Day Five of Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

Pilgrims shrine made by myself
The French Madonna

Initiation into priestesshood by the Lady

One of the three fairy tale groups*
is 'The Abundance-giving women in the Other World'.
In these fairy tales the 'goddess-heroine' initiates
a young girl into priestesshood.

St Bernadette shrine

The story line of these type of fairy tales follow the
following outline :
The young girl leaves her family, as well as ordinary time

and place and then enters the Otherworld - which she does so either

through travel or visions.

In the Otherworld she meets the goddess whom

initiates her, turning her into an ordained priestess

and then grants her with gifts to take back to the world.
When the young girl or princess returns to the world
she is no longer the same innocent.
She returns with a deeper knowledge and with
the gifts of vision and compassion amongst other things,
which was granted to her.

This is the basic structure of this type of fairy tale
and we can see how the story of Bernadette and
Our Lady of Lourdes fit into this archetype.
Bernadette's story also has many other elements in common with
classic myth and fairy tale and we will explore those
in the upcoming days.  I am thinking of the challenges that Bernadette faced
and the sacred tasks (as in the case of the myth of Psyche)
that she has to complete.

Some of the young girls who were initiated into
the priestesshood of the sacred feminine

The grotto of Massabielles was known to be sacred to the
goddess Persephone in Roman times.  The sacred feminine
has manifested in these grounds through the ages
and today Our Lady of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception,
fills this valley and its rocks and waters with
a sacred feminine presence..
This is a mystical understanding that not everyone is open to
and especially in religious circles there are many
disagreements on what exactly is taking place here.
But for million of pilgrims (religious and non-religious)
the supernatural and loving presence at Lourdes
is undeniable. 

Bernadette stepped into priestesshood of the sacred feminine
and returned to the world with unwavering faith in the
miraculous and the manifest presence of the deity in this world.
Through Bernadette's initiation into priestesshood
of belief and faith in the supernatural and miracles,
thousands of people are daily entering
the Otherworld at Lourdes.
A world where miracles do take place
and where healings take place daily.

Light procession at Lourdes

Novena for Day Five

I open myself to your presence, o Great Mother;
I commit myself to your priestesshood of miracle thinking
and the practise of faith in the extraordinary.
I am willing for my eyes and heart to be broken open
by your divine and blinding presence;
as I priestess your love and compassion in the world.


blessings
Hettienne


Bibliography references :  Gottner-Abendroth, Heide - The Goddess and her Heros

Day Four of Art Novena of Lourdes 2018

The Shining Lady of Lourdes
VII Vessels in Mysteries of Mary tarot deck

Gifts from the Sleeping Woman

'First Bernadette feels a brief quivering pang of terror,
next a steady fear.  But this is no familiar, no fear that
propels one to jump up and run away.  Later this fear melts into 
still another feeling of which this child Bernadette has no idea
and can find no name.  One might call it comforting
or consolation.  But until this instant Bernadette
never knew that she was in need of being comforted.
For she is really not at all aware of the hardness of her life ....
This is naked reality accepted as a matter of course.
But moment by moment now she is more deeply
swathed in this consolation which has no name,
which is a hot flood of compassion.....
But the self of this child is now so cleft asunder,
so open to the universe and so at one therewith,
that the utter sweetness of this compassion
penetrates her shivering body to the very points
of her young breasts.'
extract from The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel

Bernadette saw the shimmering young lady appear
in the grotto near Cachot 18 times.  These visions
paralysed her and put her into a deep trance state
which changed her irrevocably.

The sleeping princess and the sleeping saint are both

themes in archetypal stories seen in fairy tales and religion.

We see these for instance, in the stories of Snow White

and Sleeping Beauty and the story of St Terese and St Bernadette

The spinning wheel of Sleeping Beauty
Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck

The young girl enters the Underworld in order to

return with the greatest gift to the world :

the gift of compassion for self, for all living creatures

and for life itself.

Novena for Day Four 

I enter the Underworld as you pull me into your embrace, 

in every waking moment of living.

Contemplating on your Presence in the world,

opens me up to the poignant beauty and suffering

of all life in order and my  heart breaks open

over and over, over flowing with compassion.  

