Dear everybody. Over the years of my work, I've found that I needed a practice that would help me connect with creation as a whole and the creator in particular. The medicine wheel and the four directions are a common theme across most traditions. It is simple and direct and gets me in touch with the great ALL that surrounds us all. I have used this for nearly thirty years and next to my meditation practice, it's the ceremony I recommend to everyone desiring further development. This is very simple, but such a fundamental step.
First find the direction of north, wherever you are. Then decide on a dedicated space. It can be a small table inside, or a larger circle outside, or four points defining a large area, it's up to you and your location. Dedicate a stone to the north, a container with water to the west, a candle or fire to the south and incense or something to represent air. As you walk around, honoring each spot, or turning your body facing the different directions, say something to honor each of them. Here are some examples. Find your own.
NORTH - earth - the magnetism of the Earth making the compass face TRUE NORTH, giving directions, clarity and purpose, the top of the
arrow, the axis of the globe.
WEST - water - the cleansing factor of creation, the way the earth turns it is always what we leave behind, leaving what is dead in
our lives, what needs to be given up in rain and showers.
SOUTH - fire - the opposite end of the arrow, the fire and energy empowering the arrow on it's way, giving us the energy we
need for our work.
EAST - air - the eternal dawn the way the earth turns, bringing in the new ideas, thoughts, energy, impulses, being what we always
turn towards.
We have now defined four geographical directions. Next define the center of your four corners, and acknowledge the column going out from there to the center of the galaxy and into the center of the earth. And finally, see that you have two directions as well. You receive the input from your surroundings, and you give out your output, all of you, all the knowledge you have just incorporated into your being.
After all of this is established, you have defined your existence in the geographical spot you find yourself in, and creation welcomes you. You have acknowledged that you are connected to the stars and the planet, and understand that you interact with your environment. The nature surrounding you welcomes you. You have also understood the male (the arrow) and the female (the turning movement) principles of the earth and you know that every evolving process has a male and female concept that need to harmonize for the project to proceed. You have balanced your inner male and female sides and enjoy a new harmony with everything.
I've been doing this simple process for a long time. It always brings clarity to the situation, clears away what's no longer needed, gives energy and oomph, and makes me ready to welcome the new. And it grounds me into a universe that's ready to help. This is the most fundamental activity you can do in your journey. First of all, get grounded and acknowledge where you are, then feel gently welcomed in the larger interwoven tapestry of all that is.
May you be blessed with clarity, a clear slate, energy for the ride, and willingness to see things anew.
Wencke.
Showing posts with label Rituals in Sacred Stone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rituals in Sacred Stone. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Sunday, April 14, 2013
The new book about Mary Magdalene.
"Rituals in Sacred Stone"
"Wencke Braathen harvests the historical and the mythical knowledge of Mary Magdalene, and renders a story that allows us to embrace both the human and divine. Rituals in Sacred Stone retells the story of Mary Magdalene and Jesus in the context of a sacred culture where joining of woman and man completes and balances the energies of the universe, and where light exists beyond death. Reading this book is a healing journey for those weary of the androgen religions"
...Carrie Ingrisano
Friday, March 8, 2013
The book is launched!
It's here!
The long awaited historical novel I've been working on for seven years. It is available on Amazon, and a click away on the image of the front cover.
For a couple of days I've felt like a mother holding her newborn, panting after a long delivery. I've been holding the book in my hand, admiring it's weight and size and allowing the front cover to to stare at me.
Balboa Press did a great job designing the front and the interior. I was envisioning a much more elaborate picture, but they suggested a more austere, simple photo where the viewer is emerging from a cave. That seems fitting for the story about this fascinating woman who have been not only covered in historic dust, but actively suppressed for close to two thousand years. Let us find our way together with her out of the cave, out of the darkness of the interiors of the earth. The story about her, the story about the suppressed feminine, need to find it's way into the sunshine, and it needs our feet to walk on.
My book takes place in Alexandria, in Jerusalem and in Southern France in their time frame. She did hide her true identity to be safe, even then, but that was by choice. According to my research, the mystery schools were in their last chapters, and the priestesses knew that their knowledge would have to be hidden to be preserved. The desert sand flew over and covered the temples, but the very stones of their buildings remember and still vibrate with their frequency.
I can't claim truth, but I can claim an interpretation based on good research, good intuition for connecting the dots of history, and personal experience from walking the sand and touching the stones where she traveled.
