The Little Flower

A piece of sacred art : a shrine to St Therese of Lisieux, the little flower.

SOLD

“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens,I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.” 
― St. Thérèse de Lisieux

'For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; 

it is a simple look turned toward heaven,

it is a cry of recognition and of love,

embracing both trail and joy. - St Theresa of Lisieux

This shrine celebrates all that this young saint believed in and lived in her short devoted life.
A small statue of St Therese, a part of a rose scented rosary (brought back by myself from Padre Pio's sanctuary at San Giovanni Rotondo in Southern Italy), a small silver statue of St Therese at the end of the rosary beads, a cross entwined with roses and a St Therese coin - all set against the backdrop of a vintage St Therese holy card. 
With this shrine comes rose petal leaves which are a second class relic - these roses were touched to a first class relic of St Therese and also rose petals that were blessed during a special Mass.
The St Therese coin is loose and can be taken out of the shrine for contemplation.

This is one of my small altars. Its frame is wooden and it is lined inside and out, with ribbon and lace. A light wooden shrine ready to hang.


This shrine and coin is blessed with the rose petals steeped in oil from a third relic of St Therese, as well as blessed pink sea salt that is infused with rose oil, crushed rose petals from those that is infused with the third relic of St Therese.

This shrine comes with a bottle of the rose petals that was steeped in the third relic oil of St Theresa and then dried, as well as a bottle of blessed pink salt crushed together with
some of the holy oil and rose petals - all crushed together. 

All my altars, shrines and pendants are washed with water that I brought back from Lourdes.

You can read about my pilgrimages to sacred sites on www.path-of-divine-love.com and more about each piece of art on www.hergracesacredart.com

The size of the shrine is 27 x 12 x 5cm

All my art carries the energy of the sacred places that I have visited and continue to visit across the world. You can read about my pilgrimages on my blog www.path-of-divine-love.com. My articles do not only carry the energy, but also the holy cards, medals, water and other items that I bring back with me - making it even more special.


Each one of my pendants, shrines, paintings and other sacred art are first infused with holy water from Lourdes (which I brought back), and then infused with holy relic oil of more than 53 Saints & pure essential oils. A mixture of one hundred oils are used, including frankincense, myrrh, spikenard, agarwood and rose. It is also immersed in blessed pink dead sea salts, infused with rose petals steeped in holy oil of a third relic of St Therese of Lisieux and it is packaged with blessed salts, frankincense and sprinkled with holy water collected form many sacred places in the world. So it becomes sort of holy object to be handled with reverence and care.

Images of the Divine carry enormous energy and Presence. There are various ways of explaining it, but the ancients believed that the Spirit of that aspect of the Divine lives in Its image and form. Those of us who can see light around living beings, can see the light around sacred objects. In holy places of pilgrimage one can often smell the fragrance of the Divine.

All my items are beautifully packaged and sent registered mail with a tracking number at no extra cost to you, the buyer.

Blessed

I see you in a thousand paintings

Mary, so tenderly depicted

Yet none of them can begin to show you

As my soul sees you.

All I know is that the world's chaos

Has suddenly dissolved, like a dream

And your heaven of unspeakable sweetness

Opens forever in my spirit 

                 - Novalis

blessings

Mary of Avalon

In the arms of Mary

Our Lady of Avalon

mystical isle of sacred apples

In the arms of Mary, Our Lady of Avalon.  This is a small wearable shrine and altar.  A beautiful image of Mary of the Sacred Heart, set in glass, hand soldered with lead free solder that has the appearance and effect of pewter.  You can however, polish the solder with silver jewellery cleaner and make it shine like silver.  On top of the frame I soldered the arms of Mary and underneath hangs a beautiful red shine enamel apple, a chalice, a sword, a pomegranate and a beautiful icon of Mary.

The apple represents the sacred isle of Avalon and the sacred orchard of apples which still grow in the Abbey grounds in Glastonbury;  the chalice is the cup from which we drink from the sacred wells of Our Lady;  the sword can either be an athame for the altar or the sword of Archangel Michael;  the pomegranate is a symbol of the divine feminine and her ability to go deep into the underworld and to return to this world with gifts and sight;  the icon of Mary is set in resin in sterling silver.