As my rigid mind dissolves in your

presence, all boundaries between myself and all living creatures

and the earth disappears and we are all one.

blessed be
Hettienne

Day Two of Art Novena of Lourdes

Welcome to day two of the Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes.

For these nine days of devotion and inspiration, I chose

to focus on the fairy tale aspect of this miraculous event

in our world.  One may be taken aback at first glance :

how is it possible to diminish the incredible power and

miracle of the apparitions of the Lady of Lourdes

to that of a mere fairy tale?  But I am proposing that

fairy tales are not mere childhood fantasies and bedtime stories.

They are a powerful collection of mythic and archetypal tales

as well as a secret and esoteric guide book for the wisdom

and understanding of a divine feminine path.

Aerial view of candles in procession at any night of the week
at the Lourdes sanctuary - these are people from all religious and spiritual
paths, drawn here by Mary

Fairy tales have certain characteristics in common which distinguish

them from other stories.

- Fairy tales take place in an enchanted world where

natural laws do not apply.  In this world animals can speak

and invisible beings of light become visible to the pure of heart.

- The heroine of the fairy tale understands that the miraculous

and supernatural is a natural part of our world.

- A fairy tale always starts in the ordinary world and the

main characters always return to the ordinary world, with new

gifts and understanding.

- Fairy tales always take place somewhere in nature, be it a valley,
a cave, or a field outside a village or city
- In many fairy tales the protagonist or heroine is set certain
challenges which she has to overcome in order to reach some goal
- in fairy tales both the helpers, guides and antagonists
are women :  we see mainly the young girl as the protagonist and
helpers and antagonists in the guise of old women, queens,
stepmothers, grandmothers, wise old women and witches.
- and in fairy tales good magic always triumphs over the bad. 

St Bernadette, Handmaiden of Roses
Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck

Over the next six days we will explore how the story of
a young girl, Bernadette Soubirous, from the small village
outside Lourdes, fits into the frame work of the fairy tale.
And what does this mean for us?

Fairy tales can be regarded as mythical religious stories
with the focus and emphasis on the divine feminine
as a balancing contrast to the patriarchal Roman and Greek
myths which we have come to know.  In other words,
a thealogy (female deity) in contrast to an exclusive
theology (male deity).

The Handless Maiden whose hands miraculously grew back
when she reached into the well to save her child
IX Roses in Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck

“We are now, I believe, on the threshold of a third stage which I call the stage of the sacred marriage. This is the only position we could possibly take and still survive. This is a stage beyond both matriarchy and patriarchy. It involves the restoration to human respect of all of the rejected powers of the feminine. But it is absolutely essential that this restoration should be accomplished in the deep spirit of the sacred feminine. Not only should we invoke the sacred feminine, restore the sacred feminine, but this union between the matriarchal and the patriarchal, the sacred marriage, must be accomplished in the spirit of the sacred feminine for it to be real, effective, rich, and fecund. It must occur in her spirit of unconditional love, in her spirit of tolerance, forgiveness, all-embracing and all-harmonizing balance, and not, in any sense, involve a swing in the other direction.”

― Andrew Harvey, The Return of the Mother

Amulets of Mary Lady of Lourdes
The French Madonna @ etsy.com

Novena for Day Two :

I open myself to the spirit of the sacred feminine as embodied

and demonstrated by Blessed Mary and Bernadette Soubirous and the temenos
of Lourdes.  I invoke the sacred feminine

presence to cultivate the inner garden for the hieros gamos, 

the sacred marriage within myself and my world 

blessings

Hettienne

Art Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes 2018 Day One

Welcome to Day One of the seventh annual

Art Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes.

If you feel inspired to participate,

send me an email and I will add your blog here.

You can also play along on Instagram

@thefrenchmadonna

This year the theme is the magic of the Fairytale of Lourdes

and I will explore the secret wisdom and the hidden feminine

in fairytales and in the tale of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Fairy tales evoke images of childhood, magic, miracles,
supernatural events and dreams coming true.
For many of us the journey towards wholeness starts with the

impulse and desire to heal the Inner Child.  The inner child carries

the openness and vulnerability of the soul and during our growing

up years, these qualities become suppressed and hidden away.

And the feminine qualities of the inner child gets

conditioned away from an early age, as we grow up in a

patriarchal culture with masculine values of goal setting,

achievement, physical beauty, material gain and advancement.

