Mother Mary
and Mary Magdalene
by Ella Rozett
Mosaic in the church in Lourdes,
from left to right:
the apostle John, Mother Mary, Mary
Magdalene embracing Jesus' feet, Mary
the sister of Mother Mary.
Mary Magdalene in the Bible
In the last few years
there has been much talk about Mary
Magdalene. Even before Dan Brown wrote
"The Da Vinci Code" some referred to
her as a manifestation of the divine
feminine. That's why some people confuse
her with Mary, the mother of Jesus.
But Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus'
main disciples. Catholics call her "the
apostle to the apostles", because Jesus
honored her in a very special way. According
to the Bible, he allowed her to be the
first person to whom he revealed himself
after his resurrection and then he sent
her to tell the good news to the other
disciples.
A couple of times
the Bible lists women who followed Jesus
with his disciples and "provided for
them out of their resources". Both times
Mary Magdalene is mentioned first, as
if to stress her foremost importance.
(see Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40)
All four gospels agree
(which is rare) that Mary Magdalene
was the first person Jesus appeared
and talked to after his resurrection.
In Matthew 27:55-28:18 Mary Magdalene
and Mary the mother of James and Joseph
are the only ones keeping watch at Jesus'
tomb all night. Then they go home for
one night, only to return early the
next morning, before dawn. An angel
greets them at the empty tomb, tells
them that Jesus has risen and commands
them to run to the disciples and tell
them where to meet Jesus. The two Marys
are "fearful yet overjoyed".
As they are running to do what they
were told, Jesus appears to them. The
women "approached, embraced his
feet, and did him homage." He repeats
the same message the angel had already
given them: go and tell the others where
to meet me. The other disciples meet
Jesus in the designated place, worship
him duly, but (unlike the women) they
doubt. Mark 15:40 - 16:13 (and Luke
23:55 - 24:12) tells more or less the
same story. Only he puts more emphasis
on the male disciples' disbelief. They
do not believe Mary Magdalene that Jesus
rose from the dead, nor do they believe
two other men who later report the same
thing, nor the Lord himself in his resurrected
body.
John mentions Mary
Magdalene as standing under the cross
with the other two Marys (See article:
Mother Mary and the Bible) and also
has a beautiful account of her being
the first disciple the risen Jesus appears
to in Jn 20:1-18. Here she cries so
hard that she doesn't recognize Jesus
when he speaks to her until he calls
her by her name: "Mary!" Then she immediately
exclaims: "Rabbouni!" which means, my
teacher, or, my master. Apparently she
flings herself at him and wants to hold
on to him, because he warns her saying:
"Stop holding on to me, for I have not
yet ascended to the Father."
(Others translate simply: "Don't touch
me!")
Mary Magdalene and resurrected
Jesus,
"Noli me Tangere" by Correggio
Mary Magdalene in the Apocryphal Gospels
Apocryphal gospels
are those that were not admitted into
the Bible. Since they were suppressed,
only fragments and damaged copies have
been found so far. Words in [square
brackets] mark holes in the manuscript
that were filled in by scholars' best
guesses. Empty brackets [ ] mean no
guesses can be made; too much is missing.(*1)
Mary Magdalene figures
prominently in "the Gospel of Philip",
"the Gospel of Mary", and in the "Dialogue
of the Savior". In all three she is
presented as his favorite, most enlightened
disciple. But that does not at all mean
that she is unanimously revered by the
disciples. On the contrary, every gospel
speaks of conflict surrounding her.
The apocryphal gospels are particularly
clear that this is because of the male
disciples' jealousy and disrespect for
women. Gender conflicts are talked about
explicitly. They get patched up temporarily
but not really resolved.
So much for Dan Brown
and all those people who want to believe
that the first Christians were free
of such conflict and that the urge to
suppress women in general and Mary Magdalene
in particular only came later when the
Roman Catholic church established itself
as an institution of the Roman Empire.
