Translating Mary

My dear friend, Mama K has a new blog: Filling the Chalice. It's awesome! [Way to go Mama K!]

Anyways, I can relate to her recent post on "language barrier" in chruch - the spiritual/religious sphere. She and I talk about this a fair amount. But, being raised in the Episcopal church, the liturgical year, and Bible stories are my foundation. So, when people talk using those terms, I "get it". Even though my most "spiritual" (spiritually moving - that brought me back to religion) was during a Wiccan ceremony. That was when I realized that there was a cosmic force that was powerful out there.

But for me to understand and participate in religion, I need to have a community and a structure, I can't create it from scratch (which is how all the Wiccan groups have been that I've been involved in, and it's too hard for me). But, what I love about the Church's liturgical calendar, is that it pretty much follows the Solar calendar* (which is the foundation of Wiccan practice - along with the Lunar calendar, of course).

Anyways, I had an epiphany when I read the Mists of Avalon, and thought about Mary as the continuation of the Goddess in mainstream Chrisitian practice. That she's never gone away. And that is a thought that gives me a lot of comfort.

* I'll write more about this later, but I'm planning a St John the Baptist's Day celebration for our church on June 24th. Stay tuned for more details.