Category: thirtydays

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Days 30 and Day 7

I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of Lebanon

Blessings to you as we reach the end of our
Thirty Days with Mary journey and as we approach
the feast day of the Immaculate Conception.
During these days we have covered so many
aspects of the Divine Feminine and who and what
Mary is to us. We have peeled away the layers
and have stared deeply into the mirror darkly.

I have offered the Thirty Days with Mary a few times
over the last few years, but this year has been
very special, thanks to all of you.
Thank you for sharing your images, your experiences,
your insights and your own resistances.
I could relate to each and every one.

Today I offer you these thoughts to ponder :

The Mysteries of Mary and the Christian mystery of the incarnation
of the Divine into earthly matter, is the ultimate sacred marriage,
the hieros gamos, the marriage of the greatest opposites,
that of heaven and earth.
We cannot fathom how does heaven and earth unite as one
and we cannot fathom that all of earthly matter is sanctified
by the divine essence that lives in all.
But we can accept the open invitation that the Soul
does exist in this body and we can accept that all is
blessed by the Presence of the Divine.
There is no separation between holy and ordinary
The Mystery of the Incarnation of the divine into the ordinary
has been told through many aeons of time and through
many cultures and traditions.  It is not only now
in the new unfolding age that we are being reminded
that woman metaphorically and in human
consciousness, represent matter (mater) and that
woman (matter) mothers the Divine.  

Preparing to greet the goddess

Do not think of her unless you are prepared
to be driven to your limits;
to rush forth from yourself
like a ritual bowl overflowing
with consecrated wine.

Do not summon her image
unless you are ready to be blinded,
to stand in the flash
of a center exploding,
yourself shattering into the landscape,
wavering bits of bark and water.

Do not speak her name
until you have said goodbye
to all your familiar trinkets –
your mirrors, your bracelets, 
your childhood adorations –
From now on you are nothing,
a ghost hovering at the window,
a voice singing under water. 

             – Dorothy Waters

Om Jai mata Mary Ma
Jai jai ma

Day 7 of the Nine day Art Novena to Lady of Lourdes

The Ace of Vessels
Mysteries of Mary tarot deck

“We are now, I believe, on the threshold of a third stage which I call the stage of the sacred marriage. This is the only position we could possibly take and still survive. This is a stage beyond both matriarchy and patriarchy. It involves the restoration to human respect of all of the rejected powers of the feminine. But it is absolutely essential that this restoration should be accomplished in the deep spirit of the sacred feminine. Not only should we invoke the sacred feminine, restore the sacred feminine, but this union between the matriarchal and the patriarchal, the sacred marriage, must be accomplished in the spirit of the sacred feminine for it to be real, effective, rich, and fecund. It must occur in her spirit of unconditional love, in her spirit of tolerance, forgiveness, all-embracing and all-harmonizing balance, and not, in any sense, involve a swing in the other direction.”


― Andrew Harvey, The Return of the Mother
She who Priestesses the Holy in the Ordinary;
The Vessel of the new age of humanity.
The High Priestess is in complete balance,
carrying the two sacred vessels of the living waters
of consciousness.  She is the vehicle for the inner
sacred marriage; the coming together of
masculine and feminine, spirit and matter,
the holy and the ordinary.
We awaken to the Inner Presence by discovering the story that
lives within each one of us.
 Here in this shrine, 
she has stepped off the wheel of fate (usually symbolised by your
astrology chart which has fixed your destiny in time and space) and
she has also stepped off the half-moon.  Often the High Priestess,
the Virgin Goddess, the Queen of Heaven, stands on the half-moon,
a symbol amongst other things, of the influence of the hidden
world of emotions.
The Soul within you is priestessing the healing balm for your own
personal story.
The Ace of Vessels
Mysteries of Mary tarot deck

Prayer for today :

I open myself to the spirit of the sacred feminine as embodied
and demonstrated by Blessed Mary and Bernadette Soubirous and the temenos
of Lourdes.  I invoke the sacred feminine
presence to cultivate the inner garden for the hieros gamos, 
the sacred marriage within myself and my world 
Blessings to you
Hettienne
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Day 29 and Day 6





Water has always been the sacred energy of the feminine.
When one follows the leylines in the earth, the Mary line
curves and spirals around wells and you will find
cathedral and churches built on the power points of the Michael
lines (as they are known in the UK)
The feminine has always been worshipped at wells
and it is quite noticeable what an important role the well
plays in Judeo-Christianity and its stories and they
usually involve a woman..

