How to Embody Love: an Adorata Virtues Webinar

“The sixteen Virtues are the pillars of My heart. Stand strong among these pillars and you will build your own temple of Sacred Union.”

~Divine Mother, from Adorata: the Path of Enlovement

I came to the Adorata path in a round about way. My background is in nursing and I hold a doctorate degree in counseling. But for the last 15 years I have been an author of Visionary Fiction. Visionary Fiction is storytelling that may have spiritual, metaphysical, or supernatural aspects, but most of all, it gives the reader an intimate experience of a shift in consciousness through the character’s experiences in the story. The theme in my novels is always about embodied love.

Embodied love is the alchemy of Sacred Union within your body and heart. Embodied love is practical and down to earth. It is your capacity to give love and be loved, in all of love's forms. It comes through harmonizing your inner female and inner male.

I prayed and knew that one day I would find a body of teachings and a spiritual path that could teach people, in practical ways, exactly how to embody love. Well, my prayers were answered when I found the system called Adorata, founded and developed by the Italian-born modern day mystic, artist, and humanitarian, Tiziana DellaRovere.

What is Adorata?

Adorata is a body of teachings and a spiritual path that unites a Divine Feminine based spirituality with a new archetype of Divine Masculine spirituality, to create embodied love, the alchemy of sacred union within your body and heart.

Adorata harmonizes and mystically transforms your inner male and female within, which are two aspects of the psyche existing in all men and women regardless of sexual preferences. A disharmonious relationship between your inner male and female can cause you to experience life as an exhausting struggle; it may attract undermining situations, or may underlie unhappy relationships or work situations.

What are the Adorata Virtues?

The Adorata Virtues are the foundational stepping-stones to embodying love. They are archetypal attributes of the Divine Feminine depicted in sixteen Madonna portraits that emanate the qualities of each Virtue and are accompanied by sacred text and prose. The Virtue Course is a mystical experience of embodying these fundamental aspects of the Divine Feminine.

The Adorata Virtue Course is an Initiation!

In the course you will read the sacred text and prose, do meditations, dance, ritual, art, insightful exercises and introspection, as well as incorporating practical suggestions in applying and embodying the Virtues in your daily life. You will also learn the powerful Adorata Meditation, which is the mainstay of the Adorata system.

The Instructor – Dr. Jodine Turner

I am a certified Adorata Practitioner, having undergone a five year training program with Tiziana DellaRovere. I will be offering the Adorata Virtue Course in the first eight foundational Adorata Virtues of Purity, Serenity, Wisdom, Abundance, Devotion, Harmony, Passion, and Trust.

The Webinar Course

This course is offered as an online, interactive, virtual webinar class through CSourceWisdom. The class will meet for two hours once a month for eight months. There will be exercises and initiatory practices offered throughout the month to help you apply and embody the Virtues in your daily life. Opportunity for interactions with fellow classmates and the instructor will be provided and encouraged in a safe, private environment of a virtual campus.

Classes begin in August 2014 and carry on through March 2015. Class time is Saturdays from 10 am– 12 pm PST.

August 9, 2014

Sept 6

Oct 11

Nov 8 

Dec 6 

Jan 10, 2015 

Feb 7 

March 7

Course Fee: The fee for the eight classes is $60 per class, or a one-time payment of $465. The beautiful Adorata book entitled Adorata: the Path of Enlovement, by Tiziana DellaRovere, is included

I invite you to join me to engage in the initiations of embodying love!

Click here to REGISTER

Video describing the Adorata Virtues Course

Painting by Tiziana DellaRovere

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Jodine Turner is the award winning, best selling Visionary Fiction, fantasy author of the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about priestesses who have lived in Avalon down through the ages to today.  www.jodineturner.com

'A Winters Tale' - a Movie Experience of Visionary Fiction

We are well aware that Visionary Fiction, with regards to the publishing industry, is a genre in its infancy, though its form and mode of storytelling is perennial. One way to describe, define, and increase awareness of this genre for authors, readers, agents, and publishers, is to show by example. On our Visionary Fiction website we have compiled a list of books and movies that fall under the VF genre. Book and movie reviews also help increase awareness and understanding of VF. I’ve recently watched the new movie A Winter’s Tale, and found it to be a very good illustration of VF.

