On Sharings of the Heart

From 1 to 12 December I journeyed A Virgin a Day with Rebecca of Recuerda mi Corazon and many others in her circle.

What a joy, grace and blessing this was.  Each day I sensed a deeper sense of joy and gratitude bubbling within.

I visited incredible websites, learnt many new things, made wonderful new friends and never did I use the word 'beautiful' so often.  As Lisa of PritiLisa said, it called for a Thesaurus to find some more ways of expressing our wonder and joy.

The power of sharing our deepest held feelings, values, traditions and truths.  The depth of devotion, to the Divine, each in our own particular and personal way, shared in a space of respect and honour and witnessing. For twelve days a circle of Light was held and the talking stick shared equally.

I am still making my rounds to each and every participant in a good bye, till next time our paths meet.

And such good news, it does not have to end!  Rebecca has extended an invitation to participate in Postcards from Paradise.  Please visit her at http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon on a Sunday and you will find myself and many others there.

Dont hide your heart but reveal it
so that mine might be revealed,
and I might accept what I am capable of


Rumi

a virgin a day, haiku my heart

It is day two of 'A virgin a day' and on 

Fridays Rebecca hosts 'Haiku my Heart'.  

What a wonderful offering.  

Today is my first time in participating in Haiku my Heart. 

 A Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry reminiscent of a Zen Koan. 

 In Japanese it has rather strict requirements

 for lines and syllables and juxtaposition.

Star of Love born

Returning beauty to my eyes

A miracle I behold

An assemblage created by myself : Hands of Compassion

To read some very proficient Haiku poets make your way to http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/2011/12/a-virgin-a-day-haiku-my-heart.html

blessings

Hettienne

A Virgin a Day

From today, the first of December till Mary's Holy Day, the twelfth, I will be sharing Her with you as part of Rebecca's A Virgin a Day at Recuerda Mi Corazon. If you want to join in, the link is here on my blog and her invitation is below.

Ave Maria

Mary, Maryam, Maria, Mares

Holy Woman

So much more

Than a head bowed down

Arrow fierce and fast

Directed at the heart

No sin of error here

Cloak of power

All-embracingly blue

Heart on fire

Flowing from the sacred well

Eternally walking on the bed of coals

You seduce me into dancing in the flames

Eyes blinded

Only the heart sees

And hears

The howling winds of compassion

Screaming through my ribcage

Cracked open

Finger by finger

Pomegranate juice flowing in my veins

Persephone’s ashes

Caked with the tears of Demeter

Entangled in the hair of Medusa

I follow where you lead

The perfume of your feet

The guiding light my holy woman

Sacred Am I

Ave Maria

You can find Recuerda Mi Corazon here http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/2011/11/a-virgin-a-day.html and here is Rebecca's beautiful invitation :

each year beginning december 1, 

i post "a virgin a day" every day until december 12,

mary's feast day.

today i am 

calling all virgins...

enchanting, traditional, contemporary, 

exotic, edgy, campy, irreverent, irresistible,

unusual, joyful, rapturous, lovely,

glorious, ordinary, astounding,

simply

bring her on!

i hope you will join me in a pilgrimage of marys.

feel free to re-post this invitation on your blog,

and link back to

recuerda mi corazon.

as december grows busier we will

quietly greet the new day one mary at a time.

mr. linky will be here to gather all the virgin sightings.

just add your name and direct link back to your virgin 

so we can effortlessly share the divine. 

***

(here's the virgin a day participation button linked to this post)

A Virgin A Day

Mary's Blessing Seeds

Our spiritual Mother, Mary, asks all of us to pray to Her regardless of our religion or culture.  She has said to many visionaries that all people are her children – her spiritual children.  Our bodies are temporary, but our spirits live forever, that is why Mother Mary is our true Divine Mother, the Mother of our Souls.  Her love for all of us is truly that of a mother who would want nothing more than to help her children.

I created these blessing seeds from ceramic clay that will deteriorate and dissolve back into Mother Earth when buried.   Each of these seeds are imprinted with the divine image of Divine Mary and thus contains Her sacred energy.

You can say a prayer whilst holding the seed in your hand, and then make a hole in the ground with your finger and plant these seeds wherever you want healing to take place.  This way you can call on Mother Mary as you walk on her earth;  you can place these at sacred places;  in your garden or at places of sadness and trauma.

Mary's Blessings Seeds are packaged with dried lavender seeds brought back from Lourdes in France, in a small voile pouch.  

Mary's Blessing Seeds are available to purchase on http://http://www.etsy.com/listing/86536820/prayers-and-blessings-mother-mary

Spring in my Garden

Spring has arrived and her beauty is intoxicating and breathtaking.  

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer. ~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night. ~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

The world is very old, but every spring she becomes young again, and fairies sing - Mary Cecily Baker

And I could not resist and carried my easel out, painting in the heady scent of the jasmine!

May this beauty fill your eyes and your heart with joy!!

Ciao Bella,

Hettienne

The Book of Mary

If you want to stay in touch and up to date with communication from Divine Mary, Dikshas and meditations received from Her, please follow at http://bookofmarysacredheart.blogspot.com

Blessings from Her to You

Forgiveness

Have you heard of the Hawaian Ho'oponopono process? A friend of mine told me about it recently and I have since then shared this with others. There is also a link to one of the websites on this blog. All those who have applied it, has reported wonderful results.

