Anne, the grandmother of Jesus, with her daughter Mary

“…the fight between the sons of light and the sons of darkness, established by God in Paradise, when He foretold that Our Lady would smash the serpent’s head: an eternal fight that was, is, and ever will be present in History until the end time.

At Fatima, Our Lady prophesied her triumph, that in the end her Immaculate Heart would triumph. We are sure that many more and much greater marvels are still to happen in this world.

We ask her to imbue our souls not only with nostalgia for that past era of faith, but above all with a hope for this future. An ardent hope should inspire us to do everything that we can to accelerate this future so that the Reign of Mary will come as soon as possible. Making penance for our faults, maintaining our desire for a complete victory for Our Lady, and completely rejecting the present day abominations in the Church and society are the backdrop for this prayer. By our suffering, work, fight, and dedication, by the risks we are willing to face, we should help in the restoration of Christendom and the implantation of her glorious Reign.”

January 6 was observed for centuries as Jesus’ birthday.  So happy birthday again, baby Jesus, and good for you Holy Mother for manifesting the Light as only Sophia-Maria can do…

–Katia

Mary Magdalene and Jesus depicted as married. Stained glass window of a Dervaig, Scotland church, circa 1908

I endorsed this book [Mysteries of the Bridechamber: The Initiation of Jesus and the Temple of Solomon ] for ITI when it was published last year. I thought the book was remarkable in many ways– but I was sad that Victoria LePage couldn’t fully embrace Mary Magdalene as “true Bride”—In my view, she missed a golden opportunity to celebrate the “Sacred Marriage” at the heart of the Gospels. 

Apparently that “leap of faith” is too difficult for many people — We’ve all been taught to honor the “spiritual” as “high” and the “physical” as “low”–not understanding that they are ONE/ warp and woof of the same tapestry of Life.

I believe we were all “brainwashed ” by the early Gnostic Christians “denial” of the “divinity” of the physical body / flesh as “counterpart” and “consecrated vessel” of the “Spirit.” As my friend Mary Beben so succinctly states, “Spirit fell in love with Matter and united with Her to create the “Cosmos”—it’s a bit like ”wave and particle” theory… the “unseen” is “ONE” with the visible. The word for mother in Sanskrit is “matr”–the root of “material,” “mater” (mother), “matrix” et alia….

This is the ultimate “integration of opposites” which we celebrate at the core of the “Sacred Union” in all mythologies…and at the heart of the Christian story.

It is the real meaning of the “nativity” of Jesus, “the Divine became Flesh”— the doctrine of “incarnation.” The sad thing is that we all were taught that the ”Divine” became flesh ONLY in Jesus (a one-time event). We fail to grasp that Jesus came to show us that the “Divine” takes flesh in each of us… that We are called to be the incarnation of “Godde.” So our “earthen vessels” (our bodies, fearfully and wonderfully made!) are consecrated containers– 

I believe that one of the reasons that Mary Magdalene carries a “precious box of perfumed ointment” is to remind us of the “sacred container” for which she is the “personification”—model of our own physical “union” of flesh and divinity….

So I wish Victoria LePage could have made that last “leap” –to embrace the “incarnation” of “God in us” (Emmanuel!)….to include Mary Magdalene as “Bride” and “Divine Counterpart.”

The Dervaig window at the “Church of Mary” shows Jesus with a halo, his Bride without a halo. The artist was showing that Mary was “human”– Jesus was Divine. But, in fact, She, too was “Divine”–the “incarnation” of the “Feminine Face of God”—THIS is the doctrine I feel needs so desperately to be corrected in our time….

love and blessings,

Margaret

To read the discussions that ensued after this post, please visit our GoddessChristians forum starting with Message 20898.

Yesterday I had an opportunity to attend an Episcopal Mass of the Resurrection (memorial service) for a friend. The Episcopal Mass is very similar to the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead–with which I’m familiar. I recognized the hymns and knew some of them by heart.

But I couldn’t say the creed in its entirety, and I noticed the very exclusive use of “he,” “him,” and “his” in referring to God…..

