Pre-orders of the Mysteries of the Red Madonna, Mary Magdalene tarot deck

Pre-orders open on the website hergracesacredart.com

on Thursday 12 December 2024

You can read the ful reveal on the free feed of my Patreon/WalkingwithMary

I created the first elements of the Mysteries of Mary Magdalene, in early 2020 with the Swan Mysteries of Venus and Mary Magdalene and this was the first altar!

Four and a half years later I can finally offer you the deck! It is a true labour of devotion, bhaky and great passion.

This journey started with the Mysteries of Mary and us releasing Her from the strangling vines of dogma and patriarchal religion; we followed the sacred Path of the Distaff and Needles deeper into the darkest, wildest forests. And then with the Black Madonna as our secret Blessing Doll we travelled under the protection of the Red Cloak and came face to face with Black Mary. And nothing would seem the same ever again.

The dreams started and unfolded over a few nights and then she appeared to me, the Red Madonna of Alchemy.  She appeared as a red lion dressed as the Madonna with cloak and crown. She handed me a red bejewelled egg that opened to reveal a golden chalice inner, a fish and a black stone.

The red lion is also another name for the Philosopher’s Stone, which is required to transform base metal into gold. The chemicals mercury (quicksilver) (the god Hermes/Mercury) and sulfur, both highly revered for their alchemical properties, turn into a vermilion red compound when combined into mercuric sulfide. Many alchemists considered this red chemical the key to the Magnum Opus, the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone from raw materials.

 The process of the Magnum Opus begins with the blackening (nigredo) and goes through the whitening (albedo) and yellowing (citrinitas)  before ending with the reddening (rubedo). Many writers after the 15th century combined the yellowing with the reddening to make just three steps — black, white and red

Mary Magdalene is first referred to by name in Chapter 15 of St Mark's gospel, in the Bible, towards the end of his account of Jesus's crucifixion on Golgotha, 'the place of the skull', the Hebrew name for Calvary, just outside Jerusalem. Among the women who stayed after the men had fled were 'Mary Magdalene' and 'Mary'.  These women had followed Christ in Galilee and had ministered unto him.

Our Lady of the Red Cloak started the dance of the Muse of Love slowly in 2020.  She took mantel after mantel off, setting the scene to share Her deepest and most hidden heresies. With the Red Madonna the themes that were showcased in the first two decks will now be cleaved open to the bone and we will travel deep behind the Red Veil. In this deck I am sharing the incredible shamanic nature of Christianity in Mary Magdalene's story and that of Jesus, Her Beloved.

I cannot share the actual cards with you yet, so these are the pre-printing proofs - cards will be corner rounded and cut to the same size as the other two Mysteries decks.

Themes of the Deck

There are a number of major themes in this deck. The various historical and mythical stories and devotion to Mary Magdalene is one of them. I include some of the Cathar history; Sophian Gnosticism; the traditions that are particular to the South of France, to name a few. Evolutionary astrology and speficically the movement and myth of the asteroids play a big role; the shamanic journey of Venus-Inanna-Magdalene in evolutionary astrology is integral to the deck as well.

This deck is rooted in the Sacred Bridal Chamber tradition of esoteric Gnosticism and the Tantric practises of the East.

The four suits reflect the major themes. I will discuss these in more detail below.

Title Card

Backs of cards

The four suits are :

The suit of Chalices, the element of water (Cups in the RWS) - the theme of Mary Magdalene as Vessel for the Church of Love and all the ways in which this is celebrated in both myth and culture

The suit of Myrrh, the element of Fire, (Wands in RWS) - the theme of anointing, the holy oil, flower essences, entheogenics and the states of ecstasy that is available to the human being through the chrism and kundalini

The suit of Doves, the element of Air (Swords in RWS) - this is the theme of Visions. Each suit is based on a particular vision that I had received and experienced in imaginal realms. This suit focuses on the role of the dove in the stories and in particular the Temple of Doves and Mary as 'the Dove'

The suit of Swans, the element of Earth (Pentacles in RWS) - the Swan plays such an important role in the Mysteries. In the suit of earth, the Swan represents embodied spirituality as opposed to transcendence; it is the power of spiritual practise and growth and the sacred marriage between body and spirit. The swan is the feathered serpent and the winged dragon.