I used many swarovski crystals in the chain, as well as handmade lampwork roses; it also consists of black onyx rosary beads, semi precious stones, coral roses, plastic roses and silver coloured roses with real turquoise pieces scattered in between.

A magnificent Ave Maria connector connects the pendant to the chain.

More pictures and information is posted on my blog

The entire necklace is 45 cm long.  

You may also like my blog on Cloister of the Heart

http://www.path-of-divine-love.com/2013/11/mornings-with-mary-mary-of-avalon.html

Grace ..... first in a new series of sacred shrines

Mary, Grace of the Miraculous Medal

First in a new series of sacred shrines in Her Grace by Devata

Earlier this year I visited Paris and as, always, seeked out the sacred sites.

One such place is the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal, 

tucked away, opposite

a huge departmental store, in a side street of Paris.

Catherine Laboure, a young nun at the 

Daughters of Charity Chapel in Paris

received a visitation from divine Mary, the first of many.

In more than one visitation she received the image 

and instruction about the miraculous medal. 

Mary made it clear that this medal can be worn by anyone 

and everyone, regardless of religion. 

The only requisite was faith in 'when you ask, you will receive'. 

The chapel is incredibly beautiful, and as soon as you enter you feel the incredible Presence. 

I started a new series of sacred shrines to the Divine Mother

and

Mary, Grace of the Miraculous Medal 

is the first one.

When Mary appeared to St Catherine Laboure in 1830, 

in the chapel in Paris, 

Her hands were covered in jewels. 

From some of the jewels, rays of light shown which she said were 

symbols of the graces that would be given to all who asked for them. 

The jewels that had no rays were symbols of unclaimed graces. 

An oval frame outlined the figure bearing in gold letters the words 

'O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee'. 

This chapel is still used for worship in Paris and the most beautiful statue 

of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal was placed 

over the main altar in the chapel where Mary appeared. 

I was so inspired by the beauty of the artworks and the chapel itself : t

o mosaics, the statues, everything glittered 

and shone with gold and reflecting mosaics 

and rays of gold - 

and this is what I tried to capture in this small shrine to Her Grace.

I molded and sculptured a statue of Mary Our Lady of Grace

in clay by hand, as well as a Miraculous Medal.

I used gold leaf, gold paint and German glass glitter in

a mix of pale pink and gold 

to try and capture the feeling of the Light

in the Chapel.

I also added a silver Miraculous Medal which I bought at the

small shop at the Chapel in Paris.

I added bookbinding tape that had definitions of the words

'love', 'bliss' and 'daughter' on it.

I lined the entire shrine with vintage hymn paper.

When I visited this chapel I wrote about my wonderful experience, bathing in Mary's Love while sitting there. 

If you would like to read more about my travels to sacred places, then please go to

http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com

Soon the images seen by my eyes disappear and only a brilliant golden light is visible. The light has a silver rim to it and it is alive and palpable with wisdom and knowledge which cannot be translated into words. This is the Presence of Divine Mary. The light translates into my physical body and energetically there is deep movement in and through my body. Then my heart fills with a feeling that seems physical. Everything and everyone around me is bathed in this beautiful light and they all glow in love. The Light becomes stronger and more powerful and I see the intense Light at the centre of it all and also at the centre of each and every person. And the quality of this Light is Good and only Good - pure and beautiful and innocent! And it does not matter what happens on the exterior : nothing can corrupt or diminish that Light which is you and me. 

Blessings

Jai Durga Maa

This handmade rosary is the latest edition to

Her Grace by Devata on www.etsy.com.

Durga Maa is a Hindu deity known for her courage and strength.

She rides a tiger or a lion and she assists one on the inner levels

in slaying the demons of the mind.

She is the fierce aspect of Shakty, the Divine Feminine.

I made this mala in the same pattern as the Rosary of the Holy Mother.

She is one and the same, by whatever name you call Her.

I used freshwater pearls in four different shades of white, pale pink, bronze and cream, interspaced

with swarovski crystals and

 beautiful bronze rose beads and a glass heart foil in the centre.

The pendant I bought from one of the traders outside the temple at

Haridwar, India and it is stamped with the OHM on the back.