From the very first days, miraculous cures have been granted at Lourdes to many who drank or bathed in the spring that Bernadette discovered at the Lady’s prompting. The Catholic Church is extremely slow and meticulous about acknowledging the validity of a cure and so most of the cures claimed there are never officially recognized. Even so, there are dozens of totally recognized cures that have happened at Lourdes that have been documented by the Church and the medical profession. The first healings happened almost immediately in 1858 and continue until the present day. 

This healing is brought to us on many, many levels.


A picture taken by myself of the Grotto and the spring
and the pyramid of candles

Water has the power to drown us or to quench our thirst.
We know Mary as the loving nurturing mother and also
as the Mater Dolorosa, the grieving mourning mother,
dressed in black, mourning the loss of her son.

In Lourdes you will see hundreds of pilgrims carrying large
containers of water from the sacred spring home every day.
We bring tiny bottles of the healing waters home with us.
Mary is called a Vessel of Spirit, a Vessel of Honour and here in
Lourdes she is the Vessel of the Sacred Waters.


Mary as Alchemical Vessel

In alchemy the vessel is the container in which the
various ingredients are mixed and transformed by each other.
It was believed that the alchemists were looking for
a way to turn lead into gold, but this is a metaphorical
journey of transforming darkness into light.  Or of
finding joy and peace amidst sorrow and hardship as we live
in a world of radical opposites and many challenges.

Mary is the vessel for the divine incarnated in herself as 
the Immaculate Conception and in
giving birth to her Son
and then as all of us.  


water containers at Lourdes

She is also the spiritual vessel in which
opposites combine.  As we are tested and challenged, like Bernadette,
we have the choice to obey the instructions of the voice of the Lady
that no-one else sees or to listen to the incredulous villagers and
Cure.  As we follow the calling of our heart, we are led to dig where
no-one else thought to look and we will uncover a spring that will
feed and nourish thousands.


Prayer for today :

I open myself to your presence, o Great Mother;
I commit myself to your priestesshood of miracle thinking
and the practise of faith in the extraordinary.
I am willing for my eyes and heart to be broken open
by your divine and blinding presence;
as I priestess your love and compassion in the world.


blessings

Hettienne
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Day 28 and Day 5



Blessings to you and welcome to Days 28 and 5 of this dual
devotion and ritual.

When we read that the Radiant Lady at Lourdes stands over the wild rose bush
and that she has golden roses on her bare feet, we realise that she is deeply identified with roses, as was Our Lady of Guadalupe. The rose just seems to be the most easily recognizable symbol for the flowering of differentiated consciousness or the unique divine spark. 
The Lady of Guadalupe brought forth roses in cold December and wrapped them tenderly in an ordinary tilma worn by an old Indian peasant. This is an image of wrapping consciousness in the outer cover of our human body, something that a mother does when she conceives a human life. It is something that the earth does when she provides us with the material for a human body. Or, another way to look at it, is that creation itself – the material world – is a wonderful cloak that covers the radiant divinity.
Juan Diego had something in common with the Lady who came to him on the hill of Tepeyac. They each had a cloak that was made of the fabric of created reality. She gave him a visual aid in order to teach him and us about this. She imprinted her picture graphically so that Her cloak – the entire cosmos – can now be seen upon his rough one.  This Lady is not interested in dogma or ideologies; she interfaces with us to teach us about our personal rose – our inner divinity – which is trying to become incarnate here.



