Authors Joan Norton, Margaret Starbird and Burl Hall and the rest of us were discussing Martin Luther and the Sacred Feminine on our GoddessChristians forum. \u00c2\u00a0Margaret wrote in as follows:<\/p>\n
Among other strange opinions of Martin Luther, I stumbled into a quote\u00c2\u00a0of his from “Table Talks” to the effect that Jesus had affairs with\u00c2\u00a0three women: the women at the well, the woman taken in adultery, and\u00c2\u00a0Mary Magdalene.\u00c2\u00a0 I found this really interesting because it appears to\u00c2\u00a0me to be a “garbled” reference to Cathar beliefs that Mary Magdalene,\u00c2\u00a0the woman at the well, and the woman taken in adultery were all the\u00c2\u00a0same person (one woman–not three)…. But Luther was suggesting that\u00c2\u00a0Jesus had promiscuous relationships with all three! Pretty bizarre\u00c2\u00a0behavior, in my view!–in a time and place where people had strong\u00c2\u00a0taboos about promiscuity and were stoned for less….and from a rabbi\u00c2\u00a0who warned that to think lustfully about a woman was tantamount to\u00c2\u00a0committing “adultery in one’s heart.”<\/p>\n
> VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – In the latest Vatican broadside against
\n> “The Da Vinci Code,” a leading cardinal says Christians should
\n> respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend
\n> Christ and the Church he founded.<\/p>\n
Since Dan Brown derived his basic ideas about Mary Magdalene and Jesus\u00c2\u00a0from my “Woman with the Alabaster Jar,” I would like to say that when\u00c2\u00a0I wrote that book I was coming from the heart of the Roman Catholic\u00c2\u00a0Church and a charismatic prayer group that included two priests and\u00c2\u00a0six lay people to which I had belonged for about 15 years at the time.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
These people were encouraging me and praying for me while I was doing\u00c2\u00a0my research because we had been shown as a community that there was\u00c2\u00a0something important missing from the foundations of Christianity that\u00c2\u00a0had to do with the “denigrated Feminine.”<\/p>\n
I gave my “Alabaster Jar” manuscript to my Roman Catholic priest\/pastor–and to two Protestant ministers in 1991- before I ever dreamed\u00c2\u00a0of sending it to a publisher. All three of these clergymen knew me\u00c2\u00a0well and encouraged me to publish my book. In fact, the Catholic\u00c2\u00a0priest told me, “This could heal the Church.” I offered “Alabaster\u00c2\u00a0Jar” as a gift to the Church–one that would enable the patriarchy to\u00c2\u00a0embrace the “Feminine” embodied in Mary Magdalene and welcome her home\u00c2\u00a0with rejoicing! What a shame that they cannot see the healing that\u00c2\u00a0would inevitably flow from the “nuptials of the Lamb and his Bride.”<\/p>\n
Carl Jung states in “Answer to Job” that it is incongruous to\u00c2\u00a0visualize Jesus embracing a church filled with people. He needs to\u00c2\u00a0embrace a woman… This image is beautifully expressed in the stained\u00c2\u00a0glass window from the Kilmore Church at Dervaig, a town on the Isle of\u00c2\u00a0Mull, (posted on my website) which shows Jesus and Mary “hand-fasted” (clasping right hands)–a symbol for marriage in the Christian\u00c2\u00a0liturgy…the “Bride” represents her land and people–as in the\u00c2\u00a0ancient metaphor of Yahweh’s undying love for his people….<\/p>\n
There was never any intent to attack Jesus…. I was trying to “heal\u00c2\u00a0the wasteland” that ensues when the “Feminine” principle is denied and\u00c2\u00a0defamed, forced into exile and silenced….<\/p>\n
In the triptych above the inner door at Mary Magdalene’s basilica at\u00c2\u00a0V\u00c3\u00a9zeley, France, (the “Madeleine”), the left hand of Jesus is missing-probably vandalized, although it may have just broken off. What an\u00c2\u00a0incredible reminder that he can’t be “whole” without her! Since\u00c2\u00a0Judaism in the first century didn’t have a word for “bachelor” –and\u00c2\u00a0the word the Jews now use is “ravak”–“empty”–maybe we need to\u00c2\u00a0revisit the foundations of the Christian faith and restore the “lost\u00c2\u00a0Bride.”<\/p>\n
