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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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Twelve Days of Mary Love – Day 8

Twelve days of Mary – Day 8

In honouring the dark face of the Black Madonna we honour
the darkness as well as the dark African mother of all humanity.
She is at one with the dark soil of the earth;
her power comes through the mountains, rocks, trees,
oil and milk.  We see her image carved in the wood of sacred trees;
she flows milk from her statues and sacred oil wells
still produce oil near her sacred caves and sanctuaries.
She is immanent in matter.

Mary Beth Moser writes ‘ as a power Source, she can restore power to those who need it.
It is up there for claiming. Her fierce power can help us become our authentic selves,
Remain, inviolable, protect the earth, resist dominant power, and demand justice.
Her inclusive power can help us embrace each other as siblings, children of the
same African mother.  Her ancient power can help us remember that
everything has its roots in the past and that we all come from what came
before us.  Her potential energy can help us remember our own potential, that
anything is possible – the grandest dream, the greatest change.
Her power of creation and destruction can remind us of the cycle of life,
death and rebirth.’
Her dark face reminds us of the power of darkness; the darkness of the unknown from
which everything comes; the darkness of below to which we must descend.’
On our wheel of colour-astro dealing the eighth card for
the eighth day of Epiphany, 2 January and the eighth house

Scorpio – October 24 – November 23
Colour – Violet
The planet – Pluto
The tarot card – Card XIII The Threshold (Death)
The eighth house of death
The eighth chakra of the Crown linked to the brain
And the spiritual centre of the reproductive organs
The colour of the crown chakra is violet, its complementary colour is orange
And its spiritual colour is pale orange

Meditation

 A tradition of transmission
The poem is a sutra
threading its way through us as we take shape
within its vocal texturing.
These urgent impulses of a veiled divinity
need a human face
to be the likeness of how love speaks.
We call that face poetry
but it is our life that is being revealed
from beyond its appearance.
The air is full of blossoms
and we have the same breath
of all the enlightened beings
who ever found out how to flower.
It takes a soul alchemy to portray those features
and to unwind the thread of love’s reality.
It takes a tradition of transmission
to create blooms from the prayers of our earth.
      – Eric Ashford

Today is the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
You may want to read my past posts for this special celebration
on my blog Cloister of the Heart under the label
Twelve Days of Mary

If  you click on this link it will take you to all the previous
Immaculate Conception celebrations on my blog
http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com/search?q=immaculate+conception

Beyond our physical and psychic being, we have
to discover our spiritual being, our eternal ground,
and there the mystery of love is fulfilled.
Some may come to this interior marriage by
way of exterior marriage, others are called
by the way of virginity, but all alike have to experience
the virgin birth, the marriage with God,
before they can reach maturity – Father Bede Griffiths
blessings
Hettienne
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Twelve Days of Mary Love – Day 4

Mamma Schaviona
Madonna of Montevergine
O Madonna, you are so beautiful! We find you all the way
up this mountain!
O please, beautiful Child, open this gate to us, this gate to 
Paradise.
We have come here many times and we have always
received your grace.

Let us climb up this big mountain to visit our Mother,
the Slave Mother.
The Madonna has such beautiful eyes that look like two stars,
Two bright shining stars, shining like Her golden crown.
Be will with all your good company, Madonna.
Be glad for next year, we will come see You again
And if we don’t come again, Mamma, wait for us in Paradise.
Dear Madonna, how beautiful You are up on this mountain.
O Child, O little Child, open this gate for us!
We have come to see You so many times, how many miracles
we have received.

