Image: Gianaluca Palma
“The church seemed doomed to failure, destined to go down to bloody death amidst the bleeding corpses of its victims, when the people discovered Mary. And only when Mary, against the stern decrees of the church, was dug out of the oblivion to which Constantine had assigned her and became identified with the Great Goddess was Christianity finally tolerated by the people.”
Elizabeth Gould Davis, The First Sex
I had an idea to write a post about Mary Magdalene a few days ago, I don’t know why but I was drawn to do it, only to decide against it in the end. I feel like I am not educated enough about her to even begin to tell her story, I do know that what little information is written in the Bible is not correct, shocker.
So, I have set out on a quest to find her story, while in the midst of my quest I found the quote above on a friend’s page, and it was yet another sign for me to journey down this road, for whatever reason.
This is not my original work, but this is a really good read full of great information about a version of the Goddess that is far too often forgotten. The Women in the Bible ARE aspects of us, aspects of the Great Mother and they are oppressed, hidden, and mocked just like rest of us. Their stories were twisted, or negated all together, left to one sentence such as Dinah, daughter of Jacob; her and her Mother’s would worship Inanna in the red tent, which was destroyed when the man became threatened by the Woman’s independence. I ask that you keep an open mind, and do not allow any Christian perspective, or hatred towards Christianity in general, blind your view of this aspect of the Divine Feminine.
Knowledge truly is power.
Legend:
“Mary Magdalene was of the district of Magdala, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, where stood her families castle, called Magdalon; she was the sister of Lazarus and of Martha, and they were the children of parents reputed noble, or, as some say, royal descendants of the House of David. On the death of their father, Syrus, they inherited vast riches and possessions in land, which were equally divided between them.
Lazarus betook himself to the military life; Martha ruled her possessions with great discretion, and was a model of virtue and propriety, -perhaps a little too much addicted to worldly cares; Mary, on the contrary, abandoned herself to luxurious pleasures and became at length so notorious for her extravagant lifestyle that she was known through all the country round only as ‘The Sinner.’
Philo’s Enigmatic Interpretation of Ancient Texts
Sinners were people devoted to the moon-god, Sin. Moses spent 38 of 40 years in the Wilderness of Sin, the land where the god, Sin, was worshipped. Sinai is the feminine form of Sin; therefore, Mount Sinai can be called “the mountain of the goddess,” feminine counterpart of Sin. “Mary Magdalene” represented the Great-Goddess-Mother-Queen, wife of “Jesus.” Historically, she can be found in several prominent Roman families: She was the daughter of Juba II, the King of Mauretania and wife, Queen Cleopatra Selene (daughter of Antony and Cleopatra). She was also known as Agrippina the Elder; her sister was Julia the Younger and her step-brother was Drusus Germanicus, the secret younger son of Emperor Tiberius. She was known as Livilla, mother of twins whose grandfather was Emperor Tiberius. And, she can be found disguised as a man: Philo of Alexandria and Emperor Claudius’ powerful freedman Pallas.
Legend
“Mary’s discreet sister, Martha, frequently rebuked her for these disorders and at length persuaded her to listen to the exhortations of Jesus, through which her heart was touched and converted. The seven demons which possessed her, and which were expelled by Jesus, were the seven deadly sins common to us all. The struggles of these seven principal faults are; first, Gluttony or the pleasures of the palate; secondly, Fornication; thirdly, Covetousness, which means Avarice, or, the love of money, fourthly, Anger; fifthly, Dejection; sixthly, “Accidie,” which is the sin of spiritual sloth or sluggishness; and seventhly, kenodocila which means ego, foolish pride or vain glory.
On one occasion Martha entertained the Savior in her house, and, being anxious to feast him worthily, she was ‘cumbered with much serving.’ Mary, meanwhile, sat at the feet of Jesus, and heard his words, which completed the good work of her conversion; and when, sometime afterwards, be supped in the house of Simon the Pharisee, she followed him thither and she brought an alabaster box of ointment and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment – and He said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven’.
Fact
“The word translated as “demons” can be, and is, translated as “Angels” in other biblical verses. Seven in Hebrew is Shabbat. Shabbat Hamalka represented the feminine side of Yahweh – his consort, and she is of extremely ancient origin. Sometimes called Asherah, Shekhina, etc., this goddess is a combination of Queen, Bride, and Goddess.
Philo’s Enigmatic Interpretation of Ancient Texts
The referenced “anointing scene” harkens to the Old Testament, Song of Solomon. King Solomon and his “Sister-Bride” sing a love song as they profess their everlasting love. Many myths of “gods and goddesses” describe them as “Sister-Bride, Brother-Groom.” The king of Libya, Juba II, first married Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. However, he married a second time: his second wife was Glaphyra, widow of Alexander III, son of Herod the Great and Jewish princess, the Hasmonean Mariamme. With that marriage, Juba’s children with Selene and Glaphyra’s children with Alexander became “Brothers and Sisters.” When Juba’s eldest daughter married Glaphyra’s eldest son, they became, “Sister-Bride, Brother-Groom.
Legend
“Tradition relates that after the Crucifixion, Mary traveled to Italy, met with the Emperor Tiberias (14-37 AD) and proclaimed to him about Christ’s Resurrection. According to tradition, she took him an egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, a symbol of new life with the words: “Christ is Risen!” Then she told Tiberias that, in his Province of Judea, Jesus the Nazarene, a holy man, a maker of miracles, powerful before God and all mankind, was executed on the instigation of the Jewish High-Priests and the sentence affirmed by the procurator Pontius Pilate. Tiberias responded that no one could rise from the dead, any more than the egg she held could turn red. Miraculously, the egg immediately began to turn red as testimony to her words. Then, and by her urging, Tiberias had Pilate removed from Jerusalem to Gaul, where he later suffered a horrible sickness and an agonizing death.
