The Return of the Light

Midwinter Festival of Light 

 

                                                                                                   

The Wheel of the Year has turned once again and we find ourselves at the Midwinter Festival of Light, one which has been celebrated in many mythologies and under many names for eons.

At this time in the Northern Hemisphere, the light of the sun is reborn and the days begin to grow longer, waxing toward spring. Very frequently midwinter is celebrated as the birthday of the Sun God; always, it marks a time of renewal. It is a time of light in the midst of darkness, warmth of spirit and heart to counter the cold of the weather and a harsh world.

In actuality, the story of the birth of the Sun God, the Divine Child of Light, has its origins in the stars of the winter sky. The hours of darkness have gradually increased since the Autumnal Equinox as the longest and darkest night of year, the Midwinter Solstice, approaches. The actual moment of Solstice marks the time when the Sun moves from the sign of Sagittarius into that of Capricorn. At midnight on Midwinter Night, the constellation of Virgo, holding her sheaf of wheat, rises in the eastern sky. And so the Virgin gives birth to the Child of Light in the very depths of the darkness. His light, the newborn sun, will rise at dawn.

The newborn Light will bring growth and abundance—and therefore, life. So it’s not surprising to find that, in the Christian tradition, the Child is born from the House of Bread—Bethlehem’s literal meaning—who is the Virgin holding the sheaf of grain. He is laid in a manger—the small glowing starry cloud of Praesaepe, or Manger/Crib, which is in the constellation of Cancer, the astrological sign of the Mother, the nurturer. He is surrounded by ox and ass — respectively, the constellation of Taurus and the star group Aselli, the Asses, in the constellation of Cancer, with one ass positioned on each side of his Manger.

Three wise men—called kings or magi—come seeking him. The stars that form the belt of Orion, which rises in the southeast on Midwinter Night, were often called the Three Kings. The Kings/Magi, who were said to be astrologers, have come because they “followed his star” that rose in the East. Was it Sirius, brightest of the stars and associated by the Egyptians with Isis, whose light they followed? Or perhaps a special planetary conjunction that lit up the night sky in the months just before midwinter? 

Angels sing to herald this birth—bending low to the earth from their homes in the high heavens. Angel means “messenger,” and stars were looked upon as messengers of the divine. The angels’ song poured forth the message of the new birth—and its accompanying flow of spiritual energies—that ushered in a new era of light, love, growth, and abundance to come. The angels sang of this new birth to shepherds in their fields. The constellation of Bootes, near Virgo, is known as the shepherd or herdsman, while the constellation of Auriga is known as the shepherd’s crook.

And so the sky tells the story of the birth of the Holy Child of Light. At Midwinter, this Light is born again, and will shine forth—bringing light, warmth, joy, and abundance to all the world.

This time of the year is a time of sharing, love, and good cheer. May you all experience these holiday delights of the spirit, which far surpass any material gifts.

 

 © Margie McArthur, 2005-2006; 2021, All rights reserved.

St. Bernadette and the Waters of Aquarius

 

Today is the 163th anniversary of the first appearance of the Lady of Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous, a 14 year old girl from the south of France.

A shining and beautiful lady appeared to Bernadette in a large, rocky, cave-like grotto beside the River Gave de Pau in 1858 on February 11th, a day that would have been close to the pagan feast of the Goddess Brigid (and the Catholic feast of Candlemas) by the old calendrical reckoning which was still used in areas of Europe. The feast of Brigid, which was also known as Imbolc ("in the belly") and Oimelc ("ewe's milk"), heralded the approach of Spring and its tide of new life. 

From Bernadette’s earliest descriptions of the Lady we learn that she was very young. Bernadette referred to her as “petito damizela,” which means a petite young lady, and said that she looked to be about 12 years old. The grotto was on the side of a massive ancient rock formation known as Massabielle, which means “ancient rock.” The word grotto is used because the cave was not very deep.

It should be noted that both caves and rivers are traditionally associated with the Goddess.

Garbed in a white gown with a blue sash and with golden roses on her bare feet, the Lady appeared to Bernadette a total of eighteen times, praying the rosary with her each time, and during one of the apparitions the Lady instructed her drink from the spring. Bernadette did not see a spring, so began to dig in grotto’s dry ground. After a few minutes the ground was muddy, and soon water came bubbling forth. The spring that Bernadette found today provides hundreds of gallons of healing water per day. At the end of the cycle of apparitions, after repeated requests for her name, the Lady said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

The Virgin Mary’s appearance in Lourdes was at a place that had previously been sacred to the Roman Underworld Goddess Proserpina, and quite likely to a native Underworld goddess before that. Proserpina is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Persephone, the maiden goddess and daughter of the Great Mother who was taken by the Lord of the Underworld to be its queen and his bride; she is the Dark Goddess of the Underworld. In Latin the word Proserpina means something akin to “to emerge, to creep forth,” as germinating plants emerge to the sunny surface of the earth, and as hibernating snakes creep forth from their holes as the weather begins to warm.

