Any Mary-worshippers here? (ritual, beliefs, hell, church, experience)

[Mind_Zenith]

Hey all
I've always found the idea of worshipping Mary, the Queen of Heave, very interesting. I'm more or less a folk witch, in that I call on saints and Mary in spells, and I have no real religious ties to catholicism. But yeah, I know there are at least three groups of Mary-worshippers: The Collyridians (more identified with the church of that name), the Philomarianites ("Lovers of Mary", what I used to call myself when I was interested in it: a catch-all term) and the Pagan Marians/ Mary worshippers (who take away christian ritualism from Philomarianism).

But yeah, I'm kind of getting into it again, and I wanted to see if there were any around

If you could talk about your experiences with Mary as a pagan, or whatever you may be, that would be cool

I basically have had a lot of Marian religious experiences, especially when I include worshipping Mary as the ultimate Goddess, and source of All things. It always makes the casting more powerful, and I get major visions when I do. Some of them are mega trippy lol

I'll note that at the moment, I'm a Nichiren Buddhist, but I'm slowly moving back to Mary lol

Anyway, just thought I'd give a line lol.

Peace

[Fate]

Hi Zenith,
I found your post on the board by looking through Google for anything new on the Philomarianites. I fall into that category, and have info to share. I'd post links, but I haven't posted 15 times on the board yet, so just reply if you would like me to email them to you. Barring that, I will look about the board further and maybe get to the 15.
I use the terms interchangeably most of the time, but since I combine Hellenic beliefs with those of the cake eaters, I primarily choose the Philomarianite title. I think many combine the term Collyridian with Christian, although I am not one of them. My rather lengthy term for myself is a Philomarianite Gnostic Shadow Pagan, but that wouldn't fit in the allotted space we're given on our profiles.
Best,
Fate

[ecnal]

I worship Mary in the sense that I worship all incarnations of the Goddess. Here's an interesting interview where Dr. Matthew Fox talks quite a bit about the Goddess tradition within Christianity.

mavericks of the mind . com / fox - int . htm

I haven't made 15 posts yet either, so if you take the spaces out of the above url & copy & paste it into your browser it should work.

[Ba'al]

I'm not familiar with the religions that worship Mary. Can you elaborate on them a little? How does someone worship Mary? What is the purpose? What do you know about her, other than what's in the bible? Is it different than worshiping Jesus or God? Why Mary?

[ecnal]

From the Goddess.ws site:

The Divine Mother of the universe has also assumed the form of Mother Mary or the Virgin Mary mother of Jesus. As such, the Divine Mother makes her presence known to her Christian children. She instructs them in the way of the divine feminine and her aspects of compassion, mercy, forgiveness and unconditional love. It is not really known, nor does it matter, if Mary the wife of Joseph was born as an incarnation of the Goddess. What is certain is the universal Divine Mother now uses this form to communicate with Her children that are predisposed to the Christian path. The Divine Mother can and does assume any form She likes to communicate with Her children in various cultures and for various times. The universal Divine Mother has appeared as Mother Mary numerous times just as She appears as Kuan Yin for many Buddhists.

Mary is celebrated around the world as the Divine Feminine by millions of people, many of them Catholics. Those who are devoted to Mary, honor Her as the mother of Jesus. The Blessed Virgin Mary is known as the dispenser of mercy, the ever patient mother, and protectress of humanity, and special protectress of women and children.

Many believe that with the rise of Christianity and papal power, the Goddess slowly disappeared from westen culture and faded into the Mists of Avalon . . . . So great was devotion to the Goddess that She was ressurected in the hearts of the people by a new Goddess, Mary, Mother of Jesus, the Christian version of the GreenMan.
From the Spiral Goddess website:

Officially, the Catholic Church teaches that Mary was mortal and is not a Goddess, but despite this official position, many Catholics honor Mary as a Goddess. Other Catholics revere Mary as Mother of Jesus, but not as divine.

[spiritually inclined]

edit.....posted to wrong forum

[laughing marmot]

If Mary is the Mother of God, then She's our Mom, too, n'est-ce pas?