Allow your inner guidance to show you the best way to use it. At times, probably most often, you will find that you feel the need to say these words to your own inner child and sensitive self.

I have taken the pieces below from the many websites on this ancient method.

Ho’oponopono is a little known but extremely powerful self-transformation technique.

Ho’oponopono originated from Hawaii and was originally taught by Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona. Morrnah was a healer and in 1983 she received a great honor by being designated as a living treasure of Hawaii. She was teaching Ho’oponopono to small and large groups of people as well as to hospitals, colleges and even to United Nations personnel. She also founded “The Foundation of I” to promote principles of Ho’oponopono around the world.
Historically Ho’oponopono healing system required the presence of mediator – senior qualified practitioner who would guide a healing process for practitioner. It is often that the group of people need be to interacting with each other in a certain way for the process to take place.
Morrnah updated Ho’oponopono in a way that healing and transformation process no longer required presence of any other person but the practitioner himself. Neither any specific interaction is required between practitioner and other people.

The miracle powers of Ho’oponopono self-healing and self-improvement practice would still be unknown to the world at large if not for the works of Joe Vitale, published as “The Attractor Factor” and especially his exceptional quality “Zero Limits” book.
Joe Vitale is best known as internet marketer, writer and speaker on the subject of self improvement. While internet marketing is something that perceived by many (including myself) with a great degree of skepticism – Joe Vitale’s experience on the subject of self improvement as well as his in-depth research about Ho’oponopono deserves the highest marks. It’s from Joe Vitale’s “Zero Limits” book that the world found out about true miracles and powers of Ho’oponopono as well as about Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len.

Ho'oponopono means to make right. Essentially, it means to make it right with the ancestors, or to make right with the people with whom you have relationships. We believe that the original purpose of Ho'oponopono was to correct the wrongs that had occurred in someone's life including Hala (to miss the thing aimed for, or to err, to disobey) and Hewa (to go overboard or to do something to excess) which were illusions, and even 'Ino (to do harm, implying to do harm to someone with hate in mind), even if accidental.

We call this the Hawaiian Code of Forgiveness, and it's an important thought, because when we forgive others, who are we forgiving? Ourselves, of course.

If you are familiar with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), there is a saying, "People are only doing the best they can with the resources they have available." If you've heard that before, it has to do with forgiveness. Think about it. As you do consider that you are included in "people."

In the Eastern traditions, too, there is a real tradition of being aligned with and cleaning up relations with the ancestors. In Japan, China, as well as the Hawaiian tradition, it is thought to be important to align and clean up any past problems that you've had in relationships, especially with relatives.

At the same time, perhaps there are family patterns you do not want. Certainly you have heard the saying, "We just don't do that in our family," or "That's the way it is in our family." What happens then, is that certain generational themes get passed along in families, like sadness or any number of different traits. Ho'oponopono will allow you to clean this up.

THEORY: We carry inside us as parts of the Unconscious Mind, all the significant people in our lives. (These parts of us often look very much like Carl Jung's archetypes.) Ho'oponopono makes it "all right" with them. The process of Ho'oponopono is to align with and clean up our genealogy as well as to clean up our relationships with other people in our lives.

The Process of Ho'oponopono:
Bring to mind anyone with whom you do not feel total alignment or support, etc.
In your mind's eye, construct a small stage below you
Imagine an infinite source of love and healing flowing from a source above the top of your head (from your Higher Self), and open up the top of your head, and let the source of love and healing flow down inside your body, fill up the body, and overflow out your heart to heal up the person on the stage. Be sure it is all right for you to heal the person and that they accept the healing.
When the healing is complete, have a discussion with the person and forgive them, and have them forgive you.
Next, let go of the person, and see them floating away. As they do, cut the aka cord that connects the two of you (if appropriate). If you are healing in a current primary relationship, then assimilate the person inside you.
Do this with every person in your life with whom you are incomplete, or not aligned.
The final test is, can you see the person or think of them without feeling any negative emotions. If you do feel negative emotions when you do, then do the process again.

Dr. Hew Len was the most avid student of Morrnah Simeona and practitioner of updated Ho’oponopono technique. He was the first person who got documented and confirmed proof of the healing miracles initiated by the Ho’oponopono process. Dr. Hew Len observed Hooponopono healing powers himself when Morrnah Simeona healed his daughter from painful bleeding shingles (skin disease) that she suffered from for more than a decade without anyone or anything helping.

Being traditionally educated university-trained physician he decided to look deeper into the process that Morrnah Simeona was using. He signed into her seminar in 1982 and not without certain degree of struggle (“…she was talking to spirits and sounding nuts!…” – ‘Zero Limits’, page 42) managed to complete the training. She was staying and learning from Morrnah all the way till 1992 when she passed away. Paying utmost attention to her teaching and practices Dr Hew Len managed to simplify and improve Ho’oponopono process even more and with amazing results.
From 1984 till 1987 he worked as a staff psychologist for Hawaii State Hospital overseeing high security unit housing male criminally insane patients. Now, to make things clear – these are the type of guys you don’t want to turn your back on. These guys committed murders, rapes, assaults and due to their degree of “insanity” were locked into psychiatric high security facility. Violence against each other and staff members were common.