peace and light, \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Joan Norton, author of Mary Magdalene Within, responded:<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Hi Margaret,<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 I wonder if Martin Luther’s\u00c2\u00a0 interpretation of the three women as Jesus’ “involvements” influenced Joseph Smith’s Mormon revelations that Jesus had more than one wife?\u00c2\u00a0 I know they put the\u00c2\u00a0 ritual of the bridal chamber at the center of things, but with the extra added twist of more than one wife.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 I put up a new podcast meditation today called “Beloveds in the Garden” at http:\/\/marymagdalenewithin.podomatic.com<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 and I don’t mean Jesus and three Beloveds! (chuckle)<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0 xoJoan<\/p>\n * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n And author Burl Hall wrote in with the following intriguing thoughts:<\/p>\n You say it all, Margaret.\u00c2\u00a0 In my work, I have come to the opinion\u00c2\u00a0that the wasteland we have created in the environment (endless wars,\u00c2\u00a0ecological destruction, sensationalist medias, etc.) is a mirror to\u00c2\u00a0the wasteland of our minds. I talk somewhat of the surface level ego\u00c2\u00a0mind, or empirical\/rational thought as surface level with deep\u00c2\u00a0thought, the Feminine, lying underneath. By underneath I don’t mean\u00c2\u00a0this as a power relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed, Tehom, the Depths of Genesis\u00c2\u00a01:2, is Feminine and is the foundations of the Universe and\u00c2\u00a0ultimately the Mother of Light (Manifestation).\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, it is\u00c2\u00a0She that becomes this world.\u00c2\u00a0 As the Hindu Ramakrishna puts it, “The\u00c2\u00a0Unmanifest (Being…Tehom…Brahman….Yahweh…Marie…Tao) shines\u00c2\u00a0forth as Shakti (the Goddess, Divine Energy, Sophia)…and Shakti\u00c2\u00a0takes form as this entire universe.”<\/p>\n Sometimes when I close my eyes I watch images dance in my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00c2\u00a0tend to shapeshift and will often play with me as if I were an\u00c2\u00a0external being.\u00c2\u00a0 They are so much fun. And, they appear aware of me\u00c2\u00a0as much as I am aware of them. … When I watch these images dance\u00c2\u00a0(they do indeed have a life of their own that is beyond my\u00c2\u00a0controlling ego) I realize they are the creation of something\u00c2\u00a0deeper…furthermore, I realize that the power within me that is\u00c2\u00a0creating this wonderful display is not separate from that Power that\u00c2\u00a0births, supports and dissolves the cosmos.\u00c2\u00a0 To “see” that Power, I go\u00c2\u00a0behind the images and into the Darkness, the Darkness upon the face\u00c2\u00a0of the Deep.\u00c2\u00a0 (Mary or Marie also means Ocean as per the terms\u00c2\u00a0Marine, Marina, etc.).<\/p>\n So, when Sophia (the Agent of Becoming, the Holy Spirit) came upon\u00c2\u00a0Tehom as the Holy Spirit in Genesis and the Holy Spirit moved upon\u00c2\u00a0Marie in the New Testament, are we perhaps repeating the same\u00c2\u00a0story?\u00c2\u00a0 “The Unmanifest (Marie) shines forth as Shakti (Sophia) and\u00c2\u00a0Shakti is simply the luminous darkness of the Unmanifest,”\u00c2\u00a0Ramakrishna says. Or as Paul McCarney says, “When I find myself in\u00c2\u00a0times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Speaking words of Wisdom,\u00c2\u00a0Let It Be.”\u00c2\u00a0 Mary and Sophia are akin to water and wetness, they are\u00c2\u00a0not two.\u00c2\u00a0 McCartney may not have been consciously aware of\u00c2\u00a0this….but, hey, Sophia speaks beneath the ego.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyhow, the way I\u00c2\u00a0see this relation of Mary the Magdeline (She of the Temple Towers is\u00c2\u00a0a definition?) as Wife and Mary the Virgin as Mother.