Magdalene at Autumn Equinox
Posted by Joan Norton at 9/9/2008 6:51 AM 
Categories: Goddess and the Sacred Masculine, Seasonal festivals
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
Categories: Goddess and the Sacred Masculine, Seasonal festivals
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
Dr. Andrew Weil's best advice for self healing is "Just breathe" and Autumn Equinox is when our Earth, our bodies, our souls, and our sacred stories reflect the need for a deep, deep breathe.
Mary Magdalene approaches the cave at this time, in the descent aspect of her archetypal journey of the cyclic renewal of the year. As we restore the Sacred Union stories of original Christianity , we can see that they are the ancient stories of the turning of the year...with all their inherent psychological, spiritual, physical wisdom for us.
The Light is waning, the crops are harvested (the crop circles are mostly gone!), the green is withdrawing from the leaves into it's Mystery of renewal, and our heart's energy begins to turn inward as well. Mary , the one called "the Magdalene" has let her Beloved go into death, gone forever in her mind. We see her in so many beautiful paintings with her hair let loose to her most natural self, weeping at her loss. This is the human picture , the "as below" , of the descent phase of the great universal cycle of renewal. We understand it on the earthly level as growth slowing down, energy withdrawing from plant life and animal life, things beginning to go inward. It's a time for separating, taking stock, taking a big long healing breath. In the spiritual cycle of renewal pictured in Christianity it's Mary Magdalene's loss of the Beloved and her solitary path to His tomb.
We begin to allow ourselves the outbreath of the year. We allow the growth of summer to leave, we begin to contemplate the goodnesses left behind, and we allow the disappointments to go to the compost pile. Life ever- renewing. The Mystery of the return of Light awaits.
Mary Magdalene approaches the cave at this time, in the descent aspect of her archetypal journey of the cyclic renewal of the year. As we restore the Sacred Union stories of original Christianity , we can see that they are the ancient stories of the turning of the year...with all their inherent psychological, spiritual, physical wisdom for us.
The Light is waning, the crops are harvested (the crop circles are mostly gone!), the green is withdrawing from the leaves into it's Mystery of renewal, and our heart's energy begins to turn inward as well. Mary , the one called "the Magdalene" has let her Beloved go into death, gone forever in her mind. We see her in so many beautiful paintings with her hair let loose to her most natural self, weeping at her loss. This is the human picture , the "as below" , of the descent phase of the great universal cycle of renewal. We understand it on the earthly level as growth slowing down, energy withdrawing from plant life and animal life, things beginning to go inward. It's a time for separating, taking stock, taking a big long healing breath. In the spiritual cycle of renewal pictured in Christianity it's Mary Magdalene's loss of the Beloved and her solitary path to His tomb.
We begin to allow ourselves the outbreath of the year. We allow the growth of summer to leave, we begin to contemplate the goodnesses left behind, and we allow the disappointments to go to the compost pile. Life ever- renewing. The Mystery of the return of Light awaits.
>....gone forever in her mind.
Gone forever unless the meeting in the garden on the greatest morn is true. I'd like to think it is, providing both overbearing joy and sorrowful longing for togetherness on the same plane. These too are representative of autumn, that time of wondrous beauty when summer's bright colors change to harvest gold. Now is the time to gather to us life's bounty to nourish our Selves through the grayer days ahead. Part of the gathering is a reverence for memories -- of all that was and all that will be.
Thanks for this entry. It put my day in perspective.
lore
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Hi Lore, Thanks so much for your response....you express the real feeling of the time. I like your thought about reverence for memories....that was one thing I meant by a time for discernment...what goes in the compost pile (of memories) and what stays with me to savor.
To me, the picture of Mary Magdalene grieving at the tomb so completely broken hearted, expresses how it feels when things wane, even though we may know they'll come alive again. They just seem gone, gone, gone...like the summer's vitality. When the season turns and the Light is born again, and Jesus meets his Beloved in the Garden, it is truly Mystery come to life. But we're not there yet! Time now to go gently into the Mystery.
Thanks again, your writing is always so wondeful. Joan
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"The mystery of the return of light remains."
The work is going on. The grassroot tenacity for reinstating the light is working harder than ever. And there are new, younger forces in the ranks.
I just returned from "Burning Man", the festival in Nevada that draws 50.000 people willing to endure the harshness of the desert for a week. A temple was created, dedicated to the new unification of the masculine and feminine. I had the honor of working on the Unity Dome, the last of the seven structures of the temple complex Pantheogenesis. While I was doing my work of draping fabrics on the meditation tents, reverent people, from every religion and faith I knew, came to give a blessing to the space. I had the honor of watching the rabbi sing psalms from the Talmud, Rainbow Jaguar perform a Mayan blessing, a singing bowl being intoned after the monk from the Krishna camp sang his devotion. We were visited by a sufi master, a hindu, two men of the vodou tradition and a young man in the white robe of a medieval monk, all giving their blessings to the space.
