Where did I leave off..... -- Spirit World

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Date Posted: 14:02:54 11/05/03 Wed
Author: Lissa
Subject: Where did I leave off.....

It's already been a whole month since I got back from my trip. Seems like it was a year ago. *sigh* I loved the sites that Antje posted about the Cathars, especially the second one. I LMAO with that whole site. Just my kind of humor.

Anyways, after we left Narbonne, we headed over to Stes-Maries-de-la-Mer, which is the place in France that Mary Magdalene is said to have come ashore along with several others in her boat. Even the RC church has this as part of their official legend. However, when we got to the church, we were surprised to see in all the printed material available at the church itself that there was NO mention at all of Mary Magdalen (which I shall type as MM here). Wish I could remember how to do a link (Antje???...) but here is a site about the town... http://www.beyond.fr/villages/stemariesmer.html One thing in common in lots of stories is that there were 3 Marys in the boat, which explains the plurals in the name of the town. It was a lovely little town and their official emblem reminded me of the faith/ hope/ love symbols, with the anchor, heart and cross all in one symbol. The interesting thing to me was noticing how the half-moon of the anchor is reminiscent of the laying-down moon seen in Goddess symbols. This moon shape is also used all thru this town, supposedly as a reminder of the boat these people all came in. Many layers in each symbol, eh? I can't find a picture of it online, but the cross is at the top, with the bottom part stretching down thru a heart shape and ending in junction with the moon/boat/anchor part.

We then went to St-Maximin-La-Ste-Baume to check out the Basilica where MM is said to be buried. This town is further east, on the other side of Marseilles, and exactly north of where Isabelle used to live (Toulon). The Basilica of Saint Mary Madeleine was started in 1295 on the site where MM was buried. Here is the website... http://www.lesamisdelabasilique.com/general_uk.htm At the top of the screen is a wee slideshow. The picture of a head on golden wings is the reliquary of MM skull down in the crypt. Yup, that's right, her skull. Of course, there is no way to prove this, but that is what the tradition holds. This was a lovely ancient place full of wonderful energy that was delightful to meditate in. We stayed until it closed and then decided to come back in the morning for Mass before moving on.

We found a nice hotel within easy walking distance of the Basilica, and had a lovely dinner in an Italian restaurant across the street. Another toast for finding another nice meal! In the morning, the plaza was filled with the market and we walked thru it on our way to the Basilica. We were waiting at the door when the man came to open it with a HUGE old key. Sad to say, there was no Mass, but we enjoyed the peacefulness again. Once again outside and in the midst of the market (people all set up on the streets with their wares), I saw the perfect market basket for sale that would fit my huge bottle of Lourdes water along with my little backpack. I still wanted to have only carryon for my flight back home. I now have a lovely and useful souvenir. Just as I was paying for this, my eye caught site of a gorgeous wool oversized scarf/wrap/shawl made of a tapestry design of some of my most favorite colors. It was calling to me so I had to get that too. A couple of my traveling companions had large scarves such as this that they had bought in India to use as Prayer Shawls. When you go to meditate, you wrap yourself up in this including over your head, so that your holy space is always with you no matter where you are. I had thought early in the trip how nice that sounded and that I would like to have a prayer shawl too, but then I didn't think anything more of it. Here was my prayer shawl, just waiting for me! The rest of this trip, everytime I meditated in yet another special place, I wrapped myself in it and now I have some very nice energy brought home with me as well.

We headed up into the hills to find the cave where MM spent the last 30 years of her life in prayer. There is a monastery built into the side of this imposing cliff and there has been uninterrupted religious and monastic presence on this site since at least the 5th century. Thousands of pilgrims along with kings, queens, popes and saints have come to visit this cave and to venerate MM. Yet in America, we don't even hear of MM. How interesting. Here is a site with pictures... http://www.lemidi.com/guide/RELIEFS/BAUME/ROYS/index.htm This picture does not show how the cliff rises up out of a forest covered mountain. The hike up to the cave is about a half hour of just about straight up incline. It's the kind of walk where you feel like you are tipping over half way to the ground, where your feet are bent upward as far as possible just to walk. Anyway, I have more info on MM and these sites if anyone wants to know it.

It was now 3pm by the time we finished here and we were determined to get as close to Paris as possible. So what if it was about 8 hours away. My mountain-curve-driving friend got us down and out to the highway. We made a stop at a good ol' American style highway reststop, where all kinds of wrapped sandwiches are available at EVERY HOUR, and had a quickie meal in the parking lot. I got behind the wheel and drove as close to 100mph as possible for the next 6 hours or so. At some point, we stopped at another rest stop, bought more gas, changed drivers and got back on the road. We decided to spend the night in Fontainebleau since it was close to 11pm and we were hoping to be able to find a hotel still open. Nice town, but aren't they all. We slept, we showered, we left, driving right past the gorgeous chateau on our way out of town.

We headed west to Chartres, which took about an hour. This was a dream of mine to one day visit this cathedral. How nice to be able to say I got there. We had fantastic almond croissants and excellent coffee at a wee shop near the cathedral and then went to the cathedral itself. Gorgeous. I was most struck by the labyrinth in the floor and now have something new to obssess over.... labyrinths. hehe I had promised my companions that we wouldn't stay long, that I really really just wanted to get here, so we didn't stay for prayer or meditation this time, as fabulous of a place as it was. But I was happy, so no matter.

Then we headed north toward Versailles where we walked for miles around the grounds. We had a picnic lunch in the small village that Marie Antoinette had built so that she could pretend that she was a peasant. We wondered if she did all the cooking and the work like a peasant, too, but figured that probably wasn't in her fantasy of rural life. (She was the one who said that the starving people of France could eat cake when she heard that they had no bread. Her life was so simple, eh?) We never did get into the main house, but what the heck, one gold encrusted room is the same as the next.

We got to Paris before dark and managed to find a nice little hotel right on the banks of the Seine, directly across from the Louvre. Can you believe that? We had some Onion Soup at a nearby street cafe and then walked around the city before going to bed. But I think I will stop here for now...

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[> check out the picture of Ste Baume at this site... http://www.ecomusee-sainte-baume.asso.fr/ Can you see the houses built onto the cliff in front of the cave? The cave opening isn't as big as that dark area, it's more like a large doorway. Oh, and there is a chapel inside the cave now, with lots of cool statues. Here's a site that's in German that has lots of pictures of the interior at the bottom of the page. Just so you know, I didn't see any naked MM while there, so I don't know where this German site got all of them. hahaha http://www.lochstein.de/sainte.htm The first picture shows the cliff rising up behind the monastery on the plains, the second pic shows the entrance to the cave. The 3rd pic shows the altar with the light of the entrance falling on it, the 4th pic is looking back toward the entrance, and then there are all these naked women pictures that I never saw. haha -- Lissa, 14:34:49 11/05/03 Wed

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[> Oh, that's right, the church used to say that MM was a prostitute in order to discredit the feminine contribution to Jesus's story. Did you know that the RC church said way back in the 60s that MM never was a prostitute? How interesting that they don't put much energy into clearing up such a misunderstanding. -- Lissa, 14:35:52 11/05/03 Wed

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[> Thanks for the interesting links. Maybe they thought a sinner has to show skin to make clear just how sinful she was?*g* So all those interesting places are rather close to me and I�ve never been there? I was never really interested in bible history, and I guess that was a mistake. Your trip sounds awesome! The german site says a lot of kings and historical persons have visited the cave. Must be thrilling to walk the same paths they did! -- Martina, 04:52:42 11/06/03 Thu

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