Originally a novel written by Mark Helprin and published in 2005, A Winters Tale is a time-travel love story that spans more than a century. Despite the movie trailer’s emphasis on the romantic love between characters Peter Lake and Beverly Penn, which is undoubtedly both believable and epic, the movie encompasses love on a much grander scale. And it incorporates the persistent struggle between good and evil, destiny and purpose, timing and fate.

Peter, (played with deep emotion by Colin Farrell), is an orphaned burglar trying to break free from under the rule of crime boss Pearly Soames (played convincingly by Russell Crowe). Peter is clever, and under normal human circumstances, may have easily slipped away from Pearly’s jurisdiction. But it so happens that Pearly is a minion of Lucifer (played artfully by Will Smith). And Pearly’s demonic abilities include being able to follow streams of ethereal light to geographically locate whomever he wants to.

Pearly is obsessed with his vendetta against Peter, his one-time favorite burglar apprentice. But his obsession is larger than his personal rage towards Peter. He doesn’t want Peter to use his preordained personal miracle and fulfill his destiny by saving the life of a mysterious red-headed woman.  If Peter does so, it’s one big point for good, one big minus for evil.  

Peter is given the help of a guardian angel, in the form of a magnificent white Pegasus, who both guides him, and saves him more than once from Pearly’s attempts to capture and kill him. This archetypal, winged white horse sets Peter down in front of the home of the young , beautiful, red-headed heiress Beverly Penn (played by the talented Jessica Brown Findlay, of Downton Abbey fame). Peter thinks he is meant to burglar one last time and enters the luxurious home.  Instead of robbing it, he meets up with Beverly, who sees the inherent goodness and noble heart behind Peter’s rough exterior. The two star-crossed young people fall in love. But Beverly reveals she is dying.

The story follows Peter’s attempts to save Beverly, all the while evading the grasp of Pearly, who is now after both of them. There are some surprising twists and turns of plot that won’t be mentioned in an effort to not spoil the movie storyline. But the principles of reincarnation, immortality, destiny and purpose permeate the story. There are obvious paranormal aspects. But, more importantly, and bottom line to the definition of Visionary Fiction, the emphasis in A Winter’s Tale is on giving viewers the opportunity to experience a shift in consciousness, an evolution of perspective, through the experience of the characters.

What happened for me while watching A Winter’s Tale was an experience of a vision of hope. In a world that often seems too cruel, too violent, and too unjust, I can find myself feeling disheartened, helpless, and angry. A Winter’s Tale gave me a much needed boost of faith and hope. Hope in the power of love prevailing over evil. Hope and awe in the power and the patterns of destiny. Those purposes we often can’t see from our limited perspective, but purposes that are, nevertheless, working towards good on a larger scale, in their own time and in their own, often surprising ways.

So, yes, despite the critics panning the movie, I left feeling uplifted. (By the way, critics slamming a movie often gives me the sign that I should go see it!) I shifted. I felt the lightness of hope. I felt the power of love – yes, romantic love, but more so, love in all of its myriad forms.

I say go see A Winter’s Tale for an experience of Visionary Fiction.

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photo credit: http://bit.ly/1g5RVOA zcool.com.cn

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Jodine Turner is the award winning, best selling Visionary Fiction, fantasy author of the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about young priestesses who have lived in Avalon down through the ages to today. www.jodineturner.com

Imbolc Blessings

The Wheel of the Year focuses on the cycles of the seasons and the natural rhythm of the earth. On February 1, the Wheel has turned to the festival of Imbolc, also known as Candlemas.

Though winter still prevails, Imbolc shows us that spring is not too far away. Imbolc heralds the approaching time where we can gather the inner peace and regeneration of our winter hibernation to utilize in the outer manifestation of our daily lives. The movement of the season is the outward birth from winter to springtime - the seed of spring is held within the womb of the earth. It is the lambing season, the birthing of baby lambs. The name Imbolc refers to the lactation of the lambs, the flow of life nourishing milk that heralds the return of life affirming spring. During this time in England, the flower called the snowdrop peeks above ground and blooms delicate white petals.

snowdrops at Chalice Well garden

Imbolc is primarily celebrated as the festival of Brighid (also called Briget or Bride), the triple goddess of poetry, smithcraft, and healing. Brighid has been venerated as a great goddess for centuries in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Ancient Celts of Britain called upon the goddess Brighid to warm, heal, and inspire. Brighid reminds us to use her creative inspiration to guide our daily tasks, to be grateful for and tend the fire of the hearth that warms us, and to rely on nature’s herbs to help nourish and heal us.

