd and four years before the time of Christ,
Cybele’s black stone was placed in the Temple of Victory, on the
ancient Palatine of Rome.’ – Ancient mirrors of Womahood – Merlin Stone

Her son and lover Attis, similarly to the story of Mary and Jesus,
was a shepherd and he died beneath an evergreen tree and his image
was hung upon a tree (similarly to a wooden cross)
One can also see the connection between the stories of Isis and
Osiris in Cybele and Attis.

The sanctuary of the Black Virgin of Montevergine
is built on the site of the black Cybele.  Similarly to the worship
of Cybele, Mamma Schaviona is worshipped by the playing
of the tammorriata.
Another of Cybele’s great temples stood on the site of the Vatican where
the St Peter’s Basilica stands today.
According to Barbara G Walker the games that form part
of the sacred rituals of worshipping Cybele, is the origins of the carnivale.

In many Black Madonna traditions the carnivale plays an important part of the
festivities.  Small minority groups, on the fringe of society, takes part in the
carnivale to highlight the truths that no-one wants to face;  through satire, puppets
and vulgar comedy they shine the light on the shadow of our system, culture
and society.  ‘In authentic carnival festivities, carnival turns everything inside out,
bottom to top, front to rear and unveils, unmasks and uncrowns.’  This is evident
in the festivals of the Black Madonna that I attended in both France, Italy and
Belgium. The carnival has at its heart the wish to break up and dismantle
patriarchal social stratification and husbandry.

Today is the fifth day of the Twelve Days of Mary and it also relates to the fifth day of the Epiphany of 30 December.
On our wheel of colour-astro we are dealing the fifth card for



Leo July 23 – August 24
Colour – turquoise
The planet – The Sun
The tarot card – The Holy Child (The Sun)
The fifth house of creativity, self-expression
The fifth chakra of the thymus gland – also called the butterfly chakra
and the spiritual centre of the  High Heart or the Sacred Heart
The colour of the thymus is turquoise, its complementary colour is orande
and its higher spiritual colour is pale coral

The Holy Child in the Mysteries of Mary deck
King of Cups from Nosotras Tarot


This card has bearing on today as well as the the time period of Leo 
for your personal year in 2020
but also to the area of that house, the chakra, the spiritual centre etc.
At the end we will look at and explore all 12 cards, how they support
each other, complement each other and how they will affect your year.

Meditation 

Every living thing is imbued with the Spirit of Love. This one
understanding, held in mass consciousness,
will transform our planet.  Humans and animals
are equal and worthy of respect and the liberty to live.
This understanding, held in mass consciousness,
will transform the planet.
 It will increase and expand its aura
of love to be as brilliant as our sun.
In your mind’s eye see two suns in the heavens.
Two brilliant suns, one above the other.
In your inner heaven the sun’s double will be seen as Mother God
takes Her divine place.  Two suns represent our Father Mother God.
Shining in our heavens they will show us the balance of the
yin and the yang.  The sacred union, the sacred marriage
between the two, will birth the divine child within.
blessings
Hettienne

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Twelve Days of Mary Love – Day 4

Mamma Schaviona
Madonna of Montevergine
O Madonna, you are so beautiful! We find you all the way
up this mountain!
O please, beautiful Child, open this gate to us, this gate to 
Paradise.
We have come here many times and we have always
received your grace.

Let us climb up this big mountain to visit our Mother,
the Slave Mother.
The Madonna has such beautiful eyes that look like two stars,
Two bright shining stars, shining like Her golden crown.
Be will with all your good company, Madonna.
Be glad for next year, we will come see You again
And if we don’t come again, Mamma, wait for us in Paradise.
Dear Madonna, how beautiful You are up on this mountain.
O Child, O little Child, open this gate for us!
We have come to see You so many times, how many miracles
we have received.

 Traditional chant for the Black Madonna of Montevergine
from Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna by
Alessandra Belloni


‘The true power of the Black Madonna and Her tradition is that everyone
is accepted by Her, especially outcasts and those who have experienced
trauma and loneliness.  Because of this, the Madonna of Montevergine,
is also known as the patron of gays.  She is celebrated with a unique,
uninhibited feast every year on February 2, which is Candlemas.
The name derives from the Latin Candelora, Feast of Candles, Feast of Light.
from Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna
A year ago I travelled in a group led by Alessandra up the sacred mountain
of Montevergine and we sang her chant while some played the sacred
tamorriata in preparation of meeting Her face to face.
It was an unforgettable meeting that shook me to my core!!
Today is the fourth day of the Twelve Days of Mary and it also relates to the fourth day of the Epiphany of 29 December.
On our wheel of colour-astro we are dealing the fourth card for




Cancer (June 22 – July 23)
Colour – Green
The Planet – The Moon
The tarot card – The Dancing Sun (The Chariot)
The fourth house of Home and Mother
The fourth chakra of the Heart – green
and the spiritual center of the illumined solar plexus
The colour of the heart is green, its complementary colour is red 
and its higher spiritual colour is gold


The dancing Sun in the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck


This card has bearing on today as well as the the time period of Cancer 
for your personal year in 2020
but also to the area of that house, the chakra, the spiritual centre etc.
At the end we will look at and explore all 12 cards, how they support
each other, complement each other and how they will affect your year.