As I dived into this story, it did not follow the scriptures. It did not want to include every mention of her in the gospels. Instead, it wanted me to write about the intense political arena they lived in. It wanted every ritual she performed described. It focused on the profound effect she had on the development of consciousness on the earth, as she worked with the Gods behind the scenes of what was apparent. I had to feel what she experienced so I could go into the interior process of how she moved energy. It wasn't always comfortable. I was at a loss for antique sounding words for energy work, and figured that they would have had proper phrases in Aramaic and forgive my translation into modern English.
Describing how the process of enlightenment works inside your body had it's effect on me. I had to become familiar with all the ways this is described in mythology, in symbology, in stories that are found in all cultures. Giving justice to this natural process made me humble. I had to find and understand this magnificent possibility inherent in human flesh. It is our invitation as we incarnate in these incredible bodily structures that are capable of so much more than we realize.
We've learned. We've advanced, and we've forgotten. It is time to walk out of the cave. It's time to brush some dust off the desert stones and listen.
Today, March 8th, there is a celebration at the Tor in Glastonbury. It celebrates the Magdalene Stareeds now being dispersed over the earth. Read more about it here.
http://www.cosmicconsciousnessonline.com/
It seems like there is an awakening taking place across the globe. This is an awakening to partnership, to finding the balance between everything that appear as opposites. This is the balance we want to find inside every human being, the harmony inside when all of parts of you sing the same song.
Next entry will be about the process I discovered. I promise.
The long awaited historical novel I've been working on for seven years. It is available on Amazon, and a click away on the image of the front cover.
For a couple of days I've felt like a mother holding her newborn, panting after a long delivery. I've been holding the book in my hand, admiring it's weight and size and allowing the front cover to to stare at me.
Balboa Press did a great job designing the front and the interior. I was envisioning a much more elaborate picture, but they suggested a more austere, simple photo where the viewer is emerging from a cave. That seems fitting for the story about this fascinating woman who have been not only covered in historic dust, but actively suppressed for close to two thousand years. Let us find our way together with her out of the cave, out of the darkness of the interiors of the earth. The story about her, the story about the suppressed feminine, need to find it's way into the sunshine, and it needs our feet to walk on.
My book takes place in Alexandria, in Jerusalem and in Southern France in their time frame. She did hide her true identity to be safe, even then, but that was by choice. According to my research, the mystery schools were in their last chapters, and the priestesses knew that their knowledge would have to be hidden to be preserved. The desert sand flew over and covered the temples, but the very stones of their buildings remember and still vibrate with their frequency.
I can't claim truth, but I can claim an interpretation based on good research, good intuition for connecting the dots of history, and personal experience from walking the sand and touching the stones where she traveled.
As I dived into this story, it did not follow the scriptures. It did not want to include every mention of her in the gospels. Instead, it wanted me to write about the intense political arena they lived in. It wanted every ritual she performed described. It focused on the profound effect she had on the development of consciousness on the earth, as she worked with the Gods behind the scenes of what was apparent. I had to feel what she experienced so I could go into the interior process of how she moved energy. It wasn't always comfortable. I was at a loss for antique sounding words for energy work, and figured that they would have had proper phrases in Aramaic and forgive my translation into modern English.
Describing how the process of enlightenment works inside your body had it's effect on me. I had to become familiar with all the ways this is described in mythology, in symbology, in stories that are found in all cultures. Giving justice to this natural process made me humble. I had to find and understand this magnificent possibility inherent in human flesh. It is our invitation as we incarnate in these incredible bodily structures that are capable of so much more than we realize.
We've learned. We've advanced, and we've forgotten. It is time to walk out of the cave. It's time to brush some dust off the desert stones and listen.
Today, March 8th, there is a celebration at the Tor in Glastonbury. It celebrates the Magdalene Stareeds now being dispersed over the earth. Read more about it here.
http://www.cosmicconsciousnessonline.com/
It seems like there is an awakening taking place across the globe. This is an awakening to partnership, to finding the balance between everything that appear as opposites. This is the balance we want to find inside every human being, the harmony inside when all of parts of you sing the same song.
Next entry will be about the process I discovered. I promise.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
"RITUALS IN SACRED STONE", to be published by the end of March.
It's been a some time since I wrote an entry. I've been busy with the publishing process of the book. (And Christmas and my birthday.)
