Monday mornings with Mary

House of Gold

extracts from Mary Within Us

a Jungian perspective on the titles of Mary by David Richo

'I remained in the temple, enjoying the

ineffable pleasure of contemplating

the goddess' statue, because I was bound

to her by a debt of gratitude so large

that I could never fully repay her' - Apuleius

Mary is what we are : a temple of the divine.

In the title, House of Gold, we have two symbols, 

the house as a container and gold as

the supreme value of the Self.

The house of gold is the Self.

A house grants shelter so we again

encounter the conserving and containing aspect

of the female archetype.

It is comprised of the light of comforting safety

and the dark of numbing contentment.

There are always graces to help us integrate those two.

The Loreto shrine, the traditional house of Mary,

is like the Ark of the covenant,

the dwelling of the feminine aspect of God.

At sunset it is bathed in gold and so it is often

referred to as the golden house.

A custom in our past was to bronze the shoes in which a baby 

first walked.

Mary is the house of ego that has been

gilded because she walked the path from

ego to Self. 

By the invocation, House of Gold, we

commit ourselves to enter the mansion of

spiritual individuation.  

What happened to her, happens to us.

We make a series of choices and

surrenders that move us from cellar to attic

and then down to earth and out into the world

with treasures to share.

This passage will have suffering in it

and joy too.

In the fire of creation, gold does not vanish:

the fire brightens.

Each creature God made must live in its own nature;

how could I resist my nature, 

that lives for oneness with God - 

Mechtild of Magdeburg.

Would you like to link up?

with love, Hettienne