“There were three who walked with the Lord: Mary his mother, and his mother’s sister, and Miriam Magdalene, known as his companion. For him, Miriam is a sister, a mother, and a wife.” – From the Gospel of Philip – who was an original Apostle
“On this account I have said unto you aforetime: Where I shall be, there will be also my twelve ministers. But Mary Magdalene and John, the virgin, will tower over all my disciples and over all men who shall receive the mysteries in the Ineffable. And they will be on my right and on my left. And I am they, and they are I.” – Spoken by Jesus in the Pistis Sophia
I first contemplated about Jesus and Mary’s relationship from the standpoint of whether or not Mary was an important follower of Jesus – as important as we regard the men who were the Apostles. The first thing going in favor of this is the fact that our family for thousands of years had revered the feminine power of God and always shown that they believed in equality of the sexes. Probably the best sources to consider the relationship of Jesus and Mary from are the ancient texts which record actual conversations between Mary, Jesus, and the other disciples. The author of Forbidden Faith notes how in these texts, Mary Magdalene is presented as a disciple at least equal to the male disciples. In the text the Dialogue of the Savior she is referred to as, ‘The woman who knew the All’. In the text Pistis Sophia, Jesus tells her, “Thou are she whose heart is more directed to the Kingdom of Heaven than all thy brothers.” Phillip was an original apostle, yet his book is not in the Canonical Bible. Many believe one reason for its exclusion is this verse; “The companion of the (Savior is) Mary Magdalene. (But Christ loved) her more than (all) the disciples (and used to) kiss her (often) on her (mouth). The rest of (the disciples were offended) by it (and expressed disapproval.) They said to him, “Why do you love her more than all of us?” The Savior answered and said to them, “Why do I not love you like her?”
The words in parenthesis represent actual holes in the ancient texts, but the above translation seems to be accepted among scholars. Many people probably still have the impression that Mary was the woman at the well who had five husbands. The Catholic Church taught this until fairly recently. The Catholics have back-tracked on this assertion and announced they had changed their understanding of her. The author of Forbidden Faith concluded his comments regarding her by saying that there is no stain on her character, she has a status at least equal to that of the male apostles, “Her spiritual illumination surpasses theirs, she is Jesus’s ‘companion’ and possibly his wife.” He then goes on to comment that Elaine Pagels in her book The Gnostic Gospels suggests that Mary Magdalene’s demotion, “reflects the reduced status of women in the early Christian church. At first regarded as equals to men, they were gradually reduced to being second class citizens, forbidden to have authority over men or to serve as clergy. The demotion of Mary Magdalene mirrors this shift.”
The Gospel of the Beloved Companion, who, according to the Gnostics, was Mary Magdalene, is a first century Greek text. The following comes from that text:
“On the third day of the week, there was the marriage feast in the house of Shimon (Simon) near Hyrcana (Cana) in the land of Yehuda (Judah). At the feast were Miryam the mother of Yeshua, and his brothers Yakov (Jacob) and Yosef (Joseph) and his sister Miryam Salome. Also in that place were Martha of Bethany, the sister of Miryam called the Beloved Companion and Eleazar (Lazarus) her brother, whom Yeshua would restore to life. Levi whom some have called Mattithyahu was also there, along with Toma called the twin, who was a friend of the companion. All of the other disciples had also been invited. When the wine would soon give out, his mother came to him and said, ‘Soon there will be no more wine.’ Yeshua said to her, ‘Lady, what does that have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever he says to you, do it.’ Now there were six water pots of stone set there for the purposes of purification. Yeshua said to them. ‘Fill the water pots with what little wine you have, to each one a measure.’ So they did as he told them. Then Yeshua stood and raised his right hand and blessed the pots. And therefore he said to them, ‘Now draw what you need, that all the guests may drink their fill.’ He told them also to take some of the wine they had drawn to the steward of the feast. So they took the wine and gave it to the guests and all that were there drank their fill and were satisfied.
