Day 22 of Thirty Days with Mary

Mary as the Bride on St Bridget's feast day and

celebrating the feast of candles

in my garden shrine

Today is the first day of the final week of

Thirty Days with Mary.

It is also of course St Bridgits Day and in the Northern Hemisphere

it is  Candlemas and Imbolc.

Here in the South it is Lammas or the Harvest Festival.

So today's post is a slightly longer one.

One of my Bridget collage cards.

I have a special devotion to Bridgit and spent a few days in Kildare,

visiting her sacred well and the hearth.  I have written about this

pilgrimage on my blog Cloister of the Heart

(http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com)

For today I have created a special altar for Bridgit

as well as for the Priestesshood of the Temple of Mary

that we celebrate during this final week of the Suit of the Roses.

Bridgit is the Moon card in my deck and I included the

Brigit cross and the claidagh in the shrine.

In Glastonbury (Avalon) she is known as Bridie, the virgin goddess

and she can be seen in the landscape riding on the back of a swan.

I brought these back from Kildare.  The small altar on the right

is a copy of the big altar that stands at the beginning of the pilgrimage

at Brigid's well.  Here you can see some of my offerings, along with those

of other pilgrims when I visited.

To honour my own relationship with Bridgid/Brede/Bride

that has deep roots in Glastonbury and its miraculous hawthorn tree

I included the spiral goddess on my altar.

The hawthorn branch is from my garden.

The fourth week is dedicated to the Suit of Roses.

Through the ages the goddesses Isis, Venus, Aphrodite and the Shekinah

had been called Great Rose, the Rose Queen, Flower of Venus,

the Rose Garden, the Cosmic Rose and the Mystical Rose.

The rosary is a universal form of prayer and present in many religions.

In the Bhagavad Gita it is said that the Universe is a necklace and the string

is the Atman that holds all things together.  The Hindu rosary is sacred to

Sarasvati, Goddess of language.  Sarasvati hears the words of the prayers

and she is the Word.  The Buddhist rosary has 108 beads, so does the Hindu

mala and this number represents the cycles of the universe.  The Muslim rosary

has 33 beads for the 99 names of God.

The rose is an ancient symbol sacred to the goddess, to the feminine

and the Wisdom tradition.  Sacred places often carry the perfume of

roses and mystics experience the fragrance of the rose during ecstatic

moments. 

During my first San Garmano pilgrimage I visited the church

and body of Padre Pio and when I meditated in the sacred space

I was engulfed with the fragrance of roses.  It was so strong

I will never forget it.  During my visit to the Rosa Mystica shrine

a few years later I was attracted by the strong perfume of roses,

only to discover that the fragrance was coming from the statue of Padre Pio.

I also write about the fragrance of roses and honey at Lourdes

and in Lisieux at the body of St Terese and those who went with me

had the same experience.

 The radiant Lady of Lourdes stood over a wild rose bush

and she appeared with golden roses on her bare feet.  Her image made

in roses appeared on the inside of the cloak of  Juan Diego of Guadulupe.

The original rose flower used to be an open flower with five distinct

petals.  The five petals are similar to the inner core of an apple when cut in half;

you can clearly see the pentacle.  The apple is also a traditionally feminine

symbol.  The shape of the five petals and five segments in the apple's

inner core, is similar to the five pointed pattern that Venus forms in her 

orbit when she gets closest to Earth.

These last seven days are dedicated to Mary, the Great Rose, 

the Rose Queen, Rose of Divine Love, the Rose Garden

and Our Lady of Love and Beauty.

My altar for the week - I chose the Priestesshood card

Today we draw the fourth card for the Thirty Days of Mary.

Place all four cards in a row on your altar and start writing the story.

You may find that by the end of the thirty days you will be adding

more insights into the story.

One of my Imbolc collage cards.

Hail Mary 

Ave Maria

Glory is the one who is our home

Glory for the presence in our hearts

Glory since the mystery transcends all words.

all songs, all signs

Glory is the hope that makes us live

Hail Mary 

Ave Maria

Glory is the wonder that we were and are

and will become

Glory is the Spirit who invades our bones

and makes them shine

Glory in the wind and in the  fire

Glory in the one breath

giving life to all the world

Hail Mary

Ave Maria

Glory in the rising earth

Glory embracing what we lost

Glory in assuming who we are

Glory in the woman who is whole

Hail Mary

Ave Maria

blessings

Hettienne