We were discussing last week on the GoddessChristians forum whether Magdalene is a goddess or not. Many ask whether Jesus was a god, was he divine, was he “just” a spiritual teacher with a divine message. So when it comes to the Sacred Feminine we come up with the same questions. Â Were Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene “goddesses”?Divine beings? Or enlightened teachers? Margaret Starbird wrote in to say:
I guess it’s time to ask the question, “What is a Goddess?”
Many theologians identify “God” as pure energy, personified in a
masculine image (like the Almighty Father in Michelangelo’s “Creation”
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. But everyone knows that “He” is
not really “the One”–who is ineffable and defies description. Judaism
and Islam allow no images of God because God is beyond all human
ability to create such an image.
Yet we know of many “gods” in the ancient world… Could we say that
they are “incarnations” of the masculine attributes of “God”? and,
given this, might we then say that Mary Magdalene is an “incarnation”
of the “Goddess” attributes of wisdom/compassion/love?
I believe that just as Jesus embodied the Jewish tradition of Yahweh
as the “Bridegroom of Israel,” Mary Magdalene embodied their tradition
of the “Daughter of Sion” as Bride (as in the rabbi’s interpretation
of the Song of Songs that has so many verses in common with an ancient
liturgy honoring Isis and Osiris). The Jesus/Mary Magdalene story was
a “personification” of the ancient and archetypal marriage covenant
between “God” and his Beloved–His chosen people.
peace and well-being,
Margaret
“Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile”
www.margaretstarbird.net