It is now ready for the first printing, and I'm feeling like a squirrel running up and down trees. I'm of course excited about this development, but I'm also scared to death. The research and the writing of this work has all been a very private process. Now it's all becoming public. I'm birthing a baby. I'm on the outward journey after an inward one, where I've retreated to my little room and dived into my story, walking with my characters and feeling their emotions through this dramatic story. It's been a heartwrenching experience. Mary Magdalene's life was filled with danger and heavy decisions. She was burdened with her heritage and her knowlegde. They led her to make crucial choices at difficult crossing points leading her to secretly carry a lot of information she would rather not be privelieged to have.
I've always felt that the story of the head of John the Baptist was missing some crucial elements. Young Salome wouldn't have the desire for a man's execution. There is more to the story. In one version, she consults her mother, before she presents her wish. I looked up her mother, and found that her name was Herodias, the widow of Herod Philip, who upon her husbands death was forced to marry his brother, Herod Antipas. Now the plot thickens. I also found that John the Baptist had protested against the behavior of Antipas, who had divorced his previous wife to marry Herodias, and was trying to get into the council at the Temple of Jerusalem. According to the Jews, divorce was not allowed, and only Rabbis could be on the council. What was Antipas trying to do, being a Roman with no Jewish connections? Now we have a political hornets nest which the good Baptizer put his religious nose right into.
As I researched Herodias, I found that she was educated at Ephesus, famous for it's oracle, and that she had a following of admirers. Now we have a much more interesting set up for the story.
The more I looked into the mystery schools in function at their time, I found that they all respected each other and students traveled between the different temples to learn the different traditions. The druids had their universities, the Egyptian temples had their temple schools, and the exchange of information was welcomed.
There was a different focus for the religious centers. They weren't focused on worshiping the Gods. They were working with the Gods, in the focus of the temple in questions. They were all presenting different paths to relate to the unseen forces functioning between us, whether you used them for healing, to communicate with God or to take the journey of Osiris. All the different ways were valid and seen as different paths to God.
And today we are fighting over which way to worship God, to the point of disagreeing on which hymn to sing.
It is very likely that Mary Magdalene was a highly educated priestess of rank in several temples. There were things happening around Christ which shows that they worked across many traditions and used elements from the Egyptian Journey of Osiris, the healing thechnique from the Therapautae group, the wisdom of the Nazareeans and the Essenes, and older wisdom of the Torah.
I found that the temple of Serabit on top of Sinai knew how to make monoatomic gold and how to work with it. It could be ingested to produce enlightenment from within, or it could be used as an advanced architectural technology to build pyramids.
I was now introduced a world very different than our own, and very very different than the passive church going of our time which passes as relationships to God. To these people, God was a concept that lived inside you. It was a force you learned to work with. The world behind the veils was somewhere you could learn to visit and come back from.
Did Herodias know how to create an oracle? Was the head of John the Baptist presented at the birthday party of Antipas not the product of a brutal and gory exectution, but a product of a planned operation creating an oracular head which could be woken up by an educated priestess from Ephesus? And why did Herodias want it? Or did she want it back? What happened to it afterwards? And why do we have two places, one in Spain and one in Turkey, that claim to have the head of John the Baptist on display?
On my pilgrimage through France finding the footsteps of Mary Magdalene in the Languedoc and Provence, I visited a church in a mountain town between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. This cathedral was dedicated to the Holy Balm, and I wondered what significance this herbal product could have. In their crypt they had a head on display. They claimed it was the skull of Mary Magdalene.
I was full of questions as I descended the stairs. Did someone desecrate her grave? Did they dig her up at some point and give a bone to various different churches that qualified? I actually didn't run across any other relic of her body in my travels. So why was this head saved, prepared and put on display? It was a skull with some skin still on it and some hair on one side. Was it prepared as an oracle by an expert priestess from Ephesus?
The book is coming out by the end of March. See what I found out over eight years of research and pilgrimage, both in interesting landscapes and in my own inner worlds. "Rituals in Sacred Stone" became a controversial interpretation of one of the most mysterious and compelling women in history; wife, priestess and queen, Mary Magdalene.
It's been a some time since I wrote an entry. I've been busy with the publishing process of the book. (And Christmas and my birthday.)
