2024 a year of sacred memory, dreaming dragons, and original prayer

Week 31--in which we look into the labyrinth on the anniversary of the Lahaina fires and see something we have not noticed before 

Friends, soul writers, mystics, witches, and lovers of prayer,

NOTE: ART 4 on Myrrhophore Anointing opens today at 2pm eastern. Register before 1p eastern and I’ll send you all the welcome materials. If you register after 1p, open the active link on your receipt for access to the Thank You page that has the zoom link. The Opening Ceremony will be recorded and available on Monday.

On August 8 one year ago, the ancestral city of Lahaina on Maui was destroyed by fire. Although I live in Florida, about as far from Hawaii as an American can be, I was profoundly affected by the fire. In part, because I have dear friends in Hawaii, including Emma Kupu Mitchell with whom I have created dozens of prayer intensives, and Kahu Lahela Johnson who co-created my earliest prayer intensives on the astonishing power of the Hawaiian prayer of forgiveness. Lahela’s wife, Geralyn Camarillo, makes Goddess rosaries and chaplets and pendulums for me and members of my intensives. In addition, many people in Hawaii regularly come to my events.

So, the fire felt personal. It happened to people I love.

But there were a couple other aspects of the fire that impacted me as well. During our year-long witch mystery school in 2022, Kahu Lahela brought us the story of the last queen of Hawaii. This is a colonial history rarely mentioned in school. In short, American businessmen seeking to extract all the wealth they could, stripped the land to create sugar plantations. And, when native Hawaiians began to die from imported diseases, they brought in Japanese and Chinese people to work the sugar fields. When the profits began to dwindle, the businessmen walked away, leaving the land vacant for invasive and flammable wild grasses. It was those grasses that caught fire.

So, as we watched those fires, we were watching the cost of greed.

Recognizing the poison of greed matters to everyone, but especially women. Greed is a residue of the horror of the witch craze. A big part of that history, also rarely discussed, is that whomever turned in a witch got to split the proceeds of the sale of their property with the church. Greed was a massive motivation to turn in your neighbors. And watch them burn.

So, fire strikes deep into a woman’s unconscious memory.

For all those reasons, I felt called to do something to honor the dead of Lahaina. In astonishing timing, we held our first Learning Gathering in ART 2 Threshold Crossing the following day. As part of getting to know the labyrinth, Cathy Stevens Pratt and I decided we would make a finger labyrinth in all our gatherings. I set up slides that we could follow as Cathy guided us to make a labyrinth starting with the ancient seed pattern. It’s quite startling to watch the square of the seed pattern morph into the circle of the labyrinth in front of your eyes.

When we finished making the paper labyrinth, we would then walk it with our fingers, following the circuitous path all the way to the holy well at the center. I looked for an image of a complete labyrinth to put on a slide to give people a sense of standing at the holy well.

I have dozens of pictures of ancient labyrinths but the one that called me was the ancient labyrinth in a tomb in Sardinia. This labyrinth matters. It inspired the entire Witch Sequence.

The story behind the picture of the labyrinth in Sardinia is odd—to say the least.

In April of 2023, I was just beginning to realize there are 7 WitchArt gifts and we awaken each as we walk one path of the original 7-circuit labyrinth. I became a tad obsessed with learning more about this most ancient symbol. Turns out there are 7-circuit labyrinths all over the world, from the oldest found in Galicia Spain, to stone labyrinths built near the sea throughout Scandinavia, to a mysterious pair carved in shale in Cornwall, to hundreds of modern labyrinths made in people’s backyards.

I’d never have known about the one in Sardinia, but for a dream. And the dream wasn’t even mine.

One morning, Cathy Stevens Pratt, my co-creator in The Witch Sequence, announced she’d had a weird dream. In the dream she was in a tomb and there was a labyrinth carved on the wall. And the tomb, she said, was in Sardinia.

How do you know where you were, I asked. Oh, that’s simple, she answered, I asked the dream guides. You what? (Make a note of this. The next time you have a wacko dream, ask where you are!)

I googled Sardinia, labyrinth, tomb. Up came a long article about that labyrinth written by Jeff and Kimberly Saward in 2005. I showed it to Cathy. That’s it, she said. That’s my labyrinth.

I contacted the Sawards and received permission to share their article and image with everyone in The Witch Sequence. This labyrinth is central to everything that has happened in The Witch Sequence. And it is key to understanding the deeper mystery of Myrrhophore Anointing. Take a moment to look at this picture.

Ask yourself: What am I seeing?
Why is this labyrinth next to a tomb?
What’s the connection between death and the labyrinth?

photo by Jeff Saward for Labyrinthos; also cited by many labyrinth enthusiasts including Marianne Ewaldt.

I didn’t know the answer to these questions until August 9, as I prepared a script to help the members of that intensive walk a finger labyrinth for the dead in Lahaina. I took one look at this labyrinth and knew, knew at the deepest soul level, what Mary Magdalene did. And not just Mary Magdalene. She was a priestess and Myrrhophore in a most ancient lineage. She knew the healing power of anointing, prayer, and sacred oils. She knew how to serve the mysteries of life, death, and yes, resurrection.

But she’s not the only one.

This is the mystic witch Myrrhophore knowledge that we have been carrying lifetime after lifetime. That you have been carrying.

• If this image sparks something in you…
• If there’s something more about Mary Magdalene you are longing to know…
• If there’s something about sacred oils, anointing oils, mystical oils calling you…
• If you feel something important wants to be lived in and through and as you…
• If you feel you’re here for a sacred reason…
• If you sense the time has come to say yes…

Then, please say yes to joining our global community gathering today for the Opening Ceremony to awaken the ancestral memory of Myrrhophore Anointing.

Listen to Buckminster Fuller, who received this divine message on the day he was planning to commit suicide:

"Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren't any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn't be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life's challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person."

The A.R.T. of Becoming a Witch
How to Awaken, Remember, and Trust
The Ancestral Mysteries of Myrrhophore Anointing

to remembering the holy wisdom of Myrrhophore Anointing 

Janet

PS: Kahu Lahela is hosting a special prayer circle for Lahaina on Thursday, August 8 and I will be sharing how the mystery of the labyrinth carries the dead safely home. Everyone in ART 4 will be invited.

PPS: The Magdalen Triad is now complete. Miryam the Beloved will have her unveiling in the Opening Ceremony!

I’ve written several newsletters about A.R.T. 4. You can read past ones on my Blog.

website: janetconner.com

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