(Non Amma) Joan of Arc

[Guest guest]

ONS,

 

This is the incredible story of the life of Joan of

Arc. I received this on another list many years ago

and found it very inspiring.

 

I know many are going through challenges, I send this

story out in the hopes that it will enourage us to

keep the faith and courage necessary to stay the

distance on this path.

 

S

 

**This is a long paper, so give yourself some time to

read it without having to rush.

 

 

http://www.eaglezen.com/images/new%20pics/jeanne%20sketch2.jpg

 

 

Le Mort de Jeanne d'Arc

[January 6, 1412 - May 30th, 1431]

Joan's last words:

" My Voices did come from God! "

" Everything that I have done was by God's order! "

" Hold the crucifix up before my eyes so I may see it

until I die! "

" JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! "

 

music:

http://vangelis.ifrance.com/vangelis/midi/bounty.mid

[Mutiny of the Bounty (Closing Titles) by Vangelis]

This article is from the Saint Joan of Arc Center:

http://www.stjoan-center.com/

[the Saint Joan of Arc Center mega-site is spreading

information about Saint Joan of Arc.]

 

http://www.stjoan-center.com/topics/Mystic_Legacy.html

 

 

Introduction to Marcia Quinn Noren’s paper (The Mystic

Legacy of Jeanne d’Arc)

By Virginia Frohlick

 

" Marcia Quinn Noren’s paper, " The Mystic Legacy of

Jeanne d’Arc " gently guides non-Catholics into a

deeper understanding of Joan’s spirituality. Her

intention is to reach them, exactly where they are.

Her manner of opening them to Joan’s miraculous life

is tender, loving and nurturing. Joan’s reverence for

the Blessed Mother is expressed, and credit is fully

given to the ultimate source of her amazing

attributes; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the

Son of God and Lord of the Universe, the One Whose

name Joan cried out seven times at the moment of her

death; Jesus, the Christ.

 

Introduction to " The Mystic Legacy of Jeanne d’Arc "

By Marcia Quinn Noren

" Six years of research and three separate field trips

to France have allowed me to trace Jeanne d'Arc's

footsteps across landscapes and battlefields, into

monuments and crypts where the scents, sounds and

sights of the physical world she inhabited have not

changed all that much, in nearly six hundred years. My

intention is to present an intimate portrait of the

enigmatic Maid of Orleans who at age seventeen,

appeared publicly for the first time as an

extraordinarily active prophet and transcendent

physical warrior. Initiated by the Archangel Michael

in her father's garden at the age of thirteen, she

kept her mission to unite France a secret for four

years before stepping into her heroic destiny. "

 

" Thank you for your excellent paper. It shows your

devotion to the topic. You certainly did extensive

research. " Dr. Ruth Inge Heinze, University of

California, Berkeley, California.

 

The Mystic Legacy of Jeanne d’Arc

by Marcia Quinn Noren

Prepared for Presentation at the Nineteenth

International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and

Alternative Modes of Healing Held at Santa Sabina

Center, San Rafael CA, August 31 through September 2,

2002, Set for Publication in 2002 as part of the

Conference Proceedings by Dr. Ruth Inge Heinze

 

Jeanne d’ Arc has inspired fascination and study

since she became a legend in her own lifetime, during

the Late Middle Ages. Hers is a story of spiritual

courage and active transcendence, wrapped in paradox

and contradiction. The complex events surrounding her

sudden emergence from a peasant village onto the most

unlikely of public stages, presents the classic Hero’s

Journey and Grail Quest.

 

Controversy stems from the great number of baffling

elements in her story. Jeanne d’Arc was a mystic who

declared openly that her ability to alter the course

of human events came through knowledge gained during

personal interactions with messengers from the divine

realm. Through their direct counsel during the course

of each day, she became able to facilitate large scale

" manifestations in the Here and Now, " activating what

Ruth-Inge Heinze describes as the " dynamic

relationships between the explicate and implicate

order. " (Footnote 1)

 

The immediate and long-range results of the work

Jeanne d’Arc completed during her brief lifetime have

been measured and legitimized by the place she is seen

to hold, closing out the Age of Chivalry on the time

line of history. The effects of her actions, described

by witnesses as miraculous, have not been successfully

set aside as mythological events, by scientific

materialists.

