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

Mornings with Mary - Monday 19 May

Queen of Heaven - handmade rosary necklace by Hettienne

The Madonna Flower Cycle

extract from 

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Her Life

and Her Mission by Corinne Heline

......June is the month of Celestial Reflections.

It claims the Iris, the rainbow flower,

and the stately plant that bears an impress

of the flower spectrum.

Man did not always know the seven-rayed

spectrum, nor does he know its twelvefold

range.  But time will bring extensions.

July - the White Lily - a native of the Holy Land,

is the symbol of the Feast of the Visitation

which is celebrated in July, the 

month of Cosmic Remembrance.

Wherever the Visitation is preserved,

the vase of white lilies stands by the

Virgin's side, crowned with an auriole of

three mystic blossoms.

In August, the golden month of 

Divine Consummations, occurs the

Feast of the Assumption.

This season knows the golden Sunflower.

It is the golden blossom upon which the soul,

newly separated from earth conditions,

feasts in preparation for transition

into a higher state of consciousness, and

therefore appropriately named 

'food for a king'.

It is today truly a King's food for seeds

are of man's greatest nourishment, the

breath of the Sun breathing its power into the body

through the these tiny seeds.

September - Golden Rod.

In September the annual inflow

of Light is celebrated as the Nativity Feast, 

the birth month of Mother Mary.

Blessed herbs, through which astral prototypes

the Beloved Lady has poured streams of healing 

force from her hands of light,

belong to this, her natal month.

These herbs possess the qualities to soothe 

and sustain tired and broken bodies.

For October, the month of Sacrifice,

is fashioned the Rosemary.

It typifies the Bridge of Remembrance

between the inner and the outer.

November, the stately Chrysanthemum reaches

the height of its beauty.

It lifts its proud and haughty head upward

toward the sky.

December - poinsettia.

This is the season in which red

and green are the principal colours used by

both nature and man.

It is here that we see the shining green

of the leaves and the lustrous red berries of the

holly proclaiming joyously that the season

of Christmas is now with us and it is at

this time that the Poinsettia lifts its smiling

face toward the sun as it declares that now is

the most holy season of the year,

the time of the birth of the 

Blessed Christ Child is now with us.

For more interesting fact, myth and lore

and maybe a deeper understanding of

our inner worlds and how it is created

in the image of the Divine,

please visit next Monday for more

Mornings with Mary.

A blessed week to you

and please join if you have the time or

desire.

with love,

Hettienne

Mornings with Mary

Our Lady of New Life by Hettienne G

Welcome to Mornings with Mary

Mornings with Mary

it is a celebration of all

things Mary

in her many forms and aspects

in the many cultures and tradition

of our world.

  

Whatever this means to YOU.

and in whatever way you want to celebrate

the Divine World, both profane and sacred,

in your belief, in your creativity,

your religion,

your understanding and

in your ideas and expression.

A place of sharing and growth!

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.

For the past ten weeks I shared ten teachings from

the Wisdom of Mary, a book by Gina Lake.

Today I am starting with extracts from a very

interesting book

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Her Life and Mission

by Corinne Heline.

The Madonna Flower Cycle

Each month the Virgin Mary bestows some special blessing

upon the children of men. Each month has a spiritual key 

flower corresponding to those special powers of the 

seasonal cycle. 

January is the month of they hyacinth, its colors and its

fragrance speak of better things to come and of

happier days to be.  January is the month of Capricorn which

speaks of new ideals and the fruition of every new and 

higher dream.

February is the month which commemorates the

purity of the Virgin.  

The snowdrop, emblem of virgin

chastity, is Her flower. 

 Quantities of its blossoms

are strewn at this season 

altars of prayer and worship.  

In March the White Lily blooms to celebrate the 

Festival of Annunciation.  The Marigold is also

dedicated to the Virgin Mother of Jesus at this

season, meaning that Mary's gold is now available

for anyone who wills to come and freely

partake of its bounty.

April claims the soft flowering of the Primrose,

the first rose of the year.  The rose is the most

sacred symbol of Mary and her purest sacred heart.

May is the month of the Madonna,

 the month of mothers.

May is enshrouded with that holy light 

of mother love

which lifts the heart to a

 divine realization only to that

of the Christ.  

Showers of blessings 

descend upon

the heart in the lovely month - 

blessings that

blossom in Roses,

 the beloved flower of the Madonna

and a reflection

 of the Mystic Rose which

blooms eternally in her heart

 for all the

mothers in the world.

