She Is Crowned "Queen of the Earth"

Posted by Joan Norton at 6/14/2009 6:32 AM
Categories: The Magdalene Rosary
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
     The last legendary Magdalene Mystery story is "At her death, Mary is assumed body and soul into heaven." I've heard Margaret Starbird say a number of times that the the stories of the Mother Mary were  late editions, that the stories of Mary Magdalene were told first and earlier.  That probably accounts for the confusion of symbolic imagery in the paintings in the category of  "The Assumption of Mary". Much of the symbolism original to Mary "called the Magdalene" was later transferred to the Mother Mary. Not that it's only in the Assumption paintings that we find confused symbolism, it's throughout the  Mary pictures. 
   There was a wonderful Brazilian woman who spoke at the Northwest Catholic Women's Convocation, Dr. Ivone Gebara, who  said that the "New Hope" theme of the convocation needed to be communicated in stories to people, otherwise it wouldn't be useful. We have to get the stories straight so  people can be inspired by them and use them in simple daily ways. It's necessary to know which Mary we're talking about , the Beloved Mother or the Beloved Bride.  The Beloved Bride is telling us the story of the soul's flesh and blood life of passion and love lived through an earthlife of the heart, the way people do.  It's the Way of the heart.
   I wanted to know what "assumed body and soul into heaven" meant so I looked it up and was surprised that one definition was "sacred  marriage",  meaning a union between heaven and earth. Mary Magdalene's earthly story came to an end and she was received into heaven.  She attained a heavenly peaceful  union within herself. We have a painting of that from 1620 by  Domenichino.

 

    She has the gold brocade of the bride or queen and she has her alabaster jar. I'm sure the "heavenly mountain" to her right has other meanings but I find it a reference to the meaning of her title, hMagdalhnh "the tower".  Many spiritual stories from many spiritual traditions have stories about the sacred mountain, also pictured as a tower.  It means to have an expanded viewpoint, a way to see things from the sacred perspective. It's not off the earth into the clouds, it's more like an ability to see earthly life as sacred and holy. 
     We're told that for Mary the Magdalene heaven and earth were united, were married, were completed in union, masculine and feminine in perfect balance within her at the time of her death. She was enlightened, "assumed body and soul into heaven".  Other words used for this spiritual accomplishment are Nirvana, Wholeness, Opposites Reconciled, Off the Wheel of Karma,Oneness with the All,  As Above So Below,  a Squared Circle, City of Light, the New Jerusalem, Completion, and Happily Ever After.  I like that one the best and it's the one to use when telling her story.  Not all spiritual tales end that way but hers does. The way of the heart has it's blessings.  She lived the life of passion, love, tears, birth, death, teaching, and mysticism;   and it brought her to a state of holy completion .
     This inner spiritual condition of sacred balance between masculine and feminine within ourselves  is a place in the spiritual pattern we live daily of  cyclic renewal of  all life in all ways. We see it in our story of  Mary Magdalene's life as the conclusion, but this story pattern lives over and over again in us throughout a lifetime. Her whole story is the same story we ourselves live repeatedly, hopefully coming to a "happy ending" many times and many ways for many  small stories in our life.   This happy moment is sometimes pictured as a marriage between king and queen, Jesus and Magdalene,  Mary crowned in heaven.


     We remember at this happy ending that in the beginning there was  a sickness needing a healing, a condition of imbalance seeking  a healing, of the heart looking for it's story. The story was lived and fully experienced and through that a healing was brought about. A happy ending to be lived over and over again through new beginnings, new love and tears, new insights, and new "heavenly moments" of deep satisfaction.
*****
   I leave you today with a picture I found on the internet of women in Guatemala City celebrating the Assumption of Mary (the Mother),  but to me it could also be the Assumption of Mary (the Magdalene).


And here is a  link to the Magdalene Mysteries Rosary which I use to remember Her every story, remembering also that making your own "seven groups of seven" rosary would be deeply satisfying. I know someone who made one from buttons. 