 

Although her mystic legacy is identified with

medieval, Judeo-Christian references and symbols,

Jeanne d’Arc’s behavior clearly has not been

understood by the Western culture she came out of; not

by feminists or historians, not even by theologians

within her own tradition. At the turn of this

millennium, she was portrayed in feature films and

scholarly biographies alike, as a zealot whose visions

and voices are most often discounted as the inventions

of a vivid, if brilliant imagination.

 

In lifting her out of the conceptual " box " in which

she has been historically studied, rigid paradigms can

be released as new ones become established for

understanding her particularly active form of

mysticism. Viewing her life through a lens that

considers the study of shamanism allows a bridge to be

built across time and geography that includes all

cultures and all eras.

 

The increasing volume of inter-disciplinary research

exploring the dynamics of shamanism is a branch of

study through which Jeanne d’Arc and her mastery over

multiple dimensions can become more clearly understood

and comfortably defined. Her work was shamanic in that

it was initiated for only one purpose, to restore her

community to well being and wholeness. She actively

engaged Heaven’s help, to heal all that she knew of

Earth.

 

She can also be seen as the personification of the

Divine Child, a girl who was called, " Daughter of

God, " by her guides. Records from two separate

medieval trials provide the most reliable source of

evidence about her. Translated into contemporary

French only as recently as the middle of the

nineteenth century, the transcripts have been widely

published, and can be accessed on the Internet.

(Footnote 2) An excellent analysis and rich discussion

of the trial records can be found in, " Jeanne d’Arc,

by Herself and Her Witnesses, by the universally

respected, late French historian, Regine Pernoud.

(Footnote 3)

 

Both trials provide clear evidence that Jeanne d’Arc

was not schizophrenic, hysterical, narcissistic or

grandiose. On the contrary, witnesses to her behavior

describe her disposition as that of a calm, clear

thinking, integrated personality who acted with

precision. Historic chronicles, biographies, novels

and essays do not always leave this impression, as

they resonate with the subjective tone of each

author’s era, culture, religious background,

psychological profile, sources of information, and so

on.

 

Testimony given by Jeanne d’Arc during her trial

provides the answers to many questions that anyone

would want to ask her, if given the opportunity.

Speaking in her own defense under the most extreme

pressure imaginable, she resisted being bullied by the

ecclesiastic court. She announced her intention to

answer their questions selectively, as she was under

direction by her celestial counsel to use discretion

in these disclosures. Her voice is bold and

consistent, and challenges the ecclesiastics’

fundamental right to judge her.

 

Unlike other Christian mystics who had emerged out of

a convent or sect, she stepped autonomously and

suddenly into her destiny at the center of a savage

war. What is not so commonly known, is that her

initiation into the role that would eventually become

hers took place a few years earlier, when she received

a visitation in the form of an archangel from the Old

Testament whose Hebrew name is " Mi-Col-El, " " Voice of

God. "

 

" When I was thirteen, I had a voice from God to help

me to govern myself. The first time, I was terrified.

The voice came to me about noon: it was summer, and I

was in my father’s garden. I had not fasted the day

before. I heard the voice on my right hand, towards

the church. There was a great light all about. "

(Jeanne d’Arc) (Footnote 4)

 

" I vowed then to keep my virginity for as long as it

should please God. " (Jeanne d’Arc) (Footnote 5)

" I saw it many times before I knew that it was Saint

Michael. Afterwards he taught me and showed me such

things that I knew it was he. " (Jeanne d’Arc)

(Footnote 6)

 

" Who is Saint Michael? " This question was not asked

of her, during the trial. His identity was well known

to Western Europeans of every class, during the Middle

Ages. In France, the monument on Normandy’s coast

dedicated to him is one of the seven man-made wonders

of the world, created over centuries of time. " Le Mont

St. Michel " rises toward heaven from the silt of

circling tides below. In this place, where through the

ages, knights, monks, kings and pilgrims have sought

refuge; no foreign invaders have ever succeeded in

overtaking it. At the time of Jeanne d’Arc’s birth,

this was seen as evidence of Michael the Archangel’s

invincibility.

