Our Lady of Living Fire Altar

 

Never underestimate the power of ritual and ceremony. The ritual of preparing the altar, lighting candle and incense, etc indicates to the subconscious and unconscious that you are now entering sacred time and space.

Blessings to you on this feast day of Our Lady of the Green Candles and the

Novena to Our Lady of the Living Fire.

Welcome to our virtual community where we connect with each other,

with our devotion to the Divine Feminine in Her Grace as Mary

and with our innermost selves.

If this is your first visit to the blog you may want to scroll down and read the previous posts

with information on the idea of these offerings.  You will also

find links to my other blogs and stories on this path of

walking with Mary, in the side bar of this blog.

Today I am sharing with you the preparation of a sacred altar for both the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Green Candles and the 9 day novena.  Throughout the novena you may add colours or flowers for the specific aspects of Mary for that day.  You do not have to follow my suggestions;  you are free to create an altar that is in alignment with your own vision and desire.

I will throughout the 10 days of feast days and novena, share various prayers and practices; these all form part of the Immaculate Practice which is part of the Order of the Dove training.  Some of these practices and prayers will only be shared with the Order of the Dove in keeping with the Temple of Mary on Patreon.  All posts for the novena is shared early with patrons and specific prayers, mantras and invocations are only shared on Patreon.

Gather the following items for the altar and rituals : a meditation shawl (if you like to wear one), rosary or mala or prayer beads, a few fresh lemons - at least one or two, one or two cups of coarse sea salt; essential oils (lemon and rose geranium); candles especially green but you can also add white and red and black and yellow.  Fresh flowers and an image of Holy Mary.  

 There are various ways of clearing your space : burning sage or mpepho (a local indigenous plant in South Africa); lavender, 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.

You can add the essential oils to your oil burner.

It is a powerful practice to have a sacred space in which to meditate and work your holy medicine.  You only need a small space. You can prepare this space beforehand with a special chair or space on the floor to sit.

If you already have a meditation shawl, place it in your sacred space.  I suggest that you find a special (meaning one that you use for this purpose) shawl with which to cover your shoulders or head.  In the bhakty tradition we wear white.

Create your altar with candles, incense, an essential oil burner, fresh flowers and of course an image of Mary. Add your Mysteries of Mary and Mysteries of the Black Madonna tarot deck or any deck that you will be using. 

We invoke a blessing and sacrament from Mary on our sacred work and offerings.  We will sanctify our meditation shawl, rosary

(and/or mala) and any other items to be used as sacred altars and tools.  

Place  a glass or bottle of water on your altar.

You can drink this water after the blessing ritual.

 

Should you want to, you can repeat this invocation daily. The more

often and the more people that repeat the same mantra, the more

powerful it becomes.  Traditional mantras which have been chanted

for many years, have great healing effect on the vibrations of our

physical and spiritual world.

Mantra for blessing (invocation)

Ave Maria Sanctum Gloriae

Ave Maria Sanctum Gloriae

Ave Maria Sanctum Gloriae

OM

After you have blessed your space, open the ritual with a prayer to Mary.

Prayer to Mary

                                       Holy Mary, Mother of God                                             

oh Rose Queen

Bestow your blessings upon us

Now and Forever

To open and close any sacred work dedicated to Mary we use :

Om jai Mata Mary Ma Namah

blessings

Hettienne