The woman at Lourdes refuses to give any other name but to say “I am the Immaculate Conception.” She does not say, as the Church would have Jesus’ mother say, “I am the virgin Mary who has been immaculate from the moment of my conception.” (conceived and born without sin of any kind) She says that she IS the Immaculate Conception. The Lady of the Grotto is the embodiment of the cosmos speaking to us as an aspect of God’s own Being. She shows us the breathlessly beautiful immaculate plan – God’s conception of materiality. She is telling us that she is an image of our created, material nature, which is nothing less than a cloak that covers divinity. She uses every means available to communicate to us about who we are and what will help us.
At Guadalupe she used symbolism that the Aztecs would understand. It spoke instinctively to the Spaniards, as well. She uses symbols and language that will help her immediate hearers to understand for their own purposes. As the late mythographer Joseph Campbell has pointed out, different religious traditions are like software that helps the “computer” to function. It is usually best for people to stay within their tradition, if it is helping them to function. So this woman relates within those belief systems, but is not at all confined to them.

The Pre-Christian Apparition of Queen Isis

Painting of Isis by Hettienne


In conjunction with Lourdes, it is necessary to speak more about Queen Isis whose lore is still embedded in the Christian mythology from its ancient roots in Judaism while it lingered in Egypt. The Lady of the Lourdes grotto asked specifically for processions. Queen Isis loved grottoes and processions. Processions to the goddess are as old as recorded history. What child of the pre-Vatican Catholic Church does not recall the May processions and the joy of strewing flowers in the path of the statue that represented Mary? It was a way of showing our deep devotion to our “Queen of Heaven.” She was “Queen of the angels and Queen of the May!” Bernadette referred at times to the Lady as  “The Queen of Heaven” or “The Beautiful Lady.”

We have an account, still extant, of an apparition granted by Queen Isis in ancient times that further points to the identity of the marvelous woman still appearing today. It comes from the book “The Golden Ass” written by Apuleius, an initiate of Isis, the night before he walked in her procession in 150 A.D. Here is his testimony that records the words spoken by the apparition that stood before him then:

“I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of the powers divine, queen of all that are in hell, the principal of all that dwell in heaven, manifested alone and under one form of all the gods and goddesses. At my will the planets of the sky, the wholesome winds of the seas, and the lamentable silences of hell are disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout the world, in divers manners, in variable customs, and by many names.

For the Phrygians that are the first of all men call me the Mother of the gods of Pessinus; the Athenians, which are sprung from their own soil, Cecropian Minerva; the Cyprians, which are girt about by the sea, Paphian Venus; the Cretans, which bear arrows, Dictynian Diana; the Sicilians, which speak three tongues, infernal Proserpine; the Eleusinians, their ancient goddess Ceres; some Juno, others Belonna, others Hecate, others Ramnusie, and principally both sort of the Ethiopians, which dwell in the Orient and are enlightened by the morning rays of the sun; and the Egyptians, which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me by my true name, Queen Isis.” (Occidental Mythology, p. 42-43 – from The Masks of God series).

 When she appeared to Apuleius she was crowned with the headdress of the moon and two vipers, with corn stalks woven in her hair. Her multi-colored robe was woven with flowers and fruit, and her black mantle embroidered with stars and the moon. There is much similarity between the vision of Apuleius and that of Juan Diego, the visionary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The mantle of Isis is covered on the outside by the night sky – by stars. Like Our Lady of Guadalupe, she is dressed in the cosmos itself as if it is her robe. 

 Spirit “wears” materiality like a garment. 
This garment is Earth’s physical nature –  her Body. 
She/we are the Immaculate Conception!


Prayer for today :


I enter the Underworld as you pull me into your embrace, 
in every waking moment of living.
Contemplating on your Presence in the world,
opens me up to the poignant beauty and suffering
of all life in order and my  heart breaks open
over and over, over flowing with compassion.  
As my rigid mind dissolves in your
presence, all boundaries between myself and all living creatures
and the earth disappears and we are all one.
Ave Maria

Om Jai mata Mary Ma
jai jai ma

blessings
Hettienne
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Day 27 and Day 4