 

Rabbi Morris B. Margolies speaks of Michael in A

Gathering of Angels: Angels in Jewish Life and

Literature. Found throughout ancient Hebrew mysticism

as " the archetype of all Jewish angels; guardian and

lifesaver, through all of the Rabbinic literature, " of

all the angels, only Michael was designated as the

" Prince of Israel, the special guardian and role model

of the Jewish people. " (Footnote 7)

 

" Merciful-and-forbearing " Michael emerges from

age-old Jewish literature as the commander-in-chief of

the entire angelic host. In 3 Baruch, a book in the

Pseudeupigrapha, he is the angel who accepts the

prayers and offerings of man and transmits them to

God; a task contrary to a long-cherished Jewish belief

that there are no intermediaries between man’s

prayers, and God. " (Footnote 8)

 

In sculptures and paintings of Michael, at times he

is seen carrying the scales of justice. Most often he

holds a shield, appearing as a calm warrior in armor,

hair streaming, giant wings unfurled. His sword is

drawn and poised to strike the entity braced beneath

his foot; depicted sometimes as a reptilian creature,

but more often, a diabolical human form.

 

This image presents him in his Biblical role at the

head of God’s protective forces, the " victorious one "

who casts the embodiment of evil out of heaven. Jeanne

d’Arc expressed the emotions she felt, upon

experiencing his presence.

 

" He was not alone; but duly attended by heavenly

angels. I saw them with the eyes of my body as well as

I see you. And when they left me I wept, and wished

that they might have taken me with them. And I kissed

the ground where they had stood, to do them

reverence. " (Jeanne d’Arc) (Footnote 9)

 

He told me that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret

would come to me, and that I must follow their

counsel; that they were appointed to guide and counsel

me in what I had to do, and that I must believe what

they would tell me, for it was at our Lord’s command. "

(Jeanne d’Arc) (Footnote 10)

 

What is known about Saint Catherine and Saint

Margaret? Each of these women lived during the 4th

century, but neither was known to the West, until

after the 9th century. During the Middle Ages, they

had become extraordinarily popular saints in Europe,

as early Christian martyrs who had gone defiantly to

their deaths. Jeanne d’Arc would become unwillingly

martyred herself, at the tender age of nineteen.

Catherine and Margaret died under torture, at the

hands of those in the highest ranks of power, during

their eras.

 

Sculptures of Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine

adorn the walls of most Medieval Catholic churches. A

stone image of Margaret stands in the parish church

where Jeanne d’Arc was baptized. In the nearby village

of Maxey, there is a statue of Saint Catherine. Jeanne

revered both of these images, during her lifetime.

Some biographers have been led to suggest that when

she became pressed for concrete information on the

witness stand, her early familiarity with these

ancient saints triggered the subconscious invention of

their identities as those belonging to her voices. Her

own testimony refutes that theory.

 

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Egypt and Saint

Margaret of Antioch, Syria led lives that are not

supported by written documentation, in their

respective parts of the Middle East. Even the Catholic

Encyclopedia allows that this factor will disappoint

scholars, but nonetheless, verbal traditions that

supported their legends have survived to continue

their influence into the 21st Century.

Unlike Jeanne d’Arc, Catherine and Margaret were both

highly educated, and strikingly beautiful. They were

each so charismatic and skilled at public oration,

their speeches converted entire crowds of former

adversaries to Christianity. In remembrance of Saint

Margaret of Antioch, it should be mentioned that she

is still credited with contemporary miracles, and

invoked as protector of pregnant mothers when they

enter the throes of childbirth. In images of her, she

is seen to be graceful and serene, while in the

company of a dragon. Legend says that when swallowed

by the beast, she burst forth from its belly. She

holds a quill pen in some portraits, symbolic of her

education and skill with language.

