By Alison Dhuanna, UK Astrologer

The energies have been building up to an incredible transfiguration of the collective shadow over the Easter period as we remember the journey to the cross, the death and resurrection of Christ. I have been immersed in the past year creatively with songs and poems on a restoration of Mary Magdalen to the centre of these mysteries and the work of the Episcopal priest from Maine Cynthia Borgeault has been very much illuminating this. Mary Magdalen was from an ancient tradition of anointing with oils and Christ means ‘the anointed one’. There is evidence to suggest that Yeshua was initially living in the Essene community in Jerusalem, a very strict sect with an emphasis on physical purity. What happened then to catapult him out of that to Mary Magdalene the anointer who took that full journey with him step by step along with the other female disciples? It must have been something pretty profound and another level at which expectations of him as the messiah would have been greatly challenged. Here the emphasis also changed to a purity of heart, or Ihidaya single-heartedness. What we would call today non-duality.

Since January 2017, I have been following the journey in the heavens of two very special asteroids who I feel hold the keys to the unlocking of the Holy Grail codes within our DNA. At this time, they were crossing the Galactic Centre with Juno Goddess of the Sacred Marriage. This event was a powerful song being issued to the entire galaxy of the equilibrium of male and female, the spear of light reunited with the grail cup, the manifestation of the Seal of Solomon. In that year on our pilgrimage in the south of England a crop circle of the Seal of Solomon manifested on Cley Hill in Somerset. So, all of this has been set in motion a very long time, but it certainly feels that this is a key turning point. In this great awakening, Gaia is the beautiful and exquisite Bride of Christ. As the Hygeia and Astrea have just entered Taurus this would be a perfect time for that marriage to take place.

The Pluto Saturn conjunction joining the South Node, along with Chariklo the wife of Chiron who was largely invisible, though no doubt profoundly wise and learned in the healing arts and has many resonances with Mary Magdalene. There are two sides to this; Mary Magdalene has been made invisible by the patriarchy who found her too threatening or too incomprehensible to explain. The long-awaited messiah was as far as the Jews were concerned going to liberate them from the Romans. Instead Jesus ignored the Romans and challenged gender and inequality imbalances and corruption in the temples in a big way. He was a very Uranian Messiah, always and often doing the unexpected and breaking the rules. For me the roots of the Judaic religion are strongly imprinted into Christianity, through for example the Psalms and this is an important part of their power.

The other side is that this priestess archetype found in both Chariklo and Magdalen operates most effectively from the inner, invisible levels. Prayer and intention are their tools, they are about being and mirroring back into the world rather than doing. This path is by its nature sacrificial because you are not going to be patted on the back, given financial reward or any status on this path. Many of the carers in our world are living the Chariklo archetype.

Waelier in the Holy Week I went to walk an ancient pilgrimage called The Sanctuary Way between Ripon Cathedral founded by St Winifred in the North of England and Fountains Abbey. My walk began Wednesday morning and so I had much time as I meandered along the river Ure and Skell to contemplate the extraordinary, alchemical transformation by fire taking place at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. This Cathedral is one of the central places where the mysteries of the Dark Madonna, as both Magdalen and Mother Mary are gathered. Magdalen has strong associations with France because after leaving the Holy Land her boat brought her to Southern France and the troubadour and Templar traditions embody this. I am very pleased much of the cathedral has not been harmed thanks to the fire fighter’s courage. I can’t think of a single other event which would have provoked such a massive, collective outpouring of love for the Notre Dame (Black Lady) and therefore also for the divine feminine at the heart of Christianity.

By a wonderful miracle Maundy Thursday, the annual blessing of the Chrism oils for anointing which are used by the clergy in the Church of England was taking place in Ripon Cathedral. (anybody living in or visiting England can ask for this healing and it’s a free part of pastoral care). There were hundreds of priests there and an almost even balance of male and female. A very androgynous looking woman priest sitting close to us had a rainbow embroidered on her robes which was of great delight to us as we are two women. All in all, it was a surprisingly Aquarian feel and very powerful to be in the company of so many clearly devoted people. The Bishop’s sermon was about how Yeshua (Aramaic Jesus)’ first public act of ministry was to read from the scroll of Isaiah in the Temple of Jerusalem. Everybody was very happy to feel loved as chosen people, but the mood changed when Yeshua declared that ALL people upon the earth are God’s chosen people and are ALL loved equally. His message was actually very Aquarian and so perhaps now is the time it can fully come to be in the world as it was always meant to be; a religion of the people wrenched back from the hands of the elite and the right-wing evangelists. The actual blessing of the oils was very beautiful with the oils having the Magnificat sung to them. I had goose bumps through the whole thing and felt extremely emotional. My partner actually was healed recently from a breast lump recently by this ceremony, so I have a huge amount of respect for its power and lineage. This I feel is very much resonant with healing the south node ancestral issues.

I’d like to finish with a vision I heard last week that Jung put forward that we would truly understand that Heaven and Earth are not separate when we looked back from the Moon to Earth.  On this Blue Moon may our vision be clear as a diamond that we are all one in the web of life, ‘One Body’ with each other and the plant and animal kingdoms. Viewed from this angle the whole Brexit thing just seems absurd. Our New Heaven and New Earth is only a whisper of a thought away.

Much love and blessings for Easter. I offer one to one birth charts with the Goddess Asteroids at their heart. Email astroalison@gmail.com for further information.

Alison

The Meaning of Mary Magdalen by Cynthia Bourgeault

Magdala by Alison Dhuanna

A tower stands shrouded in thick mist;

How I passed through the tenacious veils

that hooked my red shawl at every turn

I cannot recall, or how I found my way out from the shadows?

Many times I passed my own footprints;

Lost, walking in circles, desperate

For some news or message;

Whisperings from the rustling trees about me.

Many times it seems I was led away

From this secret place

Through my own lust and greed,

And often bitterness led me back into the world.

Magdala, its foundations so deep

They have become one with Gaia’s crystal core;

Her spires so tall they vanish through clouds

Invisible among the moon and stars.

In the Tower a Sacred Marriage

And I am the Bride and you the Bridegroom;

The furnace is blazing with a secret fire

That Moses knew of old and Ophiucus now holds;

That the Dove which tore asunder the heavens

At the baptism of my Beloved,

holds softly in its beak.

We hold hands, gaze into each others eyes

As the fire burns a steady, strange glow

We are becoming black and red and white;

Sacrificing self for the service of all

We caress sacred oils into each others’ bodies

praying for the return of life after death;

you press your thumbs into my palms painting

red ochre, blessings for all my work in this world

Hearts expanding in purity

Even in death’s last throws;

As the salmon spawn their eggs

And return to die at their pool of origin