These are all positive and essential qualities,  but without

their counterpart feminine attributes, such as inner appreciation, imperfection,

chaos, individuality, compassion and nurturing, the inner world can

become one of deprivation, depression and burn-out.

No-one knows for certain how old fairy tales are but the

experts who have written on the history and meaning of fairy

tales agree that fairy tales started to appear at more or less

the same time that Christianity started to oppress pre-Christian

beliefs and religions which developed into the horrific

Inquisition and eventually the witch hunts.
Unfortunately fairy tales have been mangled and their
original stories changed to fit in with patriarchy -
many of the magical and supernatural women characters
have obviously also been demonized, as has the
meaning of fairy and witch. But there are still
some amazing resources and research available
for those who are interested in exploring this fount
of wisdom

Many, myself included, regard fairy tales as secret bibles of

feminine wisdom and divinity. 

Hannah's song
Mysteries of Mary tarot deck
www.hergracesacredart.com

'Magical beliefs were passed on by word of mouth,

behind ploughs, at spindles, on river banks and by hearths;

magical rituals were performed in kitchens, 

in bedrooms, by roadsides and on hillsides,

under cover of darkness'

                                          - Emma Wilby, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits

Hannah or Anna as the Great Mother Goddess
also known as Mother Goose and her sacred goose
VI of Roses in Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck

We are all familiar with Mother Goose and her nursery

rhymes and fairytales. 

What better place to hide the Divine Mother Goddess

in the guise of an old crone with a goose for a vehicle?

The goose has many mythical connections in both Eastern

and Western mythology.  In Hinduism it is the 'hamsa' and the

'parahamsa' meaning wild ganders and supreme wild ganders;

in Egyptian lore the sky was associated with the Mother Goddess.

The goose is one of the most sacred animals in the ancient

stories of goddess, along with the swan.

To the pre-patriarchal ancient Egyptians, the sun was 

created by a goddess who turned herself into a goose and 

then laid “the golden sun egg,” In the first century BCE the 

ancient Celts were forbidden to eat the goose—due to its sacred 

connection to “the Sun Egg.” 

Just like Mother Goose, the Greek goddess Aphrodite

 rode through the air on the back of a goose. 

There are also artwork depicting Aphrodite with geese at her feet.

In the Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck, a deck

dedicated to the relevance of the sacred feminine

in our lives and spirituality today, I also refer to the

hidden code and meaning in fairy tales and specifically

Mother Goose.  In the Mysteries of Mary tarot deck

Mother Goose is present in the card

Hannah's Song.

Here is an extract from Mysteries of Mary tarot deck :

We also know the fairy tale of the goose that lays the golden egg.  

The egg has always carried the meaning of life and rebirth in ancient traditions.  

It also symbolises new life and transformation.  

The shape of the egg also has connotations as it is similar to the vesica pisces. 

Goose is a partial anagram of goddess and Mother Goose hides the word mother goddess. 

The mother aspect of the goddess is still present today in Mother Mary.  

Mother Goose is seen as the magical author of all the fairy tales, 

reminiscent of our understanding of the Shekinah or Sophia.

The Vesica Pisces shape of the area around
the Basilica of Lourdes

In the image above you can clearly see the mandorla or 

pisces vesica or fish shape

of the procession grounds around the Basilica.

Religion and its stories and symbols reflect the wisdom
and knowledge of the Divine which is imprinted on our Souls.
We accept that we are created in the image of the Creator.
That understanding has many layers of meaning to it and
one of them is that religion is born of the soul and that
the events and beings of religious tales are a 
manifestation of above into this world which acts
as a mirror : as above so below.

The story of the Bright Lady in  shining white Light that 
appeared to the starving little girl of Massabielles,
 has all the elements of a

fairy tale.  At Lourdes you step into the Otherworld;

into a Land of Enchantment where miracles are possible.

Amulets of Mary, Lady of Lourdes
The French Madonna on etsy.com

Contemplation and prayer for Day One :

Mary, cosmic being of  Light,
 manifests miracles,
opening the gateway from the world of light,
merges with your own heart,
infusing your vision and senses
with divine purpose.