 

The Shrine of Saint Catherine, at the base of Mount

Sinai contains her remains and a great monastery,

where a library of sacred texts is kept, considered

second only to that held in the Vatican.

Astrophysicist and mystic Gregg Braden was allowed to

enter the library there, after appealing to the

graciousness of the monks who live and work inside. He

observed them using computer technology to scan these

sacred texts, in a race to preserve them for

humankind. The monks told Braden that they had

perceived the threat of destruction coming, in the

form of a " Great War " that will threaten the survival

of everything inside the shrine, and their lives.

(Footnote 11)

 

That Michael, Catherine and Margaret were the

identities behind the " voices " that advised Jeanne

d’Arc during the course of her mission does not seem

arbitrary, when considering their combined attributes.

Witnesses to her heroic levels of physical and mental

agility speak to her sudden acquisition of these

strengths, in their testimonies.

 

Called to the city of Toul, she defended herself

before an ecclesiastic judge for the first time at age

sixteen, executing a winning rebuttal against a man

who claimed she had been promised to him, in marriage.

During their lifetimes, Catherine and Margaret had

both refused men who attempted to press them into

marriage as well, and were subsequently executed, as

radically independent women of faith.

After her guides began their daily visitations, (she

testified they came to her each day, and sometimes

many times within twenty-four hours, whenever she had

need of them and when they called her to their

attention), she went about her life without

dissociating, or psychologically " splitting. " She was

seen to fall into a state of prayerful rapture, rather

than trance. Her overt behavior did not display an

altered perception of reality, nor did she speak

excessively. She used great discretion and

discernment. An active sense of humor was expressed in

verbal and physical interplay, with her comrades of

arms.

 

Witnesses to her childhood describe a particularly

joyful, reverent, obedient girl, whose birth date was

remembered because it fell on a holy day; January’s

Feast of Epiphany, 1412. Like all peasants in that

time and place, her family was illiterate, and birth

records were not accurately kept. Her natal village,

in the northeastern region of Lorraine, was named for

Saint Remy, the sixth century Bishop of Rheims who

crowned Clovis, the first king of the Franks.

Next door to the family home, bells rang out from the

church tower that night, announcing that Isabelle

Romee, wife to Jacques d’Arc, had given birth to her

second daughter and fifth child, Jehanette. She would

testify that she had learned the Lord’s Prayer,

Apostle’s Creed, and " Hail Mary " directly from her

mother. In love with the sound of church bells, she

was baptized and confirmed under Romanesque arches

inside the sanctuary, and received the Eucharist at

Easter.

 

The Hundred Years War impacted daily life in Jeanne

d’Arc’s village. When roving mercenaries threatened to

pillage Domremy, she drove her father’s cattle to a

shelter nearby. She hid with her family in the

neighboring city of Neufchateau’s walled refuge, while

Domremy was sacked and burned by Burgundian soldiers,

allied with English troops. Pestilence had returned to

ravage the population of France at the turn of the

fifteenth century, in the form of the Black Plague.

 

Two institutions, the French monarchy and Catholic

Church formed a single governmental power structure

over the populace, but the royal House of Valois was

nonetheless at that particular time, in an advanced

state of dissipation, denial, and bankruptcy. Charles

VI was declared mad, during his reign. The legitimacy

of his son, Charles who was the dauphin (heir to the

throne) was in serious question. During this crisis,

the French army had been left to languish without

financial support or provisions, and had become

hopelessly ineffective in fighting against ongoing

English invasion.

 

These are just a few of the many extreme

circumstances that called out for an extraordinary

solution, in that moment and that geographic place.

Twentieth century mystic Abd-Ru-Shin describes this

portal, through which the Grail Seeker passes.

" …some part of the great Creation in dire distress,

suffering and ardent appeals rise to the Creator, then

a Servant of the Vessel is sent forth as a bearer of

this Love to intervene helpingly in the spiritual

need. What floats merely as a myth and a legend in the

Work of Creation, then enters Creation as a living

reality. " (Footnote 12)

 

The degree of human suffering seen in early fifteenth

century France is comparable to that recorded in

Biblical history. In completing her heroic mission, it

is appropriate that Christian and medieval heraldic

symbols dominate Jeanne d’Arc’s mystic legacy. These

traditions bonded the people of France to their

origins physically, emotionally and spiritually.

