The Wedding's on Monday or Tuesday
Posted by Joan Norton at 3/22/2009 6:25 AM 
Categories: The Magdalene Rosary
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
Categories: The Magdalene Rosary
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene anoints Jesus at the banquet in Bethany. Bethany was her home. As part of the Easter Mysteries celebrated in churches all over the earth, we should be having a marriage ceremony on about Monday or Tuesday of Easter week. "Anointing" is the word for ""Sacred Marriage" in our story. I don't know if I could stand Easter week being any more poignant than it is, but adding the ceremony of their sacred marraige would make it more ruthful and a more archetypally correct story. We would then have the real facts of life of the magnetic attraction of all things for each other in love, and the natural sequences of birth, growth, death, and birth again. "On earth as it is in heaven."
Yes, their marriage ceremony would have been on Monday or Tuesday. Margaret Starbird mentioned that last week when I told her that D'Ann Baldwin's new Magdalene Circle at a Unity Church in Atlanta was starting around April 7, which is Easter week this year. I was startled to hear Margaret say it in such a definitive way, "their marriage would have taken place on Monday or Tuesday". I'm used to thinking about the marriage symbolically, but of course, we all have Margaret to thank for bringing the story to our bodies and feelings.
The anointing story is the marriage story and it is the most prominent story in the gospels, if you count things like "internal congruency" between the four gospels. I've mentioned before that Dr. Jim Gardner did a very "left brain", wonderful study of Mary Magdalene in his book called Mary Who? Searching for the Historical Mary Magdalene. From his analysis we learn that the anointing story has the most "historicity", the most probable historical accuracy than any of the gospel stories. Dr. Gardner tells our mind what our heart already knows.
Artists have struggled with the marriage scene, naturally. How can you show it's mystery? The Bridechamber is always private.
We can look to people's wedding portraits today and see that the archetypal motif of Sacred Marriage, which is the central organizing energy of life, is expressed in many, many different ways.
Some artists have been emotionally effected by the undying love which Magdalene has for the body of her Beloved, the Christ. The feminine energies of the world and cosmos love physicality, love the body, love the feelings which are expressed in the body, love men, love the Beloved, love Love.
This picture isn't the one I'd want on my wedding cake, but I can see it as a struggle for the medieval patriarchal mind to come to grips with the emotion of devotion.
It's painful to see Mary Magdalene subjugated this way and yet it does express the sense of throwing oneself into love. And we must remember also that the feet have always been a ephemism for male genitals. Many of the old paintings of Mary Magdalene give her a very fascinated look on her face and a gaze at Jesus' body. We can easily imagine that he felt that way about her, her beautfy, and her body.
How on earth, how in our bodylife, and how in our hearts are we suppose to know that we are totally an expression of Mystery if we don't honor our "main mystery" of creation as God's story? We have to see it expressed by a "God and Goddess" to accept it as holy in ourselves. So Hallelujah for the Wedding at Bethany on Monday or Tuesday ....let's not delay in giving them a wedding cake.
Yes, their marriage ceremony would have been on Monday or Tuesday. Margaret Starbird mentioned that last week when I told her that D'Ann Baldwin's new Magdalene Circle at a Unity Church in Atlanta was starting around April 7, which is Easter week this year. I was startled to hear Margaret say it in such a definitive way, "their marriage would have taken place on Monday or Tuesday". I'm used to thinking about the marriage symbolically, but of course, we all have Margaret to thank for bringing the story to our bodies and feelings.
The anointing story is the marriage story and it is the most prominent story in the gospels, if you count things like "internal congruency" between the four gospels. I've mentioned before that Dr. Jim Gardner did a very "left brain", wonderful study of Mary Magdalene in his book called Mary Who? Searching for the Historical Mary Magdalene. From his analysis we learn that the anointing story has the most "historicity", the most probable historical accuracy than any of the gospel stories. Dr. Gardner tells our mind what our heart already knows.
Artists have struggled with the marriage scene, naturally. How can you show it's mystery? The Bridechamber is always private.
We can look to people's wedding portraits today and see that the archetypal motif of Sacred Marriage, which is the central organizing energy of life, is expressed in many, many different ways.
Some artists have been emotionally effected by the undying love which Magdalene has for the body of her Beloved, the Christ. The feminine energies of the world and cosmos love physicality, love the body, love the feelings which are expressed in the body, love men, love the Beloved, love Love.
This picture isn't the one I'd want on my wedding cake, but I can see it as a struggle for the medieval patriarchal mind to come to grips with the emotion of devotion.
It's painful to see Mary Magdalene subjugated this way and yet it does express the sense of throwing oneself into love. And we must remember also that the feet have always been a ephemism for male genitals. Many of the old paintings of Mary Magdalene give her a very fascinated look on her face and a gaze at Jesus' body. We can easily imagine that he felt that way about her, her beautfy, and her body.
How on earth, how in our bodylife, and how in our hearts are we suppose to know that we are totally an expression of Mystery if we don't honor our "main mystery" of creation as God's story? We have to see it expressed by a "God and Goddess" to accept it as holy in ourselves. So Hallelujah for the Wedding at Bethany on Monday or Tuesday ....let's not delay in giving them a wedding cake.
