Some of the themes of the Sacred Mysteries of Mary Deck

Three of Holy Rood - The Three Marys at the Cross

The Mysteries of Mary deck

 is a reweaving and remembering of many stories and

themes.  It is inspired by the Lesser and the Higher Mysteries

of Mary.  Some of these are told in the Christian Bible, 

some in the Koran and many are retold through myth and

folklore.  There are also esoteric and apocryphal books

that tell the stories of Mary, the feminine counterpart

of the Divine Creator in the Western religion and myth

and many of these stories have been included to

create The Mysteries of Mary deck.

Woven into the tapestry of myth, metaphor and

inspiration, are fairytales and in particular, the

folktale of The Handless Maiden.  And so are

the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, 

pagan and especially the Judaic

history which is the precursor to the Christian mysteries.

The deck is a marriage of opposites, a living

hieros gamos which follows the sacred journey

of the Holy Fool through the nine lesser mysteries

and through the five higher mysteries.

 The four suits are based on the cycle of life

as embodied by the life of the hawthorn tree and by 

the four mysteries of the Rosary sacred to Mary.

The hawthorn tree has long been held as sacred

to the goddess in various cultures and history.

The tree was revered as the sacred tree of

the celtic Goddesses Olwen and Brigid.  The Hawthorn was 

also held sacred to the Greek Maia and the Roman Flora

and the list continues.

Today the Hawthorn tree is one of the trees and plants
that are sacred to the

Blessed Virgin Mary.
There was a time when the

tree was called the 'May'.  The month of May is

regarded as the month sacred to Mary and there

are special Marian devotions held in the Roman

Catholic Church during the month of May.

These include the symbolic crowning of Mary

with a head garland of flowers.

A large part of Mary's story takes place in Glastonbury

and here we find the magical Hawthorn tree on

Wearyall hill  (This tree has recently been cut down

by vandals and thus eradicated a part of history)

The Hawthorn carries the symbolism of the three stages of

life, also seen as the Three Fates, or the Divine Trinity
or the Triple Goddess
 in its natural stages

of white blossom, red fruit and black seed.

During Spring the tree is covered in fine white blossoms

and appears like a bride in her white gown.  Maybe

this is why the Hawthorn tree also represents

The White Goddess in pagan belief.

The white blossom of the tree has five distinct

petals.  The shape of five petals are linked to the

divine feminine and specifically to Venus as it

imitates the planet's course through the heavens.
We also find the five petals in the rose,
a flower seen as a living embodiment and
metaphor of the feminine and the
divine feminine.

When you cut open an apple, you find
the same configuration of five in the
centre housing of seeds.

Both the rose and apple are very
important themes in the Mysteries.

The juicy red berries of the Hawthorn follow
after the white blossoms and the tree

is a mass of the red fruit, shimmering in the

summer sun.  This represents the summer of one's life

and the manifestation of one's creativity and the fulfillment

of the potential of the white bridal blossom and 

ultimately the fruit that your life bear.

While the last of the red berries are still on the tree,

they become the black withering berry which contains

the seed but also is the death of the berry - life and death
deeply entwined.

Seeing the red fruit and the black seed together on the tree,

reminds one of the bitter-sweet nature of life.

In these three seasons and cycles we have the

red, white and black threads of life :

attributes of the Great Goddess and the three

cycles of VirginBride, Mother and Wisdom.

The sacred tree and its Holy Rood (rod or branch)
became the Suit of Wands in the
Sacred Mysteries of Mary.

The symbolism of the sacred tree is seen in
the holy wood of the cross,
the Tree of Life,
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
the second tree in Paradise,
the Holy Rood planted by Joseph of Arimathea
in Glastonbury and which flowered every Christmas
and more.  All of these form part of the weave
of the tapestry of insight and knowledge
into the guideposts on our journey as
depicted in the
Sacred Mysteries of Mary tarot deck.


blessings

Hettienne