It is now ready for the first printing, and I'm feeling like a squirrel running up and down trees. I'm of course excited about this development, but I'm also scared to death. The research and the writing of this work has all been a very private process. Now it's all becoming public. I'm birthing a baby. I'm on the outward journey after an inward one, where I've retreated to my little room and dived into my story, walking with my characters and feeling their emotions through this dramatic story. It's been a heartwrenching experience. Mary Magdalene's life was filled with danger and heavy decisions. She was burdened with her heritage and her knowlegde. They led her to make crucial choices at difficult crossing points leading her to secretly carry a lot of information she would rather not be privelieged to have.
I've always felt that the story of the head of John the Baptist was missing some crucial elements. Young Salome wouldn't have the desire for a man's execution. There is more to the story. In one version, she consults her mother, before she presents her wish. I looked up her mother, and found that her name was Herodias, the widow of Herod Philip, who upon her husbands death was forced to marry his brother, Herod Antipas. Now the plot thickens. I also found that John the Baptist had protested against the behavior of Antipas, who had divorced his previous wife to marry Herodias, and was trying to get into the council at the Temple of Jerusalem. According to the Jews, divorce was not allowed, and only Rabbis could be on the council. What was Antipas trying to do, being a Roman with no Jewish connections? Now we have a political hornets nest which the good Baptizer put his religious nose right into.
As I researched Herodias, I found that she was educated at Ephesus, famous for it's oracle, and that she had a following of admirers. Now we have a much more interesting set up for the story.
The more I looked into the mystery schools in function at their time, I found that they all respected each other and students traveled between the different temples to learn the different traditions. The druids had their universities, the Egyptian temples had their temple schools, and the exchange of information was welcomed.
There was a different focus for the religious centers. They weren't focused on worshiping the Gods. They were working with the Gods, in the focus of the temple in questions. They were all presenting different paths to relate to the unseen forces functioning between us, whether you used them for healing, to communicate with God or to take the journey of Osiris. All the different ways were valid and seen as different paths to God.
And today we are fighting over which way to worship God, to the point of disagreeing on which hymn to sing.
It is very likely that Mary Magdalene was a highly educated priestess of rank in several temples. There were things happening around Christ which shows that they worked across many traditions and used elements from the Egyptian Journey of Osiris, the healing thechnique from the Therapautae group, the wisdom of the Nazareeans and the Essenes, and older wisdom of the Torah.
I found that the temple of Serabit on top of Sinai knew how to make monoatomic gold and how to work with it. It could be ingested to produce enlightenment from within, or it could be used as an advanced architectural technology to build pyramids.
I was now introduced a world very different than our own, and very very different than the passive church going of our time which passes as relationships to God. To these people, God was a concept that lived inside you. It was a force you learned to work with. The world behind the veils was somewhere you could learn to visit and come back from.
Did Herodias know how to create an oracle? Was the head of John the Baptist presented at the birthday party of Antipas not the product of a brutal and gory exectution, but a product of a planned operation creating an oracular head which could be woken up by an educated priestess from Ephesus? And why did Herodias want it? Or did she want it back? What happened to it afterwards? And why do we have two places, one in Spain and one in Turkey, that claim to have the head of John the Baptist on display?
On my pilgrimage through France finding the footsteps of Mary Magdalene in the Languedoc and Provence, I visited a church in a mountain town between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. This cathedral was dedicated to the Holy Balm, and I wondered what significance this herbal product could have. In their crypt they had a head on display. They claimed it was the skull of Mary Magdalene.
I was full of questions as I descended the stairs. Did someone desecrate her grave? Did they dig her up at some point and give a bone to various different churches that qualified? I actually didn't run across any other relic of her body in my travels. So why was this head saved, prepared and put on display? It was a skull with some skin still on it and some hair on one side. Was it prepared as an oracle by an expert priestess from Ephesus?
The book is coming out by the end of March. See what I found out over eight years of research and pilgrimage, both in interesting landscapes and in my own inner worlds. "Rituals in Sacred Stone" became a controversial interpretation of one of the most mysterious and compelling women in history; wife, priestess and queen, Mary Magdalene.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
"RITUALS IN SACRED STONE"
This is the title of my book which is in process with Balboa Press. It will be out December/January, I am of course hoping for a Christmas launch.
Balboa is promising that it will be available on Amazon, offered to "Barnes and Noble" and numerous other bookstores. We will create a press release and I hope to make some waves with this.
Mary Magdalene's immense historical importance has been suppressed and ignored for more than a thousand years. It is time to separate the Biblical Jesus, the historical Jesus and the persona surrounded by dogmas by the Catholic church. They really are three very different entities and people have very different relationships with them.