 

When Saint Remy, another great orator, crowned Clovis

after baptizing him as a Christian at Rheims

Cathedral, three important metaphysical symbols

emerged from this first coronation rite that would

permanently link the French monarchy with the Catholic

Church. First, Rheims would become the one and only

sanctuary accepted by the people of France as that

country’s legitimate coronation site.

Second, a holy vial known as the Ampulla was (and is)

kept in the Abbey of Rheims. It contains the sacre,

(consecrated oil), that had sanctified every French

coronation. First used to anoint Clovis, it had been

delivered to Saint Remy, in the beak of a dove.

 

The legend of the third symbol, the golden lilies of

France or fleurs de lys, comes from Clovis. He had

been a pagan until he reached desperation during a

crisis. In the heat of battle, he prayed to the God of

his Christian wife, Clotilda and won the fight, with

his strength having been redoubled. Each of the

crescents on his shield became mysteriously replaced

by a golden lily (formed by three bound petals),

representing the Trinity. From that point forward, the

fleur de lys would be the symbol identified with the

all the monarchs of France, with the Church, and would

also become associated with Jeanne d’Arc’s crest and

family name. (Footnote 13)

 

There has been a mysterious absence of attention

given to an important detail that seems obviously

relevant, as related to Jeanne d’Arc’s personal

spiritual connection to the symbol of the fleur.

During the years of her childhood, she regularly

visited a shrine, Our Lady of Bermont, located at some

distance from her village, above the densely wooded

forest of oaks known as the Bois Chesnu. Offering

privacy and solitude, she was drawn to go there on

Saturdays, for prayer and meditation.

Sometimes accompanied by her sister Catherine, she

took a footpath that ascends uphill to the northeast,

to a clearing in the wood. In this glade scattered

with yellow wild flowers in spring, she gathered

bouquets to place at the feet of a wooden statue,

housed inside the shrine. Our Lady of Bermont, the

polychrome sculpture revered by Jehanette, wears a

simple crown of faded gold. Her robes are painted in

rich hues of blue, magenta and red.

 

She stands poised, a young mother cradling her

toddler, a smiling, animated cherubic image of Jesus,

in the crook of her left arm. The source of his

cheerfulness might appear to be the tiny bird he

holds. But then it becomes clear to the viewer that

his attention is drawn to something else. Atop a

slender scepter, grasped in his mother’s right hand,

is a symbol that holds his gaze, transfixed. It is the

fleur de lys, the " Lily of France. "

 

The young Jehanette, who meditated before this

impressive imagery, would carry the symbols she

revered into her role as a spiritual leader when she

became " La Pucelle, " The Maid. " Across the banner she

carried as beacon of focus for her soldiers, the names

" Jhesus " and " Maria " were prominently displayed. These

sacred names preceded the text of every letter that

she dictated to her scribes. On the index finger of

her left hand, she wore a simple band engraved with

three crosses, and these names.

After the onset of daily celestial visitations,

Jeanne d’Arc’s demeanor became more serious, as the

nature of her mission became outlined. She would be

led to travel a great distance from home, through

innumerable halls of power, into a specific chain of

events. She learned to trust that infinite resources

would become available to her, as circumstances

warranted.

 

When she protested that she had no experience in such

forms of leadership, that she knew nothing about

riding and warfare, her voices reassured her that she

would be led to operate quickly and effectively among

those who held authority. She would succeed in

convincing them to allow her access to the long

disabled royal court and French army. Encouraged by

her spiritual counselors to be verbally bold and

forthright, her purity of intention and humility was

so charismatic that others were held spellbound. Upon

her arrival at Chinon, she identified the dauphin who

tried to hide his identity from her, then six weeks

later, took the staff of leadership from his chiefs of

war.