I hope that you had a lovely Mother's day yesterday!

with love,

Hettienne

Let's hope that Mr Linky co-operates this week!!

Mornings with Mary

These pictures were taken early this morning
in my one Mary garden shrine.
It has been extremely hot here and the scent
of these angels' trumpets or moonflowers
are wonderfully pungent.

The Seventh Teaching from Ten Teachings, Wisdom from Mother Mary

by Gina Lake

Follow your Joy

You were given a compass,

and that compass is joy.

You are meant to in the direction

that brings joy, not in the direction 

that brings suffering. The egoic mind

promises you joy, but delivers only temporary

satisfaction and happiness.

Then the suffering that comes with feeling

you are never enough returns.

Most people do not follow their joy.

Instead, they follow the sense of not having

or not being good enough.  They allow the

sense of lack to drive them forward, seeking

here and there for fulfillment,

for what will fill the sense of lack created by

the human condition.

However, nothing that the mind suggests can fill that lack,

because the sense of lack was created by the same thing that

proposes to fix it.

The sense of lack can only be solved by

dropping out of the mind.  When you drop out of the

mind, you lose the sense that anything is lacking.

There never was anything lacking, and that is 

all you have ever had to see to feel full and

complete.

The sense of lack is so ingrained that most

people are unaware that it is there.

They just react to it as if it were true.

For most, this sense of lack, is a deeply held

belief.  It seems absolutely an

unquestionably true.

The sense of yourself and the sense of lack are both

manufactured by the mind.  They create the human condition

that is one of suffering.  You not only believe you are who you

think you are, but these thoughts about yourself tell you

that you are lacking and that your life - indeed, life

itself - is not good enough.

This unrelenting sense of lack interferes with the joy,

that is possible whenever you are willing to simply

be with whatever is showing up in your life.

The assumptions causes you to overlook the

happiness that is present at your core and ever

available in this simple and sweet present moment.

The happiness at your core is very subtle

unless you turn your attention to it and

allow yourself to experience it for more than 

a brief second.

When your attention is focused on fixing a perceived

problem, it is not available to notice the quiet

beauty, peace and joy that is already

present with you.

A wonderful Morning with Mary to you!

I changed the name to Mornings with Mary - with the

time difference and everyone's full schedules, anyone

can join in on any day.  The post stays up for the week -

just scroll down past my new posts.

Gloria was the only one who linked up last week - Gloria, I will

send you a full set of Mother Mary blessings seeds

and some of my brand new Archangel Michael Seeds!!

A blessed, joyful and art-filled week to you!

Mondays with Mary - 24 March

Mondays with Mary

a weekly blog post where the Mystery of Life is explored

as Divine;  where Love is the Muse
and her divine touch opens the heart and

brings breathtaking creatures forth!

Here, the Divine Mary, Mother of All,
creatrix, eternal nurturer, bringer of new life
and also witness to suffering and death, is my muse.

You may dip your quill into the glowing ink

and play along with your own musings or you
may ponder with me on the many stories
of Mary and her many names
through the length of time
and who is she today?
in our ordinary lives.

May these weekly posts bring some of the
lustre to your day that they bring to me
and my take on life!

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

 by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare

I leave this post up for the week and

will announce the lucky winner of the week's

giveaway on the weekend - in time for the

next Mondays with Mary.

See below for this week's giveaway!

The Fourth Teaching

(extract from The teaching for one world : wisdom from Mother Mary by Gina Lake)

Accept Life as it is

It is impossible to love or feel at peace

unless you accept life as it is.

Non-acceptance closes the hart, which is the

doorway to love and peace.  There is no

other way but acceptance to open that door.

When you accept it, peace comes and

love flow once again.

This is a hard truth for the mind to swallow.

because the mind is designed to reject,

resist and desire something other

than the way life is.  This resistance is natural

and how you were built to respond to life.

Nevertheless, there is another way.

The mind's rejection of the way life is does

not have to be your internal experience - your experience of life.

There is another possibility.

Is the mind wise enough to know what is best for it?

Like a child, the mind does not know, but it thinks it knows.

Fortunately, you are inherently wise.

Something else within you knows the truth.

Look to that which is wise within you to determine

your stance toward life.  Your internal experience

is governed either by your or your mind.

Peace and love can be how you feel about life.

Find that which is within you that loves and is at

peace with life just as it is. 

