Queen of Hearts

Smaller than the smallest,

Greater than the greatest,

The Beloved forever lives

within the hearts of all.

When one is free from desire,

with mind and senses purified,

one beholds the glory of Our Lady

and is without sorrow.

She, the adorable one, seated in the heart,

is the power that gives breath.

Unto her do all the senses do homage.

Though seated, she travels far.

Though at rest, she moves all things.

Who but the purest of the pure

can realize this delightful being

who is joy and who is beyond joy?

-- Katha Upanishad, I. ii v. 1-4

The Invisible Queen

The Queen of Heaven

the eye does not see

nor the tongue express,

nor the mind grasp.

She we neither know

nor are able to teach.

Different is she from the known,

and different is she from the unknown.

So we have heard from the wise.

-- Kena Upanishad, I v. 1-4

The Far Palace

Young Diana Spencer and her guinea pig, Peanuts. Photo credit: Spencer Family.

The secret church
where Our Lady worships,
called the Far Palace,
is not built of earth
and water and stone,
but of intention and wisdom,
mystical conversation
and compassionate action.

Every part of it is intelligence
and responsive to every other.
The carpet bows to the broom.
The door knocker and the door
swing together
like musicians.

This heart sanctuary does exist.
But it can't be described.

Why try!

-- Rumi

Lady of Silences

Lady of Silences

Calm and distressed

Torn and most whole

Rose of memory

Rose of forgetfulness

Exhausted and life-giving

Worried, reposeful

The single rose is now the garden

where all loves end.

Terminate torment

of love unsatisfied.

The greater torment

of love satisfied.

End of the endless journey to no end.

Conclusion of all that is inconclusible.

Speech without word

and word of no speech.

Grace to the Mother

for the garden

where all loves end.

-- T.S. Eliot, "Ash Wednesday"

Lifting the Veil

O thou self-luminous Bride,

remove the veil of ignorance

from before our eyes,

that we may behold thy light

and adore thee.

Do thou reveal to us the spirit of Love

hidden in the scriptures.

May the truth of the scriptures

be ever present to us.

May we seek day and night

to realize what we learn from the wise.

May we speak the truth

May we speak the truth.

May it protect us.

May it protect our teacher.

Peace. Peace. Peace.

-- Rig Veda, Peace Chant.

Sleeping Beauty

Princess Diana on cover of Vanity Fair, photos by Mario Testino.

I am the Mighty Mother,
most powerful of all the World.
I am she who fights not
but is always victorious.
I am that Sleeping Beauty
whom men have sought for all time.

The paths which lead to my castle
are beset with danger and illusions.
Such as fail to find me, sleep;
or may ever rush
after the Fata Morgana
leading astray all who feel
the influence of illusion.

I am lifted up on high
and draw men unto me.
I am the world's desire
but few there be
who find me . . . .

-- Florence Farr

The Ignorant Slayers of the Princess

Flame of Liberty at Alma Tunnel, Paris. Photo Credit: The Telegraph (London).

Worlds there are without suns,
covered up with darkness.
To these after death go the ignorant
slayers of the Princess.

Without love there is no life . . .
One who sees all beings in the Beloved,
and the Beloved in all beings,
hates none.

In the heart of all things,
of whatever there is in the universe,
dwells the Queen of Hearts.

She alone is the reality.
Wherefore, renouncing vain appearances,
rejoice in her.

-- Isha Upanishad, v. 1-4

To Love Is To Know Me

To love is to know me,

my innermost nature,

the truth that I am:

Through this knowledge

my lover enters

at once into my being.

All that he does

is offered before me

in utter surrender:

My grace is upon him,

He finds the eternal,

The palace unchanging,

The Palace of Peace.

- Bhagavad Gita

Prayer to Our Lady

We offer our adoration to Thee,

O Mother of compassion.

Be favorable unto us,

Be gracious unto us.

Be Thou ever beneficent.

May Thou reveal unto us

the innermost of all truths!

Even if our acts and our thoughts

Fail to comply with scriptures

And are contrary to the teaching of truth,

Withhold not Thy grace.

Being favored by Thee,

May we remain true

To the spirit of Love.

A Just-Finishing Candle

A candle is made to become entirely flame.

In that annihilating moment

it has no shadow.

It is nothing but a tongue of light

describing a refuge.

Look at this

just-finishing candle stub

as someone who is finally safe

from virtue and vice,

from both pride

and shame.

-- Rumi

The Repose of Love

The repose of love is a weariness,

its onset a sickness,

its end, death.

For us, however,

death through love is life.

We give thanks to our Beloved

that she has held it out to us.

- Ibn al Faridh

The Prophecy of the True Horn

Into darkness will I fade,

Into a night that Man has made,

But through that gloom shall gleam the Sun

When I am lost, and again am won.

Release! Release! I call to thee

In New Lands across the sea;

Let another, on narrow pathways, come to me.

Furthest and Highest,

Yet not beyond reach.

Choose thou well a path that will teach

How the Sunken is raised

And Emptiness is filled

And a wandering heart

Can finally be stilled.

Seek the Great Stone!

Mark it well with a sign,

That the one who shall follow

Shall see it is mine,

And, seeing, shall ponder

and certainly know

As the Ancients have writ:

"As Above, so Below."

And I shall guard the Source of Greatness:

Waiting by a teardrop

From neither joy nor sorrow born,

In silver bound, beneath the ground --

I am the Spiral Horn.

-- De Historia et Veritate Unicornis

Sources

Barks, Coleman and John Moyn, trans. The Essential Rumi (San Francisco: Harper, 1995)

Eliot, T.S. Selected Poems. (New York: Mariner Books, 1967) "Ash Wednesday."

Farrar, Janet and Stewart. The Witches' Goddess: The Feminine Principle of Divinity (Washington: Phoenix Publishing, 1987).

Hope, Murry. The Ancient Wisdom of the Celts. (London: Thorson's, 1995) pp. 164-165, citing Green, Michael, De Historia et Veritate Unicornis p. 64.

Johnson, Clive, ed. Vedanta: An Anthology of Hindu Scripture, Commentary and Poetry. (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).

Nerval, Gerard de (author) and Geoffrey Wagner (translator). Aurelia and Other Writings. (Exact Change, 2004),

Picknett, Lynn and Clive Prince. The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ (New York: Touchstone, 1997) quoting Florence Farr (p. 203)

Prabhavananda, Swami. Narada's Way of Divine Love: Narada Bakhti Sutras (Madras, India: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1972).

Solovyov, Vladimir (author), Judity Deutsch Kornblatt (author). Divine Sophia: Wisdom Writings of Vladimir Solovyov (Michigan: Cornell University Press, 2008).