 

Her words and personal presence had the effect of

spiritually and physically electrifying others,

charging them with renewed faith and limitless energy.

Evidence supports this on every page of her story.

From the first day that she disclosed her identity and

purpose, in January of 1429, she was infused with

belief that God would allow her to deliver what she

promised. In order to do so, she successfully

disengaged the forces of influence within the court

that opposed her and sought to block her from gaining

forward momentum.

 

She convinced Charles, his advisors, soldiers and

comrades that if she were allowed to lead the

French army and regain control of Orleans quickly,

nothing would stop them from going all the way to take

back Paris. French victory would come swiftly she

said, empowered by God, but dependent upon her army’s

faith. After her prophetic, hard won victories along

the Loire beyond Orleans, what followed became known

as the miracle of the " Bloodless March, " when ranks of

English soldiers turned-tail and ran, upon the very

sight of her.

 

Jeanne d’Arc believed that the English invasion of

France must come to an end, in order for peace to

return. Although she has been criticized for not

attempting passive resistance, in letters sent to

English leaders, she offered them opportunity to go

back to their own country, immediately or face

imminent destruction by her army. The plan she carried

out was effective. In taking back France from English

domination " by storm, " swiftly and suddenly, lives

were spared on both sides. She knew that the

subsequent crowning of Charles VII would end the

carnage in France, and repair interior boundaries that

had been torn ragged, by one hundred years of war.

 

Her optimism came from having been told by her

angelic counsel that within a single year from her

instigating this sequence of action, the people of

France who had dissipated under foreign invasion and

been divided by civil war, would become united. Her

voices constantly reminded her that she was the only

human being capable of fulfilling this particular

assignment, and that it had come directly to her, from

God. She could not say " no. "

 

Three years passed after her first visitation from

Michael, during which she kept her own counsel,

refraining from confiding in anyone. Sometime during

this period, her mother warned her of a dream in which

her father had seen her leaving home with soldiers.

She testified that he threatened to drown her, if she

should attempt it, and assigned her brothers to guard

her, carefully. She kept her intentions to leave and

the presence of her guides a secret from everyone;

including her mother, the priest of her parish church,

and her closest friend, Hauviette.

 

One of the most captivating, extraordinary aspects of

Jeanne d’Arc’s story is the speedy pace at which major

pivotal events unfolded, once she left Domremy and

arrived in Vaucouleurs. When the time line is studied,

it becomes clear that her influence was brief, but

explosive. She had just turned seventeen before her

arrival at the castle of Sir Robert de Boudricourt,

whom her guides had said she would recognize on sight

as the man whose approval she must receive, before she

could begin her mission. Dressed in a hooded red cape,

she introduced herself for the first time using the

name that she had been given by her voices, Jehanne;

La Pucelle, or, " The Maid. "

Four months later, she had already raised the siege

of Orleans and was preparing Charles to receive his

crown at Rheims, which would take place in July.

Before being cleared for action to achieve these

specific goals, she was interrogated for several weeks

by tribunals of learned men, in the city of Poitiers.

The documents from those sessions were never found,

thought to have been burned by the Bishop of Rheims

during her lifetime, and would have provided the most

exonerating evidence. She referred to these records

frequently in her testimony, saying that she had

answered their questions, before.

Her answers at Poitiers convinced literally everyone

in power that she had been graced with divine

inspiration. A pelvic examination confirmed her

virginity and brought assurance to all that she had

been carefully and completely tested, and that she had

neither consorted with Satan, nor obtained her powers

through sorcery.

 

In the month of April, La Pucelle prepared herself

for war. She was guided to call for a specific sword

that her voices said was buried behind an altar in the

Church of Saint Catherine, in the city of Fierbois.

She was told that it would be recognizable by its

bearing five crosses. It was brought to her from that

place having appeared miraculously; coming to her from

out of the earth, much in the way Excalibur had come

to King Arthur, from out of the water. She would use

it in leading her troops, blade pointed downward with

the hilt elevated, to form a cross. During the

assault, the Sword of Saint Catherine was not just a

symbol. It received and struck blows. But in her

testimony, Jeanne d’Arc testified that she had never

taken a life with it.

