Category: week two

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Day 10 – September

Ace of Holy Rood
Mysteries of Mary tarot deck


Blessings to you on this tenth day of this journey.


Today I will share with you the Diksha of the Sacred Heart of Mary.
A diksha is the sanskrit word in the Shaktism tradition
of tantra yoga for a blessing or downpouring of Grace from the deity.

As part of my training years as a shakta (as a devotee of my ishta-devi,
Blessed Mary) I was trained to receive and transfer blessings
and healing energy and invocations from the Divine to others.
I have worked with the Diksha of the Sacred Heart of Mary 
in group blessings and also with many others in healing work.
I have witnessed powerful transformation through this beautiful energy and have many letters from those who have received it distant, and whom I have never met
in person that have felt its healing and even witnessed instant and permanent
beneficial and healing effects.


The Diksha of the Sacred Heart of Mary

The sacred heart refers to (amongst other esoteric meanings) the Secret
Chamber of the etheric heart which contains the three spiritual flames.  The fourth chakra
of the heart initiates us into different levels of Love through which we
feel a vast sense of connectedness, compassion and eventually unconditional love.


Below is the instructions to receive the Diksha directly from Mother Mary.
You can repeat this receiving practise daily for at least three days.
It will be followed up with the Sacred Heart meditation in a few days time.
Daily practice of the Sacred Heart meditation will strengthen the energies of the
Sacred Heart Diksha in your energetic and spiritual body.
You can pass it onto others when it has become powerful enough within yourself.
I have worked with this sacred energy as a healer and have shared wonderful
feedback from those who have received it.  Time and space is not an obstacle
We are all connected through energy.
Practising the Sacred Heart meditation also guides us to focus on the hearth within.
This is the sacred heart within ourselves where all transformation takes place.
The cross with the rose in its centre is symbolic of the sacred heart.


The Sacred Heart Diksha opens the inner chambers of the spiritual and non-physical heart
and the living waters of Life starts to flow in ever-increasing amounts
creating a infinite well of consciousness that feeds all life.

  A diksha can also be called an initiation or blessing.
It initiates the receiver into an aspect of spiritual energy and in this case it the
Sacred Heart of Mary.
The Sacred Heart is comparable to the sacred womb of the Divine Mother, or
the sacred embrace :  the place where you find yourself divinely supported and
carried unconditionally.





Outline for todays’ Immaculate Practise

Place a glass or bottle of water near you to drink after the meditation.

As always purify your altar and space with incense or smudging stick
Add fresh flowers or freshen the altar
Light the candles

Open with the daily prayer

Repeat the thirty day mantra of devotion and praise
to Blessed Mary Divine Mother

Om Jai Mata Mary Ma Namaha

Do the meditation to receive the Sacred Heart Diksha from Mother Mary

Close with prayer





How to receive the Sacred Heart Diksha from Mother Mary

(you may wish to record the meditation for yourself)

Sit comfortably, become quiet and turn your attention inward.  Rest in the silence, allowing it to bring comfort and peace. Take your time.  Take a few minutes to allow this peace to calm any sense of restlessness. 
Focus on the rhythm of your  breath.  
Bring a deeper awareness of the inner nature to the mind as it is centered and at rest.  
Now take several gentle breaths and allow yourself to go deeper and deeper within.  
A deep sense of peace abides and gradually fills your being.


Now in your mind’s eye, visualise the image of Mother Mary.  
You can also choose to use Her image which you have placed on your altar, 
to connect with Her.

Call on Her presence.  ‘Oh Divine Mother, please come to me;  bless me with your Presence and reveal yourself’.  
You may become aware of a colour, a sensation or a strong rush of emotion.  
Allow, allow, allow.  
You may want to stay in the awareness of Her Grace 
for a few moments before continuing.

‘Oh Divine Mother, by the Law of Love vested in you and in myself, I ask to receive the Sacred Heart Diksha.  I am willing to open my heart and mind to receive this energetic
transference and I am willing to allow the healing and transformation to take place day by day.  Thank you thank you thank you. Jai Jai Maa! Ave Maria So Be It’

Stay in this energy for 15 to 20 minutes until you feel the energies dissipate.  
It is best to lie down for a short while afterwards and also to drink a glass of water.   
You may keep a glass of water with you when you follow up with the Sacred Heart Meditation.  You can drink this water yourself or give to others in need of healing or peace.


Close with daily prayer 

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

Remember this is powerful work and you will experience awakenings into deeper
levels of consciousness and awareness.  You may have visions or sensations and old
feelings may rise to the surface.  Should you feel emotionally overwhelmed please reach
out to a friend or a therapist.