Interestingly, there’s a Brigid’s Day rhyme from Scotland that says:

Early on Bride's morn
The serpent shall come from the hole,
I will not molest the serpent,
Nor will the serpent molest me.

Was this serpent a reference to the Underworld Goddess who emerged and brought in the warmth of Spring? I am reminded that Proserpina’s Greek counterpart, Persephone, emerged from her Underworld realm in the Spring.

In addition, one cannot help but notice the similarity of the Lady of Lourdes to other apparitions recorded in folklore of the “White Ladies” — young, beautiful, female spirits dressed in white, who often appeared near the caves and caverns of the Pyrenees, especially those near a water source such as a river or spring, and often the spring was known to be a healing spring.  The White Ladies usually sought interaction with passers-by, and it is interesting that the Lady of Lourdes requested the asthmatic, under-nourished Bernadette to drink and wash in the waters of the spring. Her request resulted in the discovery of this spring, perhaps long hidden in the rocky earth of Massabielle, which is now world famous as a healing spring.

An astrological chart drawn for the day of the apparition shows that the Sun was in Aquarius—the Water Bearer—and the Moon was waning in sign of Capricorn, just a few degrees short of a new moon.

The goddess Brigid – who brings in the time of warmth and new life; the youthfulness of the Lady of Lourdes; the waning old moon as it is leaving Capricorn and moving into Aquarius; the serpent emerging from its underworld home into the light of Spring, the grotto by the river (both symbols of the Great Mother) and the watery realm of the Air sign of Aquarius... All of these together seem to me to point to the emergence of something Very New coming into being. 

How fitting then, that the Lady of Lourdes appeared during the sign of Aquarius, by a river, and that by her intercession a spring of healing waters—long lost and buried under rubble—was unearthed. Healing waters, similar to the Waters of Life that Aquarius, the Water Bearer, pours down onto the thirsty-for-healing world. 

The message here seems to be that the Divine Feminine power, which gives and takes and brings renewal by birthing and nourishing new life in a new season, has emerged from her past obscurity this last 163 years...

To me this apparition was one of many signs that heralded the end of one World Age and the start of a new one.

(Most of the above is excerpted from my book, “Lady of the Sea: The Goddess Who Births the New Age” Chapter 10)

 

                                                                        St Bernadette

 

Solstice and Christmas, Darkness and Light

 

 

(Roerich, "Mother of the World")

 

During this great and holy season of Solstice and Christmas, I offer you my reflections on the birth of the Light from the Darkness.

Mother Night

Just as all life on Planet Earth was birthed from Mother Ocean,
So all life in the universe was birthed by the Great Cosmic Mother
Whom we know as the vast dark sea of deep space.
She is the Darkness that gave birth to the Light.
..She is the No-Thing which is full of the potential of All Things

Of old she was known by many names:
Dame Night, Dame Dark, Dame Nox,
Dame Hell, Dame Wisdom
Mother Night, Mother Darkness,
Old Fate, Old Veiled One, Old Night,
Nyx

She is SHE -

The Great One, Darkness.
And from her emanated HE – the Limitless Light.
From their dance of love
Came forth the Many Other Lights -
Elements, Stars, Planets,
Mountains, Plains, Oceans,
Trees, Plants, Animals...

She is the Mother, the feminine aspect of divinity.
The one who conceives, gestates, births, nourishes,
And ultimately, takes life back into herself.
She is the Birther and yet also the Destroyer.

Queen of Life, Queen of Death,
Queen of Day, Queen of Night
The Great Mother of All

In this season, as Dark gives birth to Light, let us remember that the loving dance of Dark and Light is the Dance of Life.

Blessed be the Darkness!
Blessed be the Light!
Blessed be the One Life
That runs through it all!