When the steward of the feast tasted the wine and not knowing where it came from, he came to the bride and bridegroom and said to Yeshua, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have drunk freely, then that which is worse. You have kept the good wine until now!’ The disciples wondered at what he had done, but he said to them, ‘Why do you marvel thus? Have I not told you that I am in the Spirit as the Spirit is in me? It is man who sees only poverty, for he sees with the eyes of the master of the world. But where man sees poverty, the Spirit sees only abundance. What the Spirit sees I see, and what I see the Spirit sees. And what the Spirit sees is.’ This beginning of his signs Yeshua did at his wedding feast at a place near Hyrcana in the land of Yehuda and revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.”
19: 35: And they said ‘Is this not Yeshua the son of Yosef of the tribe of Judah and Miryam his wife, whose father and mother we know?’
35:7 The companion whom Yeshua loved was at the table, leaning against Yeshuas breast. Shimon Kefa (Simon Peter) therefore beckoned to her and said to her, ‘Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.’ She, leaning back as she was on Yeshua’s breast, asked him. ‘Rabbouni, who is it?’
When you think about it, would another man be leaning on Jesus’ chest? That wouldn’t be common today. Do you think it was common in Jesus day? It’s only because we consider Jesus a God rather than a man that we can’t conceive of him being human in all aspects.
35:16-17 The disciples said to Yeshua, When will you depart from us? Who is to be our leader? And Yeshua said to them ‘I will not leave you orphans. When a father goes away, it is the Mother who tends the children.’ ‘Only from the truth I tell you, there is one amongst you who has had my commandments and keeps them. That one is the one who loves me and that one who loves me is also loved by me, and by the Spirit. To that one will I reveal myself so that you will know that what I have said to you is true, that I am in the Spirit as the Spirit is in me. And that same one will the Spirit complete in all ways, so that by this sign, you may know my words are true and that my testimony is of the Spirit, the one who sent me.’
43:5 And Levi answered and said to Shimon Kefa, ‘Shimon Kefa, (Simon Peter) you have always been hot tempered. Now I see you contending against this woman like the adversaries. But if the Rabbi made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely as his companion, Yeshua knew her better than all others. That is why he loved her more than us.’
44:1 These are the words and deeds of Yeshua the Nazorean, the son of humanity. There are also many other things which Yeshua did, which if they would all be recorded, then even the world itself would not have room for the books that would be written. I have testified and recorded all that I have seen and heard in the light and truth of his love and the grace and power of his word. Only from the truth I tell you, those amongst you who understand and believe his words will not know death. I am Miryam, called the Migdalah, the Beloved Companion
The author of World Gnosis believes Mary was the successor of Jesus in the early church. He wrote;
“Mary’s exalted status as Jesus future successor is also disclosed in a passage of the Pistis Sophia wherein Jesus refers to her as the one who is the inheritor of the Light, meaning it was she who inherited the true Gnostic wisdom or Light from the Master. In the Nag Hammadi texts Mary is repeatedly revealed to be the closest disciple to Jesus and the one who received secret teachings from the Christ that the others did not.”
In ancient Gnostic texts, Mary Magdalene makes the statement that she is afraid of Peter because he “hates her race”, i.e. women. The author of World Gnosis discusses this. He says that the events of this contentious gathering were prophetic and destined to become a mirror to the future. He sees that the seeds of a future split among Jesus Apostles was evident at that time and “Eventually two divergent churches began to take shape. Mary and John the Apostle would found the Gnostic Christian or Johannite Church and Peter would found what would become the Catholic Church.” He states that Mary’s church would be based upon the Left Hand Path that exalted the female principle while Peter’s church was founded upon male God tradition of the right hand path, “that denigrated the female principle.” The author notes that the name Peter and the Latin Pater, or Father, “is instructive as it reveals Peter to be the emissary of patriarchy and the right hand path while the name Mary with its prefix of Ma, or Mother reveals Mary to be the embodiment of matriarchy and the Left Hand Path.”