In the Untiy Dome everything was white. The structure was a geodesic dome with a white cover. The sunlight was filtered through hundreds of triangles of white creating an intense level of light. The lotus sculpture was white with mirror tiles reflecting light in all directions and the eight meditation tents were white with gold and silver accents. The effect was overwhelming.
After the blessings arriving spontanously through out the day, the frequency of the space was transforming. I felt priveleged being there to witness.
Yes, Her message comes through. The unification of the male and female is happening. In the most incredible of ways. Thanks for keeping this forum open for these discussions.
Wencke.
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So great to hear this! Thanks for sharing your experiences...I can only imagine what the energy must have been like. I would also have liked to work with the fabrics...they are so truly "the work of the Mother". Are you posting pictures on your blog? Joan
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Yes, yes, and yes, I so needed these weepy feelings placed into the great container of the autumnal tug to retreat, retreat, retreat. I am so happy to be reminded that what I am feeling in my body, my mind, my emotions, and my spirit comes from connection with the cycles of Mother Earth, and that like Her, I can withdraw into the inner mysteries for a while now and restore myself.
Again, dear Joan, thank you calling me out of my individual-worry-mind of "Why am I feeling so sad?" and back into a loving reception to the flow of Her energies through me.
And thank you for reminding me of what to do with disappointments -- the pepper plants that never bloomed and the cucumber plants that died from the drought go right onto the compost pile along with the aromatherapy class that didn't make!
Sad as it is to see the green go and then the gold go, too, it's wonderful to allow myself to let it all go, to exhale, so I can inhale again before I am totally oxygen deprived!
Love,
Sandra
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Hi Joan,
For many, these are challenging times but the Magdalene remains a living icon of strength for every season, for every emotion, for every transition. She shows me how to get through it all, through my own challenges. She reminds me that joy and pleasure are Divine Gifts, ready and present to be brought into our lives. She has shown me her strength, even in the face of her own loss. And so I garner in her power, the ability to move from sorrow to joy. Miracles reside with her, with the renewing love that feels as thought it is forever streaming from her noble heart.
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Hi Jennifer, Reading your words reminds me how much I'm looking forward to your book being published. Would you be willing to write a comment back and describe your concepts and what you've done with creating rituals of reverence to Mary Magdalene and her Sacred Union with Jesus? And when it will be available? Thanks...I know you're busy....xoJoan
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Hi Joan,
Thanks so much for the invitation to discuss my upcoming book, "The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene: The Path of the Grail Steward."
In this new book, the theology that supports the Sacred Marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, has a back story with an alternative version of the Creation. This includes a Holy Mother and Father, Asherah and Adonai.
This deepens with the notion of the Everlasting, as the power that resides beyond even the Creation itself. So all of the rituals, prayers, and seasonal festivals that I have written, while focused on Mary Magdalene and Jesus, have this backstory as the root of their own being.
In the story that I wrote, of the Seventh Garden of Eden (I wrote of seven different gardens), you have the first ancient meeting of the Magdalene and Jesus. The majority of the book that follows, is concerned with discourses, stories and teachings from Mary Magdalene and Jesus, and then sacred prayers, personal ceremonies, and full liturgy for seasonal festivals. These are wound around their mythos.
I was able to tie in the idea of the Sacred Blood, with several things, the Grail, the Magdalene and Jesus of course, but also with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and with our own royal, our inherited divinity that runs through our veins.
The seasonal festivals tie into annual cycles, such as Spring Equinox, with "Day of the Verdant Magdalene: Grail of Earth and Heaven," The "Festival of the Sacred Marriage" occurs in May (probably my favorite), "Feast Day for Jesus the Anointed" at Winter Solstice, and more.
The book is currently in production, and while it is taking a few weeks longer than I had at first thought, it is on the way!
Much love, Jennifer Reif
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dear Joan
your writing helps me connetting on the energy of scorpio sign in which I was born. It is the sign of death and rebirth, and who better of the magdalene represents that?
The sorrowful Magdalene is the most beautiful image of diminuition of materiality that we go through in this period to get to that never dies. Her constant presence at the cross ,at the tomb means that the soul never abandones us in spite of the worst sadness.
thank you very much(sorry for my bad english)
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Dear Massimiliano,
Thank you for your beautiful comment, so full of feeling. Yes, it is Mary, called "the Magdalene" who represents for us our soul's longing for Sacred Union with the Divine. Scorpios certainly feel the depth of that longing , you can be such deep people. Thank you for feeling the Magdalene as you do. Joan
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