Blessings to you.
The suit of Roses is all about manifestation and embodiment.
It is the highest suit in the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck
and it is the part of the journey where matter and spirit
crosses and blooms through the rose of the heart.
An important part of the sacred Immaculate Practise
is sacred dance.  We connect to our deepest selves through
both the free and disciplined movement of body.
Chanda Maria Devi (@shebearer on Instagram
recorded a beautiful video of a full movement
prayer and meditation as part of
Thirty Days with Mary #thirtydayswithmary.
It is a long session and you will see that you can
do it in sections.  
She invites you to step into the sacred space
and be transported to the
Temple of Dance where movement becomes prayer
and where you set your intent through the flow of your breath and body.
Below is the link for the video –
it takes a minute to upload.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/idrkiz4pjoql088/Taryn%20Dancing%20Meditation.optimised.mp4?dl=0
blessings
Hettienne
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Day 26 and Day 3 of Art Novena

Today is day 26 of Thirty Days with Mary and 
Day 3 of the Art Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes
Today we are reminded of the universality of Mary
and the mystery of who she is.
To some she is the literal figure in a Bible story;
to others she is a Western goddess;
some know her as Queen of Heaven and the Angels
and still others know as her Mama, Gaia,
Mother Earth and our nature.

‘I realized that all the powers of the Mothers, of Tara, Durga, Kali are in Mary.

She has Tara’s sublime tenderness;
Durga’s inaccessible silent calm force;
the grandeur and terribilta of Kali.
But Mary is also a woman,
a poor woman
and a human mother. – Andrew Harvey
Visionary or apparitional culture is no static force, a cultural ‘given’ 
that people can join as members.
It is dynamic, responding to contemporary political, social and religious realities
and shaping those realities, and is also shaped
by the individuals who identify themselves as Marian devotees
and visionaries.
Visionary culture is a confluence of Catholic devotions, symbols,
and traditions of innovative responses to modern
contexts of negotiations among social, religious and interpersonal
forces of the interactions of apparitions believers
and apparition doubters and of the loving
and guiding influence of Our Lady, who for believers is imminently present.
Visionary culture is a worldview, a palette of practices, an understanding
of the cosmos, a palette on which individuals paint
the stories of their lives.
              Extract from Out Lady of Emmitsburg by Jill Krebs




In her the full path of the sacred feminine is lived.
In her we have a complete image of the Divine Mother,
an image at once transcendent and immanent,
other-worldly and this-wordly,
at once mystical and political and practical.
In Mary the Divine Mother comes to earth and lives on earth
and lives, the passionate, strong, serious,
simple and transforming life that shows us all how to live.

Who is she to you?
What are the whispers in your ear? 
What are the winds stirring up in your heart?
It takes great courage to answer that call
and to step out of the comfort and security
of the unexamined room in which we live.
Has she been calling  you?
Then today is the day to answer.
 Today is the day to accept the call to step out
into the unknown
To do that which you have been avoiding,
to see and hear that part of yourself that has
been tugging on the hem of your coat,
begging for attention

Prayer for today :

Magnificent Mary may I remain open
to the impossible
May I remember not to ignore the very subtle
messages of Spirit;
and may I undertake each task as the sacred task that it is
Ave Maria
Om jai mata Mary ma
jai jai ma


blessings
Hettienne
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Day 25 and Day 2 of Art Novena

Blessings to you!

We are Flamekeepers keeping the focus on the sacred matrix
of life in the form, sacred presence and wholeness of
Holy Mary, Sacred Heart of the World, alive.
We have been participating in a daily ritual
for thirty days and now we are also including
the Art Novena of Our Lady of Lourdes
up till her feast day on 11 February.



Our emotions, feelings and our energetic heart
has the power to alter and transform the electromagnetic field
of our world and to move mountains.
The appearances and manifestations of Mary prove
that the idea of separation between our world and the
Otherworld is but an illusion.  Matter is made up of atoms
and those atoms can be altered by the power of belief.

At sacred sites where the veils of belief have thinned,
thousands of people feel the sacred presence  of the divine.
And this sacred presence transcends all dogma, beliefs
and laws.  It demonstrates to us that we have the power
to alter our collective reality.

The bigger the crowd of believers in the power of love and beauty,
the bigger the collective effect on the perceived and created reality.