In Ireland and Scotland, groups of young girls, symbolizing the newness and maidenhood of Brighid, processed through the village streets carrying a corn sheath dolly from home to home. The dolly was presented to those within the homes who would honor her by decorating her with flowers, shells, stones, and ribbons. When I lived in Glastonbury, I participated in creating a Brighid dolly which was processed around the ancient Brighid Slipper Chapel and then laid upon ‘Brighid’s bed’ alongside the other Brighid dolls from the two years prior – the mother and grandmother ancestry. My novel, The Keys to Remember, describes a fictionalized Imbolc procession in detail.

Another popular Imbolc custom was the making of Brighid crosses to hang high in house and byre. These were crosses of a triskele shape, to symbolize the three fold nature of Brighid. The crosses were made of rushes or braided straw. Rushes were traditionally laid down in the birthing place as they carry the symbol of new life. Today, Brighid crosses are often made with white and red yarn.

The goddess Brighid later became known as the Christian Saint Brigit. Imbolc, dedicated to the light-bearing qualities of Brighid, was renamed Candlemas. Candlemas was Christianized as the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary, and was celebrated as a festival of lights. Candles burnt during Candlemas kept away storms, demons, and other evils. In this Christian version, Brigit was the foster mother of Christ and the midwife at Christ’s birth. As such, she was often invoked for her assistance at childbirth.

Legends say that Saint Brigit was the daughter of a druid who had a vision that she would be named after a great goddess. She was born at sunrise and she was reared on the milk of a special white cow with red ears, an animal often found in the Celtic Otherworld. You can see a carved representation of Brighid and her totem cow on St. Michael’s tower atop the Tor hill in Glastonbury, England. Also in Glastonbury is the famous St. Brigit’s mound, located in a field west of the town. Supposedly, in centuries past, there was a Brigit nunnery there. Some say it was earlier a convent dedicated to Mary Magdalene.

Saint Brigit founded a famous Christian abbey at Kildare, Ireland, in the heart of Leinster. There, in her convent, burned a perennial flame which became known as one of the three inextinguishable fires of Irish monasteries. The candle is reported to have burnt perpetually from the 5^th to the 16^th centuries, with Saint Brigit’s nuns tending and guarding the flame. The foundations of Saint Brigit’s fire temple where Brigit and her sisters tended the sacred flame still exist. Brigit's flame has now been rekindled and is being tended to. Many healing wells and springs are named after Saint Brigit/ the goddess Brighid. Nearby the abbey at Kildare, about a mile away, stands a famous Saint Brigit Well.

Rituals for Imbolc:

1.     Light a white candle to honor the sacred perpetual flame of Brigit. Make a prayer for Brighid's flame to symbolically spark the divine luminousity inherant within you. Ask Brighid to inspire you in whatever project you may want help for in your life.

2.     Pick dandelion leaves and eat them in your salad. This common weed, with their golden flower faces, remind us of the sun’s return.

3.     Leave a red or white silk ribbon on your doorstep for Brighid to bless on the eve before Imbolc. The ribbon can then be used for healing purposes.

4.     Make your own Brighid’s cross – instructions can be found here

 ~Jodine Turner, visionary fiction and magical fantasy author. http://www.jodineturner.com

Beyond Samhain’s Doorway: Visionary Fiction

Summer has exhaled and faded. The nights are beginning to lengthen. Leaves burnish in shades of red, gold, and orange, and drop from the trees. The last of the harvest is gathered, and the remains of the crops are tilled back into the fields to nourish the soil for next year’s planting. Our lived life is analogous to this turning of the seasons if we can view it from that perspective. As such, you may ponder what seeds you have planted earlier in the year, what you have created by mid-year, what has now come into fruition to be harvested in your life, and what needs to be nourished for the upcoming year.

