Goddess page
The very
ancient and holy place
in Heiloo, the holy wood of the Goddess
at
Home2b.nl
Susan and Robert love to go to
Heiloo in North Holland near Alkmaar.
This place is maybe the most
ancient place of the Goddess in Holland.
North of Heiloo is also an
ancient Goddess place.
Robert and Susan will visit
this place soon and report.
The atmosphere at Heiloo is
filled with positive energy.
Healing and hope
are touchable.
May be Heiloo is the oldest
holy place in the Netherlands
and certainly is the very
first place
where the Irish Christian
missionaries
came onto the continent into
Western Europe.
They landed on the beach
where there may have been an
old little river (now vanished)
next to the holy wood (means
Heiloo) of the Goddess.
Anyway a few kilometers from
the coast
they did build their first
chapel next to an ancient healing well,
most probable in the middle of
a very old centre
of the religion of the
goddess.
See also the webpage about this original ancient well.
The monk missionaries followed
these tactics everywhere
in Western Europe:
taking over the ancient holy
places and destroying them,
cutting down the holy trees,
to build their own chapels and
churches
on the exactly same place as
the former sanctuaries;
making the population
hereditary paying the tenth of the harvest
as feudal tributaries (provable
the paying went on for more then six centuries).
This way the local people was
obliged to come towards the same places
they were used to come to long
before Christianity.
Also the
holiness of the ancient Goddess places
gave authority
to the Christian churches,
built on the
same place of the Goddess temples.
Of the first chapel that was
build in this holy wood Heiloo,
only a few fundamentals
survived,
but the holy well of the Goddess
with healing water
is still there and is in use
ever since
by the local people, now at
least during 1400 years.
Not many people know to find
this old well anymore,
since this ancient holy place
is deserted
and hidden behind a fence.
The former ruins of the first chapel and the
former healing well:
The ancient healing
well of the Goddess with healing water,
in use at least
during 1400 years.
This ancient
holy place has decayed much more in the last years..
Compare with the second
visit to this mighty place 11 years later.
This picture
shows the exact place of the first chapel
of the Irish
missionary monks with the original Healing Well
in the
background at the place of the vanished altar.
Very likely here
was an ancient temple of the Goddess.
Both pictures made
by Robert in 1997.
Saint Adalbert was
buried next to this Healing Well.
The next generation of
missionaries did build
their second chapel 100 years
later and
10 kilometers further to the
East again in the middle
of a holy wood of the Goddess,
at the village of Heiloo.
The reason they did rebuild
was very probably the incoming sea.
Perhaps the death of Saint
Adelbert in 740AD
opened the way to destroy the
second Goddess temple
and the buiding of this Mary
chapel in the middle of the Heiloo.
Heiloo means holy wood in
ancient Dutch.
This second place is the rebuild
chapel is the holy place of today.
The Heiloo chapel is visited
by thousands of pelgrims.
The altar side
of the chapel in Heiloo,
"from Maria
to Jesus" the sign on the wall says.
In this ancient
chapel the Goddess survived
the missionaries
for 1300 years
through the
intense veneration of Maria,
called the holy
Virgin of Heiloo wearing a blue dress.
Inside the
ancient chapel of Heiloo.
Recent picture
of the inside of the chapel.
The number of
pilgrims has visibly grown.
Also regular
prayers and services are now organized.
Believers are at this place
praying to the Goddess for
about 1300 years.
Southside of the
chapel of Heiloo.
Next to the Mary chapel of
Heiloo is the second Healing Well.
The second
healing well with healing water.
A sign on the
healing well indicates that officially the old well (see above)
was abandoned on
December 9, 1713 and this new well took over.
The slogan of
this Goddess place is:
"When you
start honoring me, the wind will turn (in your favor)"
Daily hundreds of people are
coming to this well
to have the healing water in
bottles for use at home
or just to have a mouthful for
the blessing.
This has been going on for
1300 years at least.
Even when the Calvinists from
1548 until 1853 did forbid
the visiting of this holy
place,
the people never stopped using
this well
and the other ancient Healing
Well stayed in use too.
When the yearly pilgrimages to
the Virgin of Heiloo
are going on, extra trains are
stopping
at the little railway station
of the chapel
to accomodate the thousands of
pilgrims.
The statue has been made around
1910 by a local expert
and fits remarkably well in the
whole atmosphere.
Shortly a pilgrim shop and a primitive buffet
with drinks
have been added to the terrain.
There was already a big church hall for the
main pilgrim days.
Normally this church hall is closed.
In the garden are the 12 statues of the cross.
Also there is an outdoor altar in the surrounding
park
making a very romantic impression.
All pictures are ©Copyright 1997,
2003, 2009 by Robert Home2b.nl
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Updated August 16,
2009
Everything on this website:
Copyright©2002-2009 by Robert and Susan