Fast forward to 1987 (3 years later) wrist and ankle restraints were no longer used in this facility. Violence almost ceased to exist, only involving mostly new patients. New off-site activities were introduced to former violent patients. The spirit and order in the unit was greatly improved and eventually the whole unit was closed because there was no need. People just got improved, healed and released or moved into other non-violent wards.
This all was documented, described my multiple witnesses and personnel.

How did such miraculous change took place in the hospital?
According to Dr. Hew Len:
He did not do any therapy or counseling with patients
He did not attend any staff conferences on patients
He practiced updated Ho’oponopono process on a daily basis that included accepting 100% of responsibility for everything being experienced by him.
(Zero Limits, page 142)

Dr. Hew Len improved and practiced updated Ho’oponopono process every day and this process caused the most miraculous transformation within the most challenging environment. Within 3 years

So what exactly is Ho’oponopono and how does it work?

When Joe Vitale met with Dr. Hew Len and asked him how exactly did he manage to heal these violent patients without actually seeing each of them in person, his answer was:
“I didn’t heal them. I healed part of myself that created them”. To me that was the most fundamental revelation to date. That phrase alone explains the most important presumption of Ho’oponopono:

You are 100% responsible for everything. Everything and everywhere! And it means not only your personal screwups and your personal successes. If means if someone somewhere did something and you became aware of that – you are 100% responsible for that.
Ho’oponopono is not your free ticket to guilt trip. Being 100% responsible is not the same as feeling infinitely guilty for miseries. It’s reminder of your creative powers and gentle welcome to return back to your inner nature. That is to Zero. Joe Vitale wrote a great book on the subject called Zero Limits. When you returning back to your most inner nature – to Zero – everything becomes available to you effortlessly and you are being driven by inspiration from Divinity, not by petty ego wants. Ho’oponopono’s Zero is the same thing that Eckhart Tolle names Unmanifested.
Back to practical reality – let assume that Zero is the next great thing after sliced bread. Or even before sliced bread. Whatever. How do we get to that “magical” state? What exactly needed to be done?

This is achieved by constant cleaning process. Cleaning is the actual Ho’oponopono practice. Cleaning what? You clean yourself from subconscious garbage – programs that run your life without your participation.

Apparently Ho’oponopono process is very simple. Actual Ho’oponopono cleaning process consists of repetitions of the following phrases:
I Love You
Please forgive me
I am sorry
Thank you

These phrases repeated will ignite the self transformation process for the practitioner. This is exactly what Dr. Hew Len did to invite divine transformation powers for his surrounding during his work at Hawaiian mental hospital.

The most powerful phrases here are: “I Love You” and “Thank You”. The powers of Love and Gratitude are unquestionable in every self-empowerment teaching, school or religion.

Who do you say these phrases? Essentially you just say them. No need to feel anything special, imagine anything, or otherwise to complicate this process. As Dr. Hew Len often says “just do it”. The process is as simple as breathing. When you breath in and breathe out – you clean your body from processed “polluted” air and enrich it with fresh, oxygen rich, good energy air. And all this happens without you mixing breathing process with any esoteric or complicated practices. It just happens and your body gets constant supply of oxygen.

Her Grace

From http://hergracedevata.blogspot.com

Since I have come back from my stay at Lourdes, I have been working on a new series of Mary.  

The philosopher Thomas Moore, in his wonderful works on Soul, really defines it for me.  Everyone has a Soul and thus a religion of the Soul, and that may be found in the enchantment of everyday living, in art as a sacred undertaking, or it may be found in the practise and application of a holy book and its teachings.

I had no exposure to Divine Mary other than in the Christmas pageants at school, where she really played a rather minor role.  I grew up raised in a Calvinistic religion and culture - a very austere philosophy, as you may know.  But from a young age I had a tendency to withdraw into my own inner world, away from voices telling what to do and how to feel.

  And in my dreams a beautiful woman used to come to me - I called her 'Beauty".  She was usually dressed in blue and had a linen type headdress. She reminded me of a burning candle.  Difficult to describe, but it was as though she is in a shimmering radiant light that pulled me up.  I once described her to my best friend and she said, 'but that is Mother Mary!".

And then my life started to change drastically.  At first, I read as much as I could and studied various sources and books to learn about Mary.  

Then I went through a stage of throwing all that learning out.  I had realised that the books give the writer's interpretation and also, the living Mary, became buried under a heap of jargon and definitions.

I visited many sacred places (you can read more about these on my blog http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com) 

and eventually I ended at Lourdes.

What I experienced at Lourdes, words cannot capture.  She is the Rosary and the Prayers and the faith of those who believe, but, She is so much more.

She is not bound by dogma, not even faith.  She does not need you to pray to Her.  She is always with you.

She is the Love that is within us all.  She is the human capacity for kindness, caring and compassion.  She is the mirror reflecting the Light within each and every soul.  She is life itself.

