Category: walkingwithmary

Today is the nineteenth day of this journey with ourselves, meditation

and Mary in all her aspects.

Diving deep into our own shadows always takes us out of our comfort

zones and into seemingly dangerous places.  We are all of a sudden

confronted with unspoken beliefs;  memories that had been deep down

never to be seen again (that was the idea) and an alchemical process

starts.  

Alchemy is not only something that takes place in a laboratory.

Alchemy takes place in the kitchen, when the yeast meets the flour

and rises;  when the bread is put into the oven and it bakes to a beautiful

golden brown.  Alchemy takes place when we pick up the needle and thread

and sew two pieces of fabric together and we have a garment.

Alchemy takes place in the heart when we allow the fears and hurts

to float to the surface, to be seen, to be embraced, to be accepted

and to be viewed with compassion.

For today and this stage of our journey I offer to you

IX of Distaff, Our Lady Untier of Knots

Our Lady Untier of Knots symbolises the absolute power of the divine

to untie the knots of the personal self.

Yoga teaches that knots or ‘granthis’ exist in the sublte energetic meridians

(nadi) of the body.  These knots restrict the flow of prana or chi or the life force

and emotional discomfort and physical disease is the result

When we accept that we are ‘wound with mercy round and round’

then it is a small step to accept that the Divine is as close as your next breath.

The Holy Protection of the Mother of God

Mother of Mercy

if I stay awake all night,

vigilant and grateful,

will you drop your protective veil

over my vulnerable heart?

I cannot control the world around me,

I can only be faithful to my own deepest truth.

Wrap me in your pure white cloak of devotion, Mary,

so that I can remember that my sole task

is to praise the God of Love.

Cover me in your burial shroud

as I die to my false self,

to be reborn

as a living example of peace on earth.

Infuse me with the tincture of your tears

so that I may face every challenge

with a tender and courageous spirit

– Mirabai Starr from Mother of God, similar to fire

blessings

Hettienne

Soulcollage card by Hettienne

You may even consider creating your own tarot cards.

blessings on your journey of Thirty Days with Mary
Hettienne

Today is the final day of the second week of the

Suit of the Holyrood.

There are various archetypes and initiations in this suit

and one of them is Our Lady, the Eastern Gate.

Many people are familiar with the fact that Joseph and

Mary fled with the infant Jesus to Egypt at the threat

of the massacre of the innocents by King Herod.

This event is well covered by many artists

and it is seen as one of the seven sorrows of Mary.

However, what is not clear, is the amount of time that

was spent in Egypt and what transpired there.

The two accounts in the books of Matthew and Luke

do not correspond at all.  Luke mentions nothing about Egypt

and Matthew says nothing about a trip to Nazareth

soon after Jesus’ birth whereas Luke describes in detail

how Jesus was taken to the temple in Jerusalem

‘after Mary’s purification according to the law of Moses.’

The town of Nazareth is in the ‘kingdom’ of Jerusalem

and here we see Mary on the donkey riding

through the gate of Jerusalem.

In The Hebrew Goddess, a book by Jewish historian

and anthropologist Raphael Patai, we learn

that the Hebrew goddess Asherah was seen as the

mother of Yahweh.  

In the time of King Joshua the Hebrew goddess

had to go ‘underground’.  The use of her name and images

were forbidden and her devotees replaced her with

the tree, a pole or rod and the branches of the menorah.

She was known as the Lady of Jerusalem;

the Gate of Jerusalem and the Eastern Gate.

The Lady of Jerusalem was also depicted as an arch.

According to the Dead Sea Scrolls and

The Mother of the Lord by Margaret Barker,

 the ancients

believed Mary to be the incarnation of

the Lady of Jerusalem.

In Christian iconography from the East

we see Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn.

Her image is above the city gates (in Lithuania

and Poland) to protect the city and its inhabitants

and many miracles have been ascribed to her.

In Ezekiel it is written that the eastern gate of

Jerusalem has been shut

and that it will only re-open for the divine One.

So here we have Mary returning victoriously

through the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem

into the light of a new dawn.

A marriage of eastern and western iconography

and cultures and more importantly,

a marriage of masculine and feminine values

for our world.

This card is a way shower of the return of Mary

and her hidden and lost meaning to our world.

The deck takes us on a journey through the 

life, the initiations and the mysteries of Mary

as the Sacred Feminine and what it means

to our natural world as well as our spiritual,

emotional and social health.

May the values of mercy, compassion, forgiveness and acceptance

of all diversity as embodied by Mary

return to a place of honour and respect in our world.

Hail Mary
Ave Maria
Sanctum Gloria
Hail Mary
Hail Queen of Heaven
Hail Lady of the Angels
Salutation to Thee, root and portal
Whence the Light of the world has arisen
Hail Mary
Ave Maria

The Anointing One

You may wish to create an anointing oil and carry it with you in a small bottle.

