Water Madonnas Introduction

Stella Maris

I was raised Catholic as a child but as I grew to the age of reason I questioned the church. I had the need to search for a direct experience with God. This longing lead me down pathways of other cultures and spiritual practices for many years.  I worked with Native American teachers for 12 years which  open my eyes to see the separation that Christian dogma that created a split between Spirit and Nature in the consciousness of Western Society. This is the root of our Environmental crisis we are facing today. I realized that I needed to go deeper into the my own European roots to begin to heal this gap between Spirit, Mother Nature and myself.  This healing began by studying the Sacred Flora of the Madonna in Europe and visiting her Pilgrimage Sites. 

The Sacred Sites of Europe dedicated to the Virgin Mary were built over older sites dedicated to the pagan Mother Goddess.  Mary absorbed many aspects of the different Goddesses of the Land.  When the Protestant Reformation came into play, the devotion to Mary was ultimately thrown out.  The Reformation cut the people off from their roots with the Earth, which was then replaced with a masculine based religion which worshiped only the Father God and his heavenly realm.

Mary, for 2000 years, held the memories and traditions of the Mother aspect of God. People prayed to Mary to bless their fields, made pilgrimage to her Healing Springs and laid their harvest at her feet to be blessed.  Yes, Mother Mary is the historical Mother of Jesus, but with her own enlightenment, she became the Mother of the World which includes the mountains, the flowers in the fields, the food we eat, the families we raise and our physical bodies.  Blessed Mary is so much bigger than just the Mother of Jesus; she became the "Mother of All.”

I have practiced daily Water Offerings for over twenty years this practice guided me to making pilgrimages to what I call “The Water Madonnas.”  Many of the Blessed Mother’s Pilgrimage sites are associated with the Element of Water such as Our Lady of Lourdes, Stella Maris and Our Lady Regla, Our Lady of the River, Our Lady of the Lake and Our Lady of the Snows, I consider as Water Madonnas. Water Offerings when done daily will reveal the mysteries to you and the Water Element will mirror back the truth of reality. 

The last two summers my husband, Matt and I travel the Oregon mountains and coastal line two up on a motorcycle.  We would pass through small towns and find outdoor shrine which we visited.  Even though the statues of many of these outdoor shrines are simple I was amazed at the downpour of Blessing I experience each time we stopped and took the time to pray for the environment. Water Pilgrimages are about Healing our Emotions and the Element of Water that is so out of balance at this time on Earth. All Pilgrimage becomes a mirror of yourself and with this said I would like to introduce to you to a few of the Water Madonnas in the Western Tradition.

Stella Maris the Star of the Sea

Stella Maris came from the Hebrew word Maryam and was translated into Stella Maris, "a drop of the sea”.  In the 4th century, St. Jerome translated the name from Stella Maris into “The Star of the Sea.”   Stella Maris is the patron saint of sailors who looked to her to guide and protect their ships.  The ship captains used the Morning Star, Venus, to chart their course at sea.  Symbolically speaking, Mary is the Morning Star to guide our souls through our lives.  Stella Maris has been known to calm the waters at sea and bring good luck for fishing.

There is a beach town, in the South of France, named Agde He'rault.  A story is told of the townspeople seeing the Blessed Mother appearing on a rock during a massive storm.  Waves were ready to wash over the village when the townspeople saw the Virgin on the rock calming the waters.  When the storm was over, the townspeople went to the rock.  There on the rock was an impression of the profile of Mary wearing her mantle.  It was Stella Maris calming the sea. 

There was once a Medieval alchemist known as Arnold of Villeneuve.  He was the father of St. Roseline of Villeneuve.  St. Roseline is known as one of the incorruptible saints.  Her body can still be viewed in a chapel in Provence. 

Arnold was a mystic and also a physician, who was known to understand the Alchemical Art of Stella Maris.  In alchemy, Stella Maris meant that one could sweeten the sea's saltwater.  If we look at this alchemical process as symbolic, what is being said?  Salt represents the many dramas we go through in life, which can often leave us feeling wounded.  Someone who can transform the baggage of their old emotional stories, by introspection, release, and rising in spacious love, brings freedom.  It is at that moment, that the seas parts, the water turns to wine, and even the sea's salt is sweetened because we have a greater view.  It is truly the process of all spiritual practices, not physically, but spiritually and emotionally speaking.  In those moments of grace, miracles can even happen on the physical plane.  Stella Maris’s symbol is an anchor.  Spiritual practices dedicated to Stella Maris heals our emotions but also anchors the truth into our emotional body. 

She can also be prayed to for the healing of our oceans. Now more than ever, we need to look at what we are doing to our oceans collectively. Like the forest trees that create oxygen for this planet, so does the plankton of the seas.  All of life was born from the oceans, and now our oceans are dying.  There are many environmental problems, which can be quite overwhelming to us in how to proceed.  "What can I do?” we may ask, "I am only a drop in the ocean.”  Prayers and pilgrimage to Stella Maris can guide you in your quest in life.  It can be used as blessing for all life forms in our polluted oceans.  Prayers for your own alignment can give you your life's purpose. Her feast day is September 27th.

 Hymn to Stella Maris

Queen of the Waves, look forth across the ocean From north to south,

 from east to stormy west, See how the waters with tumultuous motion Rise up and foam without a pause or rest.

But fear we not, tho’ storm clouds round us gather, Thou art our Mother and thy little Child

Is the All Merciful, our loving Brother

God of the sea and of the tempest wild.