Betrayal by a Guru

Words filled with wisdom and light by Dorothy on Kundalini Splendour http://kundalinisplendor.blogspot.com

Monday, August 29, 2011

Betrayal 

Of all life's challenges, betrayal is one of the most difficult to deal with. Whether it comes from lover, family, friends, teacher or guru, it leaves one with a sense of being bereft of something very valuable in one's life.

I think that when we offer trust, to whomever and to whatever degree, we then become vulnerable to possible betrayal. The lover may leave, the friend may become less than friendly for no apparent reason or may make a remark that wounds, the guru may turn out to have a very dark shadow.

Indeed, books have been written about the "corrupt gurus" (or shamans or "spiritual authorities") who misuse their powers to gain wealth or sexual favors. The problem is that the flawed guru (or lover or friend) is often extremely charismatic, perhaps bestowing great gifts such as constant bliss states or feelings of oneness with the divine, or, as with friends or lovers, a sense of total acceptance and love.

The guru as master is a prime example of the abuse of Kundalini power, for who does not love to receive shaktipat, or enter into states of unending bliss. Further, at such times, one often experiences periods of altered consciousness, in which judgment is impaired. When the rupture occurs, we feel as though part of our own identity has been ripped from us, and we are left to try to build a new life within and without. Sometimes physical illness may follow, as we try to console our "within" for the trauma it has suffered. It is as if we are "punishing" ourselves for what, at some level, is like a "self betrayal." Our pain is an expression of our grief.

These are indeed terrible life lessons. However, one good result may ensue. We may come to realize that we ourselves were likely to undergo this kind of experience at some point in our lives, for we were vulnerable as long as we were willing to give so much power to another. In fact, the inner guru is the more reliable guide. The inner guru (higher self, guiding spirit, intuition) will not betray, it will not wound, and it will listen whenever we pause to speak to it and tell it what we need. We will be healed when we realize our error and rebuild our inner spiritual voyager to avoid such excessive "surrender of the self" to others in future.

For this reason, I prefer teachers to (external) gurus. We attend, we listen, we gain whatever wisdom we can from the teacher, but we do not put our whole lives hostage to his/her dictates. Contrary to what many think, no external guru is needed to undergo spiritual transformation or to awaken and nourish Kundalini, once we are ready. Spontaneous awakenings are occurring at (what seems to me) an every increasing rate.

This path is difficult. It is indeed a lonely path, for we all yearn for the external authority or master to lead us ahead. We long for the community (the sangha) of like minded seekers. Yet the price of such connection is often severe disappointment at the end. Yes, teachers, especially those familiar with Kundalini and its processes, can be extremely valuable, but we must exercise caution in our selections.

And there will also be those near us who truly deserve our trust. It may be that "faithfulness" rather than "exciting charisma" will be their earmarks. We should treasure these for who they are, dear friends who offer some stability in a world of chaos.

I think we must all be teachers and students of one another. We must pool our collective wisdom to progress, for we live in the heart of mystery.

Buddha said "Be a light unto yourself." We should listen to what he said.

# posted by Dorothy : 8/29/2011 11:03:00 AM

Baptism in the Alchemical Journey

We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a hope. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening. To use our own voice. To see our own light.

Hildegard Von Bingen

To move from the Blackness into the Whiteness (Albedo) of the Alchemical Journey, one has to pass through the Blueness.  


Here we start to move out of the depths of despair, the numbness, the feelings of no-feeling, the paralysis and heaviness and the confusion seems to start to lift.   


Soon, your tears will be baptising you into the Lapiz stage of your journey.


The Lapiz stage is recognised by its 'water', the release of tears.  Often, as one transforms, wonderful healing tears flow seemingly for no reason at all.  It is probably the deep release of the subconscious as it moves into the first glimmer of the light.


Now is not the time to rush in and throw all caution to the wind.  This is an important time for purification and cleaning out, re-visiting the intended goal and taking a deep breath, taking time to integrate the glimmer of hope.


Before the Albedo will enter you, you must be thoroughly prepared.  The Blue stage is a good time to follow a fast, spend more time in meditation or contemplation and to give up some luxuries.  This will help you to focus on what is really important and you will be able to hear your own powerful Voice Within.

Soul Story - Seeing in the Dark

‎"Salvation begins when you consider the possiblity that there might be another way." -- A Course in Miracles




When in the black, dark stage of the Alchemical Journey, you are called upon a new way of seeing.  The nigredo stage can last for many years.  Often, early in life, after a traumatic emotional event, such as the realisation of loss of innocence or unconditional love, one enters the dark cocoon of the cave.  The awakening only comes when you realise that you have chosen this and that, indeed, you are still choosing to remain in the safety of the cave.  


The dark state within and seemingly without, serves to make you aware of the incredible split in yourself.  Through closing off against pain you have created a strong and powerful separate self.  Embedded in this self is the first injunction :  thou shalt judge.  Secondly, thou shalt not feel pain ever again.  In order to keep loyal and true to these sacred orders of the false self, an entire life of habits, habitual thinking and patterning develops.  Depending on the environment and the consciuosness of those around you, and your own level of receptivity and sensitivity, these patterns will create a thick coat around the Self. 


