Days 30 and Day 7

I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of Lebanon

Blessings to you as we reach the end of our

Thirty Days with Mary journey and as we approach

the feast day of the Immaculate Conception.

During these days we have covered so many

aspects of the Divine Feminine and who and what

Mary is to us. We have peeled away the layers
and have stared deeply into the mirror darkly.

I have offered the Thirty Days with Mary a few times
over the last few years, but this year has been
very special, thanks to all of you.
Thank you for sharing your images, your experiences,
your insights and your own resistances.
I could relate to each and every one.

Today I offer you these thoughts to ponder :

The Mysteries of Mary and the Christian mystery of the incarnation

of the Divine into earthly matter, is the ultimate sacred marriage,

the hieros gamos, the marriage of the greatest opposites,

that of heaven and earth.

We cannot fathom how does heaven and earth unite as one

and we cannot fathom that all of earthly matter is sanctified

by the divine essence that lives in all.

But we can accept the open invitation that the Soul

does exist in this body and we can accept that all is

blessed by the Presence of the Divine.

There is no separation between holy and ordinary

The Mystery of the Incarnation of the divine into the ordinary

has been told through many aeons of time and through

many cultures and traditions.  It is not only now

in the new unfolding age that we are being reminded

that woman metaphorically and in human

consciousness, represent matter (mater) and that

woman (matter) mothers the Divine.  

Preparing to greet the goddess

Do not think of her unless you are prepared
to be driven to your limits;
to rush forth from yourself
like a ritual bowl overflowing
with consecrated wine.

Do not summon her image
unless you are ready to be blinded,
to stand in the flash
of a center exploding,
yourself shattering into the landscape,
wavering bits of bark and water.

Do not speak her name
until you have said goodbye
to all your familiar trinkets -
your mirrors, your bracelets, 
your childhood adorations -
From now on you are nothing,
a ghost hovering at the window,
a voice singing under water. 

             - Dorothy Waters

Om Jai mata Mary Ma
Jai jai ma



Day 7 of the Nine day Art Novena to Lady of Lourdes

The Ace of Vessels
Mysteries of Mary tarot deck

“We are now, I believe, on the threshold of a third stage which I call the stage of the sacred marriage. This is the only position we could possibly take and still survive. This is a stage beyond both matriarchy and patriarchy. It involves the restoration to human respect of all of the rejected powers of the feminine. But it is absolutely essential that this restoration should be accomplished in the deep spirit of the sacred feminine. Not only should we invoke the sacred feminine, restore the sacred feminine, but this union between the matriarchal and the patriarchal, the sacred marriage, must be accomplished in the spirit of the sacred feminine for it to be real, effective, rich, and fecund. It must occur in her spirit of unconditional love, in her spirit of tolerance, forgiveness, all-embracing and all-harmonizing balance, and not, in any sense, involve a swing in the other direction.”

― Andrew Harvey, The Return of the Mother

She who Priestesses the Holy in the Ordinary;
The Vessel of the new age of humanity.
The High Priestess is in complete balance,
carrying the two sacred vessels of the living waters
of consciousness.  She is the vehicle for the inner
sacred marriage; the coming together of
masculine and feminine, spirit and matter,
the holy and the ordinary.

We awaken to the Inner Presence by discovering the story that

lives within each one of us.
 Here in this shrine, 

she has stepped off the wheel of fate (usually symbolised by your

astrology chart which has fixed your destiny in time and space) and

she has also stepped off the half-moon.  Often the High Priestess,

the Virgin Goddess, the Queen of Heaven, stands on the half-moon,

a symbol amongst other things, of the influence of the hidden

world of emotions.

The Soul within you is priestessing the healing balm for your own

personal story.

The Ace of Vessels

Mysteries of Mary tarot deck

Prayer for today :

I open myself to the spirit of the sacred feminine as embodied

and demonstrated by Blessed Mary and Bernadette Soubirous and the temenos
of Lourdes.  I invoke the sacred feminine

presence to cultivate the inner garden for the hieros gamos, 

the sacred marriage within myself and my world 

Blessings to you

Hettienne

Day 29 and Day 6

Water has always been the sacred energy of the feminine.

When one follows the leylines in the earth, the Mary line
curves and spirals around wells and you will find
cathedral and churches built on the power points of the Michael
lines (as they are known in the UK)
The feminine has always been worshipped at wells
and it is quite noticeable what an important role the well
plays in Judeo-Christianity and its stories and they
usually involve a woman..