 Traditional chant for the Black Madonna of Montevergine
from Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna by
Alessandra Belloni


‘The true power of the Black Madonna and Her tradition is that everyone
is accepted by Her, especially outcasts and those who have experienced
trauma and loneliness.  Because of this, the Madonna of Montevergine,
is also known as the patron of gays.  She is celebrated with a unique,
uninhibited feast every year on February 2, which is Candlemas.
The name derives from the Latin Candelora, Feast of Candles, Feast of Light.
from Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna
A year ago I travelled in a group led by Alessandra up the sacred mountain
of Montevergine and we sang her chant while some played the sacred
tamorriata in preparation of meeting Her face to face.
It was an unforgettable meeting that shook me to my core!!
Today is the fourth day of the Twelve Days of Mary and it also relates to the fourth day of the Epiphany of 29 December.
On our wheel of colour-astro we are dealing the fourth card for




Cancer (June 22 – July 23)
Colour – Green
The Planet – The Moon
The tarot card – The Dancing Sun (The Chariot)
The fourth house of Home and Mother
The fourth chakra of the Heart – green
and the spiritual center of the illumined solar plexus
The colour of the heart is green, its complementary colour is red 
and its higher spiritual colour is gold


The dancing Sun in the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck


This card has bearing on today as well as the the time period of Cancer 
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, how they support
each other, complement each other and how they will affect your year.

Meditation 

For today’s meditation I have uploaded a recording of the
Sacred Heart Diksha from Mother Mary on my Patreon.
If you would like to listen, please go to www.patreon.com/thefrenchmadonna

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 
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Walking with Mary September QnA – updated post



I am sharing some of the personal tools and ritual which I garnered
through my experiences and spiritual practices over the years.
I have found these practises and blessings to be of great value in my own journey  and believe that they may be of value to you as well.
I am not teaching a specific practise complete in itself with precise lists of what you have to do, but rather I will share with you some of the key practises and prayers which you can adapt to suit your own expression
and consciousnesness.
Some aspects may seem particularly vague, but that is done on purpose
as it will enable you to fill the gaps with your own inner understanding and to stretch yourself into ever-deepening
 layers of connection with self and the Divine.

May these practises and energy transferences (diksha) lead you deeper into the well of wisdom.

Energy Clearing

I will share some inspiration on how to create your sacred space in advance before you start with the meditations. 
It is also important to clear your space before you start with the consecration
of your altar and shawl, etc and before you receive the first mantra for the blessing (diksha) and meditations.

There are various ways of clearing your space : these are just a few that I like to use : burning sage or mpepho (a local indigenous plant in South Africa); 
burning aromatherapy oils;  holy water; sacred waters and salt.

My favourite way of cleansing is the following :



A whole lemon placed in the room and one on the altar.  I leave the lemons in place for weeks (until it has naturally dried out).  
When the lemon starts to rot it has absorbed negative
energy and you have to put it into the compost or garden and replace it with another fresh lemon.

Lemons are powerful energy clearing fruit and one of the oldest holy fruits that we know.  The lemon also aborbs the sacred energies 
of the activated altar and space and you 
can eat it as prasadh (blessed food) after your sacrament.

Secondly I use salt.  
I place a bowl of salt on my altar and this is replaced with clean salt regularly.
It is also a good practise to sprinkle a bit of salt 
in the corners of the room and to sweep
them out regularly. 
 You may be familiar with bathing in water with 
a few tablespoons of Epsom salts
added to it.  I also add slices of lemon to my bath water 
or to my shower, especially
after I had done personal clearing or healing work on others.



In preparation of my sacred space and before any meditation or healing work, I burn frankincense
and myrhh granules (on lit charcoal)
 or a good quality vegan incense.
I clear the entire room with the smoke of the frankincense.

I also clear my space by sprinkling blessed water on everything.

Music is also a powerful energetic cleanser.  We all have different vibrations
and resonate with different frequencies.  I have my favourite music which includes
classical music by Mozart and Beethoven, chants by Krishna Das and my
absolute favourite are the chants of Lourdes.  You can find these online :
Les 20 plus beaux chants pour la messe
and
Lourdes : 150 Ans de chants


Blessing of the Altar

Placing sacred items and images on your altar, sanctifies and blesses everything
that is within the energy field of those items. 
 If you work with a pendulum you can
prove this fact to yourself.  You can test the frequency and vibration of a space
without a sacred image.  
Then place the image or holy water or rosary which had
been used for prayers, back into the space and test the space again.
You may be amazed at the increase in vibration. 
 Our cells consists mainly of water
and prana and these vibrate in resonance with its surroundings. 

