Category: colourhealing

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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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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
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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