Day 2 - September

Puja in my garden with japonica petals from the

bush that grows next to her image

Welcome to the Hearth of Mary and our
second day of Walking with Mary online retreat 

Today is the feast day of the Nativity of Mary and
for me personally,  a very special day and devotion.

For a few consecutive years I spent this special
feast day both at Lourdes, Notre Dame and the
Chapel of the Miraculous Medal in France
and on occasion it was full moon.  I blogged these experiences
on my blog Cloister of the Heart.

This morning we step into our sacred space once again
and we will add a special puja (ritual of devotion) for
Mary's birthday.

A puja is a ritual dedicated to the worship of one's personal deity or devi.
(also called the Ishta Devata)

As in all ritual there is a certain set of actions;

each one designed with a particular focus and effect

in mind.  In these Thirty Days with Mary we

are devoting our focus, intent, emotion, senses,

passion and vision to evoke our

spiritual selves and to connect with our

own divinity as well as the integration between psyche and body,
masculine and feminine, mind and heart.
These rituals and tools are all part of ancient traditions known
as tantra or the hieros gamos or the sacred marriage.

Through repeated entry into the spiritual realms

we shed the perceptions and projections of the mind

and access a wider vision, a deeper connectedness to

all of life and  transpersonal wisdom.

My altar with some of my collection of dolls

For today's ceremony or puja we use fresh flowers,

fresh flower petals, incense, music and if you can,

and you feel drawn to do so, movement and spontaneous dancing. 

Today's puja is dedicated to the

birthday of Holy Mary.

You may create a special altar for today or add special items 

that have meaning to you.  Add special flowers.

Have a musical instrument ready, a hand drum, or a bell

or any instruments that you may use in ceremony.

Find a piece of music that has meaning to you

or pick a piece of music that is devoted to Mary.

If you have space, you can use  spontaneous movement and dancing
as part of your puja.

My Black Madonna frame drum

We open our sacred space with the daily prayer.

 Put your music on and you may want to put it on 'repeat'

so that it plays continually

Light the candles.

Light the incense and offer the sacred smoke to the items
on the altar and to the image of Holy Mary

Pick up your instrument and offer your devotion to
Blessed Mary on her birthday
You may choose to chant or sing along and use your instrument of choice
or you may feel drawn to move your body in movement and offer
the devotion (bhakty) of your sacred dance to Her
Or you can combine it all.


After offering your heart through song and dance, we offer
the fresh rose petals to Mary by showering her image with the petals.
You can also sprinkle some of the rose oil and water
from the altar as a blessing.
This is a very evocative and heart opening practise which
you can do every day or once a week and not only on holy days.

You can do the daily mantra after the puja.

Daily Prayer

Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace,

The Lord is with thee

Blessed art thou among women

and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb

Holy Mary,  Mother of God,

oh Rose Queen

You bestow your Blessing upon us

Now and Forever

Daily mantra

Om Jai Mata Mary Ma Namaha

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.


You can choose to draw a daily card at the end or to contemplate
your weekly card and see which insight arise after the ritual.

Nativity of Holy Child-Daughter

By honouring and acknowledging the birth of the holy child-daughter, Mary Herself, the masculine story is changed and the daughter and girl-child becomes sacred in the collective unconscious.

‘A hermit had on a certain night for many years heard music in the heavens. When he asked the cause an angel answered, : the Virgin was born this night, and what is ignored on earth is being celebrated by angels’ – Legends of Mary, Thirteenth Century

In this card we see the birth of the holy daughter, the female bearer of the Christ.  When one considers that the term Christ or Christed One is a title and not part of a name, then the sentence ‘female bearer of the Christ’ has a completely different meaning.  Mary is the feminine companion to Jesus or Maryam to Yeshua in the original Aramaic.  As we saw earlier three Marys always accompanied Jesus one of whom was his mother and one his companion or beloved.  Reading these words and stories with the inner mystical eye of vision and understanding, we understand that the psyche has four aspects : two masculine and two feminine and these are referred to as mother, father, daughter and son.  The picture reflected a whole psyche is incomplete without the daughter.  What would change within both men and women when the Christ appears in female form?  Or when the Christ appears as a divine couple? 

 In the Gospel of the Birth of Mary, it is described that the angel visited both Joachim and Anna (Mary’s parents) on two separate occasions.  Mary’s conception and birth was a miraculous one.  Anna, her mother was barren until the Archangel Gabriel visited her and declared that her barren womb will be opened by God and that the Holy Spirit will descend into the body of her daughter Mary whilst still in the womb.  Mary referred to herself as The Immaculate Conception when She appeared to Bernadette at Lourdes.   The sanctuary of the nativity of the virgin Mary is in Milan and her tiny effigy wrapped in lace and swaddling clothes is known as Santa Maria Bambina.  Her nativity is on 8 September and is one of the twelve major feast days in the liturgical calendar.    In the years between 1720 and 1730 a Franciscan nun from Todi (Sister Chiara Isabella Fornari) created wax statues of Mary as a baby. One of these dolls was donated to the Capuchin Sisters of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Milan. Eventually the statue arrived at the General House of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere , in Via Santa Sofia in Milan, and these sisters are called "Maria Bambina" .

The miraculous image of Maria Bambina was made prior to 1730 by a Franciscan nun who afterwards entrusted Her to others. During the ensuing years, she came into the care of the Sisters of Charity at Lovere, Italy. In 1856, these Sisters of Charity were asked to take over the management of the Hospital of Ciceri in Milan and, in 1876, this waxen image was carried to their Mother House there at Via Santa Sofia 13, where she has remained ever since.

The beautiful image of the Maria Bambina was exposed for veneration only on the 8th of September, the Feast of Mary's Nativity. In 1884, those who were devoted to the Maria Bambina received a reward for their devotion. Due to paralysis in her arms and feet, Sister Josephine Woinovich was bedridden and in unbearable pain. On the 8th of September, she begged the Mother General to get Maria Bambina and leave the image near her overnight. The following morning the Mother General was inspired to take the image, so old, worn and grayish colored to the other sick Sisters in the infirmary so they could kiss her.

There was in the infirmary a good novice, Giulia Macario, who was unable to move because of her serious illness, but who, overcome by her ardent faith, took the image into her arms and pleaded with her in tender and loving words for the grace for her recovery. She was immediately and miraculously cured, for such Faith moves mountains. And at the same time this image itself underwent an amazing transformation from the former dull gray color to the warm flesh hues it has today, as can be seen, where she is enshrined in the Sanctuary of the Mother House in Milan.

Luce Irigaray in her work says that ‘there is no woman God, no female trinity: mother, daughter, spirit.  This paralyses the infinite of becoming a woman since she is fixed in the role of mother through whom the son of God is made flesh’

By honouring and acknowledging the birth of the holy child-daughter, Mary Herself, the masculine story is changed and the daughter and girl-child becomes sacred in the collective unconscious.

Santa Maria Bambina with golden wool
Handmaiden of Suit of Distaff
Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck
www.hergracesacredart.com

These stories of the divine are powerful myths which activate and animate archetypes in our consciousness.  Mary calls Herself the Immaculate Conception and as such Her birth is truly a divine birth of a divine female and feminine which has been lying fast asleep like the princess in Sleeping Beauty (Card IV of the Suit of the Distaff).  Creating art and seeing images of Mary as the holy girl-child  and images of the Sacred Mother and Daughter will change our understanding of the world and our Soul completely.

blessings to you

Hettienne