Essential oils

I will share with you the secret recipes for meditation blends
during the weeks to come.

We will use lemon oil, eucalyptus oil, rose oil and if you can afford to,
sandalwood oil.  Frankincense oil also has a very high vibration but is very expensive.
Candles and colours over the four weeks

You can keep the same candle for the four weeks or you can
change the colour and/or image of the candle that you work with..

Feel free to change the colour of your altar cloth and flowers too.

We will do a draw, layout and reading from the 
 Mysteries of Mary tarot deck
for each week, but you can use any deck that you choose to.

The overarching theme for the entire 30 days will be

Mary, Our Lady of the Rose

The themes for the four weeks are :

Week 1 – Saturday 7 September to Friday 13 September 2019
The Nativity of Mary 
– the inner child –
The Suit of Vessels
 BLUE AND GOLD


Week 2 Saturday 14 September to Friday 20 September
Mary as Beloved, Bride and Magdalen
– the tree of life –
The Suit of Holy Rood
RED and GREEN


Week 3 Saturday 21 September to Friday 27 September
Mary as Sophia, Our Lady of Wisdom, Shekinah
– high priestess –
The Suit of Distaff
DARK BLUE

Week 4 Saturday 28 September to Friday 4 October
Mary as the sacred rose garden
– Cosmic Mary –
The Suit of Roses
RED


I will share posts during each week with support, 
discussions and other tools such
as creating soulcollage cards, keeping a journal, dream work and so on.
You can share and connect with the Walking with Mary community
on Instagram #walkingwithmary #thirtydayswithmary 
@walkingwithmary
We are also on www.patreon.com/thefrenchmadonna
and I share on FB on the Mysteries of Mary tarot page

blessings

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The Miller’s Daughter

The Miller’s Daugher
V Holy Rood – Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck
www.hergracesacredart.com

We are shipping!  Fifty parcels are being shipped since last week
– you can expect your package to arrive soon!


A few fairytales are included in the Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck.  Some of them were chosen as they relate to a specific archetype in both the tarot and the stories of Mary.
The fairy tale of the Handless Maiden was chosen because Mary
appears in an Eastern European folktale version of the story. 
In some versions an angel or a being of light appears to help the 
Handless Maiden, but in this particular folktale, Mary herself appears
to help the maiden.
The story of the Handless Maiden and her powerful symbology is told over
three cards in the deck.  The V of Holy Rood (traditionally Wands) is the first
one.  This card is titled The Miller’s Daughter and we are introduced to
the young maiden, her father, the devil and very importantly, the apple tree.
The Miller’s daughter is standing next to the apple tree with a loaf of bread
(food produced by the miller) on her shoulder.  She, as well as the significant apple
tree represents feminine values and attributes.    Feminine qualities and attributes
live in both male and female.  The story of speaks of the ‘miller’ and not the maiden’s father.
This demonstrates that great importance is given to his occupation in the world, 
rather than his role as father.
From the start we see the focus and emphasis on masculine goals and values.
In our culture the masculine values and attributes are greatly admired and promoted.
The emphasis on the miller, his greed for money, his disregard for both the apple tree
and his daughter, reflects and highlights the imbalance which exists and
the lack of reverence for the less visible feminine principles.
The apple blossom is a symbol of fertility and sensuality.
In Celtic lore the apple tree is the Tree of Love.
At the top of the shrine are two hands.  These will take
you to the next part of the story which is further developed
in VII of Holy Rood,, where the Handless Maiden enters the forest.
Traditionally this card means conflict and in this deck it refers to inner conflict.
The really important questions in life you have to find the answers to
yourself. Do not rely on the opinion of others.  Do not rely
on ‘the done thing’ or the accepted way of doing.
In other words, do not make a pact with the devil for your most
precious feminine feeling  and earthy nature.
Dig deep and feel the discomfort of the inner conflict
and may you find peace.
This is an extract from the discussion of this card in companion book
to the Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck
peace,
Hettienne