One enters the cave with the understanding or the belief 'that I cannot do this any longer', thereby implying that you cannot deal with the way the world is.  What you do not realise is that the world is a projection of your own mind.  Your perception colours your world and interprets the actions of others and your own reactions.  


Whilst in the cave one makes decisions that promises to keep you safe and separate.  However, no-one is safeguarded against the pain of the heart.  You may make your mind feel safe through your choices and decisions, but at some point your heart will start to grieve for the loss of Soul.  And this is when you realise that you no longer want to be in the cave!


In the myth of Persephone, her mother, Demeter, Queen of the Earth, suffers deeply.  I extract the following :


Early one day, a tragic event occurred in the fields of Eleusis that disrupted the Mistress of Earth, Demeter.  Demeter is reliving that fateful day when her daughter, Persephone, was lost to her.  Demeter herself searches, laments, calls for help.  No one comes to her aid, her demands for help goes unanswered.  Then comes the horrendous revelation from Hecate, the Queen of Crossroads.  The contemptible Hades, Lord of hell, dragged Persephone down to the Underworld in his saturnian chariot driven by seven frothing, seething stallions.  He abducted her to coerce her into being his consort in the domain of the Underworld.  In her mother-fury and anguish, Demeter unleashes all her powers to pull back her daughter from the ghastly fate of living for eternity in the lifeless Underworld.  Then it comes to light that Zeus, the all-powerful Lord of All has permitted his brother Hades to commit this unspeakably evil act.


Demeter, Mother Goddess of the Sacred Earth, is paralyzed.  From her swollen eyes, she regards her listless and exhausted body.  She finds herself trapped and helpless in her fleshly garb, unable to move or navigate out of the icy debris surrounding her.  The fallen deity observes her feet stuck in frozen sludge, her leaden thighs are immobilized, and her slumped-down torso is unable to move her defenseless arms.


In this place that she inhabits, all is dark, void of life and sound - a deep darkness, not the darkness of the night where your eyes finally adjust enough to make out some semblance of form.  This is a place of formless matter, of thick and heavy obscurity where nothing moves.  She feels like she is buried alive in a bloodless tomb where shadows do not exist.


Demeter finds herself in this wasteland of immobility where her agony is so deep that emotion is dried up, her consciousness anesthetized, her will destroyed.  But wait, there is a dim realisation that she chooses to be in this state.  That it is necessary to be here, to engage in profound soulwork.  In fact, there is a knowingness that she must go even deeper to find her way out. 


As Demeter's soul dries up, so does the fecundity of the earth.  The vacuum of life-giving energy which she, the Great Mother, projects on to the world causes the landscape to become withered and frozen.  Soon Zeus, the Lord of all, notices the diminishing abundance of the earth and offers a compromise to Demeter - he will allow mother and daughter to reunite, but only for part of the year.  Persephone must return yearly back to the Underworld as queen and consort to Hades.  Demeter rises up out of the cold, dark place and embraces her daughter.  She glances back at her cocoon-like cave where she was stuck in devastation, all the while giving thanks for the gift of solitude and timelessness that helped her find her soul and a way out, back to her daughter.


In this myth, the nature of Persephone is two fold :  before she enters the underworld she is Kore, the maid and after her return, she is Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.  All the characters in the myth represents the various forms of consciousness that you know as yourself and your Divinity.  Zeus represents the 'sun-god', the higher authority or God in religious terms;  Persephone is your daughter, the life of your soul, your 'creature' or that soul-life that you are responsible for;  Demeter is the body, the earth, the physical and the mind attached to the body;  Hades is your shadow, that which you have suppressed and hidden in your dark underworld and the seven horses are the seven chakras of the physical body.  All of these are also represented in the collective and the cosmic;  so they are personal and transpersonal.


Kore, the maiden, is the life of the soul as created by the young and innocent;  Persephone is the soul life as created by Wisdom!  Wisdom is only gained through contemplation, reflection, suffering, sacrifice and dedicated inner soul work.  Through the time spent in the cave or the underworld, the ego is softened, cracked and eventually dissolved.  Only when you change the way that you look at the losses experienced as your passage and initiation into a fuller soul life and as a necessary journey to a higher consciousness, will Zeus come to your aid and assist you.


Loss is the initiation into nigredo.  Loss of expectations;  loss of a relationship;  loss of yourself and access to your inner world;  loss of purpose;  loss of joy; loss of employment and more.  The loss in the outer world is a reflection of the loss in the inner world.  


The realisation that Demeter made, and thus setting Persephone (her younger self) free was :  I am powerful, I am not weak.  I am a survivor, not a victim;  I am a wo/man, not a child.  I have the key within myself;  I am ENOUGH!


Nigredo is never a life-sentence;  only a stage.  The profound grief that one suffers has to be faced head on and there is a deep psychological and spiritual need in all human beings to connect with their own inner life;  to tell their stories;  to make sense of themselves .
Jung said the treasure lies in the darkness.  The gift of the spirit is found imbedded in the wound.  As my vision so clearly stated :  You have swallowed the poison, now go and find the cure.  And finding the cure is a journey that will last a lifetime.


There is a famous saying :  'Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water;  After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water'.

