Tantric pilgrimage to Mary Magdalene - south of France

Southern France - Languedoc, Camarque and Provence

By visiting these places and getting the sense of what happened there, we intend to reclaim the suppressed traditions of our western and Christian culture that are closest to the tantric maps of human experience. We do this to begin to rediscover our own western tantric tradition as opposed to studying a system which feels foreign and is based on a different culture.

Secondly, by understanding what has been violently and brutally suppressed by the patriarchal and ecclesiastical establishment, to create in our own consciousness more balance and a sense of the power and the importance of the sacred feminine and its relationship with the masculine. Doing this on the land where these historical events took place enables us to experience them energetically rather than merely intellectually, to grasp them as a real lived experience and not just an abstract concept.

We will be using meditation, breathing techniques, story telling as well as ceremony and tantric rituals to develop the awareness of the sacred feminine in our own consciousness and so bring it back to being. We will include legends and traditions of the Mary Magdalen story. We will explore the teachings of the Cathars and their suppression during the Albigensian crusades in the 12 –13 century and their connection with the esoteric knowledge of the Templars. We will include the legends of the Holy Grail, and the romantic tradition of courtly love as celebrated by the medieval troubadours such as Crétien de Troyes and the unknown author of the Roman de la Rose, together with the tradition of alchemy as understood by C.G.Jung and his followers.

The most important places that we will visit:

· La Sainte-Baume – Maxime in the Provence, where in the crypt of the local basilica you can look into the face of Mary Magdalene, then visiting a cave in the mountain massive of St.Baume, where Mary Magdalene is believed to have lived for her last 33 years

· St.Marie de la Mer, small seaside town in the heart of the Camarque, where according to the legends the boat with Mary Magdalene landed, and where we will meet the black Madonna Sara, now patroness of the gypsies and in some traditions the daughter of Christ and Mary Magdalene.

· Pays de Cathares – The land of the Cathars : the Cité in Carcassonne; Rennes-le-Chateau – centre of many ley lines and reputed to be the hiding place of a secret treasure connected with the Grail; Montségur – Cathar stronghold a and site of martyrdom; possibly ancient Cathars ́ castles and others...

This journey is a pilgrimage. We visit these places and let the energy work on us as well au using specific meditation on the theme of divine feminine. An important aspect of the group is sharing of the personal impressions and inner experiences of the participants.