Meditation 

For today’s meditation I have uploaded a recording of the
Sacred Heart Diksha from Mother Mary on my Patreon.
If you would like to listen, please go to www.patreon.com/thefrenchmadonna

blessings
Hettienne



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Twelve Days of Mary – Day 3

The Black Madonna of Montserrat
Spain
In Christianity the goddess is personified by the Black Madonna  
In Montserrat, in the Middle Ages, the Benedictine monks
saw their craggy mountain, lush with flowers,
as an image of the Virgin herself. 
Referring to this shrine, Marina Warner writes :
‘While Mary provides a focus for the steeliest ascetism, she is also the ultimate
of fertility symbols.  The mountain blossoms spontaneously;
so does the mother maid.
The old significance of the moon and the serpent as divine attributes
survives in such sanctuaries as Montserrat,
for there she is venerated as a source of fertility and delight ….
The Virgin of Montserrat presides especially over marriage and sex,
pregnancy and childbirth 
                                                           – Alone of all her sex

For a woman without a positive mother, this ‘dark’ side of the Virgin
can bring freedom, the security of freedom, because she is a
natural home for the rejected child..  The child born from the rejected side 
of the mother can bring her own rebel to rest in the outcast
state of Mary. 
The fact is the domestic world alienates her.
She is an outcast, a gypsy.
There is no room for her in the inn.
Saving the abandoned child within her is the woman’s own version
of the Virgin and Divine Child.
Her virgin is the other side of Mary,
‘the ultimate of fertility symbols.’
In loving the abandoned child within herself, 
a woman becomes pregnant with herself.
The child her mother did not nourish, she will now nourish,
not as the pure biblical Virgin who knew no Joseph,
but as the dark Montserrat Virgin who presides over marriage and sex,
 pregnancy and childbirth. 

                           extract from The Pregnant Virgin by Marion Woodman

Today is the third day of the Twelve Days of Mary and it also relates to the third day of the Epiphany of 28 December.
On our wheel of colour-astro we are dealing the third card for




Gemini  May 22 – June 22
Colour Yellow
The planet Mercury
The tarot card The Lover
The Third house of communications and duality
The solar plexus chakra
complementary colour is violet and third eye chakra
spiritual centre are located in the hands


This card has bearing on  the time period of Gemini for your personal year in 2020
but also to the area of that house, the chakra, the spiritual centre etc.
At the end we will look at and explore all 12 cards.

Meditation

Visualise the hands as centres of healing, peace, love and wisdom.
Be still and listen. Focus on the in and out breath.
Profound peace comes over me in the stillness.
Be still and know that the I Am in you is really the I Am in all.
All is one life, one Spirit, one magnificent AM uniting all, creating
a matrix of divinity.
The I Am of each one is the I Am of Me.
All is in Me and I AM in all.
My body is in your body and your body is in my body.
My soul is in your soul as divine love, will and wisdom.
I am a channel of my greater divine self and through my hands
I create beauty and healing and communicate 
acceptance and compassion.
I am here as I am required to express my soul and her creativity
into this world.
blessings
Hettienne


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Celebrating Twelve Days with Mary – Day 1

 

The yellow flower blossoms

She’s our mother

The goddess on the barrel cactus

is our mother

The obsidian butterfly

She our mother

She goddess of the earth

A deer’s what she’s become

There on the desert plain

– Song of “Teteo Innan’, Father Fray Bernadino de Sahagun, Florentine Codex


Song of Tonantzin, the Aztec goddess, translated by the Franciscan Fray Sahagun.


Tonantzin was revered in the same location where the Virgin of Guadulupe’s apparitions took place in 1531 and where the Basilica of Virgin de Guadulupe stands today.Tonantzin has been translated as ‘Mother of the gods’ or ‘Our Mother’ by Sahagun. The goddess Tonantzin demanded human sacrifice and the Council of Lima in 1552 ordered that all trace of her be destroyed. However, Tonantzin did not disappear; She was integrated or absorbed into the Virgen of Guadulupe
Unlike the blue cloak of many of Virgen Mary’s images, Guadulupe is recognized by her turquoise-green cloak and red dress. In Aztec mythology turqouise is the sacred colour of the earth as well as the moon mother goddess Tlazolteotl; the water and fertility goddess Chalchutlicue (The One with a skirt of green stones) and the fire and war god of the south, Huitzilopochtli. ‘The god was believed to be ‘immaculately’ conceived with a feather by his mother, the goddess Coalicue (Lady of the Serpent Skirt) – extracted from the book The Black Madonna in Latin America and Europe by Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba.
May she forge open
our hearts