Her spiritual guides directed the design of her white

battle standard. Over the field of golden fleur de

lys, were sewn many religious images, symbols and

names held sacred by her sovereign, Charles, and by

the community she sought to make whole again. In the

month following her release from questioning at

Poitiers, she was fitted to a suit of plain (white)

heavy armor, and trained hard for her role ahead, as

an equestrian warrior.

 

She was gifted with a second horse by the Duke of

Alencon, when upon their first meeting, she impressed

him with her riding and jousting skills. He would

become one of her most trusted comrades of arms. Her

traveling stable would grow to include five coursers

(war-horses, or destriers), and more than seven

trotters, used for traveling from place to place.

(Footnote 14)

 

Dictating letters of ultimatum to the English, she

began to express strong opinions about matters of

strategy, as the time to launch an attack on the

Orleans approached. This was to be her most important

battle, though by no means, the last. With Orleans

liberated on May 8, 1429, she did not allow her armies

to rest on their laurels, nor did she allow Charles to

become distracted.

 

By mid-June, she had had led her army to reclaim

several towns along the Loire. Next, Jeanne d’Arc

turned her attention directly to Charles, moving him

safely through enemy held territory, toward Rheims

Cathedral. It is my personal theory that the divine

purpose behind his crowning had nothing to do with his

being well suited to the role of monarch. He was quite

simply and fairly, next in line to inherit the crown.

Of greatest importance to Jeanne d'Arc in what she was

given to understand of The Sacred, was that this

ritual take place on the consecrated ground of Rheims.

She knew that the people of France would authenticate

Charles as their monarch only if he were crowned in

that sanctuary, along with the holy symbols that had

long characterized the rite of coronation.

 

If she had not believed fully in Charles, she could

not have gone forward, with any of this. What her

guides instructed her to do, she did. As has been

seen, through legitimizing him,

France did return to wholeness. History has not found

him worthy of her life, but she did not judge or

condemn him. Shortly after his crowning, his support

of her began to wane.

 

Her capture came on September 8, 1430 during an

assault launched to secure the city of Compiegne,

without an adequate army. She had already experienced

losses but continued to gather what troops she could

for these last pitiful skirmishes, knowing that time

was of the essence. Her spiritual guides had warned

her that within one year, her time for effective

action would be over and finished, although she was

not certain exactly how her freedom would come to an

end. She was told that after her capture, she would in

fact, be led to Paradise.

 

During her military career, she had been seen to heal

from her own death-threatening injuries. She both

predicted and prevented the deaths of other people.

Nonetheless, during the trial, she remained in denial

that her fate would be to die in the only manner that

terrified her, by fire. When informed on May 30, 1431

that she would face this form of death on that very

same day, she tore at her hair and named the man she

believed was responsible for engineering her betrayal.

She faced the robed figure of Pierre Cauchon, who had

instigated and fueled the trial’s proceedings and

said, " Bishop, I die by you! " (Footnote 15)

 

She condemned no one else, and at the stake, forgave

everyone who had harmed her. Before dying, she was

allowed to receive the Eucharist again. She had been

deprived of either confessing to her personal priest

or receiving the Eucharist, since her capture. During

her military career, she had observed this ritual

almost daily. The rigorous observance of spiritual

ritual was required of her soldiers, as well. She

barred prostitutes and forbade cursing in her camps,

creating a radical change in conventional behavior. In

order to honor the source of her their strength, she

insisted that they kneel in prayer before battle. Her

first personal act after each victory was to find a

sanctuary within which to give thanks to God, Jhesus,

Maria, Michael, Catherine and Margaret.

 

La Pucelle’s final prophecy was spoken at the stake.

She expressed grief that the city of Rouen would

eventually suffer, for her life having been taken

there. As World War II neared its close, bombs fell

directly over Rouen’s public square of execution, the

Place de Marché on May 30, 1944, the five hundred and

thirteenth anniversary of Jeanne d’Arc’s death. The

destruction that day leveled a 12th century church

that had stood near the stake, and over 9,500 homes.

