Novena to Our Lady of the Living Fire Day 8

 Sacred Altar VI Holy Mother and Child from the Mysteries of the Black Madonna tarot deck

Contemplation 

We are blessed with three mothers in the course of life; our biological mother, mother nature, and Mary, our spiritual mother. Mother being a metaphor in the case of nature and of Mary.

They are mothers in the sense that they represent a structure that acts in a motherly way; forming, transforming, protecting, instructing, directing and redirecting, warning and initiating. This is an energy in the universe called mother nature and an energy in the soul personified as Mary.

The life-giving powers in nature were sacred in ancient times and revered as deities, deva, angels and fay.

Nature has laws that exert an energy that compels and draws but also accompanies us through the phases of life.

The early Christian Didache communities followed the Way of Life and used gender-inclusive language throughout.  Women were called on to lead all sacraments and rites and they called their spiritual Mother, 'the Lord'.

Aldobrandesca, a medieval mystic of Siena, when close to death had a vision of Mary with this message : 'Daughters, be obedient to the law of the Mother'.

Mechtild of Magdeburg saw Mary as the spiritual mother of all humankind : 'I suckled the prophets and sages before God was born'.

Juliana of Norwich saw visions of the motherhood of God and also said 'Our Lady is our mother in whom we are all enclosed ..... and our saviour is our mother in whom we are endlessly born ..... To motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge, and this is God'

Inciting love in every heart, you bring forth generation after generation - Prayer to Venus, Mother of Rome, by Lucretius (d 55B.C.)

The Tao is the great mother, empty and yet overflowing, bringing forth the infinite universe. And it is forever inside you - Tao Te Ching

You will open the hearing of the wayfarer's heart (fu'aadi min saalikin) because the subtle knowledge of Her is Her proof. Grant us union with Her always and cause us to withdraw from every sensory existence.- Songs of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib

A Mary-Psalter

O Mother of beautiful Love

You who are our moon and our lamp

Our Lady of Heaven and Our Lady of the World

Holy Mother of All

Aurora radiating the Eternal Sun,

the rod smoking with incense,

The Lord is with you as the sun is with the dawn going before it,

as the flower is with the flowering rod

Mother of Dawn, Sun, Rod and mother of all

blessings

Hettienne

Novena to Our Lady of the Living Fire Day 7

 Contemplation

'I am the Immaculate Conception' were the words by which Lady of Lourdes made herself known to Bernadette.  She appeared as a Radiant White Lady, known as the Sacred Woman of the Land before Christianity eradicated the knowledge of the spiritual world from the understanding and belief of human beings.

Pink Madonna by @maryhenlin on Instagram

Roses from my garden

She appeared at the grotto once sacred to Persephone-Kore, holy daughter of Demeter.  On Candlemass we celebrated Mary Magdalene as Black Madonna of the Confession in the crypt of an Abbey that once used to be sacred to Persephone.  

Demeter and her burning torches and the sacred pomegranate

Statue is a work in progress from a sacred altar in the

Mysteries of the Red Madonna tarot deck

During the feast of Persephone the search of Demeter was re-enacted by the devotees. They walked in procession in the city with lit candles and torches, as Demeter once did.

“Why do we carry candles in this feast? Because the Gentiles [meaning non-Christians here] dedicated the month of February to the infernal gods; and as at the beginning of it Pluto [Hades] stole Proserpine [Persephone], and her mother Ceres [Demeter] searched for her in the night with lighted candles, so they, at the beginning of this month, walked about the city with lighted candles. Because the holy fathers could not wipe out this custom, they ordered that Christians should carry around candles in honor of the Blessed Virgin; and thus what was done before to the honor of Ceres  [Demeter] is now done to the honor of the Virgin.” - Pope Innocent XII

Mother Eucharista, Black Madonna of Montevergine sacred altar

The Mysteries of the Black Madonna tarot deck

The feast day of Mamma Schaviona, Mother Eucharista, in the Mysteries of the Black Madonna, takes place on the same date.  Her feast day has been celebrated with the breaking of the bread and wine in the past.  Bread and wheat were sacred to Demeter, mother of Persephone and wine to Dionysius.  Demeter, Persephone and Dionysius were the key figures in many of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

The holy daughter, like her mother, is a many faceted goddess.  She is Kore, the Maiden who brings the spring.  In the Underworld she is Persephone (Proserpina) who receives the disembodied souls.  After her descent into the Underworld, she dies to her maidenhood as becomes the bride and sacred lover of Plouton, the God of Death.  She is a radiant source of light in the Underworld and initiates the newly dead into Elysium and introduces them to the knowledge of their own divinity.  She destroys the initiate's fear of death.  She is the one who has overcome the fear of death and death itself as she had descended into the Underworld and yet returned to life again. One of the important messages of the Mysteries are that death is not the end.