From the very first days, miraculous cures have been granted at Lourdes to many who drank or bathed in the spring that Bernadette discovered at the Lady’s prompting. The Catholic Church is extremely slow and meticulous about acknowledging the validity of a cure and so most of the cures claimed there are never officially recognized. Even so, there are dozens of totally recognized cures that have happened at Lourdes that have been documented by the Church and the medical profession. The first healings happened almost immediately in 1858 and continue until the present day. 

This healing is brought to us on many, many levels.

A picture taken by myself of the Grotto and the spring
and the pyramid of candles

Water has the power to drown us or to quench our thirst.
We know Mary as the loving nurturing mother and also
as the Mater Dolorosa, the grieving mourning mother,
dressed in black, mourning the loss of her son.

In Lourdes you will see hundreds of pilgrims carrying large
containers of water from the sacred spring home every day.
We bring tiny bottles of the healing waters home with us.
Mary is called a Vessel of Spirit, a Vessel of Honour and here in
Lourdes she is the Vessel of the Sacred Waters.

Mary as Alchemical Vessel

In alchemy the vessel is the container in which the

various ingredients are mixed and transformed by each other.

It was believed that the alchemists were looking for

a way to turn lead into gold, but this is a metaphorical

journey of transforming darkness into light.  Or of

finding joy and peace amidst sorrow and hardship as we live

in a world of radical opposites and many challenges.

Mary is the vessel for the divine incarnated in herself as 

the Immaculate Conception and in

giving birth to her Son

and then as all of us.  

water containers at Lourdes

She is also the spiritual vessel in which

opposites combine.  As we are tested and challenged, like Bernadette,

we have the choice to obey the instructions of the voice of the Lady

that no-one else sees or to listen to the incredulous villagers and

Cure.  As we follow the calling of our heart, we are led to dig where

no-one else thought to look and we will uncover a spring that will

feed and nourish thousands.

Prayer for today :

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

Day 28 and Day 5

Blessings to you and welcome to Days 28 and 5 of this dual

devotion and ritual.

When we read that the Radiant Lady at Lourdes stands over the wild rose bush

and that she has golden roses on her bare feet, we realise that she is deeply identified with roses, as was Our Lady of Guadalupe. The rose just seems to be the most easily recognizable symbol for the flowering of differentiated consciousness or the unique divine spark. 

The Lady of Guadalupe brought forth roses in cold December and wrapped them tenderly in an ordinary tilma worn by an old Indian peasant. This is an image of wrapping consciousness in the outer cover of our human body, something that a mother does when she conceives a human life. It is something that the earth does when she provides us with the material for a human body. Or, another way to look at it, is that creation itself – the material world – is a wonderful cloak that covers the radiant divinity.

Juan Diego had something in common with the Lady who came to him on the hill of Tepeyac. They each had a cloak that was made of the fabric of created reality. She gave him a visual aid in order to teach him and us about this. She imprinted her picture graphically so that Her cloak – the entire cosmos – can now be seen upon his rough one.  This Lady is not interested in dogma or ideologies; she interfaces with us to teach us about our personal rose – our inner divinity – which is trying to become incarnate here.

The woman at Lourdes refuses to give any other name but to say "I am the Immaculate Conception." She does not say, as the Church would have Jesus' mother say, "I am the virgin Mary who has been immaculate from the moment of my conception." (conceived and born without sin of any kind) She says that she IS the Immaculate Conception. The Lady of the Grotto is the embodiment of the cosmos speaking to us as an aspect of God’s own Being. She shows us the breathlessly beautiful immaculate plan – God’s conception of materiality. She is telling us that she is an image of our created, material nature, which is nothing less than a cloak that covers divinity. She uses every means available to communicate to us about who we are and what will help us.

At Guadalupe she used symbolism that the Aztecs would understand. It spoke instinctively to the Spaniards, as well. She uses symbols and language that will help her immediate hearers to understand for their own purposes. As the late mythographer Joseph Campbell has pointed out, different religious traditions are like software that helps the “computer” to function. It is usually best for people to stay within their tradition, if it is helping them to function. So this woman relates within those belief systems, but is not at all confined to them.