The sacrament of anointing is a blessing and a healing. You may wish to anoint your hands

before you meditate.  You can anoint others in your circle.  You can bless

your chakras or other parts of your body with a healing or intentional blessing.

A traditional blessing is to anoint the forehead (third eye chakra) with

a touch of the thumb dipped into the anointing oil.

One can anoint your tarot decks by touching the oil to the 

box that you keep them in or to the pouch.  You can anoint your meditation

shawls, your candles or any objects on your altar

Recipe :

Mix 2 parts of olive oil with 1 part petroleum jelly.

Add drops of rose or spikenard oil.

You can also add franckincense or myrrh oil

and sandal paste if you wish.

I use kum kum, the red paste that I bring back from India.
I mix it with a bit of water and a few drops of oil.

You can create your own prayer or mantra for
the anointing blessing.

I use the following :

‘In the Sacred Heart of Mary I trust’

and

‘In the Immaculate Sacred Heart of Mary I am’

Walking in the footsteps of Mary the Magdalene in the South of France

A few years ago I undertook a pilgrimage to France
with the focus of walking in the footsteps of

Mary the Magdalene.

Our first stop was St Maximin la St Baume where we stayed in the old cloisters of the Basilica. The adjacent Basilica houses the relics of Mary Magdalene. As with all sacred places, saints, myths and legends, there is always controversy and dispute about the truth of the legends as well as the relics. As we know, religion is a powerful political tool. Personally, I choose to see the entire spectrum of religion, myth and legend as an archetypal journey. We, ourselves, embody these archetypes and these inspirational lives and stories of these almost superhuman beings, is to me a cross road where the archetype and the physical meet and cross. 

One cannot ignore the power of the names given to these characters – the names in themselves are archetypal. Also, if you pay attention to the ley lines where the sacred places are established and where the waters run from the sacred springs and well, you can see the presence of the Divine, marrying our world with the Spiritual world.

Staying in the old cloisters was a very humbling experience. 

This was the view from my room in the convent which has now been turned into a hotel.

Right next door, as part of the complex, stands the massive St Maximin Basilica of Mary Magdalene. 

We visited the Basilica more than once. We also visited the chapel at the grotto where Mary Magdalene spent the last thirty three years of her life at La Sainte Baume. I experienced the same divine Presence at both these sites. The Presence of the Divine Feminine known as Mary Magdelene. I can only describe it as a very very gentle, loving and forgiving energy. It felt as though the energy was vibrating in gentle, yet powerful waves of nurturing and embracing : an energy with a very specific vibration and colour which I will now recognize immediately again. 

This is the statue of Mary Magdalene placed just outside the crypt where her relics are kept.

Here is picture taken during the Mary Magdalene feast day procession. Her skull is behind this mask which is taken out for the procession.

The Basilica contained many statues and a shrine dedicated to Mother Mary, the Mary Magdelene crypt and more. The most beautiful Mary Magdalene statue graced this church. The picture does not really do justice to the presence that radiates from this beautiful image.

blessings

Hettienne

Mary the Magdalene

On this, the twelfth day of Thirty Days with Mary,

we practise the Immaculate Practise and you 

have the freedom to pray any of the prayers shared with you,

I have shared many different practises with you so far.
These practises were developed over a long period of time
and they become really effective in purifying the mind
when you actively and regularly engage with the ritual, the words and the intent.
The mind is like a laser; it has great power but one has to train it
into one pointed focus to truly harness its potential.
Mastery of the self starts with mastery of the mind.
When the projections and veils of the mind clears,
one can ‘see’ more clearly.
As the mind comes to rest in the centre, the psyche
is freed from its cocoon to reveal new worlds within yourself.

We are currently in the second week and the focus

is on the Suit of Holyrood (wands) and

the archetype of the Sacred Heart, the Magdalen

and the Mystical Marriage.

VI  TREE OF CHOICES

Traditionally The Lovers

‘God planted trees in a garden. Humans lived among those trees, they were not yet divided when they were told: Eat from this tree or do not eat from it.’ Logion 94, The Gospel of Philip

The tree plays an important role in the Mysteries.  In this card we are
confronted with the Tree of Choices.  In the Biblical and Judaic stories
there are different versions of the trees of Paradise.  It would seem that
there was in truth only one tree, the Tree of Life.  This is an ancient symbol
of the self-sustaining and regenerating power of a spirit filled world.
In the story, this tree was later split into two, the Tree of Life and the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. After the split of the trees
we see that they are now in opposition to each other. After the fall of
Adam and Eve, caused by their eating from the fruit of the
tree of Knowledge, humanity was cut off and banned
from the Tree of Life.  The Tree of Life promised eternal life
and humanity was now doomed to a mortal and exiled life, beyond the veil.