Exquisitely fragrant roses all from my Mary garden

There is also a powerful connection shown between Persephone and Aphrodite in ancient works of art.  Love, an aspect of Aphrodite and later Mary, is what draws Persephone and Plouton together.  Persephone is often shown with doves, (sacred to Mary), always with the five petalled rose and lily and an ointment jar (sacred to Mary Magdalene)  She is also accompanied by the hen, similar to many Black Madonnas and especially Madonna of the Hens. As the maiden she is often accompanied by the swan

The Red Madonna and Her Beloved sacred altar wip

from the Mysteries of the Red Madonna tarot deck

As Queen of the Underworld, Persephone's sacred union with the god of Death is essential to the continuation of the seasons and to life.   The rape of Persephone is not part of the original tradition nor story.  Many modern authors view the story of the maiden and her descent very differently to the well-known hymn by Homer, called 'Hymn to Demeter'.  Research has shown that this part of the story were changed when the change from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal society began.  

Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes in Women who run with Wolves, that in older matristic tales of the East, the Maiden had a desire to descend below in order to find her bridegroom.  In older myths such as Inanna, the Maiden knows her destiny and chooses to meet if of her own free will.

                                   Demeter and her torches, searching for her daughter

The story of the maiden Bernadette and Lady of Lourdes has all the elements of the mythic and the mysteries and we see the echoes of Persephone-Kore in the story of Bernadette as well.

'First Bernadette feels a brief quivering pang of terror, next a steady fear.  But this is no familiar, no fear that propels one to jump up and run away.  Later this fear melts into still another feeling of which this child Bernadette has no idea and can find no name.  One might call it comforting or consolation.  But until this instant Bernadette never knew that she was in need of being comforted.

For she is really not at all aware of the hardness of her life .... This is naked reality accepted as a matter of course. But moment by moment now she is more deeply

swathed in this consolation which has no name, which is a hot flood of compassion..... extract from The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel

In her own way Bernadette descended into the Underworld and had to face her fear of death, as she was taken into deep trance states when the Radiant Lady appeared to her.  Bernadette saw the shimmering young lady appear in the grotto near Cachot 18 times.  

The young Bernadette descends into the Underworld in order to receive the messages and gifts from Lady of Lourdes.  And she returned with the greatest gift to the world : the gift of compassion for self, for all living creatures and for life itself.  She enters the womb of the Great Mother of All and brings back the compassionate heart.  She entered into a divine union with the Beloved and her soul received the Immaculate Conception.

In one of the versions of the Eleusynian myth, Persephone is torn between her love for her mother and her love for the god of the death.   This crisis took place at the same time as the Earth was laid barren by Demeter's grief and the maiden's absence.  A resolution was reached : Demeter and her opponent for her daughter's love, Plouton, met and broke bread together in an act of great compassion for all of life and the Earth.  This surrender of the self to the Immaculate Conception, is the miraculous power that continues life into eternity.

Prayer

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.

blessings

Hettienne

Novena to Our Lady of the Living Fire Day 6

 I shall try the only thing a devotee can do :

I shall always keep thy divine image

and thy holy divinity

locked in my heart and

conjure them in my imagination

- the words of Lucius, the hero of The Golden Ass

The image is an inner shrine,

an interior refuge.

It is beyond words

but the poet and sage knows how to

invoke the imagination and  the

Sacred One up into the psyche

in an enduring

and nurturing way.

An image includes not only a picture but the way

we experience it, the way we feel it.

Every image we perceive,

every feeling it evokes,

is a living prayer.

Prayer

I open myself to your presence, o Great Mother;

I commit myself to your priestesshood of miracle thinking

and the practise of faith in the extraordinary.

I am willing for my eyes and heart to be broken open

by your divine and blinding presence;

as I priestess your love and compassion in the world.

blessings

Hettienne

Novena to Our Lady of Living Fire Day 4

 

Our Lady of the New Dawn

Contemplation

We contemplate the darkness as we wait for the

Gate to the New Dawn

"Who is she that rises forth like the dawn,

fair as the moon,

pure and bright as the sun,

and as terrible as a many-bannered army?"

- Song of Songs 6:10

Black is the colour of night and the shade of soil.

It cloaks midnight and blankets the depths of caves

and grottos.  In previous cultures, the most

popular totem for a chief male divinity was the sun and,

by extension, light;  goddesses have been

associated with the moon and, by extension, night.

                                -Leonard Shlain (The Alphabet vs the Goddess)

Many medieval churches, extending in a wide arc from

Russia across Europe to Spain, had as their most sacred

object a statue of Black Mary.

Like the black, abiding earth, her simple being is so vastly 

present that we have not noticed it.

           - Caitlin Mathews

In a quest for a mother who will accept us when we can't quite

make peace with our errors, or with ourselves, it is easier

to turn to a simple mother acquainted with the darkness of life

than to the image of the Virgin distorted by religion into a perfectly obedient and always pure being.

In the heart of our dark mother, love for us endures without

judgement or pretense.  She helps us deal with the undeniable

fact that we live in a world we can neither control nor

comprehend, a world with which we often cannot cope -

in which we can at times only endure.

She is the silent companion who stands at our elbows

as we toil ..... daily grappling with humanity's

problems ...... striving to reflect the light of the

spirit in our world.

