Our Lady of the New Dawn
Contemplation
We contemplate the darkness as we wait for the
Gate to the New Dawn
"Who is she that rises forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon,
pure and bright as the sun,
and as terrible as a many-bannered army?"
- Song of Songs 6:10
Black is the colour of night and the shade of soil.
It cloaks midnight and blankets the depths of caves
and grottos. In previous cultures, the most
popular totem for a chief male divinity was the sun and,
by extension, light; goddesses have been
associated with the moon and, by extension, night.
-Leonard Shlain (The Alphabet vs the Goddess)
Many medieval churches, extending in a wide arc from
Russia across Europe to Spain, had as their most sacred
object a statue of Black Mary.
Like the black, abiding earth, her simple being is so vastly
present that we have not noticed it.
- Caitlin Mathews
In a quest for a mother who will accept us when we can't quite
make peace with our errors, or with ourselves, it is easier
to turn to a simple mother acquainted with the darkness of life
than to the image of the Virgin distorted by religion into a perfectly obedient and always pure being.
In the heart of our dark mother, love for us endures without
judgement or pretense. She helps us deal with the undeniable
fact that we live in a world we can neither control nor
comprehend, a world with which we often cannot cope -
in which we can at times only endure.
She is the silent companion who stands at our elbows
as we toil ..... daily grappling with humanity's
problems ...... striving to reflect the light of the
spirit in our world.
- Caitlin Mathews
In the Gnostic book of the Apocryphon of John it is written that we are never alone as the power of the mother, the shakty in Hindu terms, the Epinoia in Gnostic terms, kundalini in tantric terms and Mary in my own personal experience, is here with us and within us.
the blessed One, the Mother-Father, the beneficient and merciful One, had mercy on the power of the mother .........
And he sent, through his beneficient Spirit and his
great mercy, a helper to Adam, luminous Epinoia which
comes out of him, who is called Life.
And she assists the whole creature,
by toiling with him and by restoring him to
his fullness ........ and be teaching him about
the way of ascent.
And thus we ponder the dark Madonna within ourselves -
the unknown who springs into action during an emergency, or who rises to the occasion as need be without thought or hesitation.
We also have the queen within who wants everything perfect and who, when not treated just so, can take offence unnecessarily.
Disciple, 'know thyself'
We are she.
These polarised appearances - as Hag or Queen of Heaven -are the two sides of the coin, one archetypal power.
Just as coal and diamond are both carbon - that basic substance of life - so does the Goddess of Wisdom manifest her power through seemingly opposing appearances. The Goddess of Wisdom is seeded in us all.
- Caitlin Mathews
However, the Great Mother of Wisdom, in all her
many aspects, are the One, only perceived
in polarity and duality. By the darkness of night
we perceive her as the moon and in the
brightness of the day, as the sun.
But there is only One Light
and we come to know this through detachment. - Mary Gate of the New Dawn, Mysteries of the Black Madonna
Prayer
LAUDS - DAWN
Oh Mary Gate of the New Dawn
come to me
Oh Mother of both night and day
come to me
The blackness burns until only white bones remain
glimmering in the Light of new possibilities
I follow your black cloak down the well of the night
You receive me once more
as we await the New Dawn
Ave Maria
blessings
Hettienne
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