Groups of people want to know how to honor Mary Magdalene and the story of Sacred Union in ceremony and private contemplation. More books and more groups are developing all the time and I'm sure this will grow in the next few years. My friend Jennifer Reif  had many, many years as a Goddess author, advocate, and ceremonialist before she had a personal ephiany about Magdalene and Jesus  as God and Goddess, resonant  of earlier god and goddess couples that she was familiar with.  She then  spent two years in seclusion, writing a book of prayers, ceremonies, discourses, and festivals for the celebration of Sacred Union. Not only that....she painted a lovely, sensitive, gorgeous  picture of our precious Mary Magdalene for her book's cover.
    I like her book alot and I thought readers might be interested in getting to know Jennifer so I asked her if she'd do this interview for us......



Question 1:
What sets your book apart from other Magdalene Books?
~ Answer:
I would say that the focus was to write a spiritual handbook, something that those who love the Sacred Union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene could use for personal spiritual experience. The discourses, prayers, ceremonies, and festivals are a major part of the book’s content. At the time I was writing I wasn't aware that other books, designed to give shape to a Magdalene-based practice, were being written, such as your new book on Magdalene Circles that is you wrote with Margaret Starbird, due for release in May, 2009.

Question 2:
What was the inspiration for your Creation myths and stories?
~ Answer:
It’s hard for any poet to pin down exact references for intuitive-based forms of writing, but I can pin down a few inspirational sources. First there is my past experience as an author in the Goddess religion genre, and so integrating the Sacred Feminine into the Creation myths was natural. In addition, you can see pieces on the Elements in my Creation stories. I call them Aeons; they are inspired by the Pagan four-element view and my love and respect for the Earth.

The names I use for the Holy Mother and Holy Father were taken from the Old Testament. ‘Asherah’ is the name that the Old Testament often uses for the Goddess, albeit, primarily in derogatory narratives (many of us have already returned to Her earlier station of honor!) I chose the name ‘Adonai’ for the God, because it is a name that the Hebrews used for the word Lord. It flowed and felt right for both of their names to begin with the letter “A.” The “ah” sound, as in “A-shera” and “A-donai” is an open flowing natural sound that feels like a sort of ‘primordial beginning’ sound to me, like the sound of the first part of the Hindu chant “Aum.”

In the initial section of my Creation myth, called, “The First Creation” you will find a footnote that explains that the Greek Pelasgian Creation myth was an inspiration. That myth sees the Goddess Eurynome and the God Ophion, as the Primordial Parents of Creation. It includes the symbols of the dove, the egg, and the serpent. The “Second Creation” myths simply flowed forward, as I reached inward to find an alternative view of the Garden of Eden. There is also a brief reference in my Eden story to a sacred couple. Although they are not named this is a covert reference to Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Question 3:
What do you think is the ultimate message or teaching of the Magdalene?
~ Answer:
I think that she has brought us several messages. The Magdalene aligns with some of the symbols of the ancient Goddesses, symbols like the lily, the rose, and the chalice, and she carries similar fertile, fecund and compassionate mother qualities. But I find that she brings additional qualities to the Sacred Feminine, important and unique qualities.

One of these is her tender-heartedness as a form of strength. She is sometimes described as weeping, and that kind of sensitivity can be seen as a strength that opens the door to not only deeper compassion for others, but also to the experience of a deeper personal joy. The strength to ‘feel,’ to allow ourselves to feel all of life, is often healthier than repressing our sorrows, which can have damaging effects. So her model of allowing real feeling to surface, and then the power to move through and beyond sorrow into a rebirth of joy, this to me is one of her most unique teachings. Tears and sorrow have too long been seen as weakness, when these are simply normal parts of our humanity. While we may not enjoy the process, sorrow can ‘grow’ our ability to be compassionate.

Most of us are familiar with the quote from the Magdalene’s gospel in the Nag Hammadi Codices, the line, “and she turned their hearts to the Good.” For me, in context with the rest of the scripture, this is a teaching of good thought and good action. For me, Mary Magdalene’s teaching of “the Good,” is focused on our responsibility for our individual behavior (rather than on large societal movements or ideologies).

Her focus on personal responsibility to bring ‘the Good’ into the world is a guide that suggests that we can observe how we behave and how we relate to one another. The very fabric of society, of groups, and of friendships, needs this as an underlying basis. My view is that when we treat each other in a kindly, compassionate manner, we create a great healing power that can enter not only large political issues but can also live in how we inner dialog with ourselves, and in every word that we speak to each other. Jesus’ teaching that we ‘do unto others as we would have them do unto us,’ takes on intimate personal significance. So, for me, Mary Magdalene asks us to self-monitor and create ‘the Good’ in all of our words and actions to the best of our ability. In addition, the joy that we can create in others through simple kindness, is such an immediate and amazing reward. It is the real evidence of healing in action.

