Friday, November 29, 2013

Shine the Divine Gratitude Quilt by Laura




Please visit Laura's blog
Shine the Divine : Creativity is a spiritual practice
for the most amazing
Gratitude Quilt
http://www.shinethedivinecreativityisaspiritualpractice.com/2013/11/2013-gratitude-quilt.html

Two hundred and ten contributions from across the planet!
You may want to make a cup of tea before you sit down
and don't leave the tissues behind!

Reading this quilt humbled me yet again
witnessing such open hearts and
such a powerful reminder that we were
all created in the same Image.

Thank you Laura!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Mornings with Mary - Mary of Avalon


In the arms of
Mary, Our Lady of Avalon,
mystical isle of sacred apples.

A few years back I followed the Michael and Mary leylines
through the countryside of England.

My journey started with a pilgrimage to Monte Sant'Angelo in Italy to the grotto
of Archangel Michael which led me to Glastonbury, also known as the Isle of Avalon in myth and lore.
Mystery works in many strange ways.

I read the book The Sun and the Serpent by Paul Broadhurst and Hamish Miller and was so inspired
that I decided to do the Michael and Mary pilgrimage. They dowsed the energy lines across
the entire England, discovering the 'solar' Archangel Michael line
which interweaves with the 'lunar' Mary line.  The Mary line flows
through all the sacred wells and through many many churches
including the great St Mary's Churches and Cathedrals.  It was obvious
that the ancients understood the flow of energy and built their
sacred wells and altars on this ley line.

Here is a map of the St Michael alignment
On each of these major crossing points stand a church today and these were all
ancient places of worship before that.

The pilgrimage starts at St Michaels Mount, at the seaside
This picture of the beautiful statue of Mary I took in the church at Penzance - needless
to say the Mary line runs right through this church.


The Michael and Mary leylines run from St Michaels Mount, through
Cornwell, Avebury, Glastonbury and the east coast.

This is the famous St Michaels tower on the Tor in Glastonbury.  The leylines circumambulate
this entire man made mount.  This was built even before the time of the Abbey.


A side view of the ruins of the old Glastonbury Abbey with an apple tree in blossom.


 Blossoming apple trees in the Glastonbury Abbey orchard.



And this is my pendant that I created for Mary of Avalon.


With a glistening red apple for the sacred orchards of Avalon,
a pomegranate as symbol of the eternal feminine,
a sword for the Archangel Michael and a chalice to drink deeply
from the sacred wells of Our Lady.




for mornings with Mary

Please visit and pay it forward

blessings,
Hettienne

Monday, November 18, 2013

The Call to our True Selves - Poetry Party - Abbey of the Arts





Image Credit: © Brent Bill#
Courtesy of Abbey of the Arts
Used with Permission


A ladder of light
stretching mind and body
into infinity

A spine becomes fluid
inspiration
sending branches
of love into
ancient limbs

My fingers move in the breeze,
touching the
loving gaze of God



I am participating in the Poetry Party
at www.abbeyoftheheart.com
Click on the link in the side bar and participate!
or click here
http://abbeyofthearts.com/blog/2013/11/17/invitation-to-poetry-the-call-to-our-true-selves/



#Brent Bill is a Quaker minister, photographer, and author. His blog isHoly Ordinary: Musings and Photography from a Quaker Perspective. He lives in rural Indiana.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Miracle Thinking

Miracles - Soulcollage card by Hettienne

A miracle is when the cross of suffering
blooms with roses of forgiveness, healing, courage and wisdom.

As lovers of the mystical and divine mythos and living event
of Divine Love we are daily reminded
of Miracles -
and its ability to triumph over
the darkness of life -
we celebrate an immaculate conception,
a resurrection, an assumption into Heaven
and so much more.

But maybe we feel too far removed from these
cosmic events to realise that they reflect such
wisdom for our own daily living.

And we are taught that we need to be special
to have a miracle in our lives! Yet, there are many
who can testify to miracles!.
But still we do not believe that these miracles
are our right - they belong to saints, or holy ones,
or sages or the enlightened ones, or such.

