For Ears to Hear, And Eyes to See

Rennes les Château

Several months ago, in Paris, I sent a carefully written heartfelt letter to a woman I connected with in a common Sacred Sites interest group and asked her if I could hire her to guide me on her Sacred Feminine in Paris Tour. Several days later I received her response which felt like a hard and fast “no” with the reasoning that I am the author of a Sacred Paris Guide, and her thoughts that we offer the same thing, and that she didn’t feel comfortable sharing her information with me. “Surely you understand my position…” she wrote.

I sat with her response deeply and fully. And after this sitting, I do understand her position but I’m not of the same mindset. In addition, I do not claim to have or offer a “sacred feminine in Paris tour” at all. I live a sacred feminine life in Paris, I embody a way of the sacred feminine here…and while I feel and learn about fragments of it in history and in the sacred places that I visit and write about, I am not an expert with this wisdom.

I responded kindly that I did understand, I clarified my request (and my actual offerings and experience), and I asked her if I could be her student… A few days later, she sent me another no with a few book suggestions and a few places in Paris to purchase these books.

“For those with ears to hear, and eyes to see…”

Last year I found myself at the front door of a famous basilica in the South of France, with a beloved guide that shared her heart and testimony of her love for Jesus in such a way that I was instantly in tears. Over the years I have watched many dear ones flock to this church that we were about to enter, but I had never felt called to visit it. On this day, the small group of women that I was guiding at the time wanted to visit so I arranged a local guide for us and I joined them.

I wanted to feel Mary there like so many others had, I stepped inside and opened my whole self to it…and what I felt was actually the complete opposite of Mary energy.

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”― Alexander Pope

For years now, I’ve been collecting the fresh water on the mountain in Sainte Baume and in the cave of Mary Magdalene…collecting it as sacred, holy water and creating rituals and ceremonies with it. (You can even order some on my website.) It wasn’t until last year, that one of the women on a pilgrimage with me pointed out that a sign in the grotto chapel says that the water there “is not holy water” because it “has not been blessed by anyone from the church,” that I even considered that the water wasn’t holy or sacred.

The sign was one of many things that happened during this week which challenged us to consider what we think we know to be true, and what we feel is “sacred” or “holy.”

For days before this, in our morning practices, I served each woman a little cup of sacred cacao as we began our practices together. On the last day I purposely filled each cup with drinking water and when it came time for us to take the first sip, I invited each woman to sip her “cacao.” Without interrupting me or asking for clarification, they each took a sip of water. I continued with a practice themed around the questions: “What makes something sacred?” and “How open are we to the truth or to what we’ve been taught, told or think is true, and to what appears to be true?” Offering the invitation to empty ourselves to all that we think we know, to center ourselves in our own truth, and to trust the experience that we feel aligned with.

I will reveal to you what no eye can see, what no ear can hear, what no hand can touch, what cannot be conceived by the human mind. Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas” ― Timothy Freke

On the fourth day of my recent solo pilgrimage into the Occitanie region in Southern France I made my way to one of the most famous sacred sites associated with Mary Magdalene. I sat in the church made famous by a popular book and movie and carefully catalogued all of the symbols and hidden mysteries for myself, it felt good to be in the physical space after doing so much research.

I slipped into the back pew and into the quiet shadows of this sacred place, I was alone. I softly closed my eyes and began to drop into my heart.

A flash of plastic-looking faces, pointed fingers, gazes, skulls, crosses, pastel painted frescoed walls, and symbols flashed by. As I was trying to anchor to (anything that felt like) Mary energy I was suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps, and then an electric drill which was being used to remove the glass case from the devil statue at the door. I turned just in time to see the devil being dusted by the woman from the museum, and then the glass case was returned and sealed with a drill.

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”― Plato

Just yesterday I read something that a popular guide in the area wrote (it’s actually a quote associated with Carl Sagan), and reading it felt like getting on a merry-go-round that keeps spinning: “the absence of proof is not proof of absence…”

I love being a pilgrim. At its core, the nature of being a pilgrim means that I am (almost) always seeking.

I have loved the absolute adventure of this year’s research preparing to host four small groups for my annual pilgrimage in Sainte Baume next month. It has been filled with witnessing all of the wild goose chases, and stories, myths, legends, historical fiction, channeled accounts, speculation, drama, claims, convictions and contradictions…and actually the more I study the less I seem to know.

I continue to be brought back into my heart, over and over and over again.

And, I continue to be brought to the truth that sacred wisdom belongs to all of us, it was hidden and mysterious and protected for safety’s sake (and perhaps there are rightful reasons some of us need to be protected even today), but it wasn’t hidden or protected or mysterious because some weren’t worthy of receiving it.

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” - Matthew 7:7

If you are asking, and seeking, and knocking…then you have ears to hear and eyes to see my friend…and I pray that it may be opened unto you in the most unique, magical and sacred ways.