Soul Story - Alchemical Journey

Divinity is in its omniscience and omnipotence like a wheel, a circle, a whole, that can neither be understood, nor divided, nor begun, nor ended - Hildegard von Bingen

The Alchemical Journey puts our inner Soul Story into visual symbols and images, complete with smells, colours and texture.  A hidden journey made visible and thus given meaning : the Great Work of turning the lead of the personality into a golden Union - a mystical marriage, a hieros gamos, between the goddess and god within.

Alchemy is a powerful tool for transformation.  By understanding the numinous archetypes within yourself and all of creation, you can access and harness your inner power and allow transformation to take place.  The journey of transformation is filled with obstacles and challenges;  intense emotion and dark fears;  hidden shadows, delusion, illusion, joy and confusion.

Maria Hebraea or the Divine Maria was the first woman to practise alchemy in Alexandria.  She was also called the Prophetess or Mary of the Jews.  Her methods have been incorporated by great philosophers and the principles can be seen in Tantra Yoga and the Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism, as well as sacred geometry.  She was also known as Moses' sister and even Jesus' helper - the mythical importance of her work highlighted in these titles.

The alchemical voyage is not linear.  It meanders, at random, between alchemy's five stages and seven operations.  The Philosopher's stone is the illusive 'third' way, hidden and encoded in the ancient alchemical codes and always present is the Great Trickster, Hermes, the messenger and trickster of the gods, later appearing as Hermes Trismegistus, the patriarch of Alchemy.

The alchemical journey is hidden in mysticism, steeped in secrecy and only shared with dedicated students.  Part of the confusion and mystery of this ancient way, is the inclusion of the sexual union - symbolically between spirit and nature and given form through existence.

The most difficult stage is the first stage, the Nigredo, or blackness.  This is when your inner world turns black.  Sometimes without any visible reason; at other times because things around you change without your instigation.  The Nigredo calls for change and that is the part that the personality fears the most.  Without change there can be no transformation.  Change calls for a letting go, a sacrifice, a surrender, a giving up and often entering what feels like great suffering or crucifixion.  In Nigredo we meet our shadow - our dark opponent - our hidden flaws, habits and inner weaknesses.  Feelings of inertia and lethary overcome us and all our energy seems to disappear.  When the solution does not come quickly enough, we turn to solutions outside of ourselves :  shopping trips, romantic flings and so on, but none of these bring a lasting solution.

This is the time that we need to be brave and courageous and dare to look in the mirror of truth.
Here we are faced with mortal shame and mortification as we realise who we truly are and as a part of ourselves is revealed.  The blackness becomes darker and we realise the depth of its pits.  And thus we start digging into the nature of our personality and begin to uncover the extent of the false self, its positive and negative shadows.

This is the time to dive deeply into our prime matter.  This is the time when you start to uncover 'what is the matter' and what really matters to you.  Denial will appear very tempting and so will escapism, but it is to stay focused and aware, without self-rejection and self-blame or punishment.  It is to dig deep into your heart and allow yourself to find the memories of where this pain originated from.  It is the time to use the darkness to kindle the fire of burning off the shadows within.

In my blog article HOW MANY SEEDS OF THE SACRED POMEGRANATE DID YOU INGEST? I discuss the Nigredo stage in depth through the discussion of the myth of Persephone :

The story of individual transformation through the birth, death and re-birth of the personal ego, is beautifully depicted in all its complexity and depths, in the story of the Rape of Persephone. Persephone was known as the maiden goddess Kore, before her abduction by Hades. After her trials and stay in the Underworld, she was reborn as Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. But their is a juicy twist to the tale : before she left the underworld, Hades tricked her into eating four or six or more (depending on the version of the mythic tale that you read) seeds of the sacred pomegranate. Or did he trick her? Did she choose to eat the sacred pomegranate seeds, knowing that for each seed that she eats, she will have to spend a month in the Underworld as the bride of Hades? Was he her daimon* lover, did she secretly succumb to his seductions and fall in love with the darkness itself?

*(daimon is the Greek word for spirit, divine, god or fate. It means a deity who holds complete knowledge)

On her return from the Underworld as Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, Kore steps into her own secret, seemingly dark power. Why is it regarded as her dark power and why has it been kept a secret? The secret of Persephone's success is the beauty of the Queen of the Underworld - a secret that women who have been too terrified to go there, would kill to possess! The secret of Persephone's beauty, her experience of Hades, cannot be shared. It has to be experienced and then, with insight into the personal daimon/suppressed divine masculine/shadow, these gifts can be unearthed and re-birth into more of the authentic self is possible.

The myth

Kore, later known as Persephone, the young Greek maiden goddess, through her ravishing beauty, attracted the attention of Hades, ruler of the Underworld. He sought her father, the god Zeus' permission for Kore to become his bride. Zeus gave his permission and one bright morning, at dawn, while Kore was playing in the meadows, a crack in the earth opened and Hades emerged from underneath the crust of the earth and dragged the maiden down into the darkness below.

In the underworld, Hades tried his utmost to seduce the innocent Kore. Her mother, Demeter, Goddess of the harvest and corn, was distraught at the abduction of her daughter. As she mourned and searched the earth for Kore, the earth became barren and the crops withered and died. Eventually Zeus, forced by the famine of his people, demanded that Hades return Kore to the light of the upper world.

