Candlemas
Posted by Joan Norton at 1/9/2010 7:35 AM 
Categories: Seasonal festivals
Tags: Candlemas. Brigit's Day Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
Categories: Seasonal festivals
Tags: Candlemas. Brigit's Day Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
A few more weeks and it'll be Candlemas and I've found myself thinking about what to put on my altar. The ancient ceremony says to bring every single candle that will be used in the seasonal year to church and bless them. M-m-m-mmm....lots of fire. Time to begin to chase away the darkness. It's a fire honoring time, a sun honoring time, an inner Light honoring time, a hopeful time of encouraging the sun to bless the land with crop growing heat once again. Time to recognize what it is within ourselves that we want to nourish and grow for the year.
Candlemas is a more current version of what they used to call The Feast of Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and The Feast of Purification of the Virgin. Those descriptions are versions of the earlier ceremonies and rituals about the year being virginal and knowing that now it's time to concentrate on what's ahead; crops , projects, growth of anything and everything. We harvested the year, we let it lie fallow, and now we're beginning to be interested in what will happen this year. We're looking for signs. Calling it "presentation of the baby at the temple" is as good a way as any to describe it. Looking at it that way gives us the chance to buy the baby a new white christening dress and honor the beginning of her life in the arms of Godde.
I'm going to be giving a workshop with Natalie Maisel called "Mary Magdalene: Goddess of the Western Mystery Traditions" next month February 28, in Vista California.We'll be looking at slides of Magdalene artwork through the centuries, doing guided journey work, and sharing stories of how Magdalene is in our lives now.
She's a bright light.
Before the familiar four armed straw cross of St. Bridget was used to ritualize and celebrate the coming again of the sun, a doll made from grain stalks was created by the girls in the family, a Bride doll. She was decorated with shells, crystals, bits of bright cloth, and maybe a special little smooth round rock and put outside your house at night so that Godde (Bridget in this instance) would come by and give you a blessing for the year's success. This was not so much the business of babies as it was of the beginnings of the courting season, because it's the beginning of the year's story of the Sacred Union of Bride and Beloved.
We're chasing away the darkness, which I guess you could call "purification", although I don't like that word somehow. There are even earlier symbolic ceremonies which are designed to chase away the darkness on deeper levels than the winter's gloomy weather. When we're talking about deeper levels of spiritual and psychological darkness the imagery is usually scarier, like snakes and demons and dragons. And then the story is of a personal initiation process, of confrontation with one's own negativity which will hopefully end in gaining distance from it or understanding of it. Always magnetizing us closer to our own Godself. Confrontation with demons and their psychological darkness is the way our story with Mary Magdalene starts, "Mary meets Jesus and is healed of seven demons". Earth meets Heaven and a new story begins. Sound far fetched ? There was one old folk custom of symbolically beating a snake to death, overcoming it to ensure a good year. Something is put into the correct balance by symbolically doing this, by symbolically overcoming the dark. Maybe because the snakes live underground and are cold blooded they can sometimes represent the dark capability of Earth's energies. They need to be in sacred balance, that's all.
I'm not going to have anything to do with ceremonial snakes, that's for sure. I'm taking Candlemas psycholically as the beginning of a spiritual journey, whether it's the journey of the seasons or the soul's journey in me for this time frame. "Mary meets Jesus and is healed of seven demons", and I assume she begins her longing for him and him for her. And thus the story of Sacred Marriage begins.
That's her in the middle in the reddish dress and long hair and her finger in her mouth in wonderment. It's not the painting I'd paint of their meeting but it's the only one I've been able to find. It's from the 14th century by Giusto de Menabuoi. She looks like she's ready for the biggest story of her life to begin, Sacred Union. It's our soul's biggest story too, the story of union with the physical dimension. It's taking place on all levels of us, the divine and the physical trying to "get it together" and create something good. We've tried it without a full Sacred Union of Mary Magdalene and Jesus and it's been a failure, but now I think we're on the better path. Healed of demons and ready for the love story.
I'm going to be giving a workshop with Natalie Maisel called "Mary Magdalene: Goddess of the Western Mystery Traditions" next month February 28, in Vista California.We'll be looking at slides of Magdalene artwork through the centuries, doing guided journey work, and sharing stories of how Magdalene is in our lives now.Love to see you there! Click here to read more about it
Watch for the monthly Magdalene Circle on January 22, 9-10 Pacific Time. Lerin Winter and Cynthia Jordan and I are having such a good time expanding the circle of women interested in Sacred Union. Click here to go to their website and listen
And lastly, Sally's been making more beautiful Magdalene chaplets and rosaries. She said she's going to get another picture to me to show them to you, but in the meantime Click here to see her website and the new ones
Hi Joan..your reflections and comments sure help warm up these cold winter days in Tennessee!..not sure why, but I never feel "the darkness" of winter..like so many,love the fires burning, hot chocolate, and a huge kettle of potato soup with cornbread muffins to feel comforted..just waiting with assurance that the new spring will bring all the new life; "awakening" from their sleep..the analogy of the new christening gown to signify both rebirth and virginal is so perfect..in the old days such workmanship was used in making these garmets or any babie's clothing so that the family would have a quality piece of clothing to pass on to other children...french crochet,ribbons, bows, were all part of the garmet..thanks for the beautiful pictures..my sister and I will be attending the conference in Raleigh..hope you can be there..sheila..: ).
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Hi Sheila,
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Hi Joan,
It took me a while to relate Brigid's Day to Mary Magdalene, but I've been thinking about it. For so many years, I celebrated with others, great Pagan group rituals for Brigid, and I wrote songs to her too. We celebrated her aspects of healing and creation, with the elements of fire (gestating new life at the warming of the year) and water (her healing well).
But I can now see the relationship to Mary Magdalene who is a healer and gestator of new life, and of course as the Bride. Perhaps even more as an Awakener of Life, a Holy Woman Goddess who calls us back to the true wisdom teachings. That in itself is a continual offering of rebirth, of the Grail's power to renew. So yes, I can see her relationship to the Celtic Goddess Brigid. Thank you for inspiring me to think along these lines!
Love, Jen
Jennifer Reif
"The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene"
www.demeter.spiritualitea.net
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Hi Jen,
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts about this, I know they are important to many people. You are truly a bridge between pagan philosophies and ceremonies and Magdalene Sacred Union christainity. And they are not opposed to each other.... of course. xoJoan
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