Which reminds me of a lovely story my mother used to tell about a little girl who went to Mass with her parents and half-way through the service she tugged on her mother’s arm:  “Mommy, Mommy. I love the ”hyms”….. but are there any “hers”?

I’m sure the service was very comforting to the family gathered there….. but I felt a bit as if I were in a museum…. I feel we’ve already moved to a more “life-affirming” place and the old prayers and vocabulary don’t seem to feed me anymore.

It’s a bit strange to look back and see how so many of my views have shifted in the past twenty years. I had to stop teaching CCD for Catholic children when I realized that I don’t believe in Purgatory….But just for the record, the Roman Catholic Church, while it has a doctrine of the Virgin Birth, does not have a doctrine about the celibacy of Jesus.

peace and light–Margaret
http://www.margaretstarbird.net

Lore Kemsley then wrote in:

Hi Margaret,

I am interested in this statement, because everything I’ve read states the RCC believes he was celibate. I’m guessing the key is in the word “doctrine,” but that’s only my surmising while feeling confused.

Here are references I found after reading your post:

http://www.catholic.com/library/Celibacy_and_the_Priesthood.asp

Although most people are at some point in their lives called to the married state, the vocation of celibacy is explicitly advocated-as well as practiced-by both Jesus and Paul. 

http://www.jesusdecoded.com/catholicchurch1.php

The theological concept of a celibate clergy is based on the Church’s belief in the example of the celibacy of Christ himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_celibacy_(Catholic_Church).

Theological foundations

Theologically, the Church teaches that priesthood is a ministry conformed to the life and work of Jesus Christ. Priests as sacramental ministers act in persona Christi, that is in the person of Christ. Thus the life of the priest conforms to the chastity of Christ himself. The sacrifice of married life for the “sake of the Kingdom” (Luke 18:28-30, Matthew 19:27-30; Mark 10:20-21), and to follow the example of Jesus Christ in being “married” to the Church, viewed by Catholicism and many Christian traditions as the “Bride of Christ”.

Scriptural foundations

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) in Salt of the Earth also explained that this practice is based on Jesus’ preaching on the eunuchs or celibates “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” which links with God’s decision in the Old Testament to confer the priesthood to a specific tribe, that of Levi, and who unlike the other tribes did not receive from God any land – an essential need for one’s posterity as a wife and children are today – but had “God himself as its inheritance” (Numbers 1:48-53).

Loretta Kemsley  President

Women Artists and Writers International
Publisher of MOONDANCE: Celebrating Creative Women
Our vision, our wisdom, our strength
http://www.moondance.org

In This Intimacy

In this intimacy, a sense of enlacement
with your voice whispering,
whispers-to-whispers, breath-to-breath
lips mesh-mush-yes, this too,
& tongues… dancing tongues…
caressing magickal lilt to the song
of this golden tenderness,
third-eyeing bedazzling fusion of souls,
as minds, dreams meld to emerge
as rose petals mystically one rose
arising with fragrance singing
the soul of the infinitudes,
eternities of delicately touching
in shimmering glow, our flesh
iridescent in this meshing
of intertwining fibres of
the lifesong of your loving
merging with the lovesong of my life*ing
binding us free into mercy’s tender regeneration,
sweet compassion’s tears falling into infinity

~~wynn manners

Wynn says: more poetic LoveWords between Mary Magdalene and Yeshua can be accessed here:

http://cosmicwind.net/800/Cmwl/ExMM/ExMM.html

Among other strange opinions of Martin Luther, I stumbled into a quote of his from “Table Talks” to the effect that Jesus had affairs with three women: the women at the well, the woman taken in adultery, and Mary Magdalene.  I found this really interesting because it appears to me to be a “garbled” reference to Cathar beliefs that Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, and the woman taken in adultery were all the same person (one woman–not three)…. But Luther was suggesting that Jesus had promiscuous relationships with all three! Pretty bizarre behavior, in my view!–in a time and place where people had strong taboos about promiscuity and were stoned for less….and from a rabbi who warned that to think lustfully about a woman was tantamount to committing “adultery in one’s heart.”

> VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – In the latest Vatican broadside against
> “The Da Vinci Code,” a leading cardinal says Christians should
> respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend
> Christ and the Church he founded.

Since Dan Brown derived his basic ideas about Mary Magdalene and Jesus from my “Woman with the Alabaster Jar,” I would like to say that when I wrote that book I was coming from the heart of the Roman Catholic Church and a charismatic prayer group that included two priests and six lay people to which I had belonged for about 15 years at the time. 

These people were encouraging me and praying for me while I was doing my research because we had been shown as a community that there was something important missing from the foundations of Christianity that had to do with the “denigrated Feminine.”

I gave my “Alabaster Jar” manuscript to my Roman Catholic priest/pastor–and to two Protestant ministers in 1991- before I ever dreamed of sending it to a publisher. All three of these clergymen knew me well and encouraged me to publish my book. In fact, the Catholic priest told me, “This could heal the Church.” I offered “Alabaster Jar” as a gift to the Church–one that would enable the patriarchy to embrace the “Feminine” embodied in Mary Magdalene and welcome her home with rejoicing! What a shame that they cannot see the healing that would inevitably flow from the “nuptials of the Lamb and his Bride.”

Carl Jung states in “Answer to Job” that it is incongruous to visualize Jesus embracing a church filled with people. He needs to embrace a woman… This image is beautifully expressed in the stained glass window from the Kilmore Church at Dervaig, a town on the Isle of Mull, (posted on my website) which shows Jesus and Mary “hand-fasted” (clasping right hands)–a symbol for marriage in the Christian liturgy…the “Bride” represents her land and people–as in the ancient metaphor of Yahweh’s undying love for his people….

There was never any intent to attack Jesus…. I was trying to “heal the wasteland” that ensues when the “Feminine” principle is denied and defamed, forced into exile and silenced….

In the triptych above the inner door at Mary Magdalene’s basilica at Vézeley, France, (the “Madeleine”), the left hand of Jesus is missing-probably vandalized, although it may have just broken off. What an incredible reminder that he can’t be “whole” without her! Since Judaism in the first century didn’t have a word for “bachelor” –and the word the Jews now use is “ravak”–”empty”–maybe we need to revisit the foundations of the Christian faith and restore the “lost Bride.”

peace and light,
Margaret
“Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile”
http://www.margaretstarbird.net

Joan Norton, author of Mary Magdalene Within, responded:

    Hi Margaret,

    I wonder if Martin Luther’s  interpretation of the three women as Jesus’ “involvements” influenced Joseph Smith’s Mormon revelations that Jesus had more than one wife?  I know they put the  ritual of the bridal chamber at the center of things, but with the extra added twist of more than one wife.

     I put up a new podcast meditation today called “Beloveds in the Garden” at http://marymagdalenewithin.podomatic.com    and I don’t mean Jesus and three Beloveds! (chuckle)

  xoJoan

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And author Burl Hall wrote in with the following intriguing thoughts:

You say it all, Margaret.  In my work, I have come to the opinion that the wasteland we have created in the environment (endless wars, ecological destruction, sensationalist medias, etc.) is a mirror to the wasteland of our minds. I talk somewhat of the surface level ego mind, or empirical/rational thought as surface level with deep thought, the Feminine, lying underneath. By underneath I don’t mean this as a power relationship.  Indeed, Tehom, the Depths of Genesis 1:2, is Feminine and is the foundations of the Universe and ultimately the Mother of Light (Manifestation).  Furthermore, it is She that becomes this world.  As the Hindu Ramakrishna puts it, “The Unmanifest (Being…Tehom…Brahman….Yahweh…Marie…Tao) shines forth as Shakti (the Goddess, Divine Energy, Sophia)…and Shakti takes form as this entire universe.”

Sometimes when I close my eyes I watch images dance in my mind.  They tend to shapeshift and will often play with me as if I were an external being.  They are so much fun. And, they appear aware of me as much as I am aware of them. … When I watch these images dance (they do indeed have a life of their own that is beyond my controlling ego) I realize they are the creation of something deeper…furthermore, I realize that the power within me that is creating this wonderful display is not separate from that Power that births, supports and dissolves the cosmos.  To “see” that Power, I go behind the images and into the Darkness, the Darkness upon the face of the Deep.  (Mary or Marie also means Ocean as per the terms Marine, Marina, etc.).

