hi, Tanemon --

actually, just arrived in India yesterday from Paris.

we spent a week there, my husband and I, taking a few of our students from America around to the intense, beautiful, amazing spiritual power spots that can be found in certain cathedrals, churches, and chapels in and around Paris -- most of them places where the Divine Mother has been worshipped for more than a thousand years, and one small chapel in Paris where the Mother actually appeared in 1830, in the form of Mary, walked in, sat down, and proceeded to tell the immediate future of France to a very young novitiate named Catherine LaBoure. (Catherine LaBoure was made a saint in the Catholic church in the 1940s -- mostly, I think, because of the unbelievable amount of healing and other miracles that have happened as a result of people coming to that church and asking the Divine Mother for help.)

thousands and thousands of miracles have been documented there -- it is a super-powerful, uplifting place called the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. (you can search on google and find the chapel's official site. it's really something.)

the first time I walked into that chapel, I literally burst into tears and couldn't stop crying for about 30 minutes -- the Mother's energy is that strong and palpable there. it really felt like power spots I've visited in India.

we also went to Chartres, the Gothic Cathedral built on the site of an ancient Kali temple -- there is a black Madonna statue there, carved in the 1500s, who is completely alive. and she is much more a Kali figure than a Mary figure per se -- the energy is completely different from other Marian churches and cathedrals.

the local Indian population go to Chartres around the time of the Navarathri, the Nine Nights of the Mother Divine festival in October, to celebrate the Kali Puja in front of that black Madonna.

I saw her years ago, before I had any experience with the Divine Mother, myself, and although I thought the statue was powerful it didn't really grab my attention or my heart. this time was a radically different experience -- the five of us meditated in front of Her for more than an hour and no one wanted to leave. Her energy was roaring, vibrant, blessing, edgy -- really incredible.

now we're all in South India, home of the Divine Mother, for sure and for real. it's a pleasure to be here, especially during this highly auspicious full moon coming up on the 18th.

of course, I'm always sending huge blessing and healing and prayers to the folks on tribe.net -- I love this group and the people I've met in other tribe discussions here, over the last few years, and inevitably the energy starts to get directed that way whenever I'm praying or meditating while hanging out at a divine power spot.

Penukonda, India, where I am now (and will be until the 23rd July) is one of the most powerful places on the earth -- and its influence and divinity is growing quickly, it seems, each month that passes...........

thanks for your kind thoughts -- right back atcha --

in Her love,

Alx