so that we are
free to love and
embrace allLa Nuestra Senora,
Sacred Woman

Twelve Days with Mary has been happening on my blogCloister of the Heartt
since 2010 when I
first joined up with Rebecca of
Visit her blog to read her story and the posts of other Mary lovers.
For these twelve days I will be celebrating and sharing with you, the stories
of the dark
skinned Lady of Love and it will culminate on 12 December
on the feast day
of the Virgin of Guadulupe;
known in Spanish
as Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
and Virgen de
Guadulupe.
I invite you to
walk with us here and on Instagram
@thefrenchmadonna
and @walkingwithmary with the hashtags #walkingwithmary and #twelvedaysofmary #twelvedaysofmarylove.

My Twelve Days with Mary Love has always centred around art and sacred artmaking. This year I hope to convey, through my sacred artmaking ofthe Mysteries of the Black Madonna deck, a sisterhood of dark Latin madonnas, black African goddesses and the dark virgins and mothers of Europe.

For these twelve days I invite you to create a special Guadulupe altar and you may want to start your inner pilgrimage with a puja to Our Lady of Guadulupe and the Black Madonna. For those who are new here, you will find all instructions on my blog here.

I have included all the Black Madonna cards from the Mysteries of Mary deck on my altar and an offering of a round loaf of bread
For these Twelve Days of Mary Love I will share with you my system 
of accessing your Council of Twelve, incorporating
colour healing through the 12 houses of the astrological wheel and the tarot deck. The other exciting news is that the 12 house astro-tarot-colour spread that we will work with for these 12 days will be expanded in posts during 2020 on Patreon.

This chart shows the 12 colours linked to the 12 houses. They are also linked to the astrological sign of each house plus the chakras in the physical aura, as well as the higher centres in the spiritual body, i.e. the spiritual centres. Each one is linked to an archetype, a tarot card, a challenge or ‘dragon’, an archangel, a month of the year, the twelve days of the Epiphany, etc etc. I will share one on each of the twelve days.


Each house is related to an area of your life. You may already have your own take on this or otherwise you will find loads of information on the internet. To start off I kept it simple. I use my oracle set to indicate what each house means to me personally, just as a keyword for now.
We are doing a 12 card spread for these 12 days. In this spread each card represents the house and area of your life, as well as the month of 2020 and the chakra as well as spiritual centre that it will affect throughout the year. It can become quite a layered reading as time goes on, so I suggest that you keep a journal.
Shuffle your deck and place 12 cards in a circle starting with the first house and moving around anti-clockwise to the second house and ending with the twelfth house.
You can keep the cards face down and turn the applicable one over each day.


Today is the first day of the Twelve Days of Mary and it also relates to the first day of the Epiphany of 26 December.
The first card represents Aries (March 20 – April 21); 
The planet Mars;
The tarot card Emperor or The Good Father
the first house of ‘self’; or soul and life purpose
the root chakra;
and the spiritual center of the ‘head’

The colour of the root is RED, its complementary colour is GREEN
and its higher spiritual colour is WHITE

This card has bearing on  the time period of Aries for your personal year in 2020
but also to the area of that house, the chakra, the spiritual centre etc.
At the end we will look at and explore all 12 cards.

Today :


Add red to your altar, yellow flowers if you can;

small seeds, grains or corn symbolically seeding

insight and clarity over the next 12 days and 12 months


Give the The Good Father a voice in your day and heart;

what does he have to say?

We will uncover his place in your Council of 12 and his relationship
to your other Archetypes.

Place your twelve cards in their places on your Council of 12

Turn over the first card

I will share with you my own cards and how I read these in the next 11 posts.
p.s.  If you are creating a journal then start with House 9 of Sagittarius (the white)
and white is the higher spiritual colour of the Root chakra

This way you can keep your circle going year after year by merely doing a new draw

Meditation and contemplation on the first chakra (root)
and its higher spiritual centre (head)

Behold! with my senses I make all things new. With my imagination I see within my mind’s eye. With my creative power, my feelings and devotion, my creation is born into this world for the highest good of all. In the mind all things are possible. With the word behold! we invoke what is to be. We set in motion our life around us. Our thoughts take shape and all comes into us as we see it. We think and behold a concept, then all of nature follows through. With our mind together, we can create peace in the world, a new world of harmony and love, By seeing the sacred in everything there will be heaven on Earth.

So be it.
 blessings
 Hettienne