Help, then sweet Queen, in our exceeding danger, By thy seven griefs, in pity Lady save;

Think of the Babe that slept within the manger And help us now, dear Lady of the Wave.

Up to thy shrine we look and see the glimmer Thy votive lamp sheds down on us afar;

Light of our eyes, oh let it ne’er grow dimmer, Till in the sky we hail the morning star.

Then joyful hearts shall kneel around thine altar 

And grateful psalms re-echo down the nave; 

Never our faith in thy sweet power can falter, Mother of God, our Lady of the Wave.

Queen of the Waves 

Sung by French fishermen seeking protection from storms

(Public domain)

Lady Regla

One of my favorite Madonnas I have visited is Our Lady Regla in Miami.  September 7th is her feast day.  Her shrine is in Little Havana, one of the poorest parts of the city. Underneath the skirts of Our Lady Regla is the ancient African Water Goddess Yemaya. I have visited many Black Virgins in Europe, but it was in the USA that I found the Black Madonna that blew my heart open. 

Regla speaks to something profound inside of me.  Her primordial connection is with the Earth, the Waters, and our emotions while simultaneously she connects one with the Higher Planes. The Royal Star Regulus, which is the origin of Regla's name, has been long associated with kings.  It is also the infamous North Star that ships at sea use to navigate their voyage because it moves so slowly in the skies.  It takes 72 years for the Star Regulus to move just one degree in the sky, which means that it takes 2160 years to go through one astrological sign.  Regulus had been in the sign of Leo since Julius Caesar, but since 2012, it has moved into zero degrees Virgo, "the sign of the Virgin.”  What does this mean as an arch-type?  The sign position of zero is like having the Virgin Mary arch-type as "Empty Space”.  That Empty Space can also translate into the Empty Heart, which is the very Essence of Love. 

Our Lady Regla's skirts are the mighty Ocean Waves, the primordial waters in the womb of every mother.  Her darkness brings each one of us to the very last atom of our DNA, which can be traced back to one African Woman. Lady Regla is the darkness of matter, but she does not lose her way because she is also the Guiding Star of our Higher Self.  It is called "No Self " in some circles.  Lady Regla is both a drop in the Ocean and all of the Oceans.  She is the mighty river and our very own bloodstream.  She is our Guiding Star.  She is a paradox that now stands in the very Essence of Silent Knowing, no words, no form but also within all forms.  She is the Virgin of new possibilities when we are ready to purify all the layers of our emotions, notions, and old programs that no longer serve us or this planet. She is the Heart Essence of Pure Unconditional Love.  She is un-yielding waves of Unconditional Love.  She stands as a lighthouse as storms rage in this world, calling us home to the Silence found in our own Heart Center.

Regla's regalia is shells, anchors and stars.  Her clothing is in the hues of blue.  Her offerings are crabs and bowls of Holy Water.  Her feast day is also hurricane season in Miami.  During this time, she is brought out of the Church and carried through the streets as a Protective Procession.  She can be prayed to for emotional healing, healing of our Oceans, or any form of water.  She also has been used for healing relationships.  Her Presence calms storms and guides ships to safe harbor.  It also includes emotional storms in one's life.  She brings protection in travel, especially in crossing the oceans or any body of water.  Fisherman and sailors prayed to her for safe passage and a good catch.

Water has no sense of its self.

It changes form from a pure mountain spring to a babbling brook,

to a mighty river that rushes to the Great Ocean.

It can be ice or snow or a raging storm.

And then at the right moment the sun shines and it surrenders,

evaporates and transforms to cloud offerings that fly

through the air with the greatest of ease and brings the

Blessings of rain to this Earth for everyone’s benefit.”

–Raylene Abbott

Our of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes is the famous apparition that happen in a small village at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains in the South of France.  This small town was once occupied by the Romans in the first century B.C.  There are remains of a Roman Temple dedicated to the water gods that originally the Catholic Church was built over its foundation.  It was much later the famous visionary Saint Bernadette had a vision of the Virgin Mary February 11th 1858 at the cave of Massabielle. Over the next few months Bernadette had a series of apparitions of the Blessed Mother. She was told by the Virgin Mary to dig into the ground where a hidden spring was revealed. Then she was asked to drink of the waters from the spring.  This spring became  the World renowned pilgrimage site where people from all over the world have come to pray to Our Lady of Lourdes to be healed.  

Saint Bernadette is not the only person that had experienced visions of Our Lady only a few kilometers from Lourdes  shepherds were grazing their sheep in the mountains when they saw a blazing light which led them to a statue of the Virgin Mary. Later a chapel was built on the very site they found the statue. 

 

It was in the 16th century the12 year old e Angleezed de Sagazzan also had visitations from the Virgin Mary in the town of Garaizon very close to Lourdes.  But rather than healing water the power of abundant food supply manifested with the visions of Our Lady.

Our Lady of Lourdes is connected to Water Healing and can be called upon to heal not only our bodies but also our emotions.  I have developed a practice of praying daily with a small amounts of Lourdes Water and offering this water to places in Nature during my travels.  

Raylene Abbott has a new book coming out December 2021 “ Novenas for Now”  Novenas are Christian prayer petitions that have been used since the Middle Ages to help with the problems one may come across in life and support the soul’s evolution.  This book is laced with stories that honor the ancestors and many old European traditions and feast days and living in harmony with Mother Nature.  

You can contact Raylene through Global Pilgrimage on Facebook or by email: rayleneabbott@gmail.com