At the very beginning of my research, I found a magnificently crafted brass repousee of the Last Supper at a swap meet. It is created by sculpting it from the reverse side. The artistry to be able to create something so magnificent cannot be overstated. This piece has high relief, meaning it has an incredible depth to it. One day I was contemplating whether Mary Magdalene had been an apostle of Jesus. I stood before this beautiful image, just staring at it. Out of the blue, the words ‘look at the hands, look at the hands’ went through my mind. So, I looked at the hands – and immediately noticed that they were all very prominent, like the artist was trying to attract attention to them. When I looked at the apostle at Jesus left side, I noticed that she had her hands crossed in front of her breasts! My question had been answered! I believe it was created in the early 1900’s in Spain, as the artist had a Spanish name. Included in the surrounding decor are four Templar crosses. So the artist was one of ‘us’.
Since then, I have come across a picture of the Last Supper, probably from the 1930’s. There are twelve people seated at the table with Jesus making the 13th. One of the apostles has long blond hair and she again has her arms raised to her breasts, not crossed like the other, but in essence almost pointing to them. Jesus is the one who gave Mary the epithet ‘Magdalene’, which means watchtower or stronghold. This verse from the Old Testament prophet, Micah is speaking of her;
“In that day, declares the Lord, I will gather the lame. I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief. I will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever. As for you, O Watchtower of the flock, O stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; “Kingship will come to the Daughter of Jerusalem.”
In Bloodline of the Holy Grail Laurence Gardner wrote that the Rosicrucian’s had an ancient history dating back to the Egyptian Mystery school of Pharaoh Tuthmosis II circa 1468-1436 BC. He describes the teachings descent to the philosophers Pythagoras and Plato, through the Essenes and Egyptian Therepeutae. He mentions that they were allied with the Samaritan Magi who were founded in 44 BC by Menahem, a “Diaspora Essene and the grandfather of Mary Magdalene.” He relates that Menahem’s descent was from the Hasmoneans, the family of Judas Maccabaeus who was revered in the Arthurian Grail story of Gawain. Isn’t it amazing how all these seemingly disparate people and places have such an inter-woven history?
The following is from the forward of the book The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird. By Rev. Terrance A. Sweeney, Ph.D. – author of A Church Divided and What God Hath Joined:
“There is nothing in Scripture that proves that Jesus was married, nor is there anything in the Bible that says that Jesus was unmarried, nor that he made a promise or vow not to marry. The Jewish scholar Ben-Chorin presents a chain of indirect proofs’ to support his belief that Jesus was married. In the time Jesus walked the Earth, Judaism regarded marriage as a fulfillment of God’s command to ‘be fruitful and multiply.’ …Ben-Chorin argues that it would have been quite likely that Jesus’ parents, as was the custom, would have sought out a suitable bride for him, and that Jesus, like every young man, especially those who studied the Torah, would have married. Moreover, if Jesus had not been married, he most certainly would have been reproached for this omission by those Pharisees who opposed him. And Saint Paul, in presenting reasons for supporting the value of celibacy, would undoubtedly have cited Jesus’ own life, had Jesus been celibate. But Saint Paul did not.”
The author goes on to say that Ben-Chorin concludes that Jesus was married. The author then poses the question, if Jesus was married why is there no specific mention of this or of his wife’s name in scripture? He says that Margaret Starbirds answer to this is that the physical threat to his spouse’s life would have been reason enough to exclude her name from all written records.
In Margaret’s book, she refers to the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which was the first book in recent history to claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. Margaret was a Catholic and is a devout Christian, and reading the book incensed her so much that she decided to write a book to refute it. Margaret remarks that the book had touched on subjects that were of special interest and expertise to her such as religion, medieval civilization, art, literature and symbolism. Margaret had taught Bible study and religious education for years. She believed that debunking the ‘heresy’ of Jesus marriage would be a simple matter.
In the book Holy Blood Holy Grail, the authors mention paintings that were made by artists “in collusion with the Grail heresy.” In their paintings, the artists would place secret symbolism related to the Grail. Margaret examined symbols in the works mentioned and cross-referenced them with watermarks of the Albigensians (Cathars) of Southern France. Margaret says that she was disconcerted to discover that these paintings contained, “obvious references in support of the Grail heresy.” Margaret relates that her research drew her, “deep into European history, heraldry, the rituals of Freemasonry, medieval art, symbolism, psychology, mythology, religion, and the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.” She states that everywhere she looked she found evidence of the Divine feminine that had been lost and denied in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Margaret also noted various attempts to restore the Bride to her once-cherished status.
