The Mysteries of Mariam

The Handless Maiden
Eight of Holy Rood

Reclaiming, re-membering, revisioning and reweaving our Soulstory 

and our spiritual mystical heart as seen in the archetypal stories of the god and goddess.  

We follow the story from Isis and Horus, through to the Greek stories of Ariadne and Athene;  

Our Lady of Glastonbury carrying the hawthorn branch
Nine of Holy Rood

We collect the red thread in the Hebrew Goddess Ashera, 

Asherah
Seven of Holy Rood

the Shekinah of the Kabbalah.  

The journey takes us through fairy tales of The Handless Maiden 

and Rumpelstilskin and ultimately to the 

Three Marys and Jesus as embodiment of the two equal streams of Light. 

The Higher Mysteries is a sacred guide to inner alchemy culminating 

in the Hieros Gamos between Soul and the Beloved. 

The sacred threads of our lives weave the Great Tapestry 

and the red thread of Isis-Maria-Sophia lead us to the heart of the matter, 

beyond the dogma and distortion of religion. 

Today Mary, the Virgin, Beloved and Lover and Mother is the composite of the 

feminine archetypes as they developed in Western consciousness. 

May this deck inspire you to go within and to dive deep into the  Mysteries of Maryam within your own consciousness and the soft light of the impersonal unconscious. 

Water into wine
God of Vessels

You must give birth to your images. 

They are the future waiting to be born ....

fear not the strangeness you feel.

Just wait for the birth .....

for the hour of new clarity - Rainer Maria Rilke

My quest is, and has been, to give expression to

the mystical vision that is alive in my inner world,

both in a way that will add beauty and meaning to my own life

and to the world of which I am an active

participant, and to, very importantly,

understand that mystical vision.

And then to go out and share my understanding

with others so that we may all benefit

from the fruits of the Tree of Sophia.

Queen Esther
Handmaiden of Vessels

Blessedly we are living in a time of

religious freedom, and if we have the courage

to break away from our mechanistic following of

our religious traditions and heritage

and our familial conditioning, we can read

and study the many religions of the world.

Even more powerfully, and importantly, we

have the freedom and option to heed the

Inner Voice which is without sound,

and to craft our own Religion of the Soul.

I have a strong sense of the inner world

and see it reflected in fairy tales, myths, legend

and religion.

Some of these inner visions have stayed with 

me for all my life and they have acted as my

Guide and Guardian Angel, as well as Daemon.

Sometimes they have guided me into very difficult

places of great challenge and loss but always,

eventually, to greater understanding and meaning.

Soulcollage card

Probably because of the belief, in Western patriarchal religion,

in separation and the original sin and fall

of humanity from their existence in Eden,

there is a deep-seated belief in personal

unworthiness. Or maybe this is a deep-seated

stream in the human psyche, a basic duality

as seen as the other side

of the double-headed face of Janus,

symbolising our dualistic understanding and beliefs.

On the flip side of this coin, there is the also deep-seated

knowing that we are indeed the Holy Sons and

Daughters of God, holistically one and whole,

no separation and no distinction between good and

bad, dark and light : both the light and its shadows

praising the Creatrix.

This deep seated belief in personal unworthiness

gives rise to a need and yearning for

perfection and purity. As an artist I am privy

to this need for perfection and it really spells

death for all creativity and art.

Creating art, as does life, demands great courage and risk taking.

Our Western way of thinking and striving for material

success, negates all creativity and art-making

and denies the beauty of Creation, both in its

light and dark aspects.

Snow White and the Saints in their incorruptible bodies,

spell death. Yes, that is obvious, you are saying.

But they are resurrected in various ways.

So it is a form of a living death; 

a suspended state of neither being awake nor

being asleep, but outwardly perfectly beautiful,

staying forever young.

And as we know, our society values eternal youth

beyond gold and jewels.

I see in these images the desire for perfection.

The glass encased face of eternal beauty.

She is not ravaged by the demands of life;

she does not create nor make art, nor participates in life

and the living. 

The Black Madonna
Major Arcana Card XV

A perfect mask that will be acceptable

to the mind of the self. A role that is to be enacted

under the maestro of the archetype of the ego.

And the opposite for this perfection

is messy living with its huge emotions and conflict.

So in that belief system, it follows that soul and body

are in conflict with each other : that the earth

is not paradise and that humanity is doomed

by its own mortal flesh and blood, its senses and

sensuality, its primal instinct and wayward nature.

Humanity is stuck in a glass coffin of perfectionistic

and purist ideals as God, the All, is only present 

in the Light.

In this bright blinding light, 

the mind blocks the consciousness from

understanding and awakening to the tremendous

and awesome meaning of God equals 'Good'.

I see that many have moved away from the

patriarchal religion and are desperately looking

for a new way. A way of wholeness.

A path that is based on Beauty, Compassion,

Truth and Wisdom.

But, alas, unless you do your own soul-searching and

your own wild-crafting, you will in no time find

yourself walking a well-trodden path leading

to the same places of separation and division,

of transcendence as opposed to participation,

now merely parading new names and banners.

Now these places are often called Light Spirituality,

Enlightenment, self-improvement and

mostly Light and Love and once again, there is

an attitude of either-or.

In trying to bring balance to a Western patriarchal

system by only focusing on the matriarchal, a new imbalance

is being created. 

Can you see how the opponent serves your transformation?

How the ever-happening imbalance brings

growth and new birth and new life:

Mary Magdalen
Card XVI in the Major Arcana
(The Tower)

Balance equals perfection.

Perfection equals stagnation and death.

In trying to control conflict, in denying

tension and differences, no new life

can be created.

If one only looks at the cruficixion and you forget

about the resurrection, then you miss the entire

message of suffering.

Three daughters of Anna
Three of Vessels 

One plus one equals three :

new life is born from struggling and discord.

Living with the tension of the opposites,

allowing disagreement and another's

voice that differ from yours, to be heard,

brings awareness to the glassy mind,

of the awesome beauty of creating a life

that has meaning.

Unity and a wholistic understanding of

God and Its Kingdom, which is Us,

is a paradoxical approach of both/as well as.

A sacred trinity of one plus one equals three.

There is a place where all the rivers converge

and that place is the Sacred Heart of humanity.


The Mysteries of Maryam Tarot Deck is in production phase. yay!

A culmination of many years of understanding and not understanding.

Each of the 78 shrines is being photographed and then off to the
printers.  The deck with an accompanying pocketbook, all packaged
and presented in a unique manner, will be available towards
November 2016 here on this site and on my Etsy shop.
(link is in the sidebar)

I am currently working on the full book
The Mysteries of Maryam based on my research for the cards
and a more in-depth interpretation of the metaphorical
as well as mystical meaning of each card.

Look out for news on its publication in 2017 on this blog
and on my Facebook pages.

blessings
Hettienne