The Court cards are :

Hearthkeeper, Flamekeeper, Temple and Tower

The deck is being printed on exactly the same cardstock as both the new editions of the Mysteries of Mary and the Black Madonna; the same size; uv varnish coated; deep red metallic edges, with a beautiful handcrafted pouch AND a beautiful printed storage box with lid; as always, each set will arrive with a red rosary and red mini Mary figurine. And a substantial paperback guidebook in the same style as the previous two books

Shipping with express courier delivery worldwide

The price includes international delivery worldwide with DHL Express Courier; delivered within 7 days of shipping.

Shipping is expected to start during March 2025; if the decks arrive earlier, I will share that with you and you will receive your deck sooner.

Shaktypat Retreat and Yatra to the holy cities of Haridwar and Varanasi

 

A yatra/pilgrimage to the holiest city of the Kumbh Mela in India, Haridwar and Benares (Varanasi) City of Lights.  I have travelled to India many times since 2009, with groups, on my own and also leading workshops and retreats.  Accommodation has been booked in my favourite holy house (haveli) in Haridwar. 

We are a small group of pilgrims travelling from 15 September to 26 September 2023 and I had one cancellation which means that I have spot available on this retreat/yatra.

If you are interested please send an email to me at hgsacredart@gmail.com and I will send all the details.

Aarthi and darshan at Hari ka Paur ghat in Haridwar

15 to 26 September 2023

Haridwar, holiest city in India, Kumb Mehla site

Five nights in the hundred year old pilgrim house, Haveli Hari Hotel, on the Ganges.  I have stayed at the Haveli during each of my visits and am always yearning to return.

We will be staying in the beautiful Heritage Rooms.  The hotel is right in the religious district of Haridwar and we will walk down to aarthi at the ghat and meander through the market stalls selling religious items.  We are within walking distance of the promenade where sadhus sit and 'teach'.

The Hari Haveli has a private indoor temple, a private bathing ghat and an in-house priest for special ceremonies or ritual.

This part of the pilgrimage will include initiations, kundalini mantra, shaktypat, diksha as well as puja by myself. Also the very powerful interaction at the Hari Ka Paur Aarthi with personal participation.

 

Group meditations, initiations and shaktypat will be held in a private meditation/yoga room in the hotel to coincide with temple and ashram visits and Aarthi.  There will be a few hours each day for rest or exploring the markets and walking along the Ganga. Both Haridwar and Varanasi are yatra destinations and the markets supply pilgrims with malas, khumkhum, sandalwood, shawls, statues, silks and much more.

 

We will attend aarthi at Har Ki Pauri ghat; you will be able to float prayer flowers down the river and buy garlands as offerings to Ganga Ma.  The Haveli offers an inhouse temple and priest, a private ghat for ceremony and ritual as well as a private bathing ghat.

Excursions are booked to the ashram of Anandamayi Ma

- a full day visit to Rishikesh and its ashrams as well as attending aarthi at the Parmath Niketan ghat

- a visit to the Chandi Devi temple

- a tour of the many temples of Haridwar

and special restaurants.

Transport has been booked between cities; a combination of rail travel with first class seats and flights.

Aarthi on the main ghat of Varanasi (Benares)

Varanasi (Benares)

We will be staying in the pilgrim house Amritara Suryauday Haveli, situated on the main ghat of Varanasi.

Our time here will be spent  :

- an the evening boat ride on a private boat on the Ganges. You will have the opportunity to place flowers on the river with your prayers. We will witness the incredible Aarthi to Ma Ganga from the boat and see the spectacle in all its magnitude.

- dawn boat ride on the Ganga. We will travel down to the burning and bathing ghats and witness the city of Varanasi engaged in its ancient sacred rituals. We will explore temples along the ghat

- a visit to the Durga temple

- a visit to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, known as the Golden Temple, one of seven all across India

Varanasi ghat

blessings

Hettienne BhaktymayiMa

Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience by Kathryn Barush

 

Imaging Pilgrimage: Representations of Sacred Space in Contemporary Art

by Kathryn Barush published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts 2021

In her book Imaging Pilgrimage, Kathryn Barush brings together the study of medieval representations of pilgrimage to a number of contemporary art that is created after a pilgrimage and intended to act as a catalyst for others to experience, grace, healing and contemplation.  I am so honoured that she included my work with sacred altars and pilgrimage into this beautiful and enlightening book.