 

 

 

 

 The Immaculate Conception

Today, December 8th, is the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have a few thoughts to offer on this, and what follows is an excerpt from my forthcoming book:

Lady of the Sea: 2012 and the Mother Who Births the New Age
(c) Margie McArthur, 2002-2020, All rights reserved

Francisco Pacheco

 

The Catholic Church has long held that Jesus had been conceived by divine intervention, without the aid of a physical father. Although born of a human woman, she was declared to be without the “soul-stain” brought about by the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, which was said to be, thereafter, passed on to their descendants—every human being ever born.

But how could this be unless his mother was equally free of such sin?

The great minds of Christianity pondered this for centuries and came to the conclusion that Mary herself must also be free of sin. But how could a mere human be without the stain of the Original Sin?

Several theories were proposed: that her conception was as virginal as that of her son; that God granted her the special privilege of sinlessness at the moment of her conception; that her physical conception had occurred in the normal way, but that her spiritual conception—the infusing of soul into body—was the part that was sinless. As one might imagine, this opened the door to even more thought and theorizing as to the soul condition of her parents, and the part played by normal sexual desire, called concupiscence, which was often equated with sin.

So, at one point in its evolution, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception sought to extend the nature of Jesus’s conception—sex-free and desire-free—to that of his mother as well. This version did not make it into the final and formal doctrine, but it was quite seriously considered and debated for many years.

During the 1830 apparitions to Catherine Laboure, Our Lady requested that a medal be struck with a prayer on it saying. “Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” This may have served to reignite interest in the subject, since the doctrine was finally and formally proclaimed by the Church in 1854, and thus was only four years old when, in 1858, the Lady of Lourdes said with great intensity and emotion to fourteen year old visionary Bernadette Soubirous, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

While the Church obviously took this to mean the concept on which they’d been considering for years—that Mary’s own conception was virginal and asexual—was correct, it is interesting to ponder what this doctrine, and Mary’s statement, mean on a deeper, more esoteric level.

To begin with, the idea of a person being born of a human woman yet fathered by a spiritual power was not a new one. Many other gods, avatars, and prominent spiritual teachers in the ancient world were considered to have been thus conceived. It is not at all surprising to find the Church considered Jesus’s conception to have occurred in this manner; indeed, it would have been surprising had they thought otherwise. But it was quite significant that they decided the same was true of his human mother. This, combined with the fourth century proclamation of Mary as Theotokos—Bearer (i.e. Mother) of God—quite neatly recognized her inherent divinity without actually committing the sin of blasphemy by calling her a Goddess.

The word immaculate means very clean, very pure, and without stain. Metaphysically this can be seen to mean the condition of pure spirit—before matter came into being. “Conception” is the first spark in the process of coming into being, into manifestation.

Therefore, the phrase I am the Immaculate Conception means one who came into material manifestation by purely spiritual means; no physical realm influences playing a part. This is quite profound, as what it really states is that such a being is inherently a being of pure spirit taking manifestation in human form and is thus both human and divine. This places Mary in the same category as her divine son and other divinely conceived—and therefore themselves divine—avatars of other religious traditions.

But this point of view is based on the traditionally Catholic understanding that there is a huge inherent difference and separation between things physical and things spiritual, between human and divine. If one doesn’t accept that position, if one holds that the physical realm is but Spirit in Manifestation, that we are all pre-existent spirits manifesting in human form, then things begin to look different.

Seen in this light, the Immaculate Conception may mean that Mary is the very essence of pure Spirit in the exact moment at which it sparks into material manifestation, or begins its movement into physical reality. This would mean she is the Void itself, as well as the Void as it births manifestation, bringing energy into being, light into darkness, and ultimately, energy/force into form. Thus, in her simple statement to Bernadette, the Lady proclaims herself the Primal Source and Creatress.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

 Star of the Hero, Nicholas Roerich, 1932

“On earth as it is in heaven” is a phrase from the Lord’s Prayer but it expresses a much older sentiment.

The ancients looked into the skies and saw the power of the divine there. The vast over-arching, starry sky, which they envisioned as a dome over the earth, was the primal deity—or sometimes simply the home of the invisible primal deity, the father-mother of everything—while the planets and stars were this deity’s children and messengers of its desires and will.

Heaven—the perfect primal state of balance, harmony, perfection, and beauty; of order wrought from primordial chaos. Heaven—the source and template of how things were meant to be on earth. Heaven, they must have thought,  held the Wisdom that organizes life, that creates the templates, that sets the patterns of sun, moon, stars, seasons...life, death...male, female,  and of how life works.