Philo’s Enigmatic Interpretation of Ancient Texts
“After the “Passover-Passion Pageant,” designed to merge the Jewish “Messiah” with the Greco-Roman and Egyptian “Dying-and-Resurrected Savior” (Dionysus, Osiris, Serapis, etc.), the woman who played the role of “Mary Magdalene” accompanied her husband, the man who portrayed “Jesus,” to Alexandria, Egypt. “Jesus” became the Alabarch of Alexandria; “Mary Magdalene” assumed one of the names carried by her famous grandmother, Cleopatra Thea Philo Pater (wife of Marc Antony), which were probably the names she also carried. Using the name, Philo, and claiming to be a man, “Mary Magdalene” became famous as the philosopher and chief proponent of merging of Judaism with Greek Philosophy. She also promoted the allegorical interpretation of scripture, the only method by which their story could be told.”
Legend
“Suggestions of commentators and legend continues Mary’s story. Fourteen years after the ascension, Lazarus with his two sisters, Martha and Mary; with Maximin, one of the seventy-two disciples, from whom they had received baptism; Cedon, the blind man whom our Savior had restored to sight; and Marcella, the handmaiden who attended on the two sisters, were by the Jews set adrift in a vessel without sails, oars, or rudder; but, guided by Providence, they were safely borne over the sea till they landed in a certain harbor which proved to be Marseilles, in the country now called France.
The people of the land were pagans, and refused to give the holy pilgrims food or shelter; so they were fain to take refuge under the porch of a temple and Mary Magdalene preached to the people, reproaching them for their senseless worship of idols; and though at first they would not listen, yet being after a time convinced by her eloquence, and by the miracles performed by her and by her sister, they were converted and baptized. And Lazarus became, after the death of the good Maximin, the first bishop of Marseilles.
These things being accomplished, Mary Magdalene retired to the cliffs not far from the city. It was a frightful barren wilderness and in the midst of horrid rocks she lived in the caves of Sainte-Baume; there for thirty years she devoted herself to solitary penance for the sins of her past life, which she had never ceased to bewail bitterly. During this long seclusion, she was never seen or heard of, and it was supposed that she was dead.
Mary fasted so rigorously, that but for the occasional visits of the angels, and the comfort bestowed by Celestial visions, she might have perished. She was given the Holy Eucharist by angels as her only food. Every day during the last years of her penance, the angels came down from heaven and carried her up in their arms into regions where she was ravished by the sounds of unearthly harmony, and beheld the glory and the joy prepared for the sinner that repenteth.
One day a certain hermit, who dwelt in a cell on one of those wild mountains, having wandered farther than usual from his home, beheld this wondrous vision-the Magdalene in the arms of ascending angels, who were singing songs of triumph as they bore her upwards; and the hermit, when he had a little recovered from his amazement, returned to the city of Marseilles, and reported what he had seen.
Philo’s Enigmatic Interpretation of Ancient Texts
“Mary Magdalene” spent the remainder of her life in various locations including: Alexandria, Rome, Emesa, and Greece using a variety of aliases. Inscriptions in Athens, dedicated to “Juba’s Daughter,” were in recognition of all she did for the Roman Empire as the Freedman, Pallas. A tongue-in-cheek letter written by Pliny the Younger to his friend Montanus enumerates some of her many accomplishments.”
Legend
“According to Church tradition, Mary Magdalene remained in Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul, and for two more years still, following his departure from Rome after the first court judgment upon him.
Philo’s Enigmatic Interpretation of Ancient Texts
“Paul was never an “apostle” but remained the arch-enemy of Jesus and all he attempted to teach and to do. “Jesus” and “Mary Magdalene,” using the aliases Narcissus and Pallas lived in Rome from 41 until 54. They filled powerful positions under Emperor Claudius and were responsible for the many innovations that improved the lives of Roman citizens, including the poorest and most vulnerable. Both their sons served as “Procurator of Judea.” (One from 46 to 48; the other from 51 to 60.)
Legend
“From Rome, Mary Magdalene, moved to Ephesus where she unceasingly labored the holy Apostle John, who with her wrote the first 20 Chapters of his Gospel (John 1-9, John 10-20). There the saint finished her earthly life and was buried. Mary was transported miraculously, just before she died, to the chapel of St. Maximin, where she received the last sacraments. She died when she was 72.”
Allegorical interpretation of scripture:
“Mary Magdalene” and “Jesus” traveled to Ephesus and may have lived there when she wrote “The Gospel of John.”
However, her work was “over-written” by a later author who called himself “John” and corrupted much of her original work. “Mary Magdalene” was also known as “Io Anna,” the feminine form of “John.” Io and Anna are both names of goddesses. She died in 74 CE at the age of 84, just as Luke reported (Luke 2:36-7). She was using the alias “Caenis” and purported to be Vespasian’s “mistress.” She was, in fact, his co-ruler and his aunt. Vespasian was her sister’s son.”
Legend
“In 899 the Emperor Leo VI transported her alleged relics to a monastery in Constantinople. It was not until the tenth century that devotion to Mary Magdalene, the composite saint, took root in the west.”
Philo’s Enigmatic Interpretation of Ancient Texts
“Mary Magdalene” may have been buried in her family’s mausoleum in Mauretania as the inscribed “Roman Woman.” The mausoleum is called, “the tomb of the Christian woman,” which can also be translated as, “the tomb of the Feminine Christ.”
She has been forced to remain silent for too long, misrepresented, and it is time that we become her voice and allow her story to be told through us.
Source: http://www.thenazareneway.com/life_of_st_mary_magdalene.htm
