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| Nativity of Holy Child-Daughter II Roses Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck www.hergracesacredart.com |
By honouring and acknowledging the birth of the holy child-daughter, Mary Herself, the masculine story is changed and the daughter and girl-child becomes sacred in the collective unconscious.
‘A hermit had on a certain night for many years heard music in the heavens. When he asked the cause an angel answered, : the Virgin was born this night, and what is ignored on earth is being celebrated by angels’ – Legends of Mary, Thirteenth Century
In this card we see the birth of the holy daughter, the female bearer of the Christ. When one considers that the term Christ or Christed One is a title and not part of a name, then the sentence ‘female bearer of the Christ’ has a completely different meaning. Mary is the feminine companion to Jesus or Maryam to Yeshua in the original Aramaic. As we saw earlier three Marys always accompanied Jesus one of whom was his mother and one his companion or beloved. Reading these words and stories with the inner mystical eye of vision and understanding, we understand that the psyche has four aspects : two masculine and two feminine and these are referred to as mother, father, daughter and son. The picture reflected a whole psyche is incomplete without the daughter. What would change within both men and women when the Christ appears in female form? Or when the Christ appears as a divine couple?
In the Lost Books of the Bible, The Gospel of the Birth of Mary, Mary’s lineage and birth is described in detail. Mary of Agreda in her book The Mystical City of God which describes the details of the life of the Virgin, calls the child Mary, ‘the true living Ark of the covenant’.
In the Koran it is told that in the year 16 BCE, the people of Jerusalem are awaiting the birth of the son of Imran (Anna in Greek). Instead of the much-anticipated "Messiah", a girl is born to Imran and Anna. The latter names her Mary, which means "Servant of God". Did they miss the birth of the Messiah through their expectation that he has to be male?
In the Gospel of the Birth of Mary, it is described that the angel visited both Joachim and Anna (Mary’s parents) on two separate occasions. Mary’s conception and birth was a miraculous one. Anna, her mother was barren until the Archangel Gabriel visited her and declared that her barren womb will be opened by God and that the Holy Spirit will descend into the body of her daughter Mary whilst still in the womb. Mary referred to herself as The Immaculate Conception when She appeared to Bernadette at Lourdes. The sanctuary of the nativity of the virgin Mary is in Milan and her tiny effigy wrapped in lace and swaddling clothes is known as Santa Maria Bambina. Her nativity is on 8 September and is one of the twelve major feast days in the liturgical calendar. In the years between 1720 and 1730 a Franciscan nun from Todi (Sister Chiara Isabella Fornari) created wax statues of Mary as a baby. One of these dolls was donated to the Capuchin Sisters of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Milan. Eventually the statue arrived at the General House of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere , in Via Santa Sofia in Milan, and these sisters are called "Maria Bambina" .
The miraculous image of Maria Bambina was made prior to 1730 by a Franciscan nun who afterwards entrusted Her to others. During the ensuing years, she came into the care of the Sisters of Charity at Lovere, Italy. In 1856, these Sisters of Charity were asked to take over the management of the Hospital of Ciceri in Milan and, in 1876, this waxen image was carried to their Mother House there at Via Santa Sofia 13, where she has remained ever since.
The beautiful image of the Maria Bambina was exposed for veneration only on the 8th of September, the Feast of Mary's Nativity. In 1884, those who were devoted to the Maria Bambina received a reward for their devotion. Due to paralysis in her arms and feet, Sister Josephine Woinovich was bedridden and in unbearable pain. On the 8th of September, she begged the Mother General to get Maria Bambina and leave the image near her overnight. The following morning the Mother General was inspired to take the image, so old, worn and grayish colored to the other sick Sisters in the infirmary so they could kiss her.
There was in the infirmary a good novice, Giulia Macario, who was unable to move because of her serious illness, but who, overcome by her ardent faith, took the image into her arms and pleaded with her in tender and loving words for the grace for her recovery. She was immediately and miraculously cured, for such Faith moves mountains. And at the same time this image itself underwent an amazing transformation from the former dull gray color to the warm flesh hues it has today, as can be seen, where she is enshrined in the Sanctuary of the Mother House in Milan.
In this card we see the birth of the holy daughter, the female bearer of the Christ. When one considers that the term Christ or Christed One is a title and not part of a name, then the sentence ‘female bearer of the Christ’ has a completely different meaning. Mary is the feminine companion to Jesus or Maryam to Yeshua in the original Aramaic. As we saw earlier three Marys always accompanied Jesus one of whom was his mother and one his companion or beloved. Reading these words and stories with the inner mystical eye of vision and understanding, we understand that the psyche has four aspects : two masculine and two feminine and these are referred to as mother, father, daughter and son. The picture reflected a whole psyche is incomplete without the daughter. What would change within both men and women when the Christ appears in female form? Or when the Christ appears as a divine couple?
Luce Irigaray in her work says that ‘there is no woman God, no female trinity: mother, daughter, spirit. This paralyses the infinite of becoming a woman since she is fixed in the role of mother through whom the son of God is made flesh’
By honouring and acknowledging the birth of the holy child-daughter, Mary Herself, the masculine story is changed and the daughter and girl-child becomes sacred in the collective unconscious.
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| Santa Maria Bambina with golden wool Handmaiden of Suit of Distaff Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck www.hergracesacredart.com |
These stories of the divine are powerful myths which activate and animate archetypes in our consciousness. Mary calls Herself the Immaculate Conception and as such Her birth is truly a divine birth of a divine female and feminine which has been lying fast asleep like the princess in Sleeping Beauty (Card IV of the Suit of the Distaff). Creating art and seeing images of Mary as the holy girl-child and images of the Sacred Mother and Daughter will change our understanding of the world and our Soul completely.
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| Mary serving as priestess in Temple of the Dove Four of Vessels Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck www.hergracesacredart.com |
I used mainly Western Christian Catholic icons, statues and symbolism, which I combined with the wider vision of the journey of the feminine divine as archetype of the Self. By juxtaposing these well-known images onto a different context and by re-connecting their symbolism to the correspondences found in myths, legend, fairy tale and stories carried down through the ages, a deeper, more meaningful picture unfolds. I set out taking the well-known Christian images of Mary (and really mostly the only ones readily available) out of their Roman Catholic context thus giving them new meaning. As my own personal journey evolved and I immersed myself into the Christian mysteries at the sites sacred to Mary that I visited, I discovered that the numinous emanation of Mary truly still does exist in the Christian art and symbology. I found that She had merely been veiled by dogma and conditioned belief and that when you see with ‘new eyes’, then the true Divine Mary and Goddess is still radiating Her Presence and always has done so. I realised that the Christian churches and copious art works has been the vessel for Her through the dark ages of the suppressed feminine. This awakened the inspiration and resolve within myself to reveal Her to others in the same way that She revealed Herself to me.
A limited edition of the Mysteries of Mary Tarot Deck and Book
is now available on pre-order
at The French Madonna
at The French Madonna
and on my website here :
http://www.hergracesacredart.com/2016/10/the-mysteries-of-mary-tarot-deck-and.html
blessings
Hettienne