As can be seen by the great number of sacred mountains, pyramids, omphaloi, and temples containing a Center or Holy of Holies type chamber, humankind has always sought not only to communicate with the Divine Source, but to bring its power, harmony, and balance down to earth. Stone circles with alignments to the moon, various stars, and solstice and equinox points mutely attest to some of these ancient attempts. Major earthworks, such as the Glastonbury Zodiac and others, may also be examples of attempts to align earth landscapes with the star patterns in the sky, and thus bring the star powers to earth. Perhaps people believed that this bringing of heaven to earth helped humanity access and commune with the Divine, or even become divine themselves.

At the very least, these endeavors definitely seem to be attempts to connect the earthly realm with the divine powers of the sky realm, because it was thought that earth was intended to be a reflection of beauty and perfection of the heavens.

“As above, so below,” which sounds like a statement of fact or belief, may well have been perceived as a divine mission. 

There are many ways we humans have tried to create heaven on earth through the ages. We noticed seeming earth-sky correspondences in land formations and rivers, and sanctified those spots by building sacred sanctuaries there.  We’ve built churches, temples, and tabernacles as places for the Divine presence on earth to dwell. Often we’ve built them in accord with the principles of sacred geometry—the better to house this divine energy in a suitably harmonious place.

We have done rituals in these tabernacles, tents, temples, and churches, basing our ceremonies on the seasonal movements of sun, stars and planets. We have created works of beauty—art, dance, and music inspired by the divine presence as we saw and felt it on earth and in the sky, to lift our hearts and minds to the heavens and try to touch this vast over-arching power of divinity and bring at least some of it down to earth.

But in this Aquarian Age the most suitable dwelling for heaven on this earth, for the Divine Presence, is within the human heart and consciousness. And this was actually the true meaning of the teachings of Jesus.

His greatest message, perhaps only now being fully acknowledged after 2000 years, is that the bringing of heaven to earth must include humanity, too. It is fine to build sanctuaries, temples, and “Holy of Holies,” but the real tabernacles for the Divine Presence—the Holy Spirit, the Shekhinah who is the Feminine Presence of the Divine—must be the tabernacles in our hearts and minds. Humans must learn to revere not only themselves, but each other, as well as the Earth and all Her creatures, recognizing in all life that spark of the Divine which unites us all.  All life is sacred; we are all related.

This transformation can happen only in the heart and consciousness, and will change how we live our lives.

When this has been accomplished the “Second Coming” has occurred. Osiris and Isis, Yahweh and his Asherah, Christ and Sophia / Shekhinah—the masculine and feminine aspects of the One Divine Source—are reunited, wholeness is achieved, and by living this, the rift between heaven and earth is mended.

(c) Margie McArthur, 2013  

Connection or Separation?

Many of us living in this modern era feel lost. We may have good, fulfilling jobs, nice homes, lots of electronic gadgets to play with, the latest movies for our DVD or Blu-Ray players, and enough money to buy books like this. Yet there is an emptiness inside that we are finding hard to fill. We read book after book, take class after class, have relationship after relationship—trying to fill this emptiness. But it is an emptiness of spirit, and cannot be filled by reading a book, taking a class, or having a relationship. These things may produce a temporary cessation of the symptoms; they may stimulate us mentally, physically, or emotionally. They may even point us in a direction that is good for us to take. But often we mistake the map for the destination itself.

The state of the world—the environment, the homeless, our children—troubles us. We see the same maladies almost everywhere we look. If Spirit is all around, if it does indeed permeate all, why is it then that so many of us experience such emptiness of Spirit? The reason is that we have largely lost touch with our ways of connecting into and feeling the presence of Spirit (as well as “spirits”). Spirit didn’t go anywhere, we did. We turned our attention elsewhere, and forgot how to turn back.

Sometimes this losing touch of the ways of connecting with Spirit is the result of what shamanic practitioners refer to as “soul loss” or “soul fragmentation.” As our lives unfold, emotional trauma sometimes causes parts of our soul to fragment and depart, somewhat like a scared child who runs and hides. Without these missing fragments, we are not whole; we do not possess and cannot utilize all our ability to fully connect into, feel the presence of, and participate in the spiritual dimension of our existence. And if we cannot be present with and participate in the spiritual dimension of our existence, participation in our physical existence often becomes flat, one dimensional, and meaningless.

Can we even see the connection here between the fragmentation happening within ourselves and that of our Mother Planet? Forests cut down, species extinct, air and water polluted, holes in the ozone layer—can we feel this connection between ourselves and our precious planet?