The Pre-Christian Apparition of Queen Isis

Painting of Isis by Hettienne

In conjunction with Lourdes, it is necessary to speak more about Queen Isis whose lore is still embedded in the Christian mythology from its ancient roots in Judaism while it lingered in Egypt. The Lady of the Lourdes grotto asked specifically for processions. Queen Isis loved grottoes and processions. Processions to the goddess are as old as recorded history. What child of the pre-Vatican Catholic Church does not recall the May processions and the joy of strewing flowers in the path of the statue that represented Mary? It was a way of showing our deep devotion to our “Queen of Heaven.” She was “Queen of the angels and Queen of the May!” Bernadette referred at times to the Lady as  “The Queen of Heaven” or “The Beautiful Lady.”

We have an account, still extant, of an apparition granted by Queen Isis in ancient times that further points to the identity of the marvelous woman still appearing today. It comes from the book “The Golden Ass” written by Apuleius, an initiate of Isis, the night before he walked in her procession in 150 A.D. Here is his testimony that records the words spoken by the apparition that stood before him then:

“I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of the powers divine, queen of all that are in hell, the principal of all that dwell in heaven, manifested alone and under one form of all the gods and goddesses. At my will the planets of the sky, the wholesome winds of the seas, and the lamentable silences of hell are disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout the world, in divers manners, in variable customs, and by many names.

For the Phrygians that are the first of all men call me the Mother of the gods of Pessinus; the Athenians, which are sprung from their own soil, Cecropian Minerva; the Cyprians, which are girt about by the sea, Paphian Venus; the Cretans, which bear arrows, Dictynian Diana; the Sicilians, which speak three tongues, infernal Proserpine; the Eleusinians, their ancient goddess Ceres; some Juno, others Belonna, others Hecate, others Ramnusie, and principally both sort of the Ethiopians, which dwell in the Orient and are enlightened by the morning rays of the sun; and the Egyptians, which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me by my true name, Queen Isis." (Occidental Mythology, p. 42-43 - from The Masks of God series).

 When she appeared to Apuleius she was crowned with the headdress of the moon and two vipers, with corn stalks woven in her hair. Her multi-colored robe was woven with flowers and fruit, and her black mantle embroidered with stars and the moon. There is much similarity between the vision of Apuleius and that of Juan Diego, the visionary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The mantle of Isis is covered on the outside by the night sky – by stars. Like Our Lady of Guadalupe, she is dressed in the cosmos itself as if it is her robe. 

 Spirit "wears" materiality like a garment. 
This garment is Earth's physical nature –  her Body. 
She/we are the Immaculate Conception!


Prayer for today :

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.

Ave Maria

Om Jai mata Mary Ma

jai jai ma

blessings

Hettienne

Day 27 and Day 4

Blessings to you.

The suit of Roses is all about manifestation and embodiment.

It is the highest suit in the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck

and it is the part of the journey where matter and spirit

crosses and blooms through the rose of the heart.

An important part of the sacred Immaculate Practise

is sacred dance.  We connect to our deepest selves through

both the free and disciplined movement of body.

Chanda Maria Devi (@shebearer on Instagram

recorded a beautiful video of a full movement

prayer and meditation as part of

Thirty Days with Mary #thirtydayswithmary.

It is a long session and you will see that you can

do it in sections.  

She invites you to step into the sacred space

and be transported to the

Temple of Dance where movement becomes prayer

and where you set your intent through the flow of your breath and body.

Below is the link for the video -

it takes a minute to upload.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/idrkiz4pjoql088/Taryn%20Dancing%20Meditation.optimised.mp4?dl=0

blessings

Hettienne

Day 26 and Day 3 of Art Novena

Today is day 26 of Thirty Days with Mary and 

Day 3 of the Art Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes

Today we are reminded of the universality of Mary

and the mystery of who she is.

To some she is the literal figure in a Bible story;

to others she is a Western goddess;

some know her as Queen of Heaven and the Angels

and still others know as her Mama, Gaia,

Mother Earth and our nature.

'I realized that all the powers of the Mothers, of Tara, Durga, Kali are in Mary.

She has Tara's sublime tenderness;

Durga's inaccessible silent calm force;

the grandeur and terribilta of Kali.

But Mary is also a woman,

a poor woman

and a human mother. - Andrew Harvey

Visionary or apparitional culture is no static force, a cultural 'given' 
that people can join as members.
It is dynamic, responding to contemporary political, social and religious realities
and shaping those realities, and is also shaped
by the individuals who identify themselves as Marian devotees
and visionaries.
Visionary culture is a confluence of Catholic devotions, symbols,
and traditions of innovative responses to modern
contexts of negotiations among social, religious and interpersonal
forces of the interactions of apparitions believers
and apparition doubters and of the loving
and guiding influence of Our Lady, who for believers is imminently present.
Visionary culture is a worldview, a palette of practices, an understanding
of the cosmos, a palette on which individuals paint
the stories of their lives.
              Extract from Out Lady of Emmitsburg by Jill Krebs

In her the full path of the sacred feminine is lived.