It is a powerful practise to follow up with journalling or making notes
as one tends to forget the insights and feelings that surface.
I find that it also helps the doubting and critical mind when I can go back
and read my own notes and witnessing to my own process.


blessings
Hettienne

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Day 9 – September

Welcome to Day 9 of the Thirty Days of Walking with Mary
for September


Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows.
We recognize her blackness in the prima materie of nigredo
in the alchemical process of transformation.
We also see her in the blackness of the Black Madonna.




Who has ever been stronger than Mary?
Anyone then who wishes to live in the valley
of humility must conquer
All the power of great love

– Hadewijch of Antwerp



She will take the racked treasure of our suffering
on her knees and place it beside the 
tortured relic of Christ’s body.
Her arms contain all the suffering of the whole of humanity,
the countless ever-growing number of wounds
of a human race which is continuously crucified.
– Edward Schillebeecks


We continue with the Immaculate Practise for the full thirty days.
The discipline of a daily repetitive spiritual practise
contains the mind and frees the soul to explore the other realms
of Divine Love and Wisdom

Today I add a special prayer for the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows

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.




In my research and pilgrimages to the Black Madonna, I found that one of Her most important messages can be summed up by these words of Albert Einstein :

A human being is part of the whole called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space.  We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest.  A kind of optical delusion of consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.  The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self.  We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.

The stories of the Black Madonnas are some of the oldest that we have.  Many of these statues were hidden for hundreds of years to escape destruction by the many rulers and patriarchs that passed through the lands.  But she has a consistent story and message to tell.

Images from the forthcoming Black Madonna Tarot Deck
www.hergracesacredart.com



The Black Madonna deck is a deepening of the Mysteries of Mary as a spiritual path of being devoted to the Blessed Mother in Her many manifestations and aspects.  I am hoping that this deck will offer another layer and level of spiritual insight and clarity into the personal journey of initiation, consecration, dedication and commitment to Mary as the reflection of the One in many and many in One.


It is part of my vision that one will be able to use these two decks, the Mysteries of Mary and the Black Madonna, concurrently and together; both for readings for spiritual insight and as a guidebook and map to the journey of spiritual unfoldment and ultimately union with the divine self.

Mystery surrounds the Black Madonna and her symbolism.  There are as many theories as there are Black Madonnas.  We no longer have any writings about her and very few stories still exist.  But that is exactly where I am looking for my insight about the Wisdom of the Black Madonna :  in folk tale and the stories that have been carried over down the generations and in my own personal experiences and insights into the collective unconscious and the womb of light.

The blackness of the Black Virgin is obviously a problem for the patriarchal religious structure known as the Roman Catholic Church.  Various explanations are given for the dark colour of the statues and the past few years many Black Madonnas have been whitened in renovation projects in the cathedrals and churches.   Slowly the ancient tradition of the Black Madonna is disappearing.  I see this ‘whitening’ reflected in many of the New Age teachings and sentiments and short cuts are promised to the holy grail of inner peace whilst at the same time many ancient practises are denigrated and even declared illegal (as in the use of herbs and plants).

However, what a blessing that She is being kept alive in these beautiful cathedrals and basilicas and that communities are still devoting themselves to her ritually and in festival.



The dark colour of the Black Madonna reflects the inner darkness that we have to wade and find our way through if we want to find long lasting satisfaction and happiness.  This is not an easy process and without a community to support your struggles, it is even more difficult.  When you turn outwards towards mainstream thinking, you will be met with a deluge of alternative solutions offered through capitalism, designed to replace your inner connection to yourself and the Universe.

When one closes one’s eyes, you see the colour of the Black Madonna.  Sitting in contemplation and meditation for long periods of time can be overwhelming and frightening to the ego-mind and the constructs of the psyche.  We spend an inordinate time to create our mental constructs and to line up our belief systems to give sense and meaning to our world.  We also all have personalities that has been shaped and created through our personal conditioning and experiences and from there we continue the personal ‘training’ of the mind. In other words, we are heavily invested in who we believe we are and in maintaining this illusion for ourselves and the world.  So obviously change will not come easily.

Millions of people struggle with insomnia and use exercise or drugs to subdue the mind into submitting to sleep.  A regular meditation practise may look like a peaceful and inactive pastime, but the truth be told, it takes the lid off Pandora’s box and lets the ‘good, the bad and the ugly’ out from your subconscious mind into the awareness of the conscious mind.  And this  It is far easier to live in ignorant bliss and have no ills blight the landscape of your awareness.

All spiritual practise leads to a psychic and emotional detox and when you do not know what is happening, it can be very fearful and off-putting and retreat would seem like the most sensible thing to do.




An initiation into a spiritual practise and path can come to you in various ways.  Often one is catapulted and initiated through personal experience and a catastrophic event in your life into a deeper exploration of one’s inner reality.  With the New Age explosion in the West many spiritual teachers have appeared but it also created a watered-down form of spirituality with the teachings made more meek and acceptable and palatable to the masses.  If you are serious about your spiritual unfoldment you need to dive deeply into the womb of black light that resides within you and within which you reside.