Many are familiar with the Biblical Jesus and the stories in the New Testament. They are somewhat repeated four times, and are short with relatively little additional information about his life. The saviour presented by the Catholic Church is floating in a sea of concepts connected to symbols that have attached themselves to peoples DNA through the centuries of systematic insistence on their importance. Most of them are constructs to install a true fear of stepping outside the accepted realm of the church. It has been extraordinarily effective in creating good sheep instead of free thinking people encouraged to continue their own inquiry.
The historical Jesus is starting to take shape as he is uncovered from historical dust and intentional coverups. Many great authors have done some remarkable research and written great academic books that give a vivid picture of his time and culture. We are fleshing out the story, making Jesus a person who lived a life on Earth and changed history.
As we are finding the man who's teachings shaped Western civilization we are insisting on discovering more of his human side. Afterall, he lived a life as a human among other human beings, in a culture that was bustling with political strife, bombarded with influences from all the different nations within the Roman empire and with his own struggles to define his role in a religious world in turmoil. What makes me stand in awe at this process we are tumbling our way through, as we separate what is belief and what is more likely historically true, we are somehow managing to allow his humanity and his divinity to coexist. Yes, he was human in his life among us, but he was also extremely conscious of his divine side and in close connection with God, angels and the unseen forces that guide our lives.
And as we are defining Jesus as both human and divine, we are finding our own divinity. We are also both human and divine. This is becoming a more conscious thought among us and expanding our view of ourselves. And like Jesus said; we can achieve the same state of consciousness as him. We might still have to recognize our shortcomings and in all humility take an inventory of ourselves, and then set out to do some serious inner work. But by finding His human side, we are finding our own divine spark.
The greeting of Namaste is such a beautiful way of recognizing our fellow citizens of this planet. The true meaning of the greeting is; "The spark of God within me recognizes the spark of God within you." If we all could greet eachother with this in mind, there would be PEACE on earth.
This is the title of my book which is in process with Balboa Press. It will be out December/January, I am of course hoping for a Christmas launch.
Balboa is promising that it will be available on Amazon, offered to "Barnes and Noble" and numerous other bookstores. We will create a press release and I hope to make some waves with this.
Mary Magdalene's immense historical importance has been suppressed and ignored for more than a thousand years. It is time to separate the Biblical Jesus, the historical Jesus and the persona surrounded by dogmas by the Catholic church. They really are three very different entities and people have very different relationships with them.
Many are familiar with the Biblical Jesus and the stories in the New Testament. They are somewhat repeated four times, and are short with relatively little additional information about his life. The saviour presented by the Catholic Church is floating in a sea of concepts connected to symbols that have attached themselves to peoples DNA through the centuries of systematic insistence on their importance. Most of them are constructs to install a true fear of stepping outside the accepted realm of the church. It has been extraordinarily effective in creating good sheep instead of free thinking people encouraged to continue their own inquiry.
The historical Jesus is starting to take shape as he is uncovered from historical dust and intentional coverups. Many great authors have done some remarkable research and written great academic books that give a vivid picture of his time and culture. We are fleshing out the story, making Jesus a person who lived a life on Earth and changed history.
As we are finding the man who's teachings shaped Western civilization we are insisting on discovering more of his human side. Afterall, he lived a life as a human among other human beings, in a culture that was bustling with political strife, bombarded with influences from all the different nations within the Roman empire and with his own struggles to define his role in a religious world in turmoil. What makes me stand in awe at this process we are tumbling our way through, as we separate what is belief and what is more likely historically true, we are somehow managing to allow his humanity and his divinity to coexist. Yes, he was human in his life among us, but he was also extremely conscious of his divine side and in close connection with God, angels and the unseen forces that guide our lives.
And as we are defining Jesus as both human and divine, we are finding our own divinity. We are also both human and divine. This is becoming a more conscious thought among us and expanding our view of ourselves. And like Jesus said; we can achieve the same state of consciousness as him. We might still have to recognize our shortcomings and in all humility take an inventory of ourselves, and then set out to do some serious inner work. But by finding His human side, we are finding our own divine spark.
The greeting of Namaste is such a beautiful way of recognizing our fellow citizens of this planet. The true meaning of the greeting is; "The spark of God within me recognizes the spark of God within you." If we all could greet eachother with this in mind, there would be PEACE on earth.
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