I started the first Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes in 2012.
Here is an extract of my first post :

To me, the Blessed Mother is not limited to any religion, any dogma or any culture.  
The Soul has its own religion and that is where you will find Her and Her many faces.
She is present for all 
Her Grace enfolds everyone
You only have to become aware of Her.

Wherever I travel in the world, I visit Her sacred shrines.  I have visited Kwan Yin in Ayutthaya in Thailand;
Kali Ma in Her many temples in India;
I have attended the Navaratri and Durga Puja,
 the nine nights of the Goddess in Varanasi;
the holy well and holy fire of Brigit in Kildare;
the Goddess Temple in Glastonbury 
and I have participated in many Goddess Conferences in Glastonbury
hosted by the Temple of Avalon and Her priestesses
and I have facilitated the first 
International Goddess Conference in South Africa in 2008
to name some of my pilgrimages to the Holy Mother

all of these have been numinous experiences
that touched me deeply
and brought great insight and healing to my mind
for our conflicted nature as human beings
but none touched  me so profoundly
as Our Lady of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception.

I did not have high expectations of my visit to the Grotto and the City of Lourdes.
I had seen many pictures and thought I knew what to expect.



At the grotto I fell in line with the other pilgrims, waiting my turn to touch the walls of the cave and its dripping water.  The atmosphere was light and joyful, although many stood and knelt deep in prayer.  As I approached the statue of Our Lady where She appeared to St Bernadette, I could feel an intensification of the energy, a slight vibration and a humming sound.  The closer I came, the louder the sound became.  The sound was over and above the sound of the rushing waters.
As I put my hand out to touch the dripping water and I raised my eyes, 
a column of light was visible to me,
shimmering and dancing.
My first impression was that it is a giant candle, but then my logical mind
realised that this is not possible.
The only way I can describe it is ‘a flame of living organic light’ :
Her Divine Presence made manifest in this world,
visible to my eyes.

And overwhelming and immense feelings which I am at a loss to name.
A feeling of such incredible fullness and completeness 
which has stayed with me ever since.

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


That which reminds you of the Sacred in the Ordinary
and opening ourselves to the healing possibilities,
both spiritually and physically, 
that comes through love and acceptance
and opening of the heart

images
collage
poetry
stories
art works
prayer
ritual
mantra
anything
that awakens your heart

and reminds you of the Sacred in everyday living



I visited Lourdes last year as a pilgrim.  There, in front of the cave, I experienced something very special.  I felt a special vibration, a kind of spiritual presence there.  And then in front of the image of the Virgin Mary, I prayed, I expressed my admiration for this holy place that has long been a source of inspiration and strength, that has provided spiritual solace, comfort and healing to millions of people.  And I prayed that this might continue for a long time to come – the Dalai Lama

This picture I took on 8 September, the nativity feast day of Mary
Here you can see the rosary of lights procession with the full moon
hanging in the sky!!
I am the Immaculate Conception
was her words to Bernadette
She was a poor shepherdess,
Bernadette,
growing up at the foothills of the Pyrenees,
on the banks of the Gave du Pau.
Tending the very poor family’s
small flock of sheep
When the most miraculous vision 
appeared to her.
A vision of Light
with roses on Her feet.
From this numinous event
flowed forth a stream of healing water,
a holy place was born,
Bernadette’s life was transformed
into one of passion,
commitment and a vocation to the highest Love
A place where the fire was lit long ago
and the fire of your Soul
and Its unconditional love
is kept alive
And such is the miracle within our own hearts
teaching you that Love is everywhere



Prayer for today :

Radiant Mary, shine radiantly upon me.
Bright Lady who illuminates my inner darkness
Yours is the incorruptible fire;
As it is clean, it cleanses; as it is pure, it purifies.
Hail Mary
Om jai mata Mary Ma
jai jai ma
blessings to you
Hettienne
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Day 24 and Day 1 of Art Novena

The Suit of Roses in the Mysteries of Mary deck
is inextricably woven through with the elements
of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Mary, Queen of Earth and Heaven,
 manifests miracles,
opening the gateway from the world of light,
merges with your own heart,
infusing your vision and senses
with divine purpose.

Her divine presence is at one with springs,
 rivers and entire valleys  and the earth is filled 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.


