I've returned from England, where I enjoyed an amazing, enriching, and Goddess-exploring stay in Bath and the surrounding areas in Southwestern England, including Salisbury and the more reknowned Glastonbury.
I found myself there by following a path of synchronicities, and allowing myself to be led by the wisdom of my Heart. I'm so glad that I did.
The Divine Mother and Beloved are calling me back, and draw me to whatever places and spaces that awaken my energy and memory.
I'll be sharing more about and from my visit in the coming days and weeks, and weaving into it experiences and photos from my weeks in France and Spain in October 2005. But for now, Bath and England and the powerful energies there.
Bath is the home and sacred place of the powerful healing presence and energy that the ancients named Sulis, an expression or manifestation of the Goddess.
The Romans, upon their arrival at Bath, felt the manifestation of Minerva, and so it became known as Sulis-Minerva. It is the site of England's only geo-thermal hot springs, and thus has for millennia been a place visited for its healing waters as well as healing energies.
More on Sulis and Bath in a later post.
As I wrapped up my visit and was heading back towards London, where I would catch a flight the next morning, I found myself in Salisbury, and in the abbey there. As it turned out, it was an ancestral visit, as Salisbury Cathedral and Abbey houses one of four copies of the Magna Carta, which one of my ancestors helped bring about and signed.
But the real surprise, as I wandered through the beautiful cathedral was coming upon a chapel dedicated to prayer for 'prisoners of conscience', which featured a stunning stained glass window.
Looking over this chapel, dedicated to mindfulness of and prayer for those who are being held prisoner throughout the world, was a dark madonna.
For any who know the archetype of the dark or black madonna, and the many things She symbolizes, you will know that there is no more appropriate place for Her than this space dedicated to those who have been forgotten, who are being held captive, who are being treated cruelly.
To those who are lost to the awareness of many but who live still, yearning to be remembered, wanting beyond anything else to be liberated, freed, living once again in the Hearts of all, out in the open.
The dark madonna stands for many things in addition to this. She symbolizes deep wisdom, authentic power, the confidence that is staked and sourced in that which cannot be shaken.
She symbolizes remembrance, wholeness, creativity, and power in its most fierce and uncompromising state. Power, that is, that is not abused or coming out of fear, scarcity, imbalance, or fragmentation. Power from wholeness and unity is something altogether different.
That it has been disinherited, dethroned, relegated to the dark corners of our subconscious awareness is, in part, why the dark madonna is what she is.
It is known that the late Pope John Paul prayed earnestly to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, who was also the patron saint of the solidarity movement leaders.
There are many who have sought Her wisdom and strength; many who have kept her alive, though still in the darkness and shadow, away from more broad awareness.
It is this Whole Feminine, this symbol of deep wisdom and Unity, of remembrance and healing of what has been fragmented and abused, that is needed right now in the world.
She is calling for remembrance and expression in our work places, in our leadership, in the way we understand and express ourselves. The heartbeat grows louder, and the need for it grows as well. As we remember Her, she expresses herself more powerfully through us.
Until next time,
Jamie
Image Credits: photos of Aqua Sulis and Salisbury Black Madonna from my trip pics.
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