Margaret wrote that the more deeply involved she became with the material the more obvious it became that there was real substance in the theories set forth in Holy Blood, Holy Grail. She found that she had been won over to the central tenets of the Grail heresy, “the very theory I had originally set out to discredit.” Margaret does not claim to have proof of their marriage, but states that she can, “verify that these are tenets of a heresy widely believed in the Middle Ages; that fossils of the heresy can be found in numerous works of art and literature; that it was vehemently attacked by the hierarchy of the established Church of Rome; and that it survived in spite of relentless persecution.”
Margaret says that medieval poets writing in the twelfth century when the Grail legends first surfaced, mention a ‘Grail Family’. She notes that a connection is sometimes drawn by Grail scholars between the word sangraal and gradales, “a word that seems to have meant ‘cup,’ ‘platter,’ or ‘basin’ in the Provencal language.” Margaret notes that if one breaks the word sangraal after the g, “the result is sang raal, which in Old French means ‘blood royal.” She also notes the provocative meaning of this second derivation. One can now see a new meaning to the Grail legend. According to Margaret, “Instead of a cup or chalice, the story now states that Mary Magdalene brought the ‘blood royal’ to the Mediterranean coast of France.”
Margaret notes that both of the New Testament genealogies of Jesus show that he was descended from King David and that the messianic promises to Israel are all specifically tied to the royal blood of Judaic princes descended from the root of Jesse, the father of King David. Jacob-Israel told his son Judah that his descendants – the line of King David, would never fail to have a leader over Israel. As Margaret wrote; “The wife of Jesus, if she bore him a child, would have been quite literally the bearer of the Sangraal, the royal bloodline of Israel.”
Margaret notes how in medieval and Renaissance paintings, it is invariably the Magdalene at the foot of the cross with Mary, the mother of Jesus. She notes that, “These paintings recall for us the mythologies of several pagan sun/fertility gods (Osiris, Dumuzi, and Adonis) who were slain and resurrected. In each case, the bereaved widow (Isis, Inanna, and Aphrodite) poured out her grief and desolation over the corpse of her beloved, bitterly lamenting his death.” I don’t know if Margaret knows of the connection with Gnosticism and pagan Mystery religions and their tie-in with Christianity or not – but I suspect she does. More importantly, Margaret sees the beauty in the pagan mythologies that most people do not see.
Margaret relates that there is a very old tradition identifying Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene and in medieval art she is identified with the Sister-Bride of the ancient mythologies. Margaret tells us that the Bride, who was the moon or earth goddess of antiquity, was not only the spouse of the sun god, but was also “the intimate friend and partner of her Bridegroom deity, his mirror image or ‘other half,’ a feminine alter ego or ‘twin sister’.” As Margaret acknowledges “The archetypal Bridegroom just could not be whole without her! The relationship of these two was much more than a sexual union; it was a deep spiritual intimacy and ‘kinship’ summed up in the word sister. The Sacred Marriage of the Bridegroom with the Sister-Bride was not limited to a physical passion; it was a marriage of deepest spiritual and emotional ecstasy as well.”
Margaret sees that in the Bible, Mary’s anointing of Jesus represents the tradition of the royal Bridegroom who is to be slain. She understands that the reason Mary cried while anointing Jesus was that she knew that she was preparing him for his ritual death. Margaret notes that, “It is clear from Jesus’ response to the anointing that he understood and accepted it, and that he also accepted his mythic role as the sacrificed Bridegroom/King.”
What I like about Margaret’s work is that she understands the sublime truths that underlie the ancient Wisdom religions and beautifully ties them in with Jesus’ and Mary Magdalene’s lives.
From the Bible’s book of Isaiah, the fifty-third chapter:
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.”
Who do you think the prophet Isaiah is speaking of here? No doubt he’s speaking of Jesus. Do you see that the Bible tells us he had descendants and offspring?