So, when Sophia (the Agent of Becoming, the Holy Spirit) came upon Tehom as the Holy Spirit in Genesis and the Holy Spirit moved upon Marie in the New Testament, are we perhaps repeating the same story?  “The Unmanifest (Marie) shines forth as Shakti (Sophia) and Shakti is simply the luminous darkness of the Unmanifest,” Ramakrishna says. Or as Paul McCarney says, “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me.  Speaking words of Wisdom, Let It Be.”  Mary and Sophia are akin to water and wetness, they are not two.  McCartney may not have been consciously aware of this….but, hey, Sophia speaks beneath the ego.  Anyhow, the way I see this relation of Mary the Magdeline (She of the Temple Towers is a definition?) as Wife and Mary the Virgin as Mother.  These are not, from a non-historical perspective, two Women.  From a mystical dimension, the birth from Marie is reflective of Motherhood of Woman while the Fate function of Woman is reflected in the Magdeline as Wife or Bride.  I look at this as the Goddess as Mother and the Goddess as Fate.  One is birth from Woman, the Unmanifest, the other is the return Home, to the Unmanifest.  Women in their physical bodies mirror this cosmic power of birth, maintanence and fate or dissolution.

This too speaks of Jung with his notion of the Feminine as the Unconscious.  I do not see the Feminine as Unconscious as much as suppressed.  When I think of Sophia, I think of Her in my body and think, “Now I don’t know how my heart is beating or how fast, yet She is in my body monitoring all of this and through a complicated system of communications is making changes.”  This same intelligence is worldwide and, indeed, universe wide.  Earth is an integrated system every bit as much as our body.  Furthermore, the surface level intelligence doesn’t know how to listen (which manifest in the words of many women who say that men don’t know how to listen…this is true for how we relate to women AND our inner worlds, which are suppressed at worst or at best turned into media propaganda (e.g., advertising…this is one reason we have created a wasteland).

Suppressing the Feminine externally is the suppression of the Feminine internally.  I recall as a child how many artists, true artists, were ridiculed as being effeminite. Why?  Because they are able to tap into the wild, unruly and surprisingly rebellious or evolutionary Feminine Intelligence.  Deep Femininty is a danger to the status quo for She is the agent of change.  As the Book of Wisdom says, “She renews the world.”  All things change and transform in accordance to Sophia.  This is why the Feminine scares us.  It means dissolution of the old and the birth of the new. 

Anyway, you probably weren’t looking for all of this in a response.  Its the prozac!  Thanks for your post and your work.

–Burl

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I posted some thoughts about the Vatican saying Magdalene and Jesus being married is an insult, a blasphemy against Christianity and that Christians should rise up and riot, bring lawsuits, etc. against those who believe these harmless (and inspiring, if you ask me) things.  I wrote:

Yeah, notice how they are quick to say Christ and the “Church he founded” have been gravely insulted by the suggestion he may have been a full man with a woman and kids in his life yet, yet, YET, they do nothing when those horrible paintings of someone urinating on the crucified Jesus, or defecating on him or Mary are displayed prominently in famous NY (and other city) art galleries.  That is one reason to call a “Christian Fatwa” if you ask me and is similar in theory (altho not degree!) to the Mohammed cartoons.  Just imagine if urine and feces had been done to Mohammed.  They freaked when the pages of a copy of the Koran might have been used as toilet paper when Muslims (and others) burn Torahs, Bibles and flags all the time.

Don’t get me started…. but rock on Margaret for tellin’ ‘em like it is — the Church needs the “denigrated Feminine” RESTORED and it ain’t an insult to nobody, least of all Jesus/Yeshua.

