In honor of International Woman’s Day
MARGUERITE PORETE: The Mystic of Divine Love: Love is divine, and I am nothing except love.
Marguerite Porete is the essence of divine love and the truth that all we are is love. Marguerite was a French Beguine born in the mid-13the century. The Beguine movement was a spiritual revival among women in the late Middle Ages that emphasized an imitation of Christ’s life. The Beguines, or holy women, lived together in semi-monastic communities. They were not nuns; they didn’t take formal vows and could leave at any point, but they lived with shared spiritual interests.
There’s nothing more powerful than remembering that we are love. And there’s nothing and no one outside of us that is needed in order to realize this. It’s between our experience of the divine and our own soul. We can let go of what we think we need to prove or who we think we need to be in order to receive love because we remember that we are love. Then we can stand in that truth, even through flames.
Marguerite is a courageous truth teller. And the truth of her experience is that love alone can free us. Not the love another might give us, not the love of family or of friends. All of this is powerful and significant. But the true source of love for us is in the fact that we are a soul, and that the soul is in union with the divine.
She reminds us when we’ve forgotten that love is the essence of who we are. And that true love is found within. Marguerite says, “Love has no beginning, no end, and no limit, and I am nothing except love.” This is a time to own and to know this truth more fully. It is the most profound and radical act we can ever take: knowing the love we already are.
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OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE: The Empress of Protection: I am safe and divinely protected. I am held in love at all times.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is the emblazoned emblem of the uniquely powerful protection of a mother’s love. Her image is believed to have miraculously appeared within the tilma, or cloak, of Saint Juan Diego. She appeared to him four times, the first of which was on December 9, 1531. She spoke to Juan in his native Nahautl language and asked him to build a church in her honor. They were standing on the Tepeyac hill outside Mexico City where the Spanish had recently destroyed a temple to the mother goddess Tonantzin, an Aztec goddess of love.
What is outside of us is also within us. Even if we have never experienced a mother’s love, the true force of that loving protection exists within us, so we can give it to ourselves. When Saint Juan Diego was concerned that the archbishop would not believe him and was racing to meet Our Lady of Guadalupe, she appeared suddenly and said the most beloved phrase in the apparition story, a phrase that is inscribed on the entrance to her Basilica: “No estoy yo aqui que soy to madre?” “Am I not here, I who am your mother?”
The energy of a mother’s love can travel to meet you anywhere – whether within the world or your own heart. The message is that she is here. You are mothered. But the message is also to ask for what you need. Saint Juan Diego asked Our Lady of Guadalupe for a sign that proved her identity and existence. She gave him her image emblazoned inside his cloak, one that has been venerated and considered holy ever since because he asked for her assistance.
We are ennobled with free will. The divine needs our request for assistance in order to enter our lives. All we need to do is to assume the simplicity, the heart, and the humility of a child, and ask for a sign that she is here. We will be met with more love than we could ever imagine. And love is always the greatest and most powerful energy of protection.
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ZHOU ZUANJING: The Mystic of Peace: I am peace. When my mind is clear, the way is clear.
Zhou Xuanjing embodies the unwavering tranquility that exists deep beneath the turbulence of our daily thoughts. Zhou Xuanjing was a 12th century Taoist mystic and poet. The night before her son’s birth, she has a dream that she was immersed in a red mist. This is a very auspicious sign in Chinese culture.
Albert Einstein reportedly said that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that we used when we created them. Clarity only comes from clarity. There is a peace and calm that exists far beneath the constant banter most of us listen to all day within our minds.
Jungian author Clarissa Pinkola Estes calls it “the river beneath the river.” It’s the steady flow of universal life force that wants us to reach our goal if we can only get still enough to merge with it.
Wu Wei in Taoism translates as “doing nothing,” It’s a sacred feminine art of trusting the force of life that exists within us all. Zhou mastered this spiritual practice by calming her mind and experiencing the still center that is at the eye of every storm.
Zhou is a call for us to be still, to do nothing other than shift our awareness. Come out of the current state of mind we’re in before making any moves or decisions. She reminds us that we only want to take action when what is moving us is the force of love that is at the heart of everything.
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