(Footnote 16)

 

In remembering her death, it is important to

understand how hard she fought to continue living.

Without having been given the opportunity to become a

woman, she remains forever in our minds as the girl

whose faith changed history. One of my favorite images

of her is at seventeen, when she was about to depart

forever, the countryside she had been born into. She

turned to thank the citizens of Vaucouleurs who had

been the first people to believe she had been sent by

God to relieve their miseries. They had provided her

with shelter and food, while she prayed and waited

after being twice refused permission to leave.

 

Clothed in leggings and tunic, she mounted her first

horse and approached the arched monument of stone

known as " the Gate of France " that stands today near

the ruins of de Boudricourt’s castle. She assured the

crowd who assembled to wish her well that divine

protection would guard them as she and her company of

six men rode eleven straight days and nights to the

castle of Chinon, through enemy territory, in late

February’s deep cold. The words she spoke on that day

were simple, and clear. " I was born for this! "

(Footnote 17)

 

The Mystic Legacy of Jeanne d’Arc

References & Footnotes:

1) Heinze, Ruth-Inge. (1991). Shamans of the 20th

Century. Irvington Publishers, Inc., NY. (p. 9)

2) Frohlick, Virginia L. Saint Joan of Arc Center,

Albuquerque, NM. http://www.stjoan-center.com

3) Pernoud, Regine. (1994). Joan of Arc; By Herself

and Her Witnesses. Scarborough House, Lanham, MD.

4) Trask, Willard, Transl. (1996). Joan of Arc: In

Her Own Words. Turtle Point Press, NY. (p. 6)

5) Ibid.

6) Ibid.

7) Margolies, Morris B. (1994). A Gathering of Angels

Angels in Jewish Life and Literature. Ballantine

Books, NY. (p. 83)

8) Ibid.

9) Trask, (p. 6)

10) Ibid.

11) Braden,Gregg. Audio Recording: Monterey (CA)

Prophet’s Conference. Verbal Presentation given April

30, 2002.

12) Abd-Ru-Shin. (1996). In the Light of Truth; The

Grail Message. Grail Foundation Press, Gambier, OH.

(p.78)

13) Hinkle, William M. (1991). The Fleurs de Lis of

the Kings of France 1285-1488 So. Ilinois Univ. Press,

Carbondale and Edwardsville. (p. 35)

14) Pernoud, R. & Clin, M.V., Adams, J., Transl.

(1998). Joan of Arc; Her Story. St. Martin’s Press,

NY. (p. 38)

15) Pernoud, (p .228)

16) Preaux, A., Prouin, N. & Jardin, A. (1986).

Rouen, The Old Marketplace. Charles Corlet,

Publications Ltd. (SARL) Conde-Sur-Noireau, France.

(p. 3)

17) Trask, (p. 19)

 

http://www.stjoan-center.com/

" Yield, yield to the King of Heaven! "

..:Joan at Orleans requesting for surrender to the

English commander Glasdale:.

Joan's motto: " It is God Who commands it! "

..:Joan at Poitiers:.

Asked about her mission she replied: " ...I was born

for this. "

Asked if she was afraid: " I fear nothing for God is

with me! "

..:St. Joan at Vaucouleurs:.

" I came from God. "

" There is nothing more for me to do here! "

" Send me back to God, from Whom I came! "

..:Joan's replies to the ecclesiastical judges of

Rouen:.

 

*

Prayer to St. Joan of Arc

For Faith

In the face of your enemies, in the face of

harassment, ridicule, and doubt,

You held firm in your faith.

Even in your abandonment, alone and without friends,

You held firm in your faith.

Even as you faced your own mortality,

You held firm in your faith.

I pray that I may be as bold in my beliefs as you, St.

Joan.

I ask that you ride alongside me in my own battles.

Help me be mindful that what is worthwhile can be won

when I persist.

Help me hold firm in my faith.

Help me believe in my ability to act well and wisely.

Amen.