Faith and the belief in miracles,
is a way of thinking :
A way of thinking that allows for miracles to happen.
Inner peace is one such miracle.

Have you ever observed your mind, and its endless
monologue, or dialogue with itself?
How it never admits that it is wrong?
How it switches sides in order to avoid being wrong?
Or how it supports your decision in one moment
only to oppose it in the next?
If you observe your mind closely, and you move
into the 'witness', the one who is listening,
you will notice that the mind moves from side to side,
looking for a place to rest.

If you stay in the witness and you observe your
mind and your body, you will notice how
these thoughts are not without effect -
you will notice how your breath becomes shorter,
or how you even stop breathing because
of a thought;  how your stomach tightens
and your heart beats faster!
All because of some random thoughts
which are not you.
If you are the one listening, how could you be the
one talking??

So why not create a place of rest for the restless mind?
A pool of peace and tranquility;
a garden within which miracles are possible.
But in order to do that, you have to change your mind
and you have to abandon your mind;
you have to let go of the misplaced loyalty that you
have to your thoughts, believing that they are your
thoughts.  

Have you noticed how fickle the mind is at times
and how stuck it is at other times?
So why even bother with following its train??
When you hook your coach to that engine
you will end up in distress and confusion
and soon the old familiar feelings of hurt, betrayal,
sadness and loss will follow.

Once you have become aware of your mind
and its ability to draw a veil of fear
over the reality, one nail in your cross
will bloom into a rose of courage!

When you forgive yourself ,
another rose will sprout.

The rose of healing appears,
seemingly out of nowhere this miracle takes place
and we are amazed!

The rose of Wisdom is handed to us by Grace
as we realise that the uprooting of the mind
is the key


Om Shanty, Shalom, Peace

Thursday, October 31, 2013

A Hallowed Eve

Divine Healer - Soulcollage card by Hettienne

All Hallow's Eve
All Saints Day Eve
Halloween
Samhain
Dia de los Muertos

Many celebrations over the period of
31 October and 1 November every year.
When you Google these holy, hallowed, days, 
you find many discussions about
how they are related or not.

Either way, you cannot miss the fact
that in the Northern Hemisphere,
people are preparing for the end of Autumn
and the start of Winter;
a transition time honouring departed souls
and the lives of those who have gone before us,
be they saints, sages or ancestors.

Here, in the Southern Hemisphere,
we are into spring and on the wheel of the year
it is Beltane, halfway between the Spring Equinox
and the Summer Solstice.

Outside it is a lovely, chilly rainy day. 
My hawthorn is not flowering yet, so spring
has not officially arrived.




Any time of transitioning is fraught with thoughts of the unknown.

This is my offering to us as we transition from the one realm
to the other :  the Spirit of the Divine Healer within.
She transforms all fearful thoughts into beautiful
roses of love.


Om Shanty, Shalom, Peace, Hettienne

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Blooming of the Heart

Blooming of the Heart
Soulcollage image by Hettienne - read in sidebar about 
Soulcollage images 



"The purpose of life is not to do as the majority do,
but to live according to the inner law 
which you understand in yourself"

Sunday, October 20, 2013

For the Unknown Self


Picture taken in my garden at my home (Sancta Maria)



For the Unknown Self

So much of what delights and troubles you
Happens on a surface
You take for ground.
Your mind thinks your life alone,
Your eyes consider air your nearest neighbor,
Yet it seems that a little below your heart
There houses in you an unknown self
Who prefers the patterns of the dark
And is not persuaded by the eye's affection
Or caught by the flash of thought.

It is a self that enjoys contemplative patience
With all your unfolding expression,
Is never drawn to break into light
Though you entangle yourself in unworthiness
And misjudge what you do and who you are.

It presides within like an evening freedom
That will often see you enchanted by twilight
Without ever recognizing the falling night,
It resembles the under-earth of your visible life:
All you do and say and think is fostered
Deep in its opaque and prevenient clay.