Images from Kathryn Barush's Instagram posts

One of the chapters in the book is dedicated to 'South African artist Hettienne Grobler (Sri BhaktymayiMa), who creates shadowboxes of assemblages of souvenirs collected

from Lourdes, in dialogue with medieval art which is rooted in the same impulses

of memory, imagination, and devotion.  

In addition to Marian imagery, Grobler also draws from Bhakti theology, and widening the aperture, her work forms an important case study to show that art that

engages two or more traditions can be used as a window into a dialogical

approach to comparative religion.'

The chapter is sub-divided into

'How and why an apparition was first 'made material''

'Mary, materiality, and message: a pilgrimage through art'

'Water, water everywhere! The Lourdes replica tradition

'Bhakti the essence of this love relationship that one experiences with the Divine.

I think one can describe bhakti as 'being absolutely madly in love.'

At first one is in love with God and the realizations that God is 'in love'

with you; then this expands and you start to see love in everything

and eventually you see the 'face of God' in everyone and everything.'

'For Grobler, 'love' is the foundation of her personal beliefs and the visual

expression it finds, and she acknowledges that this means that she can relate

to many religions and paths.  

As with her other Marian art, Grobler's Black Madonna deck has been a deep dive

into this imagery and a prayerful experience.  It has also been a way to explore

'how far back racism has been forcefully applied and internalised. One cannot really separate the Black Lives Matter ideology and the Black Madonna and I have at times felt such

awe that this deck is being created in these times'

Her social media posts with images of these works-in-progress have been interspersed

with essays on the Black Madonna as a way to celebrate Black Lives.

Although less overtly political, Grobler's project has every

potention to be a powerful tool for reflecting on, and advocating the

abolishment of, anti-Black racism through the Hindu and Catholic

theologies that her work engenders, via both her artistic process

and the iconological content.

Kathryn first approached me a few years ago and we have had 'conversations' online

and through email.  This is an incredible book;  Katryn has a wonderful way of using

language and she has opened my eyes to the incredible wealth of medieval texts and

research and her own incredible understanding and sensitivity to art as a vehicle of religion across all traditions.  This in-depth work has underscored all that I experienced within myself.  I regard

myself as 'one who walks between two worlds' and Kathryn is a kindred soul.

Dr Barush is Thomas E. Bertelsen Jr. Associate Professor of Art History and Religion

Dr. Barush received a D.Phil. from Wadham College, University of Oxford in 2012 and has held positions as Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and as curatorial assistant at the Yale University Center for British Art.  She is the author of the monograph Art and the Sacred Journey in Britain, 1790-1850 (London: Routledge). Shifting the focus to the present day, Dr. Barush's current book project (Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience, Bloomsbury Visual Culture) explores the transfer of 'spirit' from sites to representations through a critical examination of contemporary art (including assemblages of souvenirs, built environments, and reconstructions of sacred sites) created after or during pilgrimages with the intent to engender the experience for others. 

Dr. Barush takes an interdisciplinary approach to art history and is especially interested in expressions of belief across a number of religious traditions. She values a contextual and hands-on approach to learning - her students closely study ritual objects and sacred artworks up-close and in person wherever possible. Such objects, especially in places of prayer and worship but also as re-contextualized in the secular space of public museums, offer crucial insights into the study of historic and contemporary lived religion, devotional practice, and popular piety.

In addition to her research and writing, Dr. Barush is an advisor to the British Pilgrimage Trust and a member of the advisory network of the Yale Center for Material and Visual Cultures of Religion. She is also an avid walker and has led a group of graduate student pilgrims along the Camino Ignaciano in Spain.  

Follow Dr. Barush' adventures and research on Twitter @pilgrim_travels

From the website of the Graduate Theological Union -  https://www.gtu.edu/faculty/kathryn-barush

Resurrection and regeneration

In the light of the opening of the Lionsgate, I am re-posting an earlier post here.

Resurrection, Regeneration and Re-birth

These are words and images desired by all and often pursued with great intent and focus. But, alas, this part of the journey implies a preceding destruction, dissolution and death - something which the human mind would rather deny or avoid at all costs.

Nothing can be created without destroying something else. Anyone who is consciously creating art, will know this principle well. Often one becomes paralyzed at the thought of breaking down that which seems to be serving you well and that which has proven a worthy vehicle, but you cannot build without breaking down. Even if it only means that where previously there was an empty space of land, and you now create a new building, you still have to destroy the empty land.