The sanctuary of Lourdes is set  in the ancient
symbol of Pisces Vesica, the shape of the primordial egg
and the divine womb and yoni through which all of creation is born.
Here is an extract from Mysteries of Mary tarot deck :

We also know the fairy tale of the goose that lays 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.

Pilgrim shrine made by myself after my first visit to Lourdes
Initiation into priestesshood by the Lady

One of the three fairy tale groups
is ‘The Abundance-giving women in the Other World’.
In these fairy tales the ‘goddess-heroine’ initiates
a young girl into priestesshood.

St Bernadette in the Mysteries of Mary deck
The story line of these type of fairy tales follow the
following outline :
The young girl leaves her family, as well as ordinary time
and place and then enters the Otherworld – which she does so either
through travel or visions.
In the Otherworld she meets the goddess whom
initiates her, turning her into an ordained priestess
and then grants her with gifts to take back to the world.
When the young girl or princess returns to the world
she is no longer the same innocent.
She returns with a deeper knowledge and with
the gifts of vision and compassion amongst other things,
which was granted to her.

This is the basic structure of this type of fairy tale
and we can see how the story of Bernadette and
Our Lady of Lourdes fit into this archetype.
Bernadette’s story also has many other elements in common with
classic myth and fairy tale and we will explore those
in the upcoming days.  I am thinking of the challenges that Bernadette faced
and the sacred tasks (as in the case of the myth of Psyche)
that she has to complete.

Some of the young girls who were initiated into
the priestesshood of the sacred feminine

The grotto of Massabielles was known to be sacred to the
goddess Persephone in Roman times.  The sacred feminine
has manifested in these grounds through the ages
and today Our Lady of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception,
fills this valley and its rocks and waters with
a sacred feminine presence..
This is a mystical understanding that not everyone is open to
and especially in religious circles there are many
disagreements on what exactly is taking place here.
But for million of pilgrims (religious and non-religious)
the supernatural and loving presence at Lourdes
is undeniable.

Bernadette stepped into priestesshood of the sacred feminine
and returned to the world with unwavering faith in the
miraculous and the manifest presence of the deity in this world.
Through Bernadette’s initiation into priestesshood
of belief and faith in the supernatural and miracles,
thousands of people are daily entering
the Otherworld at Lourdes.
A world where miracles do take place
and where healings take place daily.

Light procession at Lourdes

Prayer for today :

I open myself to your presence, o Great Mother;
I commit myself to your priestesshood of miracle thinking
and the practise of faith in the extraordinary.
I am willing for my eyes and heart to be broken open
by your divine and radiant presence;
as I priestess your love and compassion in the world.

Om jai mata Mary ma
jai jai ma
blessings
Hettienne
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Day 23 – updated post

THE BLESSING OF THE ROSE QUEEN


The blessing of the Rose Queen : 
a devotion
to the power and Grace of the Blessed Mother;
to the mystery of the angelic realms
and the resurrection of the feminine mysteries.
An old legend tells that at the time of the winter solstice, 
all of those souls, who will incarnate in the coming year, 
draw close to the Earth.
The Divine Mother then takes a single petal from 
the Great Rose of Life  and places it in the heart of each of those 
souls who will be born. 
As that soul then is born and grows throughout its life and 
awakens its true self, that single petal will blossom in the
 heart of the individual, becoming a living Rose of Life 
that will bless the world.
You can do the Blessing of the Rose Queen prayers as a way
of calling upon Mary of the Divine Feminine to assist with
a special request.  It is not something to be used for ordinary
things, but for those special times in our life when what we are
doing just doesn’t seem to be enough – when we really
need assistance.

Perform these prayers for thirty days in a row.  
Visualize what it is that you wish in as much clear detail
as possible.  Write it down, so that the words are clear
and distinct, with as little room for misinterpretation as possible.




