Category: day 1-2020

Posted on by

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