There is also a lopsided focus on ‘love and light’ with the result that those who understand that the shadows and the living black light is an integral part of the divine matrix, split off into their own sub-culture of new-paganism, wiccan, witchery and other labels.  Unity and union with the divine means that these two worlds have to be married and embraced as one, both within oneself and within the projected world of our divine mind.  Otherwise we are falling back into patriarchy and dual based religions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and all that grows from there. – an extract from the introduction to the Black Madonna tarot deck on www.patreon.com/thefrenchmadonna



blessings
Hettienne








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Day 8 – September

The soul (psyche) and the spirit (pneuma) are born of water and of fire.
It is with water, fire and light that the son of the bridal chamber
comes into being, the fire is then an anointing, 
the fire is then a light – Gospel of Philip

Today is Day Eight of the thirty days of Walking with Mary
and it is also the first day of the second week.
Week 2 Saturday 14 September to Friday 20 September

Mary as Beloved, Magdalen and Black Madonna
– the tree of life –

The Suit of Holy Rood (wands)
red, green and black


The new week brings a new energy and another
rebirth for us.   To welcome the new energies in, we 
clean and refresh our altars and our space.




You are invited to add fresh flowers and a red or green candle if you
should so choose.

The colours we will work with for the week are red, green, white
and black
and the element is fire.



In this second week of the spiritual practise,  the 
focus is on the second suit of the Mysteries of Mary
tarot deck, the Suit of the Holy Rood. (traditionally Wands)
which is based on the principles of beauty (not physical beauty
but beauty as an attribute of inspiration and harmony)
 and transformation.



Today I add a new prayer to the Immaculate Practise
You can work with this prayer in any way that you choose.
Eventually the practise will become your own
and it will reflect your energy and personal
relationship with the Divine and with Mary.

And the highlight of this week is the healing and transformative  
Diksha of the Sacred Heart of Mary.
We will follow it up  
with the Sacred Heart of Mary meditation
which strengthens the power of the Diksha in your energetic body.





The Holy Rood is seen in the sacred rood that flowers,
the living holy tree, the tree of life and the flaming sacred
heart of Mary.
The tree and its branches, similarly to the flaming heart,
represent the kundalini fire of life, shakty or the Holy Spirit.
It follows the meaning of the Bride and Bridegroom and
the mystical marriage as well as the sacred 
Bridal chamber mysteries.
The flaming tree is connected to the Black Madonna.
Many of the Black Madonnas were discovered in trees
and many appeared in apparitions in flaming trees 
and bushes
We will also focus on the Magdalen as she is the Beloved and of Jesus
and the Apostle to the apostles.
In the guidebook of the Mysteries of Mary tarot I explain that the 
name Maria and all its derivates are a title and that this
sacred tradition of holy women has been brought down through
many cultures and ages. We recognize this through the many names
of Mary, Mary Magdalene, Miriam, Maryam, Mara, Mari and more.
The mystical sacred marriage has always included
the holy immaculate conception and birth of father,
mother, son and daughter.  This of course is a psycho-spiritual
concept and philosophy (and not a literal marriage between
family members) which the ancient pagans and Great Mother
devotees understood very well.  
Sacred Heart shrine of Mary with 
sacred hawthorn berries (in my Mary garden)


The tree of the Holy Rood is the Hawthorn tree, also referred
to as the May tree for its flowering in May, the month of Mary
and the ancient May Queen.


Our Lady the Tree of Life
IX Holy Rood
Mysteries of Mary tarot deck



The Immaculate Practise



The sacred oil blend for the Sacred Heart of Mary

3 drops of eucalyptus essential oil and 7 drops of rose oil

(the better the quality of oil, the higher the vibration; this is
a very powerful blend and have been used in mystery schools
for years)


A new daily Prayer

You can continue with the previous daily prayer or you can
use the new one. or you can alternate between all the
prayers that I will share with you this month.

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

Mantra
The Sanskrit word ‘mantra’ means protection of the mind.

Om Jai Mata Mary Ma 
Jai Jai Ma

(Hail triumphant Creatrix Divine Mother Mary
Victorious Mother)

We work with different variations of the mantra
and you can continue to use these variations
should it become a part of your daily practise


Queen of Holy Rood – Mary as the Bride
of the Sacred Chamber


Draw a card for the week and place next to your first card
 on your altar.
If you have not done so yet, contemplate on how
the card of the previous week manifested in your life.
Keep the first card on the altar and at the end we 
will read all four cards together as a story.
I also invite you to draw a daily card.

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.  Feel a smile forming on your face.  
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.

blessings 


Hettienne