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As Above So Below

I have been posting videos on my Youtube Channel, The Heart of the Black Madonna and blogging on this page for about six years now. Much has happened in those six years, I published a book, let go of an old life and embraced a new one. Not only has the world changed, I have changed in ways I could never had imagined when I started my journey with The Black Madonna so many years ago. My understanding and research on The Black Madonna has evolved. When I started this journey back in 2002, the information and academic sources were limited, with new discoveries in archeology and more inclusive voices participating in the history of Christianity, much of what I have been studying since then has refined and expanded my context for The Black Madonna.

Most people find me through the first video, and that is where I get all my comments. As I have said numerous times, I do not claim to be the be all end all voice or expert on the Black Madonna, I simply wish to share my insights and my research, I invite everyone to delve into the topic and follow where your heart, mind and spirit leads you. I view the Black Madonna through the lens of Esoteric Christianity and Anthroposophy. The Black Madonna has meaning for me through Esoteric Christianity, but I recognize people view this beautiful and enigmatic art form through many different lenses. All views, all perspectives and insights are valuable.

As I have been researching for many different topics, and for a walk along the Camino de Santiago, I have come across many interesting themes related to The Black Madonna. The Camino is called “de Compostela” which means “The Way of the Stars” In some of my original research on the topic, I learned the reason this name was given to the ancient pilgrim route was that the path along the mountains reminded the ancients of the Milky Way, or our star system.

I find it interesting that our cluster of stars is called “milky way” Why is our system called “Milky Way” Astronomers tell us that the name has been in use since at least the time of the Greeks, and was given because the amount of stars created a look of milk when one looked up to the night sky. Unfortunately with light pollution, we cannot always see the amazing amounts of stars in the heavens, but if you ever can go on a very high mountain peak or in the middle of the desert, it is really quite a sight to behold.

If we consider this interesting fact about the Camino, or the Way of the Stars, it is an example of an ancient cosmic context that everything in the heavens is reflected on the earth. In ancient times, human were thought to be miniature cosmoses. Something I learned in Acupuncture school was that each acupuncture point in the body was related to a star. I just loved when I learned that, it was so much more elegant and interesting than saying something was “bladder 12” but the English naming system is a result of the communists taking over the Taoists philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. They obviously threw out the cosmic baby with the bathwater in that one.

Man as part of the cosmos and the Trinity by Hildegard of Bingen

I have learned through my research that there are quite remarkable star correspondences with things on earth. One of the most interesting I have uncovered is the pattern of churches, great cathedrals in France. If we look at the Virgo Constellation in the heavens, and we place a map of the stars that make up the constellation, we find a pattern where churches, all dedicated to The Virgin Mary are placed in a correspondence to stars in the constellation. The most significant one in my estimation is the connection between Chartres Cathedral and the star Porrima in the Virgo Constellation. Porrima is the goddess of birth, of head first birth, the ancients had a god and goddess for every occasion, and apparently there is a goddess for breech birth. The cathedral Notre Dame de Chartres, there are no graves, no relics other than the birth shawl of the virgin, and the entire cathedral is a shrine to Mary as well as Human endeavors such as vocations and the arts. So much to do with birth and the head in terms of thinking.

Another very interesting correspondence is in the great Byzantine Cathedral Hagia Sophia in what is now called Istanbul. It was built in the 6th century, and if you go through the royal entrance, you will see a big arrow pointing upward.

When you set foot onto the coronation area of the royal area, there is a beautiful marble mosaic which we know to be a model of the Lyra Constellation, or the Lyre, which is the instrument of Apollo. The coordinates of the earthly location of the Hagia Sophia if plugged into a map of the stars, there is a correspondence with the coordinates of the Lyre Constellation. So we see another very interesting relationship between the earth and the heavens.