That has always been awake and aware within you.

All the photographs were taken in my studio

with my new mannequin - and as you can see

I am ever so in love with it!!

This week's giveaway is a pouch of 

Mother Mary blessing seeds.

You can read more about them here

Please leave a comment if you sign up to participate

with love

Hettienne

Winner of French Paper Doll!

............ so I put in numbers 1 to 4 in random.org

and the lucky number is 2

PritiLisa!!

Lisa, please send me your postal address and one

of these beautiful French paper doll tags will be shipped to you!!

yay!!!

I am still working on making more French paper doll tags.

They take much longer than what you would think!

so much detail!

Can you see the typewriter under her arm?

and all the lovely squishy ribbon and lace and the

cutest miniature pegs?

and the arms and legs can move!!

Look at all these tiny details!

real vintage buttons!

a tiny tiny embroidery scissors!

a tiny tiny reel of embroidery cotton in her hand

and she comes with a vintage clothing peg!

Such fun in child's play!

Tomorrow is Mondays with Mary, so please

visit and see what I am giving away - maybe you will be

tempted to play along!

with love

Hettienne

Mondays with Mary and French Paper Doll GiveAway

Mondays with Mary

The Third Teaching

from Wisdom from Mother Mary by Gina Lake

Declare Your Deepest Desire

What do you really want?  This question is an

important one because the answer determines where your

energy, attention and resources go.  The answer

is therefore also likely to determine what

you will get.  Sometimes you are not even aware

of what you want, and other times that is all you

are aware of, and you suffer over it.

Following your desires provides you with

opportunities to taste what life has to offer,

and that is how it is meant to be.

So even your more superficial desires are not

a mistake;  they just are not what they pretend to be.

They are not actually important,

and they do not bring you the peace and happiness

you really want.

This is my third teaching.

Declare that you want peace and love.

Feel the depth and power of this desire

and let it fuel your will to give peace and love your attention.

Everyone's evolution eventually comes to this :

You realize that your deepest desire is for peace and love

and you declare this in your heart. 

Then life conspires to bring you exactly that.

You are love and peace.

These are some of the shrines I photographed during my trip

to Kildare, Ireland.  I was amazed to see a Mary statue 

in the middle of a traffic circle!

This week I am gifting one of these Parisian articulated paper dolls.

They are actually tags - you can clip them to a gift

or you can hang them in your studio or

on a mirror.

Be your own kind of Beautiful

or

Write your Story.

They both come with miniature wooden pegs and

a froth of hand dyed lace.

with love

 Hettienne

Winner of Mondays with Mary Giveaway

For Mondays with Mary yesterday

I promised this shrine to a blogging friend

that participates in the hop!

Le Sanctuare - The Sanctuary

I put in four numbers (for the four participants)

into the random number generator

on random.org

and it gave me

NUMBER THREE

Kate Steeper

Congratulations Kate!! 

Please send me your postal address and

I will mail the shrine to you!

Please come back next Monday

and see what I am giving away then!

Maybe I will give a sneak preview later

this week!

Have a wonderful week

blessings

Hettienne

Monday with Mary - Mary of the Blue Apples

Our Lady of the Blue Apples

In the region of Languedoc and Rennes in France,

 legends and myths prevail.

Religion, culture and stories are intertwined almost

seamlessly.

In this Cathar region there are many hints and clues

to the true story behind the story.

These include the region and castle known as

the 'Blue Apples', references to the Holy Grail,

buried gold and devotion to the Blessed Virgin and

to Mary Magdalene.

This is the grail watermark of the Merovingian kings of the Rennes

said to be fruit of the vine or the royal bloodline of Mary Magdalene.

The Priory of Sion was tied with the Knights Templar and claims of the Merovingian kings to be descendents of the Davidic bloodline through the lineage of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Many of the Parisian elite belonged to this secret society, including the French music composer Claude Debussy, listed as Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. 

I visited this region two years ago and was
fascinated by all the lore and created a tiny altar
for Our Lady of the Blue Apples.

The tiny statue is the Vierge Noire de Paris or Notre Dame as the French refer
to her.  I bought this statue in the Latin Quarter in Paris.
Archangel Michael is regarded as the Great Protector by the Knights
Templar.  You can see the black and white chequered floor - traditional
of the Knights Templar's masonic temples.
Of course you cannot miss the tiny blue 'apples' or grapes in the holy grail.


A wonderful Mary week to you!
blessings
Hettienne