Hi Joan,
Thanks for the great post and the amazing images. Where do you find them all? Wonderful and wow!
I know that Cana is seen by some as the place of their marriage, but traditionally in the Mediterranean, marriages took place at the Brides's home, after which they would move to the home of the Bridegroom. So, I do agree that it is likely that Bethany was where they were married, at Mary Magdalene's family home. For those who haven't seen it, I wrote a piece for this, "Jesus, the Magdalene, and the Bridal Chamber", in my book, "The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene."
Of course THIS marriage was unique in that Jesus had a walking-teaching ministry and an ultimate mission that didn't lend itself to being a traditional householder. Therefore, I don't know how much Israelite tradition entered into their marriage union.
While I listed the festival for their Sacred Marriage as in May, it appears that in ancient Israelite tradition there were two marriages, a First Marriage in the fall, after the harvest (summer harvest in the Mediterranean), and then a Second Marriage in March. The interim period was apparently to see if the marriage had been consumated and if this consumation resulted in a pregnancy. This was put forward in the book, "Da Vinci Code Decoded," by Martin Lunn. I haven't researched it further.
But then, as we know, this was NOT a marriage like any other. I did chose the month of May for the "Festival of the Sacred Marriage: The Flowering of Divine Union, rather than the Easter period that you suggest (your suggestion is more in line with the timing of the traditional Second Marriage). The month of May somehow fit with the cycle of Magdalene-Jesus festivals I offer.
For me, there are two distinct cycles in their mythos, which blend and move into one another. These are, their Sacred Union Cycle, which is the cycle of festivals in my book, and then what I call the Resurrection Cycle of conventional Christianity, which I primarily left out of my book (Good Friday-Easter). I left them out because those in the Alternative Christian audience view them in such vastly different ways, perhaps inspired by the various versions of the death of Jesus, from "The Bible," to "The Passover Plot," to "The Templar Revelation," and others, and to the older Messianic traditions such as the Ebionites, or the Cathars.
Thank you for bringing their marriage forward at this time, I do think of them both so deeply during the Easter period, such an intense time, and the time of their greatest united challenges and miracles.
Love, Jennifer
Jennifer Reif
www.demeter.spiritualitea.net
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Hi Jennifer, Thanks for your knowledge about the true customs in those lands, I appreciate your additions because I know you're familiar with the indigenous customs as they relate to goddess traditions. Very interesting about the First Marriage and the Second Marriage.... a sensible system.
Here's Jennifer's wonderful book of ceremonies, rituals, and festivals. She painted the cover herself ! It's one of my favorite Magdalenes.
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Hi Joan!
Once again, you cause my heart to leap! Or maybe it's feeling the Truth in what you write, no?
I'm enamored with the rich LOVE that comes forth from this story. I feel the same thing every time I pick up "Magdalene Within." There's an emotion or a feeling or something unexplainable that resonates within me when I ponder the physical as well as emotional/spiritual connection between Jesus and Mary. It offers the strange power to cherish my own mate for who he is, someone with an amazing capacity for love and tolerance.
Thank you Joan!
Much love to everyone!
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Dear Jen,
Goodness, I think you have described very well just exactly what the love story of Mary Magdalene and Jesus was meant to do for us. When I was "receiving" The Mary Magdalene Within , I had the same awakeneing experience you describe. It was so very delicious and I felt I had never experienced anything like it before. As the words came into my mind and I faithfully wrote them I was also having emotional responses and I can tell you that they were like the ones you're having as you read it. I've come to understand that the consciousness of the words as they're read take the reader into a similar "state" as I was in. Don't ask me how!
And you've also articulated one of the experiences that the Love Story of the Beloveds is giving to women (and men as they become aware). We have renewed appreciation for the potential for love between us ....now that we know it was suppose to have been expressed to us as sacred and divine and in the body. Better late than never, I have to think.
Love to you, Joan
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I'm having an incredible experience reading this. I didn't know anything about Mary Magdalene Within, or Magdalen circles, etc. But a few years ago I wrote a song called the Song of Mary Magdalene, and it is a love song of Mary for Jesus. Now I'm reading what you lovely women are writing and a whole new world is opening to me that I never knew existed. The fact that my very soul was writing and singing about this only magnifies the amazing love I'm feeling right now. Thank you for sharing your words, thoughts, and feelings so openly on the web. I am blessed by you all!
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Dear Laura, How nice that you found your way to this Magdalene Circle and how doubly nice that you have already responded to the longing for Sacred Union that is inspiring people more and more. Where can we hear your song? Maybe you would write some of the words here, I know people would love to hear them. I've met quite a number of wonderful, sensitive, creative, spiritual women who have been having "Magdalene experiences" in secret, thinking no one would understand. Personally, I think "the Magdalene" is returning through the spirituality of sensitive women . Sensitive women, intuitive women, feel spiritual changes before other people do, and are "ahead of the wave" in that way. Thank you for being there too. xoJoan
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Hi Laura!
I understand everything that you write, down to your amazing words "my very soul was writing and singing"! It's lovely and incredibly divine that you've found your way here. Joan and others have been amazing in how they welcome us into the fold. (And I second Joan's request to hear your music!)
Love you Laura!
Jen
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