In her we have a complete image of the Divine Mother,

an image at once transcendent and immanent,

other-worldly and this-wordly,

at once mystical and political and practical.

In Mary the Divine Mother comes to earth and lives on earth

and lives, the passionate, strong, serious,

simple and transforming life that shows us all how to live.

Who is she to you?

What are the whispers in your ear? 

What are the winds stirring up in your heart?

It takes great courage to answer that call

and to step out of the comfort and security

of the unexamined room in which we live.

Has she been calling  you?

Then today is the day to answer.

 Today is the day to accept the call to step out

into the unknown

To do that which you have been avoiding,

to see and hear that part of yourself that has

been tugging on the hem of your coat,

begging for attention

Prayer for today :

Magnificent Mary may I remain open

to the impossible

May I remember not to ignore the very subtle

messages of Spirit;

and may I undertake each task as the sacred task that it is

Ave Maria

Om jai mata Mary ma

jai jai ma

blessings

Hettienne

Day 25 and Day 2 of Art Novena

Blessings to you!

We are Flamekeepers keeping the focus on the sacred matrix

of life in the form, sacred presence and wholeness of

Holy Mary, Sacred Heart of the World, alive.

We have been participating in a daily ritual

for thirty days and now we are also including

the Art Novena of Our Lady of Lourdes

up till her feast day on 11 February.

Our emotions, feelings and our energetic heart

has the power to alter and transform the electromagnetic field

of our world and to move mountains.

The appearances and manifestations of Mary prove

that the idea of separation between our world and the

Otherworld is but an illusion.  Matter is made up of atoms

and those atoms can be altered by the power of belief.

At sacred sites where the veils of belief have thinned,

thousands of people feel the sacred presence  of the divine.

And this sacred presence transcends all dogma, beliefs

and laws.  It demonstrates to us that we have the power

to alter our collective reality.

The bigger the crowd of believers in the power of love and beauty,

the bigger the collective effect on the perceived and created reality.

I started the first Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes in 2012.

Here is an extract of my first post :

To me, the Blessed Mother is not limited to any religion, any dogma or any culture.  

The Soul has its own religion and that is where you will find Her and Her many faces.

She is present for all 

Her Grace enfolds everyone

You only have to become aware of Her.

Wherever I travel in the world, I visit Her sacred shrines.  I have visited Kwan Yin in Ayutthaya in Thailand;

Kali Ma in Her many temples in India;

I have attended the Navaratri and Durga Puja,

 the nine nights of the Goddess in Varanasi;

the holy well and holy fire of Brigit in Kildare;

the Goddess Temple in Glastonbury 

and I have participated in many Goddess Conferences in Glastonbury

hosted by the Temple of Avalon and Her priestesses

and I have facilitated the first 

International Goddess Conference in South Africa in 2008

to name some of my pilgrimages to the Holy Mother

all of these have been numinous experiences

that touched me deeply

and brought great insight and healing to my mind

for our conflicted nature as human beings

but none touched  me so profoundly

as Our Lady of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception.

I did not have high expectations of my visit to the Grotto and the City of Lourdes.

I had seen many pictures and thought I knew what to expect.

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 knelt 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

realised 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

That which reminds you of the Sacred in the Ordinary

and opening ourselves to the healing possibilities,

both spiritually and physically, 

that comes through love and acceptance

and opening of the heart

images

collage

poetry

stories

art works

prayer

ritual

mantra

anything

that awakens your heart

and reminds you of the Sacred in everyday living

I visited Lourdes last year as a pilgrim.  There, in front of the cave, I experienced something very special.  I felt a special vibration, a kind of spiritual presence there.  And then in front of the image of the Virgin Mary, I prayed, I expressed my admiration for this holy place that has long been a source of inspiration and strength, that has provided spiritual solace, comfort and healing to millions of people.  And I prayed that this might continue for a long time to come - the Dalai Lama

This picture I took on 8 September, the nativity feast day of Mary
Here you can see the rosary of lights procession with the full moon
hanging in the sky!!

I am the Immaculate Conception
was her words to Bernadette

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

teaching you that Love is everywhere

Prayer for today :

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.

Hail Mary

Om jai mata Mary Ma

jai jai ma

blessings to you

Hettienne