We’ve lost touch with the Spirit within ourselves and our world. We’ve lost touch with the Spirits of our ancestors, who once held the wisdom of our tribes and could be called upon for guidance and help. We’ve lost touch with our Spirit allies and helpers, those beings who subtly assist us from the other realms. We’ve lost touch with the spirits of the land, the plants, the animals, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars.

Our materialistic culture and science has taught that none of these exist: there is no Spirit within, the Moon is a dead rock, and the Sun is just a glowing ball of gases. If we just quantify, count, and observe behavior, we will then know the essence of the thing. Even our moods and behavior patterns have quantifiable, genetic basis, they tell us. So we define ourselves by our quantifiable characteristics, behaviors, and even our possessions—and are under the mistaken impression that we know ourselves well. We remember the things that occur in our lives and mistakenly think that we are only the sum of our memories. Yet all the while, the emptiness, and the longing to fill it remains.

We take a walk in the forest, and are filled with peace. We come back refreshed, renewed, and inspired. The beauty of the setting has refreshed our weary souls, the hues of nature have nourished us. Without realizing it, we have connected with the presence of both Spirit and spirits. This very natural occurrence, in a very natural setting, has made all the difference in the world. It happens to most of us so rarely, and when it does we seldom understand quite what it really was that just happened to us. Yet it is our natural inheritance! We are part of nature, meant to be in contact with and interacting with the rest of our natural family. When we are connected in this way, we do not feel alone because we are not alone: We are surrounded by thousands of plants, animals, devas, nature spirits, elemental spirits, and faeries—our relatives!

Like Dorothy, who though surrounded by the distracting splendors of the Emerald City desired only to go home, we also must decide to go home. I’m not suggesting we all try to move into the wilderness; only that we work at reestablishing our relationship with our home planet and our many relatives, including our invisible relatives such as devas, nature spirits, and faeries. In this book I have offered my humble suggestions toward re-establishing awareness of and conscious contact with the Elemental Realms as a Way towards reintegrating ourselves into the natural flow of life. There are other ways to approach this “refocusing” we need to do; anything that works for you is the right way to do it.

Things are such in the world today that we can no longer afford the illusion of separation from the rest of nature. We can no longer deny we are part of the web of existence, or that what happens on our part of the Web affects other parts of the Web. And we have to live this, not just mentally subscribe to it as an appealing idea. When we do, our world opens up and out to us in a profound way. No longer do we feel empty; rather, we quite tangibly feel ourselves permeated with Spirit. No longer do we feel alone; rather, we now can feel our interconnectedness with every other life form. We fill with joy and gratitude for the love and support that constantly surrounds and upholds us. 

Separation or Connection? Which are we going to choose?

(from Wisdom of the Elements: The Sacred Wheel of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, (c) 1998, 2019, Margie McArthur

A Winter Solstice Communion of Light in the Chapel of the Stars

Take a slow deep breath, then exhale, and relax. Be still for a moment, and feel your body as you sit upon the couch, chair or floor. Take another deep breath……and let it out. And another. And with each one, you feel yourself relaxing more and more.

As you gaze at the candle flame in the center of the room, you feel your own inner flame, the spark of  divinity within you, awaken in response. Close your eyes now and see the candle flame with your inner vision, and watch as it grows in size, strength, and brightness. Take another slow deep breath, and as you exhale you watch the flame growing...and feel your inner flame growing stronger and brighter as well, and your awareness and receptivity increasing along with it.

With your inner vision, you watch as the candle flame increases in size till it becomes a wall of fire, a curtain of flame.

You step through the curtain of flame and find yourself to be in a very different kind of place. You are standing at the edge of a woods, looking into a clearing, in the midst of which sits a small stone building. It is a cold wintery night, and overhead the stars shine brightly in the deep blue sky. The tiny crescent of the waxing moon is visible to the west, but the stars are bright and provide illumination.

You walk towards the stone building, and as you get closer you can see it is a chapel of some sort, with three wooden stairs that lead up to a porch and a wooden door. You spend a few moments looking at the carvings on the wooden door (pause), then climb the stairs, push the door open, and enter the chapel.

To your surprise, the chapel is roofless and the starlight gleams down, giving a dim illumination to the interior. You see a cobbled stone floor, a few icons on the walls, some wooden benches, and at the front of the chapel, a stone altar. On the altar is a beautiful golden cup.
                                   
You walk up to the altar and go around it to the other side, so that you are facing the body of the chapel and the door through which you just entered. You feel pulled to place your hands down upon the stone altar and do so, allowing your awareness sink within the stone......

