WalkingwithMary Day 3 December

 

Welcome to the third day of Walking with Mary

This week is dedicated to 

Mary, the Immaculate Conception,

The Suit of Vessels, the element of water

and miraculous healing wells

St Bridget's well in Kildare Ireland

St Bridgit's shrine in the Mysteries of Mary deck

The Hebrew Miriam is the first woman prophet mentioned in the Christian and
Jewish scriptures.  In Greek Miriam is translated as Mariam and in English as Mary.
Thus we see that Moses' sister has the same name as Mariam/Mary, the
Holy Woman in the mysteries of Mary.  The scholar Phyllis Trible,
in her piece Bringing Miriam out of the shadows, argues that the
Song of the Sea is Miriam's song of liberation of the Hebrew
people from Egypt.  She and other feminist scholars, make the case
that the Song of the Sea attributed to Moses, should actually
be attributed to Miriam.

VIII of Vessels, Miriam the Prophetess 

Miriam's Song as a song of liberation is also echoed as the song of

deliverance sung by Virgin Mary as the Magnificat.
This is the start of the Miriamic or Mariamic tradition of the Priestesshood
of the Rose.

The Mysteries of Mary tarot deck start off with Mara, the Holy Fool
whose name is the root of Miriam/Mariam and means the bitter one.
Miriam's name is also understood to mean 'Bitter Sea' (mar-yam) thus evoking
the bitterness associated with Miriam and her connections with water.

The story of Miriam's well tells of Miriam's prophetic water
divining ability.  She could lead the people through the desert because
she could always find springs and riverbeds.
Wherever Miriam led, her people were assured of having water to drink.
In the Jewish Midrash we read that
 a legendary well appeared in the desert wherever the prophetess
Miriam travelled with her people.  In this tradition the well is called
Miriam's well and it is a direct reference to Holy Mary and the outpouring
of her living waters of consciousness.  The prophetess and priestess
of the Holy Mother will always lead others to  the living Well of Divine waters.

Rabbi Michael Adam Latz tweeted the following recently :

Tucked away into the Midrash from nearly 2000 years ago is the story of Miriam.

The rabbis teach that on the night the Israelite slaves were gathering their 

belongings to flee Egypt, Miriam the Prophetess slipped into her satchel a timbrel

and tof - a small hand drum.  Why on earth would she do such a thing?

They had no food, no time to let the bread rise, and Pharaoh had a rather erratic

habit of changing his mind, first letting them go, then deciding

they would remain in slavery.  

What if he changed his mind again?

The Midrash teaches that when the Israelites finally crossed the sea and

reached the shores of liberation, it was Miriam and the women around her

who took her timbrel and her tof and began dancing and singing in celebration;

they rejoiced in their freedom. 

They did not know what was ahead of them.  They had no guarantees that the God

who liberated them would stick with them in the desert. They had absolutely

no guarantees their new found freedom would last.

But Miriam understood something holy, something essential of the human

psyche:  we cannot move forward without celebration.  

We humans need song and dance and celebration after we've left the places

that have assaulted our dignity and brutalized our humanity.*

You will find the Immaculate Practice in full detail

on posts of Day 1 and Day 2 of Walking with Mary

*A big thank you to Niranjana Maria Devi for forwarding this thread to me.

blessings

Hettienne