Mary Magdalene, on her Feast Day
Growing up Baptist, I learned that Mary Magdalene was the prostitute who was saved by the grace of Jesus. She became one of his followers, putting away her “wicked ways.”
I was in high school when Jesus Christ Superstar turned Jesus into a pop culture superstar, and Mary M. into his love interest.
I didn’t think much more about her until I met Nut Tmu-Ankh, my first mentor in womb medicine. She was featured in Ray Stubbs’ documentary The Sacred Prostitute, about sacred sexuality and sexual healing. Mary Magdalene is a key figure, as many see her as a priestess of the goddess, who met Jesus and became his wife and one of his disciples.
Image on cover of Ray Stubbs book, Women of the Light
Many friends and colleagues work with Mary Magdalene as an avatar of the Divine Feminine. Some are initiated Magdalene priestesses. I gathered history and lore on Mary Magdalene through the years.
In astrology I read her in the asteroid Magdalena. I see that planet as “feminine Christ Consciousness, embodied, and in action on the Earth.”
Last winter I read Meggan Watterson’s book Mary Magdalene Revealed.
I learned that Mary Magdalene was the keeper of Jesus true teachings, the deeper mysteries that he did not share with his disciples. She wrote her own gospel that was repressed by the church leadership in the early centuries, and was almost lost.
I am still understanding how this new picture of Mary Magdalene might change my relationship with Christianity. I do know if she had been embraced rather than suppressed, we would have a different religion, and possibly a different world.
Just yesterday, I read something that connects Mary Magdalene to the ancient goddess.
Mary M is revered and much loved in France. According to the story, she fled to France after Jesus’ death.
She came in a small boat, with Mary, Jesus’s Mother, and Mary, the sister of Lazarus, landing in Provence. She established a church, and retired to spend the rest of her life in retreat in a cave. That cave is now her shrine.
Every year her devotees, the women, take her statue and bring her down to the sea to re-enact her landing upon the shores. They wash and dress the statue in new clothes, bringing offerings and prayers.
Yesterday, I read about the Goddess Cybele, the Great Mother Goddess of Asia Minor at the time of Mary Magdalene.
As the Rome began to rise as a world power, the Oracle said that they needed to bring the worship of Cybele to Rome. The sacred meteorite of Cybele was sent to Rome on a great ship with much pomp and fanfare. The representation of the Goddess was greeted with ceremony and feasting, and carried to to the Temple of Victory, along with her cohort of priestesses and priests.
The stories I read reminded me of Mary Magdalene. I wonder if she was greeted by the people in France as a representative of the Great Mother goddess Cybele.
I get the feeling that she may have been a priestess of Cybele, and an Oracle herself. I get the feeling she taught Jesus as much as he may have taught her.
Mary Magdalene is often portrayed holding an Egg. Christians see the Egg as a symbol of renewal in the resurrection of Christ. Mary holds the first Easter Egg.
Of course, the Egg is also the ancient symbol of the Goddess. Mary Magdalene’s Egg may be the link between the wisdom of the Goddess merging with the avatar of Christ Consciousness we know as Jesus.
Their lives and their union happened at a critical time of the world.
The renewal of reverence for Mary Magdalene comes at a critical time in our world.
Reclaim Reclaim Reclaim!
Note: Tomorrow July 23, 2021 is the Full Moon in Aquarius. Asteroid Magdalena is opposite Hekate and they are both square Mercury. Mary Magdalene will be speaking to us loud and clear during this Moon cycle and Hekate will spur us to act on what we hear.