Suddenly you become aware that the chapel, which had looked empty and deserted, is actually full. You hear the rustle of a great crowd of beings. You cannot see them, but you can sense them. You sense animal spirits, plant spirits, tree spirits. You sense humans, faeries, elves...and angels. There is a sense of expectancy and subdued excitement in the room, and yet a feeling of reverence as well.

Then your eyes are drawn upward to the sky above the chapel. The great cobalt dome of sky sparkles with stars. But your attention is pulled behind the stars, to the vast sea of space itself, and within that great sea of space you sense a vast presence, and a consciousness almost beyond human comprehension. You feel tiny by comparison. Yet despite the vastness of this consciousness and your relative tinyness, you feel it’s attention and caring... as it gazes at you with its thousands of eyes. (Pause)

You look now at the stars, and notice that two of them seem particularly bright...brighter than the rest, and that these two seem to be moving slowly and majestically across the sky to a place where their paths will intersect. You watch as this happens (pause), and as they come into conjunction, their lights blend together, forming one huge bright light, one enormous star. Beams of light begin to pour forth from this huge star, streaming downward toward the earth, and as you watch this, you hear music — a kind of wordless singing of many voices, in beautiful harmony. (Pause)

On instinct you place your hands on the golden cup that is sitting in the center of the stone altar. As you sense all the unseen faces in the chapel turning skyward, you lift the golden cup to the sky. The beams of light pouring down from the large star flow into the cup, filling it with a light both silver and golden, a light that fills the cup to the brim, and then overflows. The beams of light from the sky flow onto your head and into your body, as well. They splash onto your shoulders, run down back and front, run down your arms and onto your hands. The light is infusing your body, and you know it is infusing all the other beings in the chapel, as well.

And everywhere on and in you this light reaches, you feel warmed, cleansed, blessed, and healed. You spend a few moments allowing yourself to fully experience and absorb this……  (Pause)

After a while, the outpouring of light from the huge star slows….and it’s brilliance begins to decrease/ returns to normal. You lower the cup down to the altar, and as you do so, you become aware of the presence of an immense angelic being just behind you. The angel places its hands upon your shoulders, and as this happens you feel a great and powerful blessing pour through you, and into the contents of the cup. (Pause)  Lifting the cup, you take a sip, then extend your arms outward and offer the cup to the unseen beings in the chapel. You hear a great rustle of movement as they all come forward. And as each comes forward to drink from the cup, you find that you can see them as they take their sip. As they take their sip, each one looks at you, and you look upon them — faeries, elves, angels; plant spirits, animal spirits, nature spirits, and even some human spirits — and you feel the bond of joyful kinship that unites you with these other creatures of the earth.

When this is done you place the cup down upon the altar. You stretch your arms out again, and feel the power of blessing flow forth from you, and out into the world…. You sense that the spirits in the chapel, who have also partaken of the starry nectar, are doing likewise. You feel the power of blessing streaming out of you and out of the other beings, out of the chapel and into the world, to places and beings who are suffering — in pain of mind, body, emotion, and spirit. The blessings — of peace, of comfort, of joy — stream forth for a long time…. (Pause) till finally, it feels complete, and you slowly lower your arms. (Pause)

A moment of silence follows....and then you feel the great angelic presence behind you slowly withdraw its energy from you (Pause). After another moment, you again hear a rustle of movement, as the spirits arise and depart from the chapel.

Finally you are alone in the chapel....all is silent and still. You look at the cup, and see that, despite all who have drunk from its contents, it is still brimming and overflowing with silvery golden light. In fact, this light continues to spill over the top, flowing down onto the altar, and to the stone floor of the chapel. It soaks into the stones of both altar and floor, and it flows in tiny gleaming rivulets out the wooden door and down the wooden stairs, where it soaks into the earth. And you are aware that it is infusing all that it touches with blessing, cleansing and healing.

You feel now that it is time to leave this place. You walk around the altar, through the chapel, and step over the threshold, out into the night, and you close the wooden door behind you. You walk down the wooden steps and out into the clearing. After a few more steps you pause, you look upward again at the sky, and feel the vast consciousness there. The moon is on the far horizon. The bright star still gleams above you; the other stars twinkle brightly in the dark sky. As you gaze upon them, your vision shifts, and you see that the stars outline the form of a woman swaddled in a long hooded cloak. Her womb is glowing, and she holds a child in her arms..... As you perceive this image, you feel her presence and her motherly love. (Pause)

Then your vision shifts again, and although you still feel her presence, you see only a starlit sky. You begin walking across the clearing, and just past tree line, you see a fire burning in the distance...You walk toward the fire, and find that each step you take brings you more and more into your normal waking awareness. You reach the fire, step through the flames, and find that you have come back to this time and this place, into a room where candles glow and perhaps, a hearthfire burns. (Pause) You are back….and when you feel ready you may open your eyes.