Katia

It sounds a bit fantastic, too good to be true, but hey, I will be in the front row watching the movie and taking notes. Well actually, I don’t live where it’s going to be screening! Bloodline: The Movie is being shown only in limited theaters in Los Angeles — and maybe New York? Joan has it posted on her blog where you can go view it in L.A. on May 9, I think it is. They are going to have a question and answer session after the premier. Then it’s going straight to DVD after that, so the rest of us won’t have to wait too long.

The blogs and forums are all discussing the topic and it’s good to have dialog about our favorite Christian “theory”, that Magdalene and Yeshua were married and the Sacred Union is at the heart of Christianity.I say theory because as Margaret Starbird often quips, “we don’t have a marriage certificate!” Having both a Christian Goddess and God is a spiritual “doctrine” that brings Christianity into balance, no longer a lop-sided dysfunctional religion, but one with heart AND soul. I believe Mother Mary was also a Judeo-Christian Goddess, an incarnation of Sophia, the God-ess mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as being co-creator with God, called the Holy Spirit and Tree of Life. See Proverbs 8 and the apocryphal book of Sirach.

You and I have Christian goddesses! — and acknowledging them can make all the difference in our spiritual practices.

As for the Bloodline Movie, I only hope they are not gonna say that mummy is Jesus’, since we just went thru all that agony (and I believe, nonsense, call me a snob) over the Talpiot Tomb.

If they imply it is Magdalene’s body, then okay, I can handle that. I guess I can even be open to it being Yeshua’s, since I do believe after the resurrection he lived among his disciples awhile (one Gnostic text says 11 years!) teaching and getting the teachings preserved. I mean, he died to deliver that message, so it makes sense he’d want them to get it right. Okay, we didn’t said message so well back then, but he, Magdalene and their students seeded the earth’s consciousness so to speak so that now we can get the point, or at least work on getting the mystery. Digging around the ‘Net, contemplating and pondering, researching, studying ancient wisdom, is delving into those mysteries…

What mysteries are you studying, pondering or digging into lately?

–Katia

RationalChristianity.net says “The anointing by Mary took place in the last week before Jesus’ death (Jn 12:1, Mt 26:1-2, Mk 14:1), and Jesus said the anointing was for his burial.”

Yeshua then prophesied that Magdalene’s anointing of him did was such a significant gesture it would be told in memory of her for all time. His exact words were: “She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” (Mark 14:9).

On Holy Thursday at the “last supper” Jesus told his students and family to “do this in memory of me,” meaning break bread and drink wine. Interesting the remembrances — both of them sacraments? — that Jesus established.

Our Order of Mary Magdala observes the Wednesday before Good Friday as the day of anointing. There is no proof that it happened on that day, but it is quite possible.

View our esoteric observances of Easter Week.

Carol from Florida (whom I met in Phoenix last month at the 3rd annual Divine Feminine conference) told me according to an Edgar Cayce book, The Life of Jesus, June 3rd is the date of the Wedding at Cana. Has anyone else heard of other dates for Cana?

Carol wrote:

I think Sunday June 3, is the same day as the wedding in Cana, the day Yeshua turned the water to wine.
Do you believe it was the wedding of Yeshua and Magdalen?
I’m having a glass of red wine to celebrate.

I wrote back: Yes, I do believe the wedding at Cana was theirs. On a trip to Israel while on the way to Cana we sat at an intersection for a long time in a bus. I looked out the window and there was a sign saying, “Magdala” and another saying “Cana” with the distance to these villages in kilometers.

A sudden impression came to me confirming a long time suspicion (but I hadn’t been sure) — the wedding was theirs. It all fit together.

Most people who don’t agree it was his wedding cite John 2:2 where it says he was invited to the wedding, which of course a bridegroom would not be invited to his own wedding. They also say John 2:12 indicates Jesus going home with his mother after the wedding, but I disagree about that. It says he and his whole band go to Capernaum for a few days (why is that going home with mother?) and that could be their honeymoon! So there.

So we were supposed to have a glass of red wine yesterday, guys! Never too late — we can have it today in honor of their wedding, in honor of him turning water into wine. The wedding feasts often lasted for a whole week in the ancient world. If not, they would be on their honeymoon about now so we can still drink to them and the Sacred Union!

Katia