Inner Candlemas
Posted by Joan Norton at 1/24/2010 8:16 AM 
Categories: Seasonal festivals
Tags: Candlemas. Brigit's Day 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene. Magdalene Circles
Categories: Seasonal festivals
Tags: Candlemas. Brigit's Day 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene. Magdalene Circles
It used to be called "sparking", didn't it? Maybe it was in my grandmother's generation, I'm not sure. It's a perfect word for feeling the life force energies between people. "Courting" doesn't quite convey the feeling. In the dreamworld there are often stories of meeting someone and feeling the spark of attraction, and it might not be with your current mate. Then we must do the work of understanding what our soul wants to do in "hooking you up" with that person. There's some good reason for it, some consciousnesss to bring forth, some feeling wanting to be felt. Why that particular person? Why go to the trouble of creating the story as a "sparky" story, one with physical attraction? You know the answer. Because life isn't moved forward with mental prowess only, it's moved forward by heart prowess. And we know now that the intellect is in the heart as well, so maybe we can let go of referring to the heart as feelings only.
The quickening of the potential for new life is Candlemas , but we can't be sure yet if it will germinate, gestate, and be born. You never know about attractions. Or seedlings. We accept the readiness inside ourselves, we accept the energy of coming forth out of the dark of winter and the new year laid out ahead. We place ourselves in readiness for MORE.
Was Mary Magdalene's alabaster jar always a full one? Or was there a time before she was ready to anoint with it's contents that she stood by herself, with the vessel, and wondered if she was able? When the demons are healed and gone, for the year or for the moment, there's a moment of stillness before dominion is accepted. Do we think she had such a moment? We have lots of pictures of her with pensive, inward, contemplative moods, but we don't have stories that might reveal to us the wonderings she had before she acted. Maybe it's better described as an inner waiting, and Candlemas is the answer to the waiting. She has a quality of reserve and waiting in this famous picture of her.
Candlemas says it's time to accept the spark of life that's happening. I think the dreams with attractions say something similar, it's time to accept that there's something to learn with whatever this other person represents to you, something to experience consciously. Inner or outer.
There's a fire in the chalice right now, the spark of newness. We're being asked to take dominion of it, to hold the chalice as our own and guard the spark of life wherever we personally perceive it. It's going to be different in each, but the job for each is the same and that's to believe ourselves and take dominion of our story. Mary Magdalene represents dominion of her land and her people, as the Sacred and Divine Feminine in her loving union with the world and with each other. That's why we have so many stained glass windows where she's holding a church or a building and she has the land around her. I know this is a window of the Celtic Brigit , who's iconography is the same.
Celtic lands are full of placenames that echo the stories of Jesus' relationship to Joseph of Arimathea and his early life presence in those lands, and Mary the Magdalene travels right along with his story , no matter what name you give "the Bride".
There she stands in readiness, with the capability of dominion over her land and people. Each of us feeling that way over our own life is what is going to heal the world. A little at a time, feeling the spark and being willing for the union with that part of ourselves that's going forward.
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Do you want to hear some strongly moving poetry about Magdalene? Go to www.SpirituallySpeaking.webs.com and listen to the archived Magdalene Circle show from January 22,2010. Penn Kemp and Katerina Fretwell read "Magdalene Rising" and it was just wonderful to hear their strong and feelingful voices place "our Magdalene" in the company of the goddesses she is with. Google both these accomplished women and you will see more about their poetry.
The sign-ups for the February 28 workshop in Vista, California are going well and I'm looking forward to meeting some very, very interesting women there.Sally's going to bring her rosaries. Thank you Natalie Maisel and Lisa Starr for creating this workshop.
You can see more details and register by clicking here
And here's some news for people in the Seattle area. Margaret Starbird has written a Miracle Play which will be performed on Saturday March 20 at The Interfaith Community Church in Ballard. Here's more information Click here to see the poster of the play
The quickening of the potential for new life is Candlemas , but we can't be sure yet if it will germinate, gestate, and be born. You never know about attractions. Or seedlings. We accept the readiness inside ourselves, we accept the energy of coming forth out of the dark of winter and the new year laid out ahead. We place ourselves in readiness for MORE.
Was Mary Magdalene's alabaster jar always a full one? Or was there a time before she was ready to anoint with it's contents that she stood by herself, with the vessel, and wondered if she was able? When the demons are healed and gone, for the year or for the moment, there's a moment of stillness before dominion is accepted. Do we think she had such a moment? We have lots of pictures of her with pensive, inward, contemplative moods, but we don't have stories that might reveal to us the wonderings she had before she acted. Maybe it's better described as an inner waiting, and Candlemas is the answer to the waiting. She has a quality of reserve and waiting in this famous picture of her. Candlemas says it's time to accept the spark of life that's happening. I think the dreams with attractions say something similar, it's time to accept that there's something to learn with whatever this other person represents to you, something to experience consciously. Inner or outer.
There's a fire in the chalice right now, the spark of newness. We're being asked to take dominion of it, to hold the chalice as our own and guard the spark of life wherever we personally perceive it. It's going to be different in each, but the job for each is the same and that's to believe ourselves and take dominion of our story. Mary Magdalene represents dominion of her land and her people, as the Sacred and Divine Feminine in her loving union with the world and with each other. That's why we have so many stained glass windows where she's holding a church or a building and she has the land around her. I know this is a window of the Celtic Brigit , who's iconography is the same.
Celtic lands are full of placenames that echo the stories of Jesus' relationship to Joseph of Arimathea and his early life presence in those lands, and Mary the Magdalene travels right along with his story , no matter what name you give "the Bride".
There she stands in readiness, with the capability of dominion over her land and people. Each of us feeling that way over our own life is what is going to heal the world. A little at a time, feeling the spark and being willing for the union with that part of ourselves that's going forward.
*****************
Do you want to hear some strongly moving poetry about Magdalene? Go to www.SpirituallySpeaking.webs.com and listen to the archived Magdalene Circle show from January 22,2010. Penn Kemp and Katerina Fretwell read "Magdalene Rising" and it was just wonderful to hear their strong and feelingful voices place "our Magdalene" in the company of the goddesses she is with. Google both these accomplished women and you will see more about their poetry.
The sign-ups for the February 28 workshop in Vista, California are going well and I'm looking forward to meeting some very, very interesting women there.Sally's going to bring her rosaries. Thank you Natalie Maisel and Lisa Starr for creating this workshop.
You can see more details and register by clicking here
And here's some news for people in the Seattle area. Margaret Starbird has written a Miracle Play which will be performed on Saturday March 20 at The Interfaith Community Church in Ballard. Here's more information Click here to see the poster of the play
Someone asked me this week for the recorded meditations that go with 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine: Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene , so here they are again. Click here for the recorded Magdalene Meditations
Thanks Joan, the stillness in the heart..'before....anything!
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That's a wonderful phrase, Cintra, thank you. All the time I"ve been thinking and writing about Candlemas your GoddessDolls have come into my mind. It's so powerful a time for "playing with dolls" as a path of creation. When I read about the rituals of putting the Brigid/Bride doll out to receive the Goddess' blessing, I thought of your creations. www.theGoddessDolls.com for anyone who hasn't seen them yet.
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hi joan...you are so right about the difference between "sparking" and "courting"...in this area they still use the phrase courting, but the attraction to a person or "way of life" definitely involves the heart attraction as all other elements of attraction...just read recently that a person's scent is one of the main reasons we are attracted..however, I'm not sure about that..though on some levels I guess we are animal.thank you for the photographs...blessings,,wish i could attend your event in February...sheila..: )..
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Hi Sheila,
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