It dwells in a strange, yet rhythmic ease
That is not ruffled by disappointment;
It presides in a deeper current of time
Free from the force of cause and sequence
That otherwise shapes your life.

Were it to break forth into day,
Its dark light might quench your mind,
For it knows how your primeval heart
Sisters every cell of your life
To all your known mind would avoid,

Thus it knows to dwell in you gently,
Offering you only discrete glimpses
Of how you construct your life.

At times, it will lead you strangely,
Magnetized by some resonance
That ambushes your vigilance.

It works most resolutely at night
As the poet who draws your dreams,
Creating for you many secret doors,
Decorated with pictures of your hunger;

It has the dignity of the angelic
That knows you to your roots,
Always awaiting your deeper befriending
To take you beyond the threshold of want,
Where all your diverse strainings
Can come to wholesome ease.

-John O'Donohue (1956-2008)

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Copyright of pictures


  Great was my surprise when I found this image of mine
on an Etsy shop for sale!!!
You can purchase my photograph in various sizes,
in a frame, without a frame
and as stationery!
The only problem is that the shop is not my shop,
but Bernadette's Cupboard
and I did not give permission for my photograph to be used
and definitely not sold.

When I contacted the shop owner she challenged me
as to how did I copyright the picture and how can I
prove that I am the photographer, despite the fact
that I pointed her to this blog post where I shared
the sacred process of creating this devotion

For those who are uncertain about copyright, I found the following on

Copyright attaches at the time of creation and there is no requirement to use the “circle c”. Image source: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net



Copyright is a federal law of the United States that protects original works of authorship. A work of authorship includes literary, written, dramatic, artistic, musical and certain other types of works.
Copyright attaches as soon as the original work is created, and applies to both published and unpublished works. As soon as you type words, click the shutter on your camera (or, for many of you, hit the home button on your iPhone), apply paint to canvas or paper or lay down tracks for your next hit, you’ve got a copyright (with some exceptions).
Copyright is an automatic right and does not require the author to file special paperwork, as is the case for trademark and patent. Registration is required to enforce the rights, but as a matter of right, an author is not required to register anything to get the right to use the “circle c,” showing the work is copyrighted.
One of the many terrific things about copyright is that it comes with a host of exclusive rights that allow the owner to do or authorize a number of things and exercise substantial control over his or her work. The copyright owner has the right to do four things (called exclusive rights):
1.            Reproduce the copyrighted work;
2.            Display the copyrighted work publicly;
3.            Prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work; and
4.            Distribute copies of the copyrighted work to the public by sale, rental or lending, and/or to display                the image.


I am more upset about my picture being named May Day!! and somewhere
else Mary in the Garden, than the fact
that someone else is making money from it.


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

I feel it now .....



I feel it now :
there's a power in me 
to grasp and give shape to the world.




I know nothing has ever been real
without my beholding it.



All becoming has needed me




My looking ripens things


and they come toward me, to meet me and be met




Rainer Maria Rilke - words to live by!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Monday mornings with Mary - Seat of Wisdom

Seat of Wisdom *



For wisdom is 


better than jewels,



and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
                                          - The Book of Wisdom



Wearable shrines in the making


*from the Litany of Loreto

My Monday morning with Mary
- this week Rebecca has taken to the open road,
so I am holding vigil for our weekly space
with my sharing which I have come to love!!!

If you would like to see more of my wearable shrines,
rosaries and other creations,
please visit http://hergracedevata.blogspot.com

Have a wonderful week with Mary
blessings
Hettienne

Monday, September 16, 2013

Monday mornings with Mary - a world in my house



memories that I carry with me forever ...

the smell of wet rock,
the sound of the rushing waters,
the drops falling from above
the gentleness of the colour that is Lourdes

and then,

the busyness of Paris,
climbing the many steps up the Sacre Couer de Montmartre
the soothing coolness inside
and then as I turn the corner, my heart feels as though
someone opened a stable door,
in front of me the spectacular
gold statue of Mary in
an aura that defies explanation, religion or faith