For those of you who are familiar with ancient Egypt, as well as Stonehenge, we know there are correspondences between the constellation of Orion and these monuments. We also have noticed an interesting pattern in churches where they place their windows and altars in places where during different times of the year the sun hits certain spots of the church on say the Summer Solstice and so on. So we see that in times past there was a lot of attention relating things on earth with the heavens

As Above So Below by Brenda Erikson 

available through Society6 Society6.com

The statement: “As above So Below,” is an ancient dictum that concisely shows the relationship between the cosmos and the human being and the earth.

There is a wonderful exploration of this topic in a book called Astrogeographia, which is essentially the science of correspondences between the Stars and Earthly Locations. I noticed something very interesting in one of the last chapters, looking at the earth and her chakras. Chakras is a Sanskrit term from Hindu philosophy for energy centers in the body. In the Buddhist tradition these centers are considered lotuses, which vary in the numbers of petals they are supposed to have at different locations on the body. Of note is that these lotus petalled flowers on the body that correspond with chakras, are also corresponding with the seven endocrine glands of the human hormonal system. Carolyn Myss  in her landmark book Anatomy of the Spirit made connections between the Seven Christian Sacraments, the Jewish Tree of Life and the Hindu Chakra System.

The number seven and cycles of seven is universal, there are seven days in the week and seven classical planets (which includes the sun and moon) As I said before, the Chakras are also associated with both endocrine glands as well as organs.

Richard Leviton in his landmark book The Imagination of Pentecost:Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Spirituality, writes about the Logos, the Cosmic Word that resounds through the universe. Drawing on several streams, Leviton explores how the Logos interacts within the Human, with the aid of the Angelic world. In video posted on Advent and the Descent into Darkness, I spoke of how the cosmic energy is breathed into the human through our etheric body, and how we process this cosmic energy and breathe it out as the music of the spheres. In essence, we participate with and co-create the cosmos within our bodies, our etheric bodies. Through this action, the universe imprints and acts within us in a delightful reciprocal manner.

Getting back to the Astrogeographia, something I find rather beautiful in the discussion is the concept of how the starry world has made an imprint on the earth. I cannot begin to explain the mathematical calculations determining the locations of the pathways and such, I invite my listeners and readers to read this book for a comprehensive explanation. What I took away from this thesis, was the location of the “Fourth Chakra” of the earth.

The Fourth chakra on humans is related to both the Heart and the Sun. On Earth, according to historical and Astrogeographia research, the fourth chakra is related to Africa. The calculations mix together Jerusalem, the site of the deed of Christ with the continent of Africa as the heart of the earth.

When we superimpose this with the fact that Black Madonnas come from Africa and the areas surrounding Jerusalem, that many Black Madonnas were discovered in Palestine and Jerusalem by St Helen of the Cross, and brought to the European continent to be distributed from there, that Coptic Monks from North Africa brought Black Madonnas to the European Continent starting in the 4th century, that the first Christian fathers, saints and communities were in Africa and they flourished for centuries, I find this so very fascinating and meaningful.

I find it meaningful that these Black Beauties originate from the heart of the earth, and we could actually see this as the relationship of the Sun, which is the center of the universe, on the Earth. The metal related to the Sun is Gold, and Africa is the continent with the most Gold on the planet, the Lion is the animal related to the Sun, and the heart, and is related to courage. Black is the color of cosmic origins, but also of cosmic will being transformed into human will. The Black Madonnas came en mass to the European Continent during the age of the Crusades. Rudolf Steiner tells us the Crusades were a preparation for the age of Consciousness Soul, our current era. It is a difficult era, and exhausting era, we need much courage to endure these times when we are reshaping and reorienting our relationship with the Spiritual world. Before this time, we had a more direct, but less independent and unconscious relationship with spirit, now we must use our will to refine our intellect and thinking to be conscious of Spirit. The challenges of our era are part of this refinement and education.

Isn’t it a gracious gesture from the Spiritual World to place Black Madonnas from the Heart of the World, to show us we must have courage for our times?

So many symbols, so many messages. I hope you enjoyed this, please subscribe to this channel etc.

And many blessings to you on your journey of the Soul

There Has Never Been a Better Time to Be A Pilgrim