Day Nine of Art Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

Photograph taken by myself during procession at Lourdes

Visionary or apparitional culture is no static force, a cultural 'given' that people can join as members.
It is dynamic, responding to contemporary political, social and religious realities
and shaping those realities, and is also shaped
by the individuals who identify themselves as Marian devotees
and visionaries.
Visionary culture is a confluence of Catholic devotions, symbols,
and traditions of innovative responses to modern
contexts of negotiations among social, religious and interpersonal
forces of the interactions of apparitions believers
and apparition doubters and of the loving
and guiding influence of Our Lady, who for believers is imminently present.
Visionary culture is a worldview, a palette of practices, an understanding
of the cosmos, a palette on which individuals paint
the stories of their lives.
              Extract from Out Lady of Emmitsburg by Jill Krebs

Photographs taken by myself during procession at Lourdes

'I realized that all the powers of the Mothers, of Tara, Durga, Kali are in Mary.

She has Tara's sublime tenderness;

Durga's inaccessible silent calm force;

the grandeur and terribilta of Kali.

But Mary is also a woman,

a poor woman

and a human mother.

In her the full path of the sacred feminine is lived.

In her we have a complete image of the Divine Mother,

an image at once transcendent and immanent,

other-worldly and this-wordly,

at once mystical and political and practical.

In Mary the Divine Mother comes to earth and lives on earth

and lives, the passionate, strong, serious,

simple and transforming life that shows us all how to live.

 Mary is the bridge between heaven and earth,

between the human and the divine worlds,

between human and divine justice."

Andrew Harvey in The Return of the Mother

Mary statue in my garden in Durbanville South Africa

A blessed feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes to you

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