Certainly the Emperor Constantine was
no help for women's liberation, but
even while Jesus was alive, most of
his male disciples could not follow
him in his egalitarian treatment of
the other sex.
The canonical (biblical)
gospels don't delve as deeply into the
gender conflict, though they mention
jealousy and competitiveness even among
the male disciples. Concerning the apostles'
feelings about Mary Magdalene, they
only mention that the male disciples
didn't believe her that Jesus had risen.
But then they don't believe men either,
and not even Jesus himself.
Here's what the supposedly
so enlightened, apocryphal gospels have
to say about Mary's gender:
The Gospel of Thomas
ends like this:
"Simon Peter said to them, 'Let Mary
leave us, for women are not worthy of
Life.' Jesus said, 'I myself shall lead
her in order to make her male, so that
she too may become a living spirit resembling
you males. For every woman who will
make herself male will enter the Kingdom
of Heaven.' "
Some say that this
passage contradicts earlier statements
in the Gospel of Thomas and was therefore
probably added by a later redactor.
They are referring to verse 22: "Jesus
said to them, 'When you make the two
one, and when you make the inside like
the outside and the outside like the
inside, and the above like the below,
and when you make the male and the female
one and the same, so that the male not
be male nor the female female; and when
you fashion eyes in place of an eye,
and a hand in place of a hand, and a
foot in place of a foot, and a likeness
in place of a likeness; then will you
enter [the Kingdom]."
"The Dialogue of the
Savior", while granting Mary a place
of special honor, also equates "femaleness"
with inferiority, worldliness, and obstacles
to the spiritual path. It says 144:15-21:
"When we pray, how should we pray? The
Lord said, 'Pray in the place where
there is [no] woman.' Matthew said,
'He says to us, 'Pray in the place where
there is [no] woman,' ... 'Destroy [the]
works of femaleness,' not because she
is another [...], but so that they (the
works) will cease [from you]."
The Gospels of Philip
and of Mary both recount the jealousy
of the male disciples because Jesus
loved Mary more than them and revealed
things to her that he didn't reveal
to them.
Even Mary herself
in the Gospel of Mary equates maleness
with superiority when she says in 9:19-20:
"Let us praise his greatness, for he
has prepared us (and) made us into men."
The last part of this
gospel is Mary's account of what Jesus
said to her in a vision. Peter had asked
her for this account saying (in 10:1-5):
"Sister, we know that the Savior loved
you more than the rest of women. Tell
us the words of the Savior which you
remember - which you know (but) we do
not, nor have we heard them."
But when she finishes:
"Andrew answered and
said to the brethren, 'Say what you
(wish to) say about what she has said.
I at least do not believe that the Savior
said this. For certainly these teachings
are strange ideas.' Peter answered and
spoke concerning these same things.
He questioned them about the Savior:
'Did he really speak privately with
a woman (and) not openly to us? Are
we to turn about and all listen to her?
Did he prefer her to us?' Then Mary
wept and said to Peter, 'My brother
Peter, what do you think? Do you think
that I thought this up myself in my
heart, or that I am lying about the
Savior?' Levi answered and said to Peter,
'Peter, you have always been hot-tempered.
Now I see you contending against the
woman like the adversaries. But if the
Savior made her worthy, who are you
indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior
knows her very well. That is why he
loved her more than us. Rather let us
be ashamed and put on the perfect man,
and separate, as he commanded us and
preach the gospel, not laying down any
other rule or other law beyond what
the Savior said.' When [...] and they
began to go forth [to] proclaim and
to preach." (17:10-end of gospel)
The Gospel of Philip
63:31-10 states:
"And the companion of the S[avior is]
Mary Magdalene ... her more than ...
the disciples ... kiss her ... on her
... The rest of ... they said to him,
'Why do you love her more than all of
us?' The Savior answered them, 'Why
do I not love you like her? When a blind
man and one who sees are both together
in darkness, they are no different from
one another. When the light comes, then
he who sees will see the light, and
he who is blind will remain in darkness.'