Blessed Solstice to all!  

Mother Night, Winter Solstice, and the Chapel of the Stars

 

The Germanic pagan traditions celebrate the feast of Mother Night on the eve of the Winter Solstice. Mother Night marked the beginning of the twelve day long festival of Yule that celebrated the return of the sun. Mother Night was sacred to the Goddess Holle (also rendered as Holla, Holda, and Hulda), and the disr - the ancestral mothers of the people. On this night people gathered to give honor to Holle (or Frigga in the Scandinavian traditions) and those ancestral mothers.

Falling as it does on Solstice Eve, which is the time when Mediterranean and southern European cultures celebrated the rebirth of the sun child, it is hard not to associate the two festivals. While the Germanic cultures did not celebrate Yule as the rebirth of the sun child in the same way as did the Mediterranean cultures, they did celebrate it in terms of a rebirth or regeneration of the light of Sunna/Sol, the sun goddess. No matter which way it’s looked at, Yule—the Winter Solstice—is a celebration of the return of the light, and also a celebration of how light comes forth from the darkness.

I found this to be of great significance. So often the attention is given to the sun child only and not the mother who bore him, except perhaps in a round-about way. Yet here was a festival which seemed to be honoring First Mother, the great mother of all manifest life—Mother Night, she who gives birth to Light (in the form of the stars), and therefore, Life. She is indeed the great Ancestral Mother of all, and the idea of celebrating her on Solstice Eve appealed to me greatly. In the great cosmic scheme of things, Solstice Eve represents the time of her confinement, the time when she labors to give birth.

Let our celebration of the return of the sun child’s light and warmth begin with due honor to the mother who bore him/her—the darkness who gives birth to the light. 

Here is a Vision Journey from my book, Lady of the Sea: The Goddess Who Births the New Age, that you may find a useful addition to your Solstice ceremonies.

Create an altar. It can be as simple as a candle on a small table (or even the floor), or one that uses an altar cloth and symbols of the season. I use a midnight blue altar cloth and a beeswax  candle in a safe candle holder. Sit silently before your altar, breathing deeply till you are in a relaxed and receptive state of being. 

Meditate for a few moments on how this is the darkest time of the year; the time when, in the natural world, all life and movement has slowed to a seeming stop before the sun is reborn and the wheel of life begins to turn again. The moment may be likened to the end of labor, when, although the mother is working hard to birth her child, for the rest of the world around her there is a sense of waiting, of regular time suspended, as all focus on the impending birth and await the joyful sound of the infant’s first cry. When you have meditated upon these things, and feel sufficiently relaxed and calm, light your candle and begin the Vision Journey just below.

Journey to the Chapel of the Stars

Become aware now of the Four Directions that surround you—East, South, West, and North—and  focus your attention for a moment on each of them in turn.... In your mind’s eye, see the candle that burns at the center of your altar.... Focus on its flame.... As you gaze at this flame, you feel your own inner flame, the spark of divinity within you, awaken in response.... You watch as the candle’s flame begins to grow, increasing in size, strength, and brilliance..... and you feel your inner flame growing stronger and brighter as well, and your awareness increasing along with it.

With your inner vision, you watch the candle flame grow in size till it becomes a wall of fire, a curtain of flame. You step through the curtain of flame and find yourself in a very different kind of place. You are standing at the edge of a wood, looking into a clearing, in the midst of which sits a small stone building. It is a cold wintery night, and overhead the stars shine brightly in the dark clear sky. The moon has set but the stars are bright and provide illumination.


You walk toward the building in the clearing, and as you get closer you can see it is a small chapel, with three wooden  stairs that lead up to a porch and a wooden door.

You reach the porch, and spend a few moments looking at the carvings on the wooden door…. Then you climb the stairs, push the door open, and enter the chapel, closing the door behind you.