However, before she leaves the Underworld, she eats seeds from the sacred pomegranate fruit. For each seed that she ate, she has to return as the bride of Hades and live for one month in the Underworld. In some versions of the myth she ate four and in some she ate six seeds - therefore having to spend half the year below, in darkness.

In order to know our authentic selves, it is necessary to spend a certain amount of time in darkness in our own underworld. During these times of trial and difficulty, we will be taken into a deep sleep-like state, such as told in the stories of Psyche and Sleeping Beauty. Those for whom the task has been too gruelling, may lose heart or fall into despair and self-blame during these dark times. Learning from personal experience is often painful, self-revelatory and embarassing; it may initially feel like an admission of failure to face the reality of a relationship founded upon projection or to discover that what you thought was one of your personal attributes was in fact non-existent. These are just some of the many masks worn by the inner daimon.

The inner daimon is a divine messenger from the divine beloved, the purusha, the divine soul mate, who appears to women in various stages of awakening in their lives. The daimon lover first appears in the sexual awakening of the maiden and when these experiences are not validated or recognised, the dance of suppression of her true authentic self starts. The daimon is not an incarnate man, but the representative of Love Itself in the spirit of the divine and inspirational masculine. The daimon in women is the true inner divine masculine, without the masks of the masculine self.

The daimon lover, who can only be known through marriage in the underworld, will provide us with the light, motivation, purpose, guidance and great passion to undertake and complete the Great Work of birth, death and re-birth. It will rescue us from the chaos of the unbalanced feminine and the power of unrecognised sexuality and creativity. By the light of our authentic selves we will be able to recognise the negative that runs rampant in the garden within, without the structure and focus of the inner masculine. We will be able to recognise the distorted masculine self which acts with self-judgement; that is driven through the need for recognition, power and dictatorial authority; self-criticism and extreme self-control and living in accordance with the image of the 'eternal pure virgin'.

Naked desire of the human soul is the desire for wholeness and for the complete and total experience of Love Itself. This desire in every soul is encoded and clothed in a certain image or imprint. This image is what will call you and seemingly seduce you, to enter the dreaded Underworld and the realm of Hades. But in hindsight, you will look back, and understand that you never had any choice. That indeed, as in the words of Jung, the darkness conceals the gold. And i would like to go one step further and state that the darkness is the Beloved and that all shadow behaviour is in fact the Light acting as emmissary of Love Itself.

Our shadow holds the same vibration as our authentic soul self. These are often referred to as 'twin flames'. We have to work with both the Light and the shadow to uncover the true self. The constellation of conditioning and the projection of others and the personality, can only be dismantled when we are open and receptive to the spirit messenger, to the one that bridges this world and the divine world. We have to pay attention to our dreams, poems and visions, and we have to TRUST the guidance that come from within and through these resources and innately feminine talents and gifts. We can only do this successfully through our own authentic selves, uncovered through direct personal experience. When we rely on other's theories, opinions and knowledge, we lose our opportunity to unearth the divine wisdom of the true self. True masters teach that there is no wisdom in religion, tradition or spiritual paths. It is only someone else's say-so and subjective belief. True wisdom is only possible through direct knowing - it then becomes Knowledge.

extracted from the blog www.shaman-shewhoknowsblogspot.com  Shaman She-Who Knows.


Everything that happens to you is your Teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by it.  - Polly B Berends


When you allow yourself to truly enter the grief of the Nigredo, you will find your true voice and you will come to know and understand what it is that you have to overcome : the demands of the White Lady!!  From Nigredo we move into the Blue Lapiz stage.

Reference :  The secret doctrine of the Kabbalah - Dr Leonora Leet
The Alchemical Woman - Dr Ramona Rubio and Dr Catherine Davidson

The Path of the Mystical Marriage : The Ecstasy of St Therese of Aville

Saint Teresa's love of God and her desire for spiritual union with him found expression in a vision in which an angel pierced her heart with a golden spear and sent her into a trance. The erotic intensity of her vision is vividly suggested in this image by Teresa's swooning expression and languid pose, and by the deep folds of drapery, which convey her agitation.

Artist: Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini Sculpture: marble Life-size group 1645-1652 CE Site: Italy: Rome Location: Italy: Rome, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Cornaro Chapel