Because I am an author of Visionary Fiction (VF), the writer in me also resonates with this season of autumn. And, more so with… yes…Halloween. Not so much the commercial Halloween of clever costumes and adorable children who ‘trick or treat’ for candy, as much as acknowledging this season ‘where the veils are thin between the worlds of the seen and unseen,’ or so the ancient Celtic people asserted.

October 31^st, mid-autumn, marks one of earth’s seasonal turning points with a festival called Samhain (pronounced sa-wen, which comes from two words meaning summer’s end), a festival later to be renamed Halloween. Samhain originally celebrated this mystical time when the usual barriers between our world and the otherworld opened to allow contact between humans and their ancestors, the spirits of the dead, as well the fairy folk. Legend says that these two realities now have the opportunity to come together and communicate.  

These otherworldly realities do not refer to unnerving horror stories often associated with Halloween. Rather, the reference to thin veils between the worlds addresses the unseen aspect of life that often goes unnoticed, and is patently undervalued in our society. In this regard, Visionary Fiction is a sort of ‘X Files’ of the literary world, or even an empirical starship ‘Enterprise,’ in that VF often goes places other fictional genres do not. More importantly, VF takes the reader to these otherworld realms in a manner that other genres do not. The other realms often include intuition, spiritual contemplation, paranormal events and beings, psychic abilities, dreams, visions, the power of synchronicity, the magic of everyday miracles, the metaphysical, or supernatural occurrences.

To be true Visionary Fiction, such realms and experiences are not used as mere plot devices by the VF author. Instead, they are the venues through which characters redeem themselves, as well as the conflicts in their lives and their relationships. Like any character in a well-crafted novel, VF characters struggle to transform their fears – the adversary that lies either within themselves or in their external circumstances. The uncharted and unseen realms that are outside mundane awareness are the arena Visionary Fiction draws upon in its effort to provide stories that give the reader their own internal experience of expanding their minds and their consciousness.

The VF author, or authors of any genre for that matter, can use the energies of Samhain/Halloween to stoke their creative fires. The Samhain passageway opens to winter, that dark half of the year where the earth slumbers and the seed gestates in fertile richness. As authors, we often get a preliminary jolt of inspiration for our novels. As part of our writing process, we plant that seed of inspiration in the rich earth of our imagination in the hopes it will grow. At this time of year, beyond Samhain’s doorway, lies the deep cavern of the Earth Mother’s womb from which all that is intuitive, creative, and natural on this earth is gestating, readying itself to one day be birthed. The stages of writing a novel are similar, whether it is the bare, newly forming concept of a story, or the kernels of ideas for a new scene or chapter.

This time of year can also add its energy to help us to strip away what no longer serves in readiness for rebirth into something better. In my writing world, that is called editing and re-writes!

I like to tap into the Samhain/Halloween energies by partaking in a writing exercise to re-energize my writing life. I invite you to do the same with the following exercise.

Samhain is a time to reflect on the past year’s writing and finish any old loose ends in your chapter, scenes, or manuscript from the previous year.

Have a piece of paper, a pen, matches, and a fireplace or fireproof bowl nearby. Take a few moments to go within. Acknowledge the energies of gestation and transformation that preside over this autumn–into—winter half of the year. Reflect on any old scenes, chapters, character development, plots, etc. that you would like to finish at this time. Your reflections could even include outmoded habits of writing, (or not writing) - whatever old business you’d like to complete or transform with regards to your writing and authorship.

Take your piece of paper and write down your reflections. Light a fire in your fireplace, woodstove, or fireproof bowl, as a symbolic remnant of the Samhain great bonfires of yesteryear. Place the paper in the flames and allow it to burn, to represent the finishing of your old business. As the flames consume the paper, speak your intention for the releasing, transformation, and completion of the old -- and the gestation, inspiration, and germination in your rich fertile imagination and soul, of the new.   Give thanks.

I would love to hear what is creatively gestating in your imagination from this exercise!

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Jodine Turner is the award winning, best selling visionary fiction, fantasy author of the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about young priestesses who have lived in Avalon down through the ages to today. www.jodineturner.com