The author of The Magdalene Legacy says that the biblical almahs of the New Testament, which included Jesus’ mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, were the equivalent of conventual nuns. From the age of seven they were raised and educated for the prospect of dynastic marriage. He calls them, “high-bred priestesses who were assigned to various tribal Orders such as those of Dan, Asher and Manasseh and were attached to the ascetic Therapeutae community at Qumran.” I don’t think the author realizes there were Essenes at Mount Carmel too. The author notes that, “sexual activity was not a leisure or pleasure pursuit, nor even particularly related to affection.” Laurence Gardner also says they were under strict guidelines as to procreation.
I have learned and presented to you, that Jesus was married when he was eighteen and that his first wife died when he was twenty-five. It was the custom of our people that the groom’s father would choose a wife for him and he would be married at eighteen. This is not something that would have gone unheeded. Also, a man couldn’t be a rabbi at that time unless he was married. Jesus was a scion of the Grail Family lineage, of the line of David, which the Bible tells us will be re-formed in the ‘last days’. The continuance of his bloodline was important – and it did happen.
Jesus brother’s James and Jude, and his cousin Cleopas were martyred not long after Jesus was crucified. In fact, the Romans and the Jews wanted every member of the royal line of David dead. If for no other reason than safety and to facilitate the endurance of the line, any child of Jesus and Mary Magdalene would have to be hidden.
Margaret Starbird, in her book The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, discusses the use of the word vine as a metaphor for the chosen people of God. She cites; “A vine thou didst bring out of Egypt.” (Psalms 89:9) “The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel and the men of Judah are his cherished plant.” (Isaiah 5:7) Several passages refer to the vine as feminine: ‘Thy wife is like a fruitful vine.’ (Psalms 128) ‘Your mother is like a vine planted by the water, fruitful and branchy…but she was torn up…and now she is planted in the desert…she is now without a royal branch, a ruler’s scepter.’ (Ezekiel 19:10-14)
She wrote that the transplanted royal vine is understood by biblical scholars to refer to the royal Davidic line of Judah. She notes that in the New Testament book of Mark, Jesus tells the parable of the caretakers of the vineyard (Israel) who beat the servants of their master when they came to inspect the condition of the vines and then killed the master’s son. She wrote; “No one who knew Jesus of Nazareth and who ‘had ears to hear’ was in any doubt as to the identity of that faithful son.” Jesus was the legitimate heir to the vineyard of Judah. Margaret says that, “The transplanting of the Davidic vine would have come as no surprise to the Zealot fundamentalist friends of Jesus. They knew it had been prophesied. (Ezekiel 17) It had happened before, when the people of Israel were taken as slaves to Babylon. But it could also happen again.” Margaret makes the logical comment that; “In light of the danger to the vine of Judah, the royal blood-line, it is likely that the friends of Jesus took strong and perhaps desperate measures to protect the family of Jesus. It would have been their top priority.”
At one point in my research, my sister asked me if we had black ancestors. She said this because we have dark curly hair! No doubt she probably thought that at some point in our ancestors sojourn in the southern states of the U.S., when some of them were slaveholders, there was inter-racial mixing. I told her that I believed that we did have some black dna. I didn’t elaborate that I believed that connection was from inter-marrying with Noah’s son Ham’s family, or that our ancestress Mary Magdalene was said to have been part Ethiopian! In the book The God Kings of Outremer, the author says that John the Baptist was married to a woman named Anya who was the daughter of King Aretas of Ethiopia. Through his wife, John would have been heir apparent to the throne of the Sabean/Nabataean Empire, which was a mixed Semitic/Hamitic (Arab/African) race, connected to the Biblical land of Sheba. Nabataeans was the Arabic name for Aramaeans. Jesus and his family spoke the Aramaean language which was the ‘language of the angels’. According to Robert Morcot, “The priestess daughters of the nobles of Egypt and Ethiopia under the black Pharaohs were called Chantresses to the Lord of Miam, or Mi-ri-am.”
The author goes on to point out that in 31 B.C., the Nabataeans lost a large part of their kingdom to the Romans who gave Herod the Great control over it. In order to regain control of their land, king Aretas married one of his daughters to Herod Antipas, Herod the Great’s son – with the understanding that any son of theirs was to become Tetrarch (ruler) after Herod Antipas, through which the land would come back into the Nabataean kingdom. Later on, Herod Antipas was divorcing King Aretas daughter so he could marry his deceased brothers’ widow. King Aretas’ daughter found out about this and fled to her father in Petra. King Aretas mounted a military campaign to overthrow Herod Antipas.