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Teresa is clothed from head to foot in a loose hooded garment. Her feet are bare, the left one prominently displayed. Her eyes are shut, her mouth opened, as she swoons in ecstasy. Standing before her is the figure of a winged youth. His garment hangs on one shoulder, exposing his arms and part of his upper torso. In his right hand he holds an arrow that is pointed at the heart of Teresa.
CULTURAL COMMENTARY top
Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was a Spanish mystic who lived during the Counter-Reformation, a period of religious turmoil in Europe. Teresa founded several houses for discalced (or "barefoot") Carmelite friars and nuns, who sought to live according to the original rule of the order. This was a more primitive and ascetic form of monastic life than was practiced in Spain at that time. In addition, Teresa was author of numerous books, including her Life, a personal autobiography, the Way of Perfection, a handbook for her nuns, and Interior Mansions, in which she describes the many different steps taken on the path to mystical union with God.
Teresa described the soul's intense desire for God in the language of erotic passion. In this, she belongs to a long tradition of mystical experience that is known as bridal mysticism:
It pleased our Lord that I should see the following vision a number of times. I saw an angel near me, on the left side, in bodily form. This I am not wont to see, save very rarely.... In this vision it pleased the Lord that I should see it thus. He was not tall, but short, marvellously beautiful, with a face which shone as though he were one of the highest of the angels, who seem to be all of fire: they must be those whom we call Seraphim.... I saw in his hands a long golden spear, and at the point of the iron there seemed to be a little fire. This I thought that he thrust several times into my heart, and that it penetrated to my entrails. When he drew out the spear he seemed to be drawing them with it, leaving me all on fire with a wondrous love for God. The pain was so great that it caused me to utter several moans; and yet so exceeding sweet is this greatest of pains that it is impossible to desire to be rid of it, or for the soul to be content with less than God. (Peers, 197)
The symbolism of bridal mysticism is found already in early gnostic forms of Christianity, where the central sacrament is called the Bridal Chamber. There the feminine soul of the gnostic unites with the masculine spirit and is in this way spiritualized, that is, liberated from the limitations of mundane existence. Related symbolism is found as well in the writings of the early Christian mystic Origen and the Neoplatonic mystic Plotinus. These three forms of mysticism are related and serve as the foundation for the history of mysticism in Christianity.
Probably, the early forms of bridal mysticism were influenced by the myth of Eros and Psyche, which was quite popular during late Hellenism. Indeed, we find a gnostic interpretation of this myth in the anonymous homily entitled Exegesis on the Soul, which describes the sacrament of the Bridal Chamber. During the Renaissance, Greek themes and images were rediscovered in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Certainly, the form of Teresa's vision, and the symbolism illustrated here by Bernini, lies very close to the tale of the god of love and his human beloved. Psyche's name means "soul," and she begins her career as a mortal. It is because Eros loves her and wants her for his bride that Zeus is willing to elevate her to the status of an immortal. For Teresa, the moment in which she experiences the spiritual wound is but one moment in a complex drama culminating in the spiritual marriage, when such wounds will no longer be felt but are supplanted by a complete union of God and the soul on an inner level.
ARCHETYPAL COMMENTARY top
The word psyche in contemporary analytical psychology has taken on at least two meanings. On the one hand, it refers to the faculty of the human being that is capable of experiencing the imaginary world as well as the physical world. On the other hand, psyche may refer to the entire realm of experience, both conscious and unconscious. In the first case, the psyche is identified with the soul in the traditional sense; in the second, the psyche is the world of the soul.
The two traditions that are joined in this image of Saint Teresa are that of Greek mythologystory of Psyche and ErosRenaissance Christian mysticism, in which the soul is awakened to spiritual passion. There is, however, one important variation: In the Greek tale (recounted by Apuleius) it is not Eros who wounds Psyche with one of his arrows (in fact, he wounds himself when he first beholds her); rather, Psyche accidentally wounds herself when, disobeying him, she takes up a light to see what he looks like. In Teresa's vision, she as "soul" is completely passive and receives the wound at the hands of an Eros figure. Nevertheless, central to both scenes is the symbol of wounding, the origin of love in pain inflicted from without.
Although it may seem insignificant at first, the suffering caused by the arrow's wound is of the greatest value. It is the pain that initiates the ensuing action, the eventual marriage of Eros and Psyche in heaven and the spiritual marriage of the Bridegroom and the Bride in Teresa's innermost heart. Teresa describes this pain as being filled with fire, being inflamed. What is needed is something to quench the fire, to heal the wound. For Psyche, what follows is a painful period of alienation between her and Eros, until ultimately they are reunited and she gives birth to their daughter, Joy.
The marriage between the human soul and the divine lover represents a creative union of the human self with its transpersonal counterpart. The soul symbolizes the subjective capacity to feel and experience realitycapacity for consciousness. By uniting with the god of love, the soul gains a permanent connection with the abiding source of all life and love. In the infant, there is not yet the separation that gives rise to a subjective self. In the symbolism of the sacred marriage, a return to the original wholeness is achieved without a regression to the infantile unconsciousness.
Erich Neumann suggests that Psyche cannot truly love Eros in the dark. As Psyche, she requires vision. Her desire to see results in suffering, but also in real love: Psyche's act leads, then, to all the pain of individuation, in which a personality experiences itself in relation to a partner as something other, that is, as not only connected with the partner. Psyche wounds herself and wounds Eros [with the hot oil of the lamp, not the arrow -ed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY top

Auclair, Marcelle. Saint Teresa of ?ila. New York, 1953.
Beever, John. Saint Teresa of Avila. Garden City, N.Y., 1961.
Neumann, Erich. Amor and Psyche, the Psychic Development of the Feminine: A Commentary on the Tale by Apuleius. New York, 1956.
Peers, E. Allison. Studies of the Spanish Mystics. London, 1927.
Walsh, William T. Saint Teresa of ?ila. Milwaukee, 1943.


Article Source : http://aras.org/se_ecstasy.html