\u00c2\u00a0 These are not,\u00c2\u00a0from a non-historical perspective, two Women.\u00c2\u00a0 From a mystical\u00c2\u00a0dimension, the birth from Marie is reflective of Motherhood of Woman\u00c2\u00a0while the Fate function of Woman is reflected in the Magdeline as\u00c2\u00a0Wife or Bride.\u00c2\u00a0 I look at this as the Goddess as Mother and the\u00c2\u00a0Goddess as Fate.\u00c2\u00a0 One is birth from Woman, the Unmanifest, the other\u00c2\u00a0is the return Home, to the Unmanifest.\u00c2\u00a0 Women in their physical\u00c2\u00a0bodies mirror this cosmic power of birth, maintanence and fate or\u00c2\u00a0dissolution.<\/p>\n This too speaks of Jung with his notion of the Feminine as the\u00c2\u00a0Unconscious.\u00c2\u00a0 I do not see the Feminine as Unconscious as much as\u00c2\u00a0suppressed.\u00c2\u00a0 When I think of Sophia, I think of Her in my body and\u00c2\u00a0think, “Now I don’t know how my heart is beating or how fast, yet She\u00c2\u00a0is in my body monitoring all of this and through a complicated system\u00c2\u00a0of communications is making changes.”\u00c2\u00a0 This same intelligence is\u00c2\u00a0worldwide and, indeed, universe wide.\u00c2\u00a0 Earth is an integrated system\u00c2\u00a0every bit as much as our body.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, the surface level\u00c2\u00a0intelligence doesn’t know how to listen (which manifest in the words\u00c2\u00a0of many women who say that men don’t know how to listen…this is\u00c2\u00a0true for how we relate to women AND our inner worlds, which are\u00c2\u00a0suppressed at worst or at best turned into media propaganda (e.g.,\u00c2\u00a0advertising…this is one reason we have created a wasteland).<\/p>\n Suppressing the Feminine externally is the suppression of the\u00c2\u00a0Feminine internally.\u00c2\u00a0 I recall as a child how many artists, true\u00c2\u00a0artists, were ridiculed as being effeminite. Why?\u00c2\u00a0 Because they are\u00c2\u00a0able to tap into the wild, unruly and surprisingly rebellious or\u00c2\u00a0evolutionary Feminine Intelligence.\u00c2\u00a0 Deep Femininty is a danger to\u00c2\u00a0the status quo for She is the agent of change.\u00c2\u00a0 As the Book of Wisdom\u00c2\u00a0says, “She renews the world.”\u00c2\u00a0 All things change and transform in\u00c2\u00a0accordance to Sophia.\u00c2\u00a0 This is why the Feminine scares us.\u00c2\u00a0 It means\u00c2\u00a0dissolution of the old and the birth of the new.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, you probably weren’t looking for all of this in a response. \u00c2\u00a0Its the prozac!\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks for your post and your work.<\/p>\n –Burl<\/p>\n * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n 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. \u00c2\u00a0I wrote:<\/p>\n 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Just imagine if urine and feces had been done to Mohammed.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Katia<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Authors Joan Norton, Margaret Starbird and Burl Hall and the rest of us were discussing Martin Luther and the Sacred Feminine on our GoddessChristians forum. \u00c2\u00a0Margaret wrote in as follows: Among other strange opinions of Martin Luther, I stumbled into a quote\u00c2\u00a0of his from “Table Talks” to the effect that Jesus had affairs with\u00c2\u00a0three women: … Continue reading Magdalene Podcasts, Martin Luther, Married Jesus, Dan Brown, Mormons<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,43,2],"tags":[54,52,53,36,48,35,50,49,51,32,55,56],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus-family","category-mary-magdalene","category-sacred-feminine","category-what-sunday-school-wont-teach","tag-burl-hall","tag-dan-brown","tag-davinci-code","tag-joan-norton","tag-magdalene-podcasts","tag-margaret-starbird","tag-married-jesus","tag-martin-luther","tag-mormons","tag-sophia","tag-tehom","tag-vatican"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMargaret
\n“Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile”
\nhttp:\/\/www.margaretstarbird.net<\/a><\/p>\n