John the Baptist was furious, not so much because of Herod’s wishing to marry his brother’s widow, but because Herod’s current wife was John’s sister-in-law. To the books author, the story in the Bible given for the reason of John’s beheading always seemed far-fetched. He believes John was held hostage during the battle and that in revenge, Herod Antipas had him beheaded. This all brings us back though, to Mary Magdalene’s having been part Ethiopian.
Some of you may be familiar with the Black Madonna’s portrayed in statuary and art in the European cathedrals built by the Knights Templars. From what I understand, the Black Madonna’s are not representative of the Virgin Mary at all – but of Mary Magdalene. I will add, though, that the Black Madonna’s are also said to represent the destructive power of the Goddess. That author goes on to relate that the Valois dynasty of France claimed descent from Jesus and Mary Magdalene. One of their descendants – a queen, bore a black child. The Queen was said to have had a black dwarf as a servant. The Queen was accused of having sexual relations with him – but she always protested her innocence. Pictures of the Valois dynasty do show a propensity to curly hair. This can be seen in many pictures of European royalty. Queen Elizabeth the 1st is a good example. The author of the book The God Kings of Outremer relates a story of the British King Edward III who was called ‘The Black Prince’. He cites “both Froissart and the French” who called him ‘dark visaged’.
Laurence Gardner, in his book Bloodline of the Holy Grail, wrote that there are stories written about Mary Magdalene dating well beyond the 5th century. He says that King Louis the XI of France was insistent on Mary’s dynastic position in the royal lineage of France. He relates that there is a book called Saint Mary Magdalene by the Dominican friar Pere Lacordaire published after the French Revolution that, “is a particularly informative work, as is La Legende de Sainte Marie Madeleine by Jacobus de Voraigne, Archbishop of Genoa.” He wrote that “Both de Voraigne and Maar say that Mary’s mother Eucharia was related to the Hasmonean royal house of Israel, descended from King Saul, a Benjamite.”
In The Sign of the Dove by Elizabeth van Buren, she wrote; “Caesar Baronius, librarian of the Vatican in 1596, wrote in his ‘Annales Ecclesiastici’ of his discovery in the Vatican Library of a most ancient manuscript which told of the voyage of a company of our Lord’s friends, who traveled in an old boat which had been abandoned by its master and was without oars or sails. Baronius dated the arrival of this boat in France as 35 A.D….The coming of Lazarus and his sisters to the West was not only to convert the people to Christianity, but to perpetuate the old Mystery religion. Lazarus, as John, was the head of the secret church of Christ, which possessed knowledge that was only for initiates. It was the same knowledge that had been cherished by those such as the Celts, whom the exoteric Church was to condemn as pagans in later times.”
When the author says “Lazarus, as John”, she is referring to John as a dynastic title of the leader of the Johannites. The author says that on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea outside Marseilles at Les Saintes Marie de la Mere, there is a chapel dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Within this chapel are paintings of her arrival from Palestine in a small rudderless boat. According to local legends, soon after the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Mary Magdalene and her family were expelled from the Holy Land, set adrift on the Mediterranean Sea, and made their way to this region – particularly the area around Southern France and Northern Spain. At that time in history, there were already Jews living in the area. There was a Jewish city called Glanum Levi whose ruins can be found in Provence.
The author notes how in the midst of the cosmopolitan confluence of cultures in that area, there must have been an exchange of philosophical and religious ideas. She notes that, “It is very possible that during this period many spiritual and symbolic links were discovered between these diverse peoples and their traditional belief systems that stretched back to the temples of Egypt. She notes that before her arrival in Les Saintes Marie Sur Les Mere, France was riddled with Isis cults. She says that the name ‘Paris’ etymologically can be linked to the pre-Celtic ParIsis, the ‘grove of Isis’. She states; “Clearly this region was fertile ground for Mary Magdalene’s mission.”