" -- Apparently Mary Magdalene was far
more enlightened than the other disciples.
People fill in the
gaps in the text according to the context,
which suggests that Jesus kissed her
on the mouth. They read: "The Savior
loved her more than all the disciples
and used to kiss her often on her mouth."
But even if Jesus often
kissed her on the mouth, one still cannot
assume that they also had sexual intercourse.
Four chapters earlier Philip speaks
about kissing on the mouth as a ritual
act of being born or "begotten" spiritually
of Jesus:
"[Those who] are begotten
by him [cry out] from that place to
the (perfect) man [because they are
nourished] on the promise [concerning]
the heavenly [place. ...] from the mouth,
[because if] the word has gone out from
that place it would be nourished from
the mouth and it would become perfect.
For it is by a kiss that the perfect
conceive and give birth (to their spiritual
selves). For this reason we also kiss
one another. We receive conception from
the grace which is in each other." 58:30-59:5
Sounds like they all
kissed each other on the mouth. Were
they all married to each other? Were
they advocating same sex and group marriage?!
Of course not. At least during the first
five hundred years of Christianity kissing
each other on the mouth was part of
celebrating the ritual of the Eucharist
(or "last supper") even within
the main stream Church. It is refered
to in the biography of Mary of Egypt
(More on her below). The ancient text
describes this extremely chaste and
humble hermitess receiving the Eucharist
the night before her death: "After
the prayer has been spoken, she kisses
the priest, as is the custom, on the
mouth, receives the holy mysteries and
says..." (Gertrude and Thomas Sartory:
Maria von Aegypten - Allmacht der Busse,
Herder Taschenbuch, 1982, p.55)
It is true that the
Gospel of Philip continues for 13 pages
to talk about the great mystery of marriage
and the original unity of man and woman
in the first human (before the female
aspect was separated out). It says that:
"Christ came to repair the separation
which was from the beginning and again
unite the two". (70:15) But it also
speaks about the mystery of the "bridal
chamber" in a very confusing, obscure,
and esoteric way, suggesting that it
far exceeds anything an ordinary person
would associate with bridal chambers.
E.g. in 74:19-20: "He who has been anointed
possesses everything. He possesses the
resurrection, the light, the cross,
the Holy Spirit. The Father gave him
this in the bridal chamber;" And in
verse 67 it says: "It is from water
and fire and light that the son of the
bridal chamber (came into being). (...)
The Lord [did] everything in a mystery,
a baptism and a chrism and a eucharist
and a redemption and a bridal chamber."
The Gospel of Thomas 50:15 refers to
the "bridal chamber" as the place (this
earth) where the bridegroom, Jesus,
gets to be with his bride, the disciples.
The gospel of Philip does seem to suggest
that Jesus found a deep spiritual union
with Mary Magdalene which he deemed
extremely important, but which might
have been purely spiritual. For he says
in 65:30 - 66:5:
"He who comes out
of the world can no longer be detained
because he was in the world. It is evident
that he is above desire and fear. (...)
Fear not the flesh, nor love it. If
you fear it, it will gain mastery over
you. If you love it, it will swallow
and paralyze you." And (76:9): "in the
aeon the form of the union is different,
although we refer to them by the same
names." (78:30-79:2): "So spirit mingles
with spirit, and thought consorts with
thought. (...) If you become light,
it is the light which will share with
you." (82:4-8) "If there is a hidden
quality to the marriage of defilement,
how much more is the undefiled marriage
a true mystery. It is not fleshly but
pure. It belongs not to desire but to
the will."
Some people claim that
'companion', the title given to Mary
Magdalene in the Gospel of Philip, was
an equivalent to 'wife'. Yet "The
Book of Thomas the Contender",
also contained in the Nag Hammadi Library,
bestows the same title on Thomas. In
138:6-10 Jesus says: "Now since
it has been said that you are my twin
and true companion, examine yourself
that you may understand who you are,
in what way you exist, and how you will
come to be."