In both the Christian and ascension belief systems, Mary was
assumed into heaven and transmuted 

her physical body into light.

Her divine presence infuses springs,
 rivers and entire valleys with the 

vibration of holiness and sacredness.

At Lourdes Mary created a sanctuary where we can touch 
and be touched by  

a force beyond our comprehension : a doorway into pure love.

Blessings

Hettienne

Novena and Amulets to Our Lady of Lourdes 2018

Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

Art Novena for Lady of Lourdes - an annual tradition on Cloister of the Heart starts

3 February (the day after Candlemas or Imbolc and St Bridgid's feast day) and 

culminating on the feast day of Our Lady

of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception on 11 February.

When one participates in a ritual (probably any ritual, but when you regard it as sacred, you add a certain 'light' to it) you are transported into a different time and space : colors are different; the light is different; everything has meaning and the ordinary become extra-ordinary. My art novena for Lourdes in particular, highlights my statement that our lives are the altar to the Divine and I strive to capture that numinosity of the sacred ritual in my photographs and altars. I only started creating sacred altars on my return from Lourdes. These small shadowboxes are vignettes, a moment in time in the life of ordinary human beings, lifted out of the mundane into the numinous, merely by seeing life as sacred. 

You can read the previous seven years' novena blog posts here :

Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes on Cloister of the Heart

This year I am creating Our Lady of Lourdes Amulet Blessing Sets

based on the Benedicaria way.

The Amulets of Mary Blessing set is a two-fold oracle, blessing 

and healing set incorporating various ancient traditions including the Benedicaria, 

the sacred path of the pilgrim and priestesshood in the Temple of Mary

and the sanctification of the ordinary through the blessing way. 

I am creating only a few Our Lady of Lourdes Amulet sets for use

in the annual novena and for every day!!. All amulet sets that I create complement the Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck.

Recently I learnt about the ancient tradition of Benedicaria and the work of a Benedetta. Although I am not born into the Italian culture, my journey as pilgrim did start in Italy with the call issued by Archangel Michael to visit his grotto in Mont Sant’Angelo and I see myself as a modern Benedetta, continuously uncovering more. 

Benedicaria, The Blessing Way

Benedicaria, the Blessing Way, is an ancient Catholic and domestic folk tradition practised by the Italians in Southern Italy. This tradition is fast fading from modern society, but many of its practises are still part of syncretic worship and devotion.

One who practices the Benedicaria, is known as a Benedetta, or a Wise Woman and a Benedetto, a Wise Man . Benedicaria is a private form of practising your religion and it blends with many domestic practises, such as the blessing of animals and herbs, infusing oils and elixers, creating an altar, using flowers and holy cards for blessings and wisdom.

Benedicaria is predominantly a woman’s practise. 

A Benedetta has much in common with the goddess archetypes of 

Demeter, Hestea, Bridgit and even Athena. 

She is the homemaker, mother, herbalist, gardener, chef and healer. 

This role is not regarded as of any importance 

in modern society, but for one who is spiritually aware and 

who undertakes these tasks with great intent, 

she understands the spiritual force that is being wielded. 

The preparing of food is not only a physical act, but a spiritual one. 

If this is done in love it will bless the family; 

if done in anger and ignorance, it will curse the family. 

The physical life and its objects are manifestations and representations of the life and existence of the spirit. Taking care of our physical life is a sacred task and when performed with intent and awareness we realise that the ordinary is indeed sacred.

The Lady of Lourdes amulet sets will contain

items that I collected during my annual visits to Lourdes,

hand cast resin holy medals (including

a cast of the Holy Chemise of Our Lady charm)

charms, holy cards, a miniature Lady of Lourdes resin

statue, a tiny vial of the healing waters of the Lourdes

spring, as well a set of 46 charms applicable to the story of Lourdes

and the Mysteries of Mary

(some of these charms will be the same as in the Amulets

of Mary set but some are completely unique)

and a Our Lady of Lourdes casting sheet with different

sections to the Mary and Goddess sets.

(All sprinkled with waters from the Lourdes spring and touched

to the relic of the Chemise of Our Lady.

The Lady of Lourdes amulet sets will be available in

my shop The French Madonna @etsy.com in the next fortnight.

Be sure to return on 3 February and follow the art novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

blessings

Hettienne