To your surprise, the chapel has no roof ... Starlight gleams down, giving a dim illumination to the interior. You see a floor of roughly cut flagstone, with a spiral carved into one of the larger stones just beyond where you stand. You see a several icons on the chapel walls, several rows of wooden benches that start just beyond the spiral, and at the front of the chapel, a stone altar. You gaze at the carved spiral on the floor, and it comes to you suddenly that you must walk this spiral. You feel incredulous about this because the spiral is so small, you know your feet will not fit within the measure of its lines. But the impulse to walk it is strong, so you step gingerly onto it, feeling large and clumsy, with your foot just touching the opening of the spiral. As you step into it further, the urge to walk intensifies, so you take another step, then another, and another.... As you walk, you become aware that your consciousness is changing, deepening…. Taking the next step you notice that walking the spiral is not as difficult as you thought it would be. You take another step, wondering if you have grown smaller or the spiral larger. With the next step, you know that it doesn't matter… and that somehow, you are doing what is necessary to do.

You have an awareness, now, of those nameless others who have walked this spiral path before you. In your mind you hear a voice say, "Many have walked this path before you and many will walk it after you." As you continue watching your feet move along the spiraling line, the room around you seems to disappear, and the spiraling path you are walking seems to grow larger. A thought comes to you of the soul’s spiraling path into and out of incarnation.... You continue walking, focusing your attention on each step as you take it. With each step, your consciousness expands, and your awareness of your surroundings dissolves… only the path remains, and your feet, treading it…. The spiral grows smaller… tighter… smaller… and tighter, as you spiral inward, step by step….

At length you reach the center of the spiral, and look up. You find that you are within a vast, starry expanse. Directly in front of you the brighter stars seem to form the outline of an oval shape, larger at the bottom than the top. As you gaze at it, noting the dimmer stars twinkling within it, you are aware that "It" is a presence, a feminine presence, and most definitely alive—in fact, pulsating with Life. You realize that She is very lovingly aware of you. Her size and power are awe inspiring; you feel blessing and beneficence radiating from Her. You know that you are in the presence of the Source of all creation. You pause for a few moments to simply BE in the presence of this enormous Being....

As you gaze at her, you notice that there is a particularly bright star gleaming in her center, the area of her heart and womb.... Suddenly it bursts forth brilliantly, shooting out many bright sparks. A large spark shoots toward you, enters you, floods through your being, filling you with its light and enlivening power, and comes to rest in your heart center.... Other sparks shower through the sky and down toward the earth... you sense that they are filling the planet with their divine light, coming to rest in the body of the earth—in the mountains, the plains, the deserts, the rivers, and the oceans... and in all beings, including humans.

As this happens you become aware of a sound… it is the sound of many voices singing a wordless but harmonious melody. The melodious voices stir your soul, open your heart, and expand your being; you feel full of love—love for life, love for all of the wondrous creation, love for all that is.... You spend some time experiencing this....

After a while... you know that it is time for you to return....Looking down, you set your feet once again on the spiraling path and take a step....You begin to walk...to return back the way you have come. You pause and whisper a thanks for the love and blessings you have been given. With the star spark glowing within your heart, you turn, and looking down at your feet, you begin walking clockwise ... out of the spiral ... step after step.... As you walk, the path broadens... and you feel your consciousness begin to shift... Beneath your feet you see once again the flagstone floor of the chapel… and the carved lines of the spiral…. A few more steps... and you step out of the carved spiral... and become aware, once more, of the dimly-lit stone chapel in which you stand....

As you pause there, you sense that something else is required of you....You walk up the center aisle to the altar… and reaching into yourself, you take a spark from the glowing star spark within your heart. You place it upon the stone altar with a prayer....... The spark blazes up for a moment, then sinks into the stone... becoming one with it....

You feel now that it is time to leave. You turn and walk down the center aisle to the back of the chapel. You step over the threshold, out into the night, closing the wooden door behind you. You walk down the wooden steps and out into the clearing. When you reach the center of the clearing you stop… looking upward at the sky... feeling the vast consciousness there. The stars twinkle in the dark sky... and as you gaze upon them, your vision shifts, and you see that the stars outline the form of a woman swaddled in a long hooded cloak. Her womb is glowing, and she holds a child in her arms..... As you perceive this image, you feel her presence and her motherly love.... Then your vision shifts again, and although you still feel her presence, you see only a starlit sky ....

You begin walking across the clearing, and just past the tree line, you see a fire burning in the distance.... You walk toward the fire, and find that each step you take brings you more and more into your normal waking awareness. You reach the fire, step through the flames, and find that you have come back to this time… this place… and into a room where a candle burns.... You are back .... Settle into your body, and when you feel ready you may open your eyes.

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

Peace and blessings to all on these Holy Nights!

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The icon above is of the Blessed Mother and her parents -- St Anne, St Joachim. In honor of this feast I am reposting an essay I wrote several years ago.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary