Advent, Quarter-Temper Wednesday
Today the main text in the Breviary, which I am reading during the days of Advent, is not from Isaiah, but by a Church Father called Ambrose. This is because today is a special day, a so called “Quarter-temper-day”. There are four of them in a year, once in a quarter. These are days of repentance or contemplation. In Holland there is a church in a village called Geulle in which in earlier days people received after mass some branches of a cherry tree on this quarter-temper-day shortly for Christmas. These branches would blossom at Christmas, which represents the miracle of the newborn divine baby, blossoms of Spring in the middle of winter.
I have taken the opportunity today to reflect on the virginity of Maria. Not that it is one of my favourite themes, but it is the central theme in the text by Ambrose. It is not my favorite theme because Maria being a mother and a virgin at the same time is an impossible role-model for mothers: it is just not an option for us! And it did not work out well for women in the church at all. Oh this burden of being a woman in a male-oriented religion!
Just this morning we talked about Maria’s virginity during a workshop about tarot and Christmas. “See her virginity as pureness,” someone said, “then it is lovely!” It is, and may be there is more worthwhile to say about it. It made me wonder if I could come up with something else what is positive about Maria’s virginity. So the question for which I have pulled a card today is: “How can Maria’s virginity be worthwhile to me?”
The card I have pulled is Five of Swords. It comes from the Tarot of a Moon Garden.
Three swords are coming from the air and two are standing crossed on the ground. A snake-like figure is approaching the two swords. This snakelike-figure can be seen a phallus-symbol. I see the two crossed swords as Maria and the three swords from heaven as the divine that comes to her.
What is so special here is that the divine (the three swords coming down) is prevailing over the approaching male phallus (the snake-like-figure). And what is special as well is that it is not divine and human that come together, but divine and female. Isn’t that lovely? Oh… are there not jewels in my religion. If only I looked for them.
I have taken the opportunity today to reflect on the virginity of Maria. Not that it is one of my favourite themes, but it is the central theme in the text by Ambrose. It is not my favorite theme because Maria being a mother and a virgin at the same time is an impossible role-model for mothers: it is just not an option for us! And it did not work out well for women in the church at all. Oh this burden of being a woman in a male-oriented religion!
Just this morning we talked about Maria’s virginity during a workshop about tarot and Christmas. “See her virginity as pureness,” someone said, “then it is lovely!” It is, and may be there is more worthwhile to say about it. It made me wonder if I could come up with something else what is positive about Maria’s virginity. So the question for which I have pulled a card today is: “How can Maria’s virginity be worthwhile to me?”
The card I have pulled is Five of Swords. It comes from the Tarot of a Moon Garden.
Three swords are coming from the air and two are standing crossed on the ground. A snake-like figure is approaching the two swords. This snakelike-figure can be seen a phallus-symbol. I see the two crossed swords as Maria and the three swords from heaven as the divine that comes to her.
What is so special here is that the divine (the three swords coming down) is prevailing over the approaching male phallus (the snake-like-figure). And what is special as well is that it is not divine and human that come together, but divine and female. Isn’t that lovely? Oh… are there not jewels in my religion. If only I looked for them.