On the Spring Equinox, I took myself off to one of my favorite chapels, hidden high in the hills between France and Spain – Notre Dame du Coral.I have been to this chapel many times and it seems there is always some sort of wild goose chase involved, always with a few Black Madonna lessons thrown in.  I wanted to film a video and record a meditation for you all and after thinking about this idea for years, I decided this was the day to DO IT!

But before I get to the Wild Goose Chase du jour (of the day), let me take you back to my previous attempts.  

Visit 1: I went off in my car to find the chapel, knowing there was a Black Madonna there, which always means the earth energies are very strong there and the veils are thin between the known and the unknown.  I figured I’d just walk around the village of Prats de Mollo (it’s not big) and find the church.  Wrong!  It was getting late and I had client calls to get to, so back home I went with my tail between my legs.

Visit 2: After getting a bit more info, I find out that the chapel is some way out of town up in the hills.  Fail to locate it.  Tail between legs, rinse and repeat!

Visit 3: After more research, off I go.  It’s not easy to find, but I’m super excited to eventually find the Ermitage – yay!!!  I reach the outer door and go in, and there is an inner door to the church which does not open – seems locked.  This is a very common issue here in France – many of the churches and chapels in the hills are locked.  I curse at myself for not calling ahead.  Although, I see through two little windows high up that the lights appear to be on inside the chapel.  I walk around calling for someone…silence, apart form the odd donkey bray.  There is a sign saying ‘Ring the doorbell if you need help’, but there is no doorbell.  There is also a phone number to call, but there is no cell reception – we are deep in the mountains here.  Dejected, I go and sit on a stone wall next to the Auberge next door.  I decide I’ll just meditate there anyway as I’ll still get those good dragon ley line energies.  As I settle down the most friendly black cat ever comes bounding up to me and throwing himself/herself all over me!  Well, now I knew I was in good hands!  I had a lovely cuddle session with this gorgeous cat who would warm the heart of any of those people who say cats are aloof (you know who you are!), and then settled in for a meditation.  

The energy here is pristine and amazing…so unbelievably silent.  Up until now the weather was great – warm and sunny.  However, suddenly there are clouds and it looks like rain.  I came in my warm and sunny clothes, no rain gear in sight, and it’s a 15 minute hike back to my car.  I decide to go and bash the door one more time thinking maybe I was wrong and it will miraculously open now.  Nothing.  I’m feeling mad, as it was an hour’s drive, this is my 3rd attempt, and I can tell I’m going to get really wet.  Suddenly I get the idea to walk back up the hill and see if I can get cellphone reception anywhere along the way.  Bingo!!! I quickly call the number listed and I get someone who says ok they’ll come and open for me.  I go and wait and a women comes out of the bowels of the building, walks to the chapel door and just shoves it open!  It was open all the time, it just needed a REALLY good shove!  Arghh!!! She gave me a bit of a look as I walked in with my head hanging :-).  

The chapel is lovely, rustic with beautiful stone walls.  There is this lovely upper chapel with paintings on the wall including a lovely Yoni symbol, and a statue of Mother Mary.  I’m not religious in any way, so I always look for the Grail Symbols in these chapels to show that these places were important to people before Christianity and more pagan in nature.  Of course anywhere there is a Black Madonna, the sites were of interest to pagans because of the important ley lines in these areas.  In fact, when Black Madonnas were found they were usually found buried in the earth (many times found by a farmer’s cows).  When the locals tried to move the statues, they would many times disappear and re-appear where they were originally found, or they would grow too heavy to move.  From this the locals started to understand that they belonged where they were found and were saying something about that spot.  So many time, a chapel was erected at that site.

As I meditated with the Black Madonna here, it started absolutely pouring down with rain.  After trying to wait it out, I decided I had to make run for it.  It was quite a surreal 15 minute dash back to my car – I got absolutely soaked through, running in the freezing rain, and the soil, which is quite red at this site, started just flowing down the dirt road in rivers – it was crazy as it looked liked the streets were full of blood!

Many lessons came from this day…one being that the doors I think are closed are actually open.  

Visit 4:  I arrived, and all the doors were locked!  However this time not 1, but 2 black kitties came running towards me and encircled me in a black ball of love!  No-one seemed around to call for help, and no cell reception.  Sigh…

Visit 5: I call ahead this time and the owner of the Auberge assures me the chapel is alway open.  Hmm, okay…I’m a bit confused.  So off I go the following day, and yes, both doors are open, but this time it’s mostly dark in the chapel.  I look around for lights, not finding any.  After some time, I hear voices and go out to meet the owner, who informs me the lights are out (as in broken), they will be fixed in a few days, peut-être (maybe).  My first impulse was I wanted to just go into the fetal position – I was exhausted by just too many obstacles!  So I went into the dark chapel and decided to meditate with Her.  And there in the darkness She whispered Her message…a message that my cells knew to be the truth as soon as it was spoken.  The Black Madonna teaches us to be in the darkness..she is the darkness, and I should do the meditation anyway and just show the darkness and the lack of ‘success’.  None of us are always in the light.  We slip into the darkness all the time, and that is as it should be.  If we were living in heaven then we wouldn’t, but we live on earth where there is constant movement between dark and light, feeling confused, feeling shut out, feeling unsure, disconnected and those delicious connected moments when we feel connected with life and brimming with joy .  And we judge ourselves so much for these darker states, as if we shouldn’t be here.  Things are only ok when everything is working right.   So I took a deep breath, relaxed into the darkness and accepted that I was going to have no video (maybe another time), and I would post pictures of the previous time when the lights were on. Lesson learned!  It seems She always challenges me to let go of expectations, soften and go with the flow.  Thank you, Divine Mother.