                    - Caitlin Mathews

In the Gnostic book of the Apocryphon of John it is written that we are never alone as the  power of the mother, the shakty in Hindu terms, the Epinoia in Gnostic terms, kundalini in tantric terms and Mary in my own personal experience,  is here with us and within us.

the blessed One, the Mother-Father, the beneficient and merciful One,                had mercy on the power of the mother .........

And he sent, through his beneficient Spirit and his

great mercy, a helper to Adam, luminous Epinoia which

comes out of him, who is called Life.

And she assists the whole creature,

by toiling with him and by restoring him to

his fullness ........ and be teaching him about

the way of ascent.

And thus we ponder the dark Madonna within ourselves -

the unknown who springs into action during an emergency, or who rises to the occasion as need be without thought or hesitation.

We also have the queen within who wants everything perfect and who, when not treated just so, can take offence unnecessarily.

Disciple, 'know thyself'

We are she.

These polarised appearances - as Hag or Queen of Heaven -are the two sides of the coin, one archetypal power.

Just as coal and diamond are both carbon - that basic substance of life - so does the Goddess of Wisdom manifest her power through seemingly opposing appearances. The Goddess of Wisdom is seeded in us all.

  -  Caitlin Mathews

However, the Great Mother of Wisdom, in all her

many aspects, are the One, only perceived

in polarity and duality.  By the darkness of night

we perceive her as the moon and in the

brightness of the day, as the sun.

But there is only One Light

and we come to know this through detachment. - Mary Gate of the New Dawn, Mysteries of the Black Madonna

Prayer

LAUDS - DAWN

Oh Mary Gate of the New Dawn

come to me

Oh Mother of both night and day

come to me

The blackness burns until only white bones remain

glimmering in the Light of new possibilities

I follow your black cloak down the well of the night

You receive me once more

as we await the New Dawn

Ave Maria

blessings

Hettienne

Our Lady of the Living Fire Novena Day 1

 

At the grotto I fell in line with the other pilgrims, waiting my turn to touch the walls of the cave and its dripping water.  The atmosphere was light and joyful, although many stood and kneeled deep in prayer.  As I approached the statue of Our Lady where She appeared to St Bernadette, I could feel an intensification of the energy, a slight vibration and a humming sound.  The closer I came, the louder the sound became.  The sound was over and above the sound of the rushing waters.

As I put my hand out to touch the dripping water and I raised my eyes, a column of light was visible to me, shimmering and dancing. My first impression was that it is a giant candle, but then my logical mind realized that this is not possible.

The only way I can describe it is 'a flame of living organic light' :

Her Divine Presence made manifest in this world, visible to my eyes.

And overwhelming and immense feelings which I am at a loss to name.

A feeling of such incredible fullness and completeness which has stayed with me ever since.

A hundred thousand harps take you

like wings and sweep you up out of silence.

And your primitive wind is blowing

the fragrance of your marvelous power

to every being and to every creature in need.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

This is an extract of my very first blog post about my first visit to Lourdes.

And since that blog post I have been offering the Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes for the past ten years and this year to Our Lady of the Living Fire.

Candles are kept burning at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes without fail

Contemplation 

Fire and Light

Fire is of great importance to us.  We use it to cook our food and to keep warm in winter. The hearth and its fire has always been a symbol of the divine presence of the Deity who provides and supplies us with what we need.

The candle is also seen as the flame of the Soul. Those with mystical sight can see the flame that is alit on the crown of the awakened ones.

One can see the halo of a burning flame with the naked eye and holy ones and awakened ones are often drawn with similar halos. Even though we understand how fire is created, it remains a mystical ocurrence with miraculous abilities.

Similarly, as prana is ignited in the body (spontaneously or through spiritual practice) and involuntary and unexpected changes take place in both the mind, the body and the heart, it is a wondrous mystical occurrence.

As inner sight develops and extra sensory perception and a vast peace eventually settles in your being, one feels drawn to make these events manifest in ritual, practise and art.

Since ancient days a candle was kept alit in the temples and cities as an offering to the heavens and as a sign of the unwavering spirit. This is still the practise at Lourdes and also at Kildare where the Brigidine nuns keep the flame lit.

She was a poor shepherdess, Bernadette, 

growing up at the foothills of the Pyrenees, 

on the banks of the Gave du Pau.

Tending the very poor family's

small flock of sheep

When the most miraculous vision

appeared to her.

A vision of Light

with roses on Her feet.

From this numinous event

flowed forth a stream of healing water,

a holy place was born,

Bernadette's life was transformed

into one of passion,

commitment and a vocation to the highest Love

A place where the fire was lit long ago

and the fire of your Soul

and Its unconditional love

is kept alive

And such is the miracle within our own hearts

reminding us of the Sacred in the Ordinary

and when we open ourselves to the healing possibilities

we find that Love is everywhere

Prayer

Radiant Mary, shine radiantly upon me.

Bright Lady who illuminates my inner darkness

Yours is the incorruptible fire;

As it is clean, it cleanses; as it is pure, it purifies

You are the Living Fire,

the eternal flame of Love

May my heart and eyes open to the beauty of my own being,

halo to Love's fire

Ave Maria

Om jai Mata Mary Ma

blessings

Hettienne