In this shrine I compare the metaphor of the two trees with the way in
which our culture have split value and worthiness of
masculine and feminine and then still further
dividing the feminine into the ‘good girl/virgin/wife/mother
and the bad girl/lover/wise woman.
This split is reflected in the way that the stories of Mariam of Nazareth
and Miriam of Magdala, is interpreted and
held up as image of the two aspects of woman .

Popular legend has assigned the apple tree to the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The apple is a powerful
symbol of woman and her feminine sexual nature.
 In this version of the story of the Fall of Man, woman and
her sexual nature is held responsible for their
eviction from Paradise.  So right at the onset a woman
has been forbidden from getting to know
and understand her complex sexual nature.
There is an inherent sexuality in physical bodies;
one could say that the soul radiates its mystical and
sexual nature through its physical cloak.
But humanity has been severed from this mystery and all its gifts.

In the Christian story we are only told the story of
Mary the Virgin-Mother, the one who conceived immaculately
and who remained a virgin even after the birth of her son.
We never really meet Mary the Beloved of Jesus,
the Bride of the Bridal Chamber, the one who is called the Magdalene.

Mary the Mother of God is indeed a Bride
without a Bridegroom as She is the Bride of the Spirit,
but there is another sacrament in the mysteries,
that of the Bride and the Beloved Bridegroom..
This brings us to Mary Magdalene and the various interpretations
of her role in the story of Jesus and the three Marys.
Few accept Mary Magdalene as the beloved or the
bride of Jesus the Bridegroom.
Mary Magdalene has been blackened in reputation by
various authors of religion through the centuries
and mostly she has only been seen as an unholy woman
who indulges in pleasures of the flesh.
Religion has always separated the life of the flesh
and the life of the spirit and especially in the treatment of
women as wives, lovers and mistresses.
And we see this split right at the start of the story with the
two trees in the Garden of Paradise.  

In this card we see Mary the Mother with the rosary in her hands and we see the black Mary as she is depicted in the poem ‘The Thunder, Perfect Mind’ in the Nag Hammadi library.  In this shrine she represents Mary Magdalene and ultimately both together represent the Feminine Soul and aspect of the eternal feminine.  Both these women carry the name Mary and to me it is an important indicator that there is an important hidden message for those with ears to hear.  The split between the Madonna and the whore is active in many layers of our cultures.
Women are demonised for the expression of their sexuality,
whereas men are honoured and revered for their sexual prowess. 

In the traditional Lovers card we often see a male hero struggling
for a choice between two women.  In the Mysteries card we have the
female version of the choices card.
Women are mostly compared to men and masculine pursuits and rarely in relation to other women and themselves.  This creates an imbalance in women and a suppression of womanly ways and feminine relational values.

Hecate, goddess of choices, is often shown with three roads behind her.  One plus one equals three: new life is born from struggling and discord. Living with the tension of the opposites, allowing disagreement and another’s voice that differ from yours, to be heard, brings awareness to the glassy mind, of the awesome beauty of creating a life that has meaning. There is a place where all the rivers converge and that place is the Sacred Heart of humanity. 

Through the union of the opposites, that is, through the marriage of two opposing forces, a third force is born.  This is the meaning of creativity and the magical nature of the number three.  (This card is a six and thus contains two threes). On the path of divine love, the magical child of love and hope is born from the marriage of the opposites.

The braid of life contains three strands which can be symbolised by the colours white, red and black.  In the ancient cultures the hawthorn tree was regarded as a sacred tree. Today the hawthorn tree is sacred to Mary and the goddess as well. This specific tree contains all three elements of the thread of life and even more importantly, they overlap. The white blossoms start to form whilst the red berries and black seeds are still hanging on the thickly leaved branches.

 The white is regarded as the ‘virgin’, the cycle of spring and new beginnings; the red berries represent summer and the fullness of the season and the physical acts of sensuality and joy and loving and the black seed contains the potential of fathering the new life and it also is the end of the life of the berry.

As we dance and weave with the tension of desire and repulsion between the opposites of life, we discover new possibilities, new experiences and we weave a new story.

This shrine and card represent choices. The Tree of Choices invites you to consider the choice to say ‘both’ instead of the black and white rationale of ‘either/or’.  You will be given the opportunity to make a decision and you are reminded that it is possible to find a new way and a different way of reacting and of doing things.  You are reminded that it is only fear that will force you into a corner, and thereby denying half the picture.  When you are willing to keep an open mind and an open heart, and stay with the fear, it is possible for a new vision to be born.
When hold the tension of the opposites, we hold onto the yin and the yang, the ‘dark’ and the ‘light’,
transformation takes place and our understanding of the world expands.

Hettienne