The legends reveal that following her arrival in France, Mary was said to have traveled the land preaching the authentic Gnostic gospel of Jesus which had been transmitted to her during his time on Earth and in mystic visions after his return to the more subtle dimensions of light. She relates that French religious literature from the Middle Ages is filled with legends and stories of the life of Mary Magdalene from that period until her death. “Tales abound of her miraculous healings, her performance of the ritual of baptism, her aid in fertility and childbearing and even her ability to raise the dead. There are even reports of a secret tradition of the healing arts that exists today in France and traces its roots back to Mary Magdalene.”
Later in life, Mary was said to have withdrawn to a cave in Ste. Baum where she spent the remainder of her days in prayer and seclusion. The author reveals that she is believed to have been buried at Ste. Maximin where her remains were watched over by Cassianite monks from the fifth century until the Saracen invasion. In a 1058 papal bull, Pope Stephen acknowledged the existence of her relics in the church of Vezelay.
The author noticed that when one looks at the history of the area one finds evidence that with Mary’s arrival there came a surge of spiritual awareness, a code of ethics and respect for feminine values. “The alchemists began their flurry of Cathedral building to preserve the secret metaphysical teachings passed down to them from ancient Egypt.” She also notes that the Crusades and the ‘Back to Jerusalem movement’ began in this area. The mystical Kabbalistic texts the Bahir and Zohar emerged from this region, “bringing to the Jewish people knowledge of the Shekinah, or ‘indwelling presence’ and ‘feminine potency of God’.” She notes that the cults of the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and Black Madonna, who symbolically represented the three aspects of Isis in her role as Universal Goddess arose there and spread throughout Europe.
It was also from this area that the troubadours and poets such as Wolfram von Eschenbach, Robert de Boron and others sang their songs of devotion to the feminine principle and wrote their fables of the Holy Grail. And it was there in the mountains and valleys of Provence and Languedoc, “that the Cathars, as carriers of the Gnostic transmission of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, rebelled against what they considered to be the excesses of the priestly hierarchy, renounced all worldly possessions and fully committed themselves to the path of spirit.”
The following are from The Gospel of the Sophia of Ain Sof in Tau Malachi’s book St. Mary Magdalene the Gnostic Tradition of the Holy Bride. The quotes are not continuous.
The companions said to Mary, ‘Tell us about New Jerusalem.” Mary said, “It is Wisdom, not of this world, but of the World of Supernal Light. When all of the sparks are gathered in and all of the vessels of light are mended, you will see the glory of New Jerusalem coming out of heaven, and in it you will behold the bridal chamber and the image of the Anointed One in it.”
Mary said, ‘The holy land is wherever a child of Light goes, and it is where the child of Light abides. The holy land is where the Anointed and the soul are joined. It is the bridal chamber.”
Mary spoke and said, “There is baptism, chrism, and wedding feast, and there is the ransom and bridal chamber. Baptism is water, chrism is fire and the ransom is earth. The wedding feast is the air, for in the Spirit we shall meet the Anointed in the air on the Day of Joy, and then the element of the bridal chamber shall be fully revealed. Everything the Lord accomplished he accomplished in a mystery, and the Anointed Bride is the mystery.”
Mary said “No one finds the Lord save those to whom the Lord reveals himself, for the Lord seeks his own and has come for the Elect.”
Mary said “The Divine Mother is Light and she is darkness, she is the saint and she is the sinner, angels and demons are image in her, as are the gods and all of the archons; yet she is beyond all of these. Know her in all things and you will be free of bondage, even as the Anointed is free.”
“Mary was teaching in the assembly, and a woman exclaimed, ‘Now is the hour of the Holy Bride!’ Mary said, ‘No, before the Bride is received, she must be rejected, and before the Second Coming there must come a great darkness. Until the Second Coming of Christ, the Wisdom of God shall not be received. When the bride is received, know the Second Coming is near.”