On the left is the Madonne from the Basilica at Montmartre and on the right
is the Vierge de Paris or Notre Dame de Paris


Remembering the massive Notre Dame Cathedral
with its thronging masses, people walking as though they
are in a shopping mall and my desperation
to have some time alone in a quiet space
to hear her whispers that called me to visit once again



another trip another time
travelling to the top of the hill which is Marseilles
miles away you can see the magnificent statue
of Notre Dame de Marseilles on the spire
of La Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde



a house of memories
keeping me company
where I work and play
and remember



Another Monday morning with Mary
with Rebecca and friends

Please join in and visit



blessings



Monday, September 2, 2013

Monday mornings with Mary - offering of beauty


Flowers on the altar,



an offering of gratitude and joy,
in our modern day Temple of Mary,
sanctuary for seekers of the  Holy Grail
on the Path of Divine Love


I have missed a few Monday mornings with Mary
as I was preparing for the regular retreat weekend
of The Temple of Mary of which I am the Founder
and Guardian.  These photographs were taken of the main
altar to the Blessed Mother and Son.

And here are some photographs of the beautiful
surroundings in which the Temple community gathers and meet
at Tulbagh, a rural village in the Western Cape.






As you can see it is cold here.

Have a blessed week

blessings



Monday, August 12, 2013

Monday mornings with Mary - Reflection


When the world reflects Love at us



it is easier and natural for us to know ourselves as love
and as being loving hearts


but mostly we have to remind ourselves and others
that
Love 
is 
a
verb;
an act of revealing the self and the most intimate heart



Thank you to you for reminding me that our hearts are capable of infinite love.


A love-ly Monday with Mary to you

(pictures taken in my studio)

for more sharings from the heart every Monday

blessings


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

What a lovely surprise!!



I just loooove getting parcels, don't you?
Mr Postman knows me very well by now
and he has taken to hand deliver my parcels.
I suppose the occasional homemade Christmas cake
or bottle of homemade jam does help,
but he took up this kind habit long before I started
to reward him.

Yesterday the doorbell rang and it was Postie
with a huge parcel for me.

All the way from Muncie, Indiana (I think that is what IN stands for)
in the US of A!


It was filled with oodles of bubble wrap and squiggly foam pieces
and the cutest little card, but still I could not see what
was in the box.

And then, as I took it out, 
my heart jumped into my throat 
and my jaw dropped!

Such a beautiful gesture and gift,
straight to me heart.
And here it is 
on my blue altar
Now how did she know??




Thank you dear Nonnie
Today you stole my heart

And soon you will see a copy of this beautiful sacred heart
and your message on it, in one of my Sacred Rosary Oracle Shrines
(soon to be cards)



love and blessings


Monday, July 1, 2013

Monday mornings with Mary - Inner Sanctuary

Perhaps nature senses the longing that is in us, the restlessness that never let us settle.  She takes us into the tranquility of her stillness if we visit her. We slip into her quiet contemplation and inhabit for a while the depth of ancient belonging. Somehow we seem to become one with the rhythm of the universe.  Our longing is purified and we gain strength to come back to life refreshed, and refine our ways of belonging in the world.

John O'Donohue - Eternal Echoes

Please join in Mornings with Mary with
Rebecca at Recuerda mi Corazon - links are available on my blog.

A blessed week to you!

Monday, June 24, 2013

Monday Mornings with Mary





Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are those in emotional turmoil;
they shall be united inside by love.
Healthy are those weak and overextended for their
purpose;
they shall feel their inner flow of strength return.
Healed are those who weep for their frustrated desire.
they shall see the face of fulfillment in a new form.
Aligned with the One are the mourners;
they shall be comforted.
Tuned to the Source are those feeling deeply
comforted by life;
they shall be returned from their wandering.

- Prayers of the Cosmos, Reflections on the
Original Meaning of Jesus' Words
translated by Neil Douglas-Klotz


Please join in with Monday mornings with Mary
at 

Thank you for visiting and leaving your thoughts!
They brighten my Monday as well.

blessings