It seems to me that
if Mary and Jesus were married in the
ordinary, "defiled" way, the disciples
wouldn't have been so baffled why he
would love her more than them and why
he would say things to her that he didn't
say to others. Wouldn't patriarchs love
to explain her special status away by
saying it grew out of her marriage to
Jesus? Isn't it much more of a challenge
to patriarchal thinking to have to acknowledge
that she was that special in and of
herself and that Jesus appreciated her
fully without using her for himself
in any way?
Mary Magdalene a Former Prostitute?
Another question we need to discuss is, why did Christians
decide to identify the "sinful woman",
i.e. prostitute, who washed Jesus feet
with her tears and covered them with
kisses, with Mary Magdalene? Nowadays
many suspect that this happened out
of malice, in the attempt to denigrate
Mary Magdalene and to topple her from
her place of honor. It is true that
for millennia men have downplayed or
defamed every strong and virtuous woman
in the Bible. However, I think calling
Mary Magdalene a former prostitute is
a case apart and served a broader need
of men as well as women.
The first problem
this solution addresses is that the
Bible doesn't introduce Mary Magdalene
properly. Out of nowhere she appears
as foremost among the women followers
of Jesus and as the one he is closest
to after his resurrection. The text
mentions in an aside that he healed
her from seven demons, but it does not
seem to explain why there is this special
love between them. So one is naturally
left looking for clues to fill in her
story and to link her to other stories
in the Bible. One such possible clue
may be that both the "sinful woman"
and Mary kiss his feet and are very
passionate in expressing their love.
Jesus rewards them both for their free
show of devotion. The second clue is
that the story of the "sinful woman"
in Luke 7: 36-50 is immediately followed
by his first mention of Mary Magdalene.
In this story Jesus stresses the exemplary
love and devotion of the woman and explains
it by saying: "many sins have been forgiven
her, hence she has shown great love.
But the one to whom little is forgiven,
loves little." (Lk 7:47) According to
this reasoning it would follow that
Mary Magdalene must have sinned much
before she found Jesus, because she
certainly loved him a lot.
The second problem
Magdalene's characterization as a former
prostitute addresses is women's frustration
with the Virgin Mary as the prime example
of what a good woman should be like.
How many times have I heard Catholic
women complain that they had a problem
with Mother Mary because she is an impossible
example to follow! How can we be expected
to be a mother, wife, and virgin?! To
be as much like her as possible, women
were traditionally admonished to be
wives and mothers, yet also "chaste".
That is to say, on the one hand they
were not to be sexy, not to want or
enjoy sex. On the other hand they were
to grant sex to their husbands whenever
the men wanted it, as their "marital
duty" and their duty to God to
procreate. This made many women angry,
not at the men, with whom it wasn't
safe to be angry, but with the Virgin
Mary, who seemingly put them in this
position. Men didn't appreciate this
virgin-wife example either, because
it didn't allow them to have much fun
with their own wives.
Then, along comes Mary Magdalene, the
former prostitute and a passionate,
heroic woman to the end. She may be
reformed but at least she knows all
about sex. She is never demure, but
defiant, free, and self-confident.
"Penitent St. Mary Magdalene" by Titian
Was it not a gift to have a variety
of women among the disciples of Christ?
Do feminists and Goddess worshippers
not profess that one needs to honor
the feminine in all its archetypes:
as the virgin, the whore, the maiden,
mother, and crone? It seems to me that's
what Christians were trying to do. They
acknowledge the virgin, mother, prostitute,
and crone.
The crone finds supreme expression in
the gospels as Elizabeth, Mother Mary's
cousin and the mother of John the Baptist.