And this also holds true for the self. Leaving the old behind invites that you step into the unknown, into a new part of the adventure, without a map and without a clear detailed plan. This calls for great courage and action - both characteristics of the heart chakra. Action as in an inner attitude, a willingness to do things differently, a willingness to let go of who you think or believe you are. For instance, it is no use telling your partner or your family, that 'you are not an emotionally demonstrative person' when you know that he/she is yearning for some display of affection from you. It is about reaching out, taking the risk, becoming vulnerable, and doing that which your heart calls for. This can be something really small - look at it as a pebble on the surface of a lake - the smallest pebble creates many circles and ever-widening circles - the same as love in action.

The human resists change, but life is an ever-changing flow, with nothing permanent or 'absolute'. Everything depends on your perspective, your beliefs and your paradigm. Many sages have set out to demonstrate this reality to seekers, but the power of the mind and its fear of change and the unknown is very strong and this is seated in the lower parts of the brain, known as the primitive or reptilian brain and the limbic brain (more about this in further blogs).

The answer lies in the higher functions of the brain - illumination and 'enlightenment' is a function of the higher brain and accessible to all human beings! The activation of higher neural pathways in the brain, is the goal of all energy healing, mystical traditions, practices and very importantly, the goal of meditation. Activate the higher pathways of the brain and you will be re-born into a new reality - one where it is possible to live with the tension of the opposites; where you will know, as the Shaman, that it is possible to live in your own reality, beyond the laws that govern the world created by the lower mind, artist and creator of your own life - albeit always as a part of the whole. Entering the domain of the artist/creator/shaman does not equate the status of 'God'/Creator/AllThatIs. We are a spark of the Fire and we are both nothing and everything, mortal and immortal, of no consequence and of every consequence. This is part of the paradox that will become clear to you as you step into direct encounters with the 'mystical' world. (I place many of these words in apostrophes as they are all words laden with belief and conditioning. The way in which I use them will only become clear to you if you continue to read my words and gain a deeper understanding of the meaning that I am trying to convey to you).

By activating the higher pathways of the brain, the old recording and habitual (mostly negative) thinking is erased. The gates are opened to a peaceful existence without fear and anxiety rooted in the cellular memory and generated by the primitive and limbic parts of the brain. The entire energy structure of the human being is transformed. The luminous body grows and expands and the higher chakras become active. A large and powerful energy field is created, radiating compassion and tolerance and others are attracted to this Love.

A new way of understanding and thinking will become natural and this is available to everyone as part of their evolution into a 'spiritual divine' being. But in order to activate these higher centres, you have to do the work and above all, you have to allow the changes to take place. You have to die to the old, spend time in the cave of death and the Underworld, going through the pain of loss, and face the fear of death, before you can be resurrected into a new you. This is a physical and real initiation. Undergoing energetic and mystical initiations cannot replace the physical initiation. They can prepare your mind and test your willingness, but ultimately, you have to walk the talk and you will be given the opportunity to be tested. You will undergo this initiation many times until you finally face the final initiation, that of mortal and physical death. Should you pass these initiations, and grow 'wings' as you return from each one, it is said that you will retain knowledge of your personal essence and you will not be re-absorbed into the river of unconsciousness after the final death of the body.

Often one starts with a spiritual practice and changes (as promised) will arrive on your doorstep. However, because these do not fit in with your paradigm and your ideas of who you are and where you are going, you ignore these messengers. The spiritual traditions are all vulnerable to distortion to suit your own, or your spiritual leader's needs and agenda. Everything that looks like gold, is not always gold. The shadow is a powerful adversary and a wonderful instrument in service of the fearful self. When the self fears change and the unknown, it will employ the shadow self as a servant in the game of keeping you in the dark. We have many tools to our disposal, such as rationalisation, justification, postponement, sloth (the lack of courageous action, the lack of integrity), and others. The shadow is a master of distortion and will use well-known spiritual terminology and concepts to hold you prisoner. When fear is present, love is absent.

That then, is the test. Am I in fear or am I in Love? There is no other choice. If you are not in love, then set about discovering why you are in fear. Ask the questions and live the questions. Be patient. Eventually you will live the answers.