[Mind_Zenith]

Originally Posted by Ba'al

I'm not familiar with the religions that worship Mary. Can you elaborate on them a little? How does someone worship Mary? What is the purpose? What do you know about her, other than what's in the bible? Is it different than worshiping Jesus or God? Why Mary?

It's good to see a bit of curiosity, so I'll try to answer this best I can

Firstly, on the religions that worship Mary:
1. The first historical group to worship Mary as a supreme Goddess were the Collyridians, who were fourth century Arab Christians, that mixed the predominant pagan traditions with the Christian religion being introduced. They were re-educated by the church (as to how, we're not quite sure). There's speculation they worshipped Mary as an incarnation of an unknowable Father-God, who manifested himself in Mary and Jesus. Another name for them is "Philomarianites" (sp?), and this term was used, especially in the Orthodox churches, to describe this heretical act of worshipping Mary.

In recent years, these groups have had a come back in the Pagan world. There have always been those Catholics who feel Mary to be part-and-parcel (as an incarnation or what-have-you ) with God himself: The painter Nicholas Froment created a painting which likened Mary to the God of the Burning Bush; more recently, the Catholic Mariavite Church have taken up the belief that as God the Son incarnated as Jesus, God the Father was as Mary.

The How and Why of Mary Worship:

Mary is worshipped usually in a Pagan context today, and usually with a deal of Catholic ritual added (the amount depending on the individual: I had a very Catholic worship of Mary). It will include offering things like incense, candles, flowers, perhaps food, water and objects (money for example) to an image of Mary, and praying to Her. Structured and spontaneous rituals are used, and perhaps personal prayer to Her is the most important act of worship.

As to the purpose: it is simply because people find in Her the Almighty, a loving Queen of Heaven that is all-powerful, and who sets that feeling of Divine Love in the individual when she is worshipped.

The Bible, Jesus, and other knowledge about Mary

Some Mary-worshippers are extremely Biblical, in that they take what they can about Mary solely from the Bible. Especially in the case of Christo-Paganism, they may reason that She is the incarnation of God the Father, and that Jesus, by pointing to God the Father, we can in fact worship Mary as God the Mother. Others see Mary as an incarnation of the Holy Spirit, and worship Her in the Trinity. Some further see Christ in terms of the saviour, and others as a guide onto God; some don't view him at all, perhaps as a pointer onto Mary. Many also consider the Goddess in the book of Jeremiah to be a sign of Her.
Some are less Biblical: they worship Mary in a totally Christian context, considering Her to be the incarnation of a Greater Goddess. Others see Her solely in the Christo-Pagan realm, that She is a Goddess–and that is that.
When I could say I was totally Philomarian, I could say I considered Her to be the Queen of Heaven and Mother of all, based on UPG, some Biblical reasoning, and some reasoning from the revelations of Fatima and Guadalupe.

I know it may not seem this was a little, but it was in comparison to the essays I could write on the subject

I hope this answers your questions!

[Raymond Sigrist]

I have a devotion to Mary, but I do not claim that she still exists or ever existed. But being an all-indulgent mother, she does not seem to mind whether I think she exists or not. That is unconditional love. Why the devotion? It works for me.

[Random]

Most Catholic-born people (like myself) who retain an interest in Catholicism into adult find the best bits of the religion are the Marian/devotional aspects.

Technically, Mary is said to have been a mortal human woman who was raised up by her son Jesus, she is not a goddess, but this hardly matters since subconsciously all her devotees identify with Her as the divine Great Goddess.

The pagan element cannot be ignored; The BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) has all the titles and trappings of many templates of the Great Goddess that existed before, such as Isis, Semiramis, Athene, etc.

Similarly with Kwannon/Guan-Yin, the 'Goddess of Mercy' in Buddhist lore, the similarities are striking; once said to have been mortal, raised up by a higher power / enlightened wisdom etc.

It's all the same thing. I light three candles for the BVM, meditate and then say three Hail Marys; that's about the extent of my religiosity these days, but it works for me.