(To see how important Elizabeth's spiritual
and emotional support was for Mother
Mary, read in the article "Mother
Mary in the Bible")
Elizabeth and
the Virgin Mary in: "Visitation"
by Master of the retablo of the Reyes
Catolicos
All these women are
in the inner circle of Jesus and nothing
bad is ever said about them. Even if
Mary Magdalene is identified with the
former prostitute, this is never held
against her. On the contrary, the Catholic
Church sanctified her because she left
that way of life and Jesus forgave,
loved, honored, and defended her.
It is true that celibate priests tend
to focus on the virginal Mary rather
than on the passionate Magdalene who
knows everything about "down there".
Unfortunately they cannot freely indulge
an issue that is as threatening to them
as sexuality. But Christian artists
were always happy to take up the cause.
Next to the demurely covered virgin,
they love to portray a dramatic and
sensual Mary Magdalene. Her big, flowing,
traditionally red hair has long been
a symbol of a Christian's ability (or
at least hope) to make peace with the
force of sexuality.
There is one more reason
why Mary Magdalene was dubbed "reformed
prostitute": Some time between the 4th
and 6th centuries there lived a woman
ascetic in the desert of the Holy Land.
Her name was Mary of Egypt and she really
was a reformed prostitute from Alexandria
who became famous for making a 180 degree
turn from extreme lustfulness to extreme
holiness, exchanging sexual union with
men for divine union with God. She lived
47 years in the desert, naked and practically
without food. In the Orthodox Christian
world she is still revered, but in Catholic
Christendom her story was gradually
melded into the story of Mary Magdalene,
the other famous penitent. The two kept
getting mixed up with one another, until
Mary of Egypt was forgotten, and her
story tagged onto Mary Magdalene. Hence
the French tradition that Mary Magdalene
lived as a hermitess in Sainte Baume,
Provence, dressed only in her hair,
and fed only by the angels. (See: ibid.:
p.12. For more details on Mary of Egypt
google her name + catholic or + orthodox)
By the way, referring
to someone as a "penitent" does not
imply that the person is particularly
sinful (as is often assumed by non-Christians).
Rather it means they chose an ascetic
lifestyle of penance - something all
Christians are called to since John
the Baptist and Jesus. When they are
done purifying their own shortcomings
they continue with penances for the
sake of the rest of humanity. Like Jesus
and his apostles (and like serious practitioners
of many other religions) they voluntarily
take on what would be hardship to others
and use it to transform themselves and
others.
Cynthia Bourgeault
wrote probably the most balanced book
on everything to do with Mary Magdalene.
It is called “The Meaning of Mary
Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at
the Heart of Christianity”, Shambhala
Publications, Boston 2010. She too sees
advantages in Mary Magdalene’s
denotation as a penitent prostitute
and says: “God sometimes writes
straight with crooked lines”.
(p. 27)
Whatever Magdalene is repentant
for, in Christian art it is not
for being sensuous. Here she is
pressing Jesus on the cross against
her nacked bossom. "The Penitent
Magdalene" by Paolo Pagani
(c.1661-1716) |
Goddess of Love:
Aphrodite, Mary Magdalene or the Virgin
Mary?
To me Mary Magdalene and Mother
Mary are like Isis and her sister Nephtys
(Greek) or Nebthet (Egyptian). Isis
was more famous, more important, more
powerful. But she had a sister who was
her complementary opposite. Isis was
the day, life, fertility; Nephtys the
night, death, barrenness. Yet they decided
to work together for the greater good
and gradually Isis incorporated all
the attributes of her sister.
Similarly, the Virgin
Mary has this spiritual sister Magdalene.
One is purity, virginity, obedience,
silent humility. The other is passion,
sexuality, loudly outrageous and shamelessly
non-conforming. Once the virgin and
the whore Mary were paired up as a suitable
couple of sisters in the Spirit, the
Virgin started to claim her sexuality
and the whore her saintliness.(*2)
In medieval art and
thinking Mother Mary had to fulfill
all the old roles of the goddesses.