Another difference is that Mary Magdalene walked the earth. She has a human story and yet a Divine Nature. Her human yet Divine persona, teaches us that an experience with the Divine is easy and accessible, and not something that is only reserved for a ‘lofty’ segment of religious society.

Another message from the Magdalene is her guidance for us to revisit the teachings of Jesus. She asks that those who feel uncomfortable with her Beloved, not allow the negative aspects of the history of the church to color his teachings. Jesus' universal teachings of love and compassion, and the teachings that we are all daughters and sons of the Most High, are unchanged. His teachings stand as messages of love. Sometimes his teachings have no relationship to the multitude of rules, regulations, and additional beliefs that the many Christian denominations have generated through centuries of biblical interpretation.

Question 4:
How did your personal life story effect your inspiration to write “The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene?”
~Answer
The inspiration to write The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene, started in May of 2006 when I exited the theater, having seen the film, "The Da Vinci Code." I was suddenly caught up in Mary Magdalene, like many of us. The words crossed my mind that I needed to write a "Goddess Bible." I had no idea what that meant at the time, but as things turned out, The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene was finished in May of 2008, two years later.

My personal life story probably lends itself to loving the Goddess, perhaps because I had an earthly mother who brought her family some challenges, and so as an adult perhaps I subconsciously sought an alternate mother model. But there is a great deal more than that. I first attended a Goddess ritual in 1981. I was part of a generation that expected equal rights for women, and who were open to new spiritual models in a (western) religious practice that women could have a gender-identification with, models that were powerful as well as loving. Later I came into a practice of Goddess-God, and found harmony and beauty in that sacred balance.

While it is easy to see how I came to Mary Magdalene, the mystery remains as to how I was able to bring Jesus into my personal faith. I have always had a deep desire and closeness to wanting to be AtOnement with the spiritual side of life. I really rejoice in a sense of union and adoration that a faith-based religion can provide. But there are many things that happen in life that we cannot explain. And how I came to love and experience Jesus as a loving man as well as a Lord of Light is pretty much in the category of a mystery. But I'm not complaining!

Question 5:
In your view, how does adding the Jesus and Mary Magdalene stories contribute to the strength of the Sacred Feminine?
~Answer:
I feel an immediacy and an intimacy with the Jesus and Mary Magdalene story that for me is unique. I can only say that through them I am having inner-faith-based experiences that I have never had before, new experiences that are flooded with light.

For me, Mary Magdalene brings a healing gentleness along with wisdom. I find these to be strengths that are in contrast to the strength, lets say, of the various Warrior Goddesses. This gentle strength feels bound together with her Sophian spiritual wisdom. I feel that things like patience and kindness are with her, and I dearly love these parts of her. She feels so healing and Jesus’ teachings of love and compassion are in concert with her nature.

Her story with Jesus, integrates the human with the Divine, and provides models that we can relate to from any aspect of our lives. Their story has similarities to other cross-cultural myths of death and resurrection, but my experience of their depth of kindness, gentleness, compassion, and forgiving, feel deeper and more personal that my experience in other sacred mythos. This is of course purely a subjective experience on my part. There are so many ways that people experience the divine, so many roads that lead to the same place.

Question 6:
"Don't you find a huge conflict between the Christian Church-Jesus and the Goddess-Mary Magdalene?"
~Answer:
Not at all. I came to Mary Magdalene by way of the Goddess, and I came to Jesus by way of Mary Magdalene. My internal experience is that the Christian "Church-Jesus" is sometimes not representative of Jesus' teachings. I find that both the Magdalene and Jesus show us the way of love and compassion, not simply in words, but as an active approach to each other and to life. Jesus' teachings were edited, added to, subtracted from, and placed into the belief systems of various Christian churches which sometimes are at odds with each other. I am always drawn back the Jesus that the Magdalene loved, to the heretic who challenged the rigid rules of Jewish Orthodoxy, to the man who loved Mary Magdalene as husband, and to the Spiritual King who taught us to rediscover the Divine spark within ourselves. I find that the Bride and the Bridegroom are in perfect harmony, in both mythos and message.
     One last question...Do you think of yourself as a Christian?
     Answer:  I think of myself as a Grail Steward.

   Thank you, Jennifer for letting us in to your thoughts. You can have more conversation with her at her Yahoo group called  "The Path of the Grail Steward"and also see more at www.demeter.spiritualitea.net . 

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