Mary Magdalene
Over on the AIWW Discord a few of the old heads there suggested we start up some Group Challenges. Well, let’s go all woo then and let’s combine a bit of modern technology with one of our oldest Saints, none other than she-who-might-have-been-hitched-to-and-had-children-with-Mr.-Jeezy-Creezy himself; Mary Magdalene.
Why Mrs Jesus? Well, why not y’know? No, there is a reason. Friday July 22nd is her feast day and indeed it was only a few years ago that yer man, High Sparrow from Game of Thrones who’s now Pope decided to turn her feast from a liturgical feast day back in 2016 to a memorial feast day, calling her ‘the apostle of the apostles’. High praise indeed.
Really though, Friday was chosen so that we have plenty of time to do this and we can really woo it up by doing some pre-ritual work and getting to grips with the app we’re going to be using on the day too. From time to time we’ve mentioned something called Randonauting on the podcast and Tommie’s done a few videos about it in the past too, we’re going to be using that app but more on that below. As said above we’ll go all woo and combine modern tech too so first let’s look at the traditional woo stuff we’ll be doing.
There are many, many prayers to Mary Magdalene to choose from, the first being the Chaplet of St Mary Magdalene which is depressing as hell it must be said. You’re basically asking her to have a word with JC because you’re such an unworthy sinner. Look, we don’t need that kind of I’m-not-worthy nonsense. We’re all worthy, so after a bit of research and looking for something more worthwhile the interesting figure of St Anselm popped up.
Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Canterbury was an fascinating chap, he took on two Kings and won, not in actual battle but against William II (Billy the Conqueror’s third rugrat) he won in the clerical issue of the church having its own power rather than being run by royalty. William still annexed some churches though and Anselm got the hump and left England, ratted him out to the Pope and then all kinds of political shenanigans started.
William died hunting soon after and along came Henry I. Now Henry wasn’t a total gobshite like his brother William but he still demanded that Anselm bow to him and hand over a wad of cash and he got to choose the bishops and whatnot. Anselm was having none of it. Henry tried to get all political about it and tried to present a case to the Pope who obviously sided with his boy in England over some skallywag king. Anselm was a cute hoor though and knew of rumblings of revolution in England and using the king’s oath and loyalty to God as an excuse he was able to swing things back in favour of Henry. But Henry being power hungry, (the apple near falls far…as you know) he wanted more, well, power and wanted Anselm to bend the knee to him so Henry’s be calling the shots. It’s all very Games of Thrones-y. Anyway, Anselm told him to get lost, Il Papa was on his side and when threatened with excommunication Henry finally backed down. Anselm made him work for it though and he had to travel to France and beg him to return to England and had to give him a pretty heavy bag of cash too.
History lesson over, why is Anselm important? He was the first chap in the Catholic church to use an ontological argument. That is, rather than just believing in God because it’s a matter of believing, or faith, there was a good, solid, logical reason for it. Here’s his argument: 
So there you have it, it’s not exactly a watertight argument but y’know, he lived in the 10th-11th century so don’t be too harsh. Now, during his hayday he had a gra for Mary Magdalene too. And it’s not as grovelling as the one mentioned earlier. It’s got a little of that at the start but it’s mostly about the love between Jesus and Mary which is, in turn, the love between a human and God and God for His humans. It’s a tad on the long side but I think it fits the bill pretty soundly for the purposes of what we’re at.
Mary Magdalene Prayer
So, basically every day say this prayer (you may or may not choose to do a banishing beforehand, that’s up to you, same goes for lighting a candle/incense etc.) and then meditate upon it. Just sit or lie down in silence and let what thoughts and images that the prayer triggers in you linger in your mind and imagination. If you feel yourself getting too carried away and want centering again just refocus on your breath and relax and then let yourself go again.
15 minutes of a meditation should do the trick.
Randonautica
Next up, the tech.
So, download the Randonaut app from Google Play and whatever the Apple equivalent is. You’ll need to register an account, so do that and then don’t fall for the cash grab, I nearly did.
To use the app you need Owl Tokens and they try to sell them to you but they’re also available for free. So open the App and click on the wee Owl symbol in the top right corner. You’ll see Subscriptions (skip it), next Add Ons, skip that too and then you’ll see Owl Tokens, hit on that and you’ll get your daily allowance of tokens. Do this a couple of times during the week and you’ll have more than enough for when Friday comes.
So, from Monday to Friday we say our prayer and meditate and then on Friday we use the Randonaut App. Here’s what we do with the app. With Randonauting you’re basically being sent to a place in your locality that is randomly chosen by this app. Apparently it uses some mad-quantum configuration stuff. I don’t understand it at all but whatever, that’s not important, what’s important is that it’s absolutely random.
So go back to the map (Point Finder) and you’ll see some options. Set your radius to whatever you want. Personally I’m going to be on foot so I’ll keep it small enough. Probably for us the easiest thing to do is go with the Attractor option. This is where the most hits from the calculation of the algorithm will have generated a point, a Void is the opposite; the least. Of course you can use Void or one of the other options but it might be interesting if we all stick to the same thing.
Let the Woo Begin!
Now, here’s the woo bit. When you hit Attractor and then Generate you’re asked for an Intention. Mary Magdalene is our intention so just think of her while the screen is loading.
You’ll be given some coordinates on the map, now you have to go there and see what’s there. Don’t do anything illegal, don’t be that person. If you can’t get into an area just do another point.
Do this two more times, either picking the new coordinates before you leave for the first target or doing them after you’ve had a look around at the first/second target. It was a done thing in the past but less so now but they used to suggest bringing a rubbish/garbage bag with you and giving the place a bit of a clean while you’re there.
Write notes/collect your data/make a short video/take photos about what you’ve seen. Whatever you fancy and then share it on the Discord channel when you get a chance.
Fare thee well on your travels!