Praying the Sacred Seven
Posted by Joan Norton at 4/26/2009 5:41 AM 
Categories: The Magdalene Rosary
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
Categories: The Magdalene Rosary
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
"Tis a gift to be simple, a gift to be free." Praying the Sacred Seven beads of the Magdalene Rosary is simple and it's an act of freedom, why do I want to complicate it by trying to talk about gematria, sacred geometry, and the mystical meaning of numbers? I long ago gave up measuring and counting in my quiltmaking and became someone who'd just see how big the quilt came out and that would be fine. I do like to cut the squares exactly right in the beginning, though, because I know that'll make the design turn out right overall. 
Seven is the "master number" of the holy feminine spirit in ways that I can't explain very well but I understand when I read them. There are patterns and arrangements in nature, including vibrational nature, that are "discoverable", they're not invented. Seven is like that. We have discovered that our female bodies live in a cyclic world of sevens related to the moon's waxing and waning pattern of sevens in the sky, with it's seven luminous bodies (to the naked eye) . That's enough reason right there for me to be comfortable praying the sacred seven patterns of beads.
I'm repeating the pattern that my body loves and that can only be a good thing. It has been a good thing forever, so much so that some of the great religious feast days were patterned on the holy seven. Life reflecting it's sacred feminine basis. Seven times seven plus one is a "jubilee" day, the all important 50th anniversary. I've got my seven chakras which are my seven potent spiritual energy centers, gateways of heaven and earth in my body.
The sacredness of seven returns me to my body and to the personal sphere of my awareness, and my personal capability to influence my world. Seven is the most personal of numbers because I feel my body's rhythms through it. It would seem awkward to me to call my own personal cycles of seven "the number of the World Soul, the supreme goddess who existed before Creation"* , but that's what my body and mind's personal structure of seven apparently is. In my blood and bones is working the mysterious power of the Goddess, whom we named in christianity Mary Magdalene, "the Magdalene". She expresses herself in patterns of sevens.
Why bother with this? Because it matters that we are returning our world to the vibrational, emotional, spiritual count of the holy seven. I think it's one way we can re-calibrating our world towards the balance we call Sacred Union. It's horribly out of balance now, towards the beastly unbalance of certain numbers. When I pass the rosary beads of the 7x7 through my fingers, saying "show me the Way of the heart" and "dear Mary Magdalene", I am doing my part to re-calibrate the world. Everything matters.....I have faith in that idea. Not a hair on your head goes uncounted.
When I set my prayer life into a rhythm of sevens I am aligning myself with Mary Magdalene in my christian story and with the "supreme Goddess who existed before Creation" . Tis a gift to be simple, a gift to be free.
If you get curious about the way heavenly patterns reflect themselves in earthly patterns and spiritual scriptures, Margaret Starbird has written a book about that called Magdalene's Lost Legacy: Symbolic Numbers and the Sacred Union in Christianity . It's our own Margaret who has done the original research to illuminate the fact that Mary Magdalene carries the esoteric wisdom identification of the Goddess in our scriptures.
Here's a picture of the rosaries my sister Sally is making , and you know of course that a rosary of patterns of sevens that you make yourself will have just that much more soul for you. And you can see the entire story of the Magdalene Rosary with it's highlights of Mary Magdalene's life and legends in 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine: Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene .
*John Michell and Allan Brown, Crooked Soley : A Crop Circle Revelation
Dear Joan, it is so uplifting and so grounding at the same time to pray with the Magdalene Rosary. When I get into "overdoing," if I stop and pick up the rosary and pray the sevens, I feel restored nearly instantly.
I love it.
Sandra
P.S. Joan, I wonder how the Celtic celebration of Beltane is connected with the number 7 and/or "...the supreme goddess who existed before Creation."
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Hi dear one, That's funny that you mention Beltane because I kept thinking this week's post would be about Beltane and then it "came through" about the sevens. I hope one of our other readers will talk to me about Beltane and say some things about the Magdalene energies at Beltane time. I know the fire of life re-kindled at May Day speaks to the passion of Magdalene. She is passion Herself in our christian story, passion for life and passion for love. So many women feel passionate love for Jesus and find it hard to express through the figure of the Blessed Mother. It feels unseemly. But the passionate love which Mary Magdalene feels for her Beloved.... and this is the passionate love that is the Beltane energy... feels just right for the "other" passion story in the Gospels.
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Dearest Joan;
I wanted to let you know how very much your book The Mary Magdalene Within means to me. Everything within its pages rang true to me, and so much of it brought me to tears. I often thought that Mary's story was a sad one - but I truly believe now that her story will empower all of humanity. Your book is going to change the world. Thank you and God bless you for all you have done. Justine must be ever so proud!
With fondest admiration always,
Kerry
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Dear Kerry, Thank you so much for writing to me and saying such nice words. I'm gratified that my experience of the presence of love in Christ and Magdalene's story , their feelings for each other, come through my book in a way that touches others. Sometimes I've wondered if the words were designed in some way to re-create the experience of expanded consciousness and love which I experienced when they were said to me and I wrote them down in 1996.
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Joan,
When I saw that you were contemplating the 7 for a blog entry, I thought, "Hmmm. I have a story for her." But I wasn't sure about the appropriateness of it. Now, however, I'm convinced that I must share it:
Mother's Day weekend 2002 was the last time I menstruated before having my son Maclane in Feb. 2003. Within a couple of months, I opted to have an IUD before doing anything permenant regarding birth control. The IUD prevented me from menstruating. For the last year, I felt an increasing need to have it removed because not menstruating began to feel "not right."
A few months ago, I began to sense that this "not right" was actually something deeply spiritual rising within me. When I had my annual physical last month, I talked to my OB/GYN and told him that I wanted to have the IUD removed, a tubal ligation, and return to my natural rhythmn. I'd also shared these thoughts with different people/caregivers close to me and their support was quite surprising.
Everything went very smoothly and my first menstruation was quite an experience: this may sound weird, but I relished the cramps and the aches because my body was celebrating it's femininity! The aches reminded me of birthing my two children and the power of that incredible, beautiful muscle, the uterus.
It was only recently that I realized the return to my natural rhythmn has taken nearly 7 years. All of this is quite new and I'm sure more will be revealed to me, but I knew I had to share it with you. . .
Jen
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Hi Jen, Thank you very much for this lovely true story. I know many of us can relate to your longing for your body's natural rhythms and the love of experiencing them again. It is amazing that it was a 7 year cycle of "experimenting" to see how you love your earthy beautiful rhythm of ebb and flow. It doesn't sound wierd to me at all that you relished the cramps and the feelings of "Nature taking her course", I really missed mine when the monthly rhythm was finished. It took a bit to realize that now I am in rhythm with larger cycles of moon, planets, and other Mysteries. Thanks very much for sharing....I love having you there. xoJoan
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