That meant she was responsible for everything
to do with a woman's life: love, passion,
fertility, child bearing, praying, and
dying.
Mother Mary's role as
the Christian goddess of love was expressed
in three symbols: the red rose, the
unicorn, and the color red.
1. Since ancient times
the red rose was a symbol of the goddess
Venus and erotic love. The vagina was
often referred to as 'the little rose
beneath the rosebush'. In the Middle
Ages, with its troubadours spreading
a culture of refined and spiritual love
and with the crusaders emphasizing self-sacrificial
love, the rose conquered the imagination
of European Christians. It became one
of the favorite symbols of human and
divine, romantic and spiritual love.
Mother Mary became known as the 'mystical
rose' and her chaplet of prayers as
the 'rosary', a collection of roses.
To this day it is said that each time
someone prays the rosary, Mary is crowned
with a fresh crown of roses, i.e. with
the power of love and femininity.
2. Mary and the unicorn
were often portrayed in an enclosed
garden. According to myth only a pure
virgin (the enclosed garden symbolized
her virginal womb)(*3)
could capture a unicorn. The powerfully
good, yet fiercely wild animal could
not be killed by hunters unless it came
across a pure virgin. Then it would
lay its head in her lap and fall asleep.
At that point its pursuers would strike.
In the Christian context this story
came to mean that the fierce, male God
could only be bound in this world, tamed,
and made docile by the exceedingly pure
and docile Virgin Mary. Once he entered
her womb and became Jesus Christ he
could be sacrificed as the Lamb of God
for the good of all.
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But the unicorn also
retained its worldly aspect. It represented
wild, ferocious manhood that could only
be tamed by pure womanhood and would
gladly allow itself to be trapped into
holy matrimony and made docile. In that
context the Virgin Mary represented
virtuous womanhood taming wild manhood
and channeling erotic passion into the
'sacrament of marriage'.(*4)
3. Mother Mary's passionate
love also came to be represented by
the red robes under her blue mantel.
Apparently people felt so justified
in their sexual passions by Mary's red
robes that during the Renaissance the
church decided to put an end to Mother
Mary as the goddess of love. Suddenly
she was not allowed to be portrayed
in red any more, and no more unicorns
either. In 1563, the Council of Trent
condemned all associations of the Virgin
Mary with the unicorn and henceforth
only virginal white veils and heavenly
blue mantels were permitted.
That's when the two
Marys, who had become one, were separated
out again and the responsibility of
holding a space for human sexuality
fell solely onto the beautiful, naked
shoulders and the red open hair of Mary
Magdalene.
I like the two aspects
in one figure and I find the Virgin
Mary to be quite efficacious in blessing
the sexual union of husband and wife
with a cosmic passion. Unfortunately
we don't have a goddess of human love
in Christianity. We miss the Aphrodite
archetype. The closest we can come to
it is in the idea of the good prostitute,
which in a Christian context can only
mean a former, repentant prostitute,
a sensuous, passionate saint like Mary
Magdalene.
I agree that 'Aphrodite'
is a much nicer name for the archetype
'goddess of love' than 'repentant prostitute'.
But since Aphrodite is a Greek goddess,
we may just have to realize that Mary
Magdalene is the Christian form of Aphrodite,
the same archetype by a different name.
Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code"
Though I was not impressed
with the book, I loved the movie.
Certainly, if Jesus
had married, it would have been Mary
Magdalene. In the Bible as well as in
art, she is consistently portrayed as
his closest female disciple, a very
intimate one with definite romantic
overtones. Many depictions of the crucifixion
show her wrapped around the cross of
Christ in such a physically intimate
way that the message can't be overlooked:
Jesus and Mary Magdalene were somehow
a couple.
St.