The rosary is ideal for wearing around the neck as a necklace

as well as using as prayer beads.

Please visit my shop

https://www.etsy.com/listing/68145229/durga-maa-malarosary

Om jai mataji

Om jai mata

Om jai durga ma

jai jai

blessings

My Heart remains unruined

O Immaculate Heart of My Mother,

give me shelter in the beautiful chambers of your heart.

Keep me strong, fierce, loving and able in this world.

Remind me daily, that despite my imperfections,

my heart remains,

completely unruined.

an extract from Untie the Strong Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

with love

Hettienne

Inspiration Avenue : Prima Vera

Change, the Eternal Spring

For this week's amazing challenge by PritiLisa at Inspiration Avenue, I created a Soul Collage card.  Lisa asked for an allegory, so if you are interested in my process of arriving at this card and its allegory, you can read further down.

I have named this card, Change, the Eternal Spring.  It speaks to me of the eternal river of life that feeds the Soul and the Self.  Life has a tendency to turn us into stone, like the Gorgon sister Medusa.  Our hair (our ego and thought processes) becomes an entangled mess and we become fearful of change.  Change is indeed a death of the known and a re-birth into the unknown.  Therefore, like Persephone, we have to either enter the Underworld willingly by ingesting the seeds of the pomegranate, or we will be taken by force by Hades.   Once we have surrendered to the darkness of the Underworld and  died to the old, can we be born to the new :  to a new way of thinking, acting and feeling.  Once we have faced our deepest fears in the Underworld, can we be re-born as the Spring Queen with a new wisdom.  Once we have surrendered to the cycles of our psyche and soul, can we celebrate the rebirth of compassionate love for ourselves and our own life journey.

More about this card

With true artistic freedom, I combined the Greek and Roman myths, some Jungian philosophy and the great Christian divine epic of struggle, death and resurrection into new life, all into one SoulCollage card that speaks to me of the allegory of my own journey with light and dark.

Central to the card is Venus, the Goddess of Love, she who is Soul and Anima and Divine Feminine.  She is the one that is hidden in the allegory of life;  the one that speak to me through the Nine Muses and through the ordinary sacredness of life.

On the left hand side is Persephone, the Greek maiden who was abducted by Hades, the Lord of the Underworld.  Whilst down there she ate 6 seeds of the pomegranate which meant that she had to stay there for six months of the year!!  When she emerges from the Underworld, she returns as Kore, the Queen of the Underworld. 

Hades, as the Lord of the Underworld, represent our shadow, that which we do not want to face nor accept. This may be sickness, or loss, or longing, or regret.

Underneath her is Medusa, a very famous Gorgon.   Her story tells of her long hair which turned into snakes.  According to some philosophies, hair represent the ego, the identity that we create and maintain to the outside world and to ourselves.  Medusa represents 'taking a long hard look in the mirror of the subconscious self and to face the inner demons or snakes that frighten one into withdrawal and isolation (amongst others).

Underneath all of these is the image of the broken body of Jesus the Christ, taken down from the cross, with the women who stood vigil -  the Pieta, also by Botticelli.

And on the very far right is the crowning of the Blessed Mother as the Queen of Heaven.  The new life and Divine Love as a nurturing, giving and compassionate inner giving, understanding that the Spring Within is an eternal Well of sweet life-giving water.

If you enjoy SoulCollage, or would like to learn more, please join me every week at http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com in a SoulCollage meme.  For more information you can click on this link 

love

Hettienne

Your Story Told with Love

Stories, stories, magical tales

of wonder, love, toil and trouble.

No, not fairytales, our lives,

no less!

We each have a story to tell;

a tale to share.

And so do our loved ones.

Stories of dreams and hopes

Stories of passion

Stories of love found

Have your own story turned into a piece of art.

A shadow box that tells the details about your life.

Or the story of someone dear to you.  Maybe a favourite place they visited.

With little details particular to them

with a doll from that era, or that region

or a hand made one of a kind doll

choose the frame or the house

from a humble cigar box

to a customised shadow box 

Each shadowbox comes with a scroll

telling your story with love ......

For more details, please visit www.etsy.com/shop/devata

with love,

Hettienne