Queen of Cups - Our Lady of Regla, Yemaya, Goddess of the Oceans

Queen of Cups in the Tarot Deck of the Mysteries of Mary
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Our Lady of Regla, or the Virgin de Regla

The body is like Mary, and each one of us has a Jesus inside him.  If the pain appears, our Jesus will be born.  If no pain arrives, Jesus will return to origin by the same secret way he cane, and we will be deprived of him and reap no joy – Rumi

Our Lady of Regla is the Queen of Cups in the Tarot Deck of the Mysteries of Mary.  You can read more about my deck that I am working on at the blog Mysteries of Mary, www.hergracesacredart.com

  Each shrine is hand crafted using traditional Catholic statues and symbolism, combining these with the wider vision of the Alchemical Journey of the Inner Child.  By juxtaposing these well-known images onto a different context and by re-interpreting them in terms of myths, legend, fairy tale and stories carried down through the ages, a deeper, more meaningful picture unfolds.

This Black Madonna is revered by thousands.  Tradition tells that her statue was buried under a fig tree to safeguard it against an invasion.  The story goes that the statue of the Virgin de Regla was commissioned by Augustine (354-430) himself and brought by Saint Cyprian,  after the death of Augustine and during the invasion of the Vandals to the southern shores of Spain.  The statue found a new home in the seaport city of Chipiona and was venerated in the local monastery by both Augustinian canons and African hermits.  In the eighth century the invasion of Andalusia by the Saracens forced the statue to go underground.  Indeed, the monks hid the image in a cistern next to a fig tree where she remained until the liberation of the country by Alphonse the Wise in the thirteenth century.  In that period, Our Lady manifested herself to a canon regular from León guiding him to the place where the statue lay hidden.  The rediscovery of the hidden image, chalice, and burning lamp led to the revival of the devotion to the Virgin de Regla. The cistern and fig tree still exist, and the location is called Humilladero.

This Black Madonna has many attributes in common with the African goddess Yemaya.  Her colours are blue for the ocean and silver for the moon.  She is represented by crab, fish and shells.  As is often the case with new religion, it assimilates the culture and religion of the land and many African slaves were brought to Spain, bringing their devotion to Yemaya with them.

And in Our Lady of Regla, we see the Great Mother as the protector of the mariners, seaports, provider of the abundance of the oceans and its tides.

The Black Madonna symbolises the dark matter, of both the Earth, our physical mother, as the darkness of matter in the process of alchemy.  And the white Divine Child is very obvious in this shrine, symbolising the Light which humanity can potentially give birth to through spiritual transformation.

“Lady of Regla’s themes are kinship, protection, kindness, the moon, love, devotion, fertility and relationships. Her symbols are fish, the moon, silver (lunar) or blue items (Her favorite color) and the crab.  This West Indian fish mother swims in with summer rains as the bearer of fertility, family unity, prospective life mate and other traditionally lunar energies. Shown in art looking much like a mermaid, the Lady of Regla is also the patroness of the Cancer astrological sign.

In astrology, those born under the sign of Cancer have a great deal of compassion, desire family closeness and stability and are ruled by the moon, all of which characterize this Goddess’s energies to a tee. How you emphasize those powers depends on what you need. For harmony at home, add blue highlights to our decorating scheme and ear pale blue clothing when having difficult conversations.

Eat fish or crab today to digest a little extra self-love or empathy or to encourage fertility in any area of your life. To spice up this magic, serve the fish with a bit of lemon juice – a fruit that emphasizes devotion to kinship.

If you’d like to dream of future loves or get Lady Regla’s perspective on a difficult family situation, leave Her an offering of yams before going to bed. According to local custom, this invokes Regla’s favor and you will experience helpful night visions – so take notes!”(Patricia Telesco, “365 Goddess: a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess”.)