Sulpice, Paris: a rare depiction
of a Pieta that includes Mary
Magdalene. She appears as the
spouse of Jesus, holding his hand
in death, and as the daughter
in law of Mother Mary.
photo: Ella Rozett |
 |
Jewish custom did indeed dictate that
a Rabbi had to be married and Jesus
was called Rabbi on several occasions.
But Jewish custom also said that once
a man was married, he was not to speak
to any women besides his wife and immediate
family. Jesus, on the other hand, made
a point of talking to many women and
of not worrying too much about laws
and customs. We know for sure that the
apostle Paul was not married and even
so, contrary to Jewish custom, did teach
in synagogues. We also know that both,
being married and being celibate were
completely acceptable options for leaders
in the early church.
Hence we may never
know for sure if Jesus was married to
Mary Magdalene and if they had children,
but I don't think it makes nearly as
much of a difference as Dan Brown suggests.
Jesus' message doesn't hinge on that.
But there certainly is a lot more evidence
that Jesus was celibate than that he
was married. To give only one example:
in Matthew 19:11-12 Jesus says that
forsaking marriage for the sake of the
kingdom of God is a mystery many practice,
but many others with inferior capacities
cannot grasp.
Even if Jesus had
children, they wouldn't necessarily
have been important. As he says in Mat
13:50, and in the other gospels: those
who do the will of his heavenly father
are his family. Certainly his apostles
must have had children, but they are
never mentioned anywhere. Remember,
we are talking about religion here,
and about the kingdom of God, not about
worldly royal bloodlines and kingdoms
who usually ended up with imbeciles
because of inbreeding.
Other religious founders
had children who played no important
role in history. Buddha's son wasn't
particularly special and died at an
early age. In Islam only the Shiite
minority took Mohammed's bloodline into
account when determining its leadership.
Judaism certainly venerates its bloodline
of patriarchs, yet the prophets whom
God established as the spiritual leaders
were independent of any bloodline. Lord
Krishna, the Hindu god of love, must
have had thousands of children because
he is said to have had 16,000 queens,
plus consorts! Yet I've never heard
his children mentioned anywhere. Historically,
only the leadership of the Bahai was
passed from father to son. So it seems
that spiritual enlightenment does not
normally transfer with the DNA.
But if you're looking
for divinity in someone's DNA, that's
an easy find, because we're all created
by God and in God's image by receiving
His breath, i.e. spirit. Hence, it seems
to me that the whole human race is of
God's bloodline.
Concerning the supposed
motivation (according to "The Da Vinci
Code") for concealing Jesus' marriage:
Dan Brown says that it was the Catholic
Church's effort to portray Jesus as
purely divine and not human. Actually,
the Church insisted from the start that
Jesus was both human and divine.
It argued against the
Gnostics who would take away from Jesus'
humanness by saying that he didn't really
suffer on the cross, because God doesn't
suffer. It also argued against those
who would diminish his divinity by teaching
that Jesus started out as an ordinary
human and only later became the Son
of God.
Only it wasn't until
the council of Ephesus (431 C.E.) that
the Church could agree precisely how
divine and how human Jesus Christ was
at any given point in time, and how
those "two natures" co-exist.
In my opinion the "two
natures of Christ" are the very
core and gem of Christianity. It is
rare to find another religion that gives
us permission to be, like Jesus, truly
human and truly divine. Mystical Christianity
does.
Rather than hurting
the veneration of the "divine feminine",
insisting that Jesus was "truly human
and truly divine" from the moment of
his conception, actually gave it a great
boost. For it justified the veneration
of the Virgin Mary as Mother of God.
What is certainly true
is that at a certain point the Church
started suppressing anything that supported
women's full participation in the Church.
But that sharing of ministry and power
did not depend on the supposed descendants
of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Rather
it would have been quite sufficient
to faithfully emulate Jesus and Paul
(on a good day!). But instead, Jesus'
own relationship with the many women
in his life was ignored and to Paul's
true letters, fake, misogynistic ones
were added. (see: my article on "Women
of Spirit and Power in the Bible",
especially the section "the Woman who
Anointed Jesus")
And the Holy Grail?
