Novena to Our Lady of Living Fire Day 9

 

A blessed feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes to you.

Apologies for the late post but I decided to do my own puja first and then to share the images with you.  These images and objects are imbued with the living fire of Our Lady of Lourdes and you will be able to feel and receive the shakty that is flowing from them

.An initiate is one who chooses to turn his or her focus inward, into a metaphysical reality and upward into a wider context and upward into a higher consciousness.

An initiation is a ritual which takes the initiate through a doorway and threshold from the mundane ordinary reality into the sacred life.

A puja is a ritual dedicated to the worship of one's personal deity or devi.

(also called the Ishta Devata)

As in all ritual there is a certain set of actions; each one designed with a particular focus and effect in mind.  Today's puja is one of devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, Lady of the Living Fire, the Immaculate Conception and out intention is to evoke our spiritual selves  through the senses and the open heart.

These rituals and tools are all part of ancient traditions known as tantra yoga which really means a coming together with the entire body, heart and soul.

Through repeated entry into the spiritual realms we shed the perceptions and projections of the mind and access a wider vision, a deeper connectedness to all of life and  transpersonal wisdom.

For today's rite or puja we use fresh flowers, fresh flower petals, incense, music and if you can, and you feel drawn to do so, movement and spontaneous dancing. 

We open our sacred space with the daily prayer. Put your music on and you may want to put it on 'repeat' so that it plays continually. Light the candles. Light the incense and offer the sacred smoke to the items on the altar and to the image of Holy Mary.  Pick up your instrument and offer your devotion through voice and song or music.  You may feel drawn to move your body in movement and offer the devotion (bhakty) of your sacred dance to Her.

Or however you feel the bhakty move in and through you.

We offer the fresh rose petals to Mary by showering her image with the petals.
You can also sprinkle some of the rose oil and water from the altar as a blessing.

This is a very evocative and heart opening practise which
you can do every day or once a week and not only on holy days.

Contemplation

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

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

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.

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

Prayer

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 One who is whole

Hail Mary

Ave Maria

blessings

Hettienne