Perform it during a quiet and special time in your day :
Oh most beautiful and gracious Rose Queen,
who came down to Earth to do good and who never
left a request unanswered, grant me the rose
of _____________________
Hail Mary, Goddess full of Grace
God is with you
Blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of the creativity
that spirals forth from your womb.
Through your art and rituals of beauty,
we find our forgiveness and healing.
Holy Goddess, Mother of Earth,
work the mystery for your children  


Holy Mary,  Mother of God,
oh Rose Queen 
Bestow your Blessing upon us
Now and Forever
This final week has a dual focus : that of the Rose Queen
and the Immaculate Conception.
The colour is gold and the element is Earth.
We focus on two main aspects of the Suit of Roses which is
embodiment and manifestation.
Tomorrow is the beginning of my annual Art Novena to Our Lady
of Lourdes, Immaculate Conception which I have been doing
since 2012.  
We continue with our Immaculate Practise which is a combination
of creating a sacred altar, saying the mantra and prayers.
We complement these with any of the sacred working tools
such as journalling, collage making, embroidery, knitting
and tarot work.
This work is not intended only for one’s own benefit
but to share the power of one’s own healing
through passing the Sacred Heart Diksha on to others.
The altar forms a powerful focal and envisioning centre for our
sacred work.

All of these will be woven together this week through
beautiful wholistic body movement practise and
a video will be uploaded.

May this practise inspire you to incorporate it into your practise of devotion
and awakening to the divine feminine mysteries of Mary.

blessings
Hettienne
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Day 23

THE BLESSING OF THE ROSE QUEEN


The blessing of the Rose Queen : 
a devotion
to the power and Grace of the Blessed Mother;
to the mystery of the angelic realms
and the resurrection of the feminine mysteries.
An old legend tells that at the time of the winter solstice, 
all of those souls, who will incarnate in the coming year, 
draw close to the Earth.
The Divine Mother then takes a single petal from 
the Great Rose of Life  and places it in the heart of each of those 
souls who will be born. 
As that soul then is born and grows throughout its life and 
awakens its true self, that single petal will blossom in the
 heart of the individual, becoming a living Rose of Life 
that will bless the world.
You can do the Blessing of the Rose Queen prayers as a way
of calling upon Mary of the Divine Feminine to assist with
a special request.  It is not something to be used for ordinary
things, but for those special times in our life when what we are
doing just doesn’t seem to be enough – when we really
need assistance.

Perform these prayers for thirty days in a row.  
Visualize what it is that you wish in as much clear detail
as possible.  Write it down, so that the words are clear
and distinct, with as little room for misinterpretation as possible.




Perform it during a quiet and special time in your day :
Oh most beautiful and gracious Rose Queen,
who came down to Earth to do good and who never
left a request unanswered, grant me the rose
of _____________________
Hail Mary, Goddess full of Grace
God is with you
Blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of the creativity
that spirals forth from your womb.
Through your art and rituals of beauty,
we find our forgiveness and healing.
Holy Goddess, Mother of Earth,
work the mystery for your children  


Holy Mary,  Mother of God,
oh Rose Queen 
Bestow your Blessing upon us
Now and Forever
This final week has a dual focus : that of the Rose Queen
and the Immaculate Conception.
The colour is gold and the element is Earth.
We focus on two main aspects of the Suit of Roses which is
embodiment and manifestation.
Tomorrow is the beginning of my annual Art Novena to Our Lady
of Lourdes, Immaculate Conception which I have been doing
since 2012.  
We continue with our Immaculate Practise which is a combination
of creating a sacred altar, saying the mantra and prayers.
We complement these with any of the sacred working tools
such as journalling, collage making, embroidery, knitting
and tarot work.
This work is not intended only for one’s own benefit
but to share the power of one’s own healing
through passing the Sacred Heart Diksha on to others.
The altar forms a powerful focal and envisioning centre for our
sacred work.

All of these will be woven together this week through
beautiful wholistic body movement practise and
a video will be uploaded.