“Because of the power of the demiurges you have forgotten yourself. You believe you are a child of darkness, yet you are a child of Light. Indeed! Truly, I say to you, you are a person of Light who has come from the Light, and if you remember yourself, you will know where your home is. This is the remembrance of the wedding feast, regarding which the Lord instructed us, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
“What the Anointed is, I am and you are, for this reason the Anointed has come, to remind those caught in the spell of forgetfulness.’ ‘Beware! If you blaspheme the Mother Spirit, there will be no one to save you, for she is the Spirit of salvation and your very life.”
“The Logos emanated into the world for the redemption of Sophia. If the redemption of Sophia is not received in the world, then the world is not redeemed. Sophia received the Logos, and those who cleave to Sophia have received the Logos and they are redeemed. It is Sophia in you that receives the Logos and is saved. Logos is the name of the Lord and Sophia is the name of the Bride. In the bridal chamber, their name is Christos.”
“Of all things I wish you to have the Sacred Heart of Christ, which is compassion. For compassion is the womb of the Mother in which Christ is born, and in this, Christ will be born in you. Pray to the Mother Spirit to have her womb and to conceive and birth the Anointed in you”
“Pray the Holy Spirit moves so that you might recognize her, for then she can lead you into perfect repose, even as she led the Son to repose in the Living Father. If you believe in a multiplicity of gods, it is inferior; yet if you do not recognize the many powers, superior knowledge is impossible”
“Do not be deceived by the name ‘Comforter’ that is given to the Holy Spirit. Before she is the Comforter, her name is Deep Trouble, and she will seem as an angel of wrath before appearing as an angel of mercy.”
“Some disciples inquired of Mary about the end of time. Mary said, ‘It is the Day of Understanding. In that time, there will be holy apostles who bring the knowledge of the covenant of the Mother Spirit, and there will be many false prophets in the world. A great Light and great darkness shall enter into the world, and great conflict and confusion will follow. The Bride will be with the holy ones and she will bring with her two witnesses, and there will be many signs in the matrix of the world, and also there will be wonders, though hidden. If peace is attained before that time, then all shall come to pass by way of pure grace; yet in those days, if peace is not attained then grace shall surely appear as woes and wrath. On account of the archons, it is unlikely that peace shall be attained before that day. But the holy shall be set apart, and though they die, yet shall they live to enter the bridal chamber.”
“In the day of the coming of the Anointed, many shall look and see, and among them many will be unwilling to enter the Light, for they shall not recognize the Light in the Daughter sent among them. One who knows the Mother is near to the Father, but one who denies the Mother is far from the Father. There is not two, but only one God and God is both Father and Mother.”
“This is the Gospel of the Sophia of Ain Sof (One-Without-End), for there is no end to the divine revelation transpiring through the Holy Bride. Whatever might be spoken or written, there is always much more to be received. To all who listen and hear in the Spirit, she continues to speak.”
In Tau Malachi’s words;
With the dawn of male-dominated orthodoxy and fundamentalism, which occurred some 300 to 400 years into the Christian movement, and the complete rejection that followed of the Holy Bride, St. Mary of Magdala, the deeper mystical and magical elements of Christianity were rejected. I dare say the true spirit and soul of the Christ revelation was lost to the majority of Christians. Today, we can only wonder what the face of Christianity and our Western societies and cultures would look like had the Holy Bride been well received and the Sacred Feminine remained a central part of Christianity. Of course, we cannot go back in time and undo the injustice and harm that has been done, but we can actively seek to reclaim the Sacred Feminine and restore the Holy Bride to her rightful place alongside the Bridegroom, seeking a more holistic and integral Christianity. Given the extreme imbalance between the masculine and feminine in our present human condition and world and the evolutionary crisis we are facing, the need to reclaim the Sacred Feminine and to restore the Holy Bride to her rightful place is clear.
When we seek to reclaim the Sacred Feminine in our spiritual quest and to actively invoke the Holy Bride, we do so not only for ourselves, but for the sake of humanity and the world. According to the Sophian vision of the Christ revelation, it is the coequality and mystical union of the masculine and feminine that is the spiritual hope for the future of humanity and Planet Earth.
Heavenly Father, Earthly Mother, may the Holy Bride be
received and may the dawn of the Age of the Mother Spirit come.
May the fullness of the Truth and Light shine among us,
the image of the Bridegroom and Holy Bride in the bridal chamber!