In the movie it is described as "the
source of God's power on earth". - If
Jesus is God's power on earth then Mary,
his mother, could be seen as his source.
Indeed, to me much of what the movie
says about Mary Magdalene is more true
about the Virgin Mary. Loius Charpentier
in his book "Les Mysteres de la Cathedrale
de Chartres" explains that the Knights
Templar went to Jerusalem, not to seek
the Holy Grail, but the Ark of the Covenant,
which they hoped to find in the ruins
of the Temple of Solomon. Charpentier
says, that they certainly did find an
esoteric knowledge and a source of power
and wealth that enabled them suddenly
to create gothic cathedrals. Maybe so,
but along with that knowledge they found
black madonnas (see my article) and
they venerated their Dark Mothers in
those cathedrals.
From of old Mother
Mary was given the title "Ark of the
Covenant", because she was the vessel
of the New Covenant: Jesus Christ. To
her the Templars dedicated their order,
their cathedrals, and their hearts.
Mary Magdalene Pilgrimage Sites
1. Ephesus: Donald
Carroll states the following in his
book "Mary's House: The extraordinary
story behind the discovery of the house
where the Virgin Mary lived and died"
on pages 78-80: "In 1952 a large sarcophagus
was unearthed near the entrance of a
grotto on the outskirts of Ephesus known
as the Cave of the Seven Sleepers, so-called
because of an ancient Christian legend
attached to it. The sarcophagus was
positively identified by Professor Louis
Massignon of the College de France as
the tomb of Mary Magdalene. The bones
were removed and are now in the Church
of St. Mary Magdalene in Paris. (Read
more about Mary's house in Ephesus in
the "Mother Mary and the Goddess" article.)
2. So Paris is interesting
both because of the Church of St. Mary
Magdalene and because of the sanctuary
and apparition site of Our Lady of the
Miraculous Medal in the Rue du Bac.
The shell of Magdalene's church (L'eglise
de Sainte Madeleine) is a very big reproduction
of a Greek temple that has long housed
what is claimed to be the thigh bone
of Mary Magdalene, but which did not
come from the excavations in Ephesus.
When I was there in 2006 I did not find
any other remains of Magdalene and the
local custodian assured me there are
no others kept at the church. Later
I found out though that the church has
a crypt (which I didn't see). Who knows
what they are hiding down there!
3. Sainte-Baume
is a beautiful place in Southern France,
where the Magdalene is said to have
spent the last 30 years of her life
as a hermit. There is far more and older
evidence that she lived with Mother
Mary and John in their home in Ephesus
after the crucifixion of Christ. However,
it is conceivable that she also traveled
to France. After all Jesus had urged
his apostles and disciples to emulate
his wandering as a homeless beggar.
In any case, a site where a saint has
been honored and invoked for roughly
a thousand years is sure to be filled
with her blessing presence.
When I was there, my impression was
that instead of Mary Magdalene, Mary
and Martha of Bethany were in that part
of France. The remains of the latter
are venerated in nearby Tarascon. Many
people think that Mary of Bethany and
Mary of Magdala were one and the same
person, many others (including myself)
disagree. (For pilgrimages including
a visit to Sainte-Baume, visit our home
page.)
_________________________________________________________
*1: All the apocryphal
gospels quoted here can be found in:
"The Nag Hammadi Library". It is one
book you should be able to order through
any bookstore.
*2: Cf.
Charlene Spretnak, Missing Mary, Palgrave
McMillan, New York: 2004, pp. 211-13
*3: This symbolism goes back to the
Song of Songs.
*4: A sacrament is an "efficacious
sign of grace, instituted by Christ
and entrusted to the Church, by which
divine life is dispensed to us."
See: Sacraments
of the Catholic Church
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