May this practise inspire you to incorporate it into your practise of devotion
and awakening to the divine feminine mysteries of Mary.

blessings
Hettienne
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Day 22 of Thirty Days with Mary

Mary as the Bride on St Bridget’s feast day and
celebrating the feast of candles
in my garden shrine
Today is the first day of the final week of
Thirty Days with Mary.
It is also of course St Bridgits Day and in the Northern Hemisphere
it is  Candlemas and Imbolc.
Here in the South it is Lammas or the Harvest Festival.
So today’s post is a slightly longer one.
One of my Bridget collage cards.
I have a special devotion to Bridgit and spent a few days in Kildare,
visiting her sacred well and the hearth.  I have written about this
pilgrimage on my blog Cloister of the Heart
(http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com)
For today I have created a special altar for Bridgit
as well as for the Priestesshood of the Temple of Mary
that we celebrate during this final week of the Suit of the Roses.
Bridgit is the Moon card in my deck and I included the
Brigit cross and the claidagh in the shrine.
In Glastonbury (Avalon) she is known as Bridie, the virgin goddess
and she can be seen in the landscape riding on the back of a swan.
I brought these back from Kildare.  The small altar on the right
is a copy of the big altar that stands at the beginning of the pilgrimage
at Brigid’s well.  Here you can see some of my offerings, along with those
of other pilgrims when I visited.
To honour my own relationship with Bridgid/Brede/Bride
that has deep roots in Glastonbury and its miraculous hawthorn tree
I included the spiral goddess on my altar.
The hawthorn branch is from my garden.
The fourth week is dedicated to the Suit of Roses.
Through the ages the goddesses Isis, Venus, Aphrodite and the Shekinah
had been called Great Rose, the Rose Queen, Flower of Venus,
the Rose Garden, the Cosmic Rose and the Mystical Rose.
The rosary is a universal form of prayer and present in many religions.
In the Bhagavad Gita it is said that the Universe is a necklace and the string
is the Atman that holds all things together.  The Hindu rosary is sacred to
Sarasvati, Goddess of language.  Sarasvati hears the words of the prayers
and she is the Word.  The Buddhist rosary has 108 beads, so does the Hindu
mala and this number represents the cycles of the universe.  The Muslim rosary
has 33 beads for the 99 names of God.
The rose is an ancient symbol sacred to the goddess, to the feminine
and the Wisdom tradition.  Sacred places often carry the perfume of
roses and mystics experience the fragrance of the rose during ecstatic
moments. 
During my first San Garmano pilgrimage I visited the church
and body of Padre Pio and when I meditated in the sacred space
I was engulfed with the fragrance of roses.  It was so strong
I will never forget it.  During my visit to the Rosa Mystica shrine
a few years later I was attracted by the strong perfume of roses,
only to discover that the fragrance was coming from the statue of Padre Pio.
I also write about the fragrance of roses and honey at Lourdes
and in Lisieux at the body of St Terese and those who went with me
had the same experience.
 The radiant Lady of Lourdes stood over a wild rose bush
and she appeared with golden roses on her bare feet.  Her image made
in roses appeared on the inside of the cloak of  Juan Diego of Guadulupe.
The original rose flower used to be an open flower with five distinct
petals.  The five petals are similar to the inner core of an apple when cut in half;
you can clearly see the pentacle.  The apple is also a traditionally feminine
symbol.  The shape of the five petals and five segments in the apple’s
inner core, is similar to the five pointed pattern that Venus forms in her 
orbit when she gets closest to Earth.
These last seven days are dedicated to Mary, the Great Rose, 
the Rose Queen, Rose of Divine Love, the Rose Garden
and Our Lady of Love and Beauty.
My altar for the week – I chose the Priestesshood card

Today we draw the fourth card for the Thirty Days of Mary.
Place all four cards in a row on your altar and start writing the story.
You may find that by the end of the thirty days you will be adding
more insights into the story.
One of my Imbolc collage cards.
Hail Mary 
Ave Maria
Glory is the one who is our home
Glory for the presence in our hearts
Glory since the mystery transcends all words.
all songs, all signs
Glory is the hope that makes us live
Hail Mary 
Ave Maria
Glory is the wonder that we were and are
and will become
Glory is the Spirit who invades our bones
and makes them shine
Glory in the wind and in the  fire
Glory in the one breath
giving life to all the world
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
Glory in the rising earth
Glory embracing what we lost
Glory in assuming who we are
Glory in the woman who is whole
Hail Mary
Ave Maria
blessings
Hettienne