August 31 2018. Paris via Dubai. When I knew we were coming to Paris, the only thing I wanted to do was get to Chartres Cathedral, the Cathedral of our Lady and walk one of the oldest known labyrinths which is paved into the cathedral floor. On Friday nights the chairs are removed to allow pilgrims to walk the path in contemplation.
Arriving in Paris on Friday afternoon, the timing was not right to catch the 1.15hr train each way as we would barely have 20 minutes with the labyrinth before they closed.
We caught the train down on Saturday and the adventure took the whole day. The cathedral is the 5th built on the same site over the last few centuries.
Originally, the Well of the Strong, a site of Druid worship was a place for pilgrims to come. The original sacred well still exists in the crypt under the building and pilgrims still flock to the church of Our Lady. The well has a square bottom, the corners pointing to the 4 directions in the earth or underworld and a round top, the circle of infinity, close to the heavens.
The cathedral is the site of an ancient cult to the Black Madonna, centred around a statue know as “Our Lady under the Earth”, a statue of Mary and her son. Black is not just a colour though Mary was a Nazarene and Aramaic and dark of skin, but ‘Now their appearance is blacker than soot, they go unrecognised in the streets’ (Lam 4:8). Most of the church was razed by fire in the 11th century, only the front facade surviving and the crypt or lower chapel. The rebuild was influenced by the Knights Templar and constructed in the Gothic style. The Knights Templar built sanctuaries and temples across France and Spain over a period from 1130 to 1250, many of which were dedicated to Our Lady and the feminine principles. 1250 saw the rise of the Inquisition and the destruction of anything to do with the feminine. We live with that destruction today.
The Cathedral has a relic of which they are very proud. In 876AD there was a gift of Mary’s veil, or the cloth she was believed to be wearing when Christ was born. It is a beautiful piece of white linen which has pride of place in an especially secure area.
It is a living church, a place of the people, the home of the holy mother, and feels like a community house.
When we walked up from the train station toward the Cathedral there in the footpath was the pilgrims shell. I saw it and knew my pilgrimage had started. Then finding the cathedral was dedicated to the mother figure and holds a sacred relic as well as the evidence of the ancient Druids, many of my beliefs came together in this place.
It was here we met Michelle, a wonderful woman who was staying in the Monastery. She gave us a picnic which we enjoyed, along with a vege knife that came in mighty handy during the adventure.
After taking the train back to Paris, we met up with Pauline, our travel companion for the next 7 weeks and went out to dinner, in Paris, how good is that? A wander along the Seine to see Notre Dame under a full moon rounded off the day.
Visions of Clarity 