     

 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this entry
  • No trackbacks exist for this entry.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

  • 6/14/2009 9:22 AM Jennifer Reif wrote:
    Hi Joan,
    What a beautiful entry. I love the richness and complexity that She brings to the Sacred Union story. She really is a healer, a you wrote, bringing us into balance so that everyone on Earth has the Jesus-Magdalene Union not only as an icon of male and female equal union, but a real path to healing and wholeness, earthly and heavenly.

    I was just painting the words "Magdala Rosa" this morning on the ribbons I'm
    preparing for a ceremony for the "Feast Day of Mary Magdalene." Every ribbon a meditation, a prayer to be given to each votary as a dedication. Our beautiful Lady of Earth and Heaven brings forward such a wonderful, healing path of love and adoration.

    Love, Jennifer
    Reply to this
    1. 6/14/2009 4:15 PM Joan Norton wrote:
      Hi Jen,
        Thanks for your way of connecting ideas, I always appreciate it.  I'm glad you mentioned the July 22 Magdalene Feast Day celebration and what you're doing for it, which sounds full of feeling and depth. I learned last week that the FutureChurch.org  wants to create a list of all the Magdalene Feast Day celebrations  across the country .  Let's start talking about it here and   hear what other women feel about "Her day" .

      Reply to this
  • 6/14/2009 12:51 PM Laura Jablinski wrote:
    I agree and it makes sense to me that the two Mary's were confused. I've been confused all my life as a Roman Catholic why the Mother of Jesus would be assumed into heaven, and not his father Joseph. There always seemed to be a missing link in the logic, not that religion can claim much logic! I like the idea that it was Mary the Beloved who was assummed. The intensity of love and holy passion between Christ and His Bride would compel such an event. The very idea inspires me to love God, reaching for consumation with Source, like a moth to the flame, with "Holy Longing" that can only find Itself when loved with abandon. Wow!
    Reply to this
    1. 6/14/2009 4:26 PM Joan Norton wrote:
      Dear Laura,
          That's such an interesting observation, Laura, I hadn't thought of  the logic being "off" about not assuming Joseph.   I think it had everything to do with the inner archetype, the predisposition within us, to need a feminine diety. We seek to love a feminine diety as much as a masculine diety..... that's why the devotion to the Mother of Jesus was necessary for the church's continuing strength.  People simply long for Her in the same way as Him.  When we're children we have healthier instinctual responses, like yours about  the union of Mother Mary and Joseph being properly acknowledged as sacred.  One woman told me that when she was little  she thought (secretly) that Mary Magdalene was Jesus'  "girlfriend".  We have an inate pattern of  Union in us that we look for in our spiritual stories. 
      I love your phrase "Holy Longing", that says it so perfectly and deeply.  xoJoan

      Reply to this
  • 6/14/2009 4:27 PM cintra wrote:
    Beautiful, thank you Joan for sharing this important information with the world in such a poignant way. Everyone needs to know this and celebrate Mary Magdalene.
    Reply to this
    1. 6/14/2009 4:30 PM Joan Norton wrote:
      Hi Cintra, Thanks so much....  so happy to have you here. xoJoan
      Reply to this
  • 6/15/2009 7:07 AM Sandra Pope wrote:
    Hi, Joan! I love this pattern for the journey within that you have brought forward. For the feminine energies, this journey pattern feels just right and is so attuned to what I experience in the inner and outer worlds. I loved the hero's journey pattern for a lot of years, though even Joseph Campbell said it was not for women and there was no pattern for a woman's journey. That way of being wore me out, and now as I am deepening into the menopausal/crone stage, it is so comforting for me to have this other way of being in both worlds! Love.
    Reply to this
    1. 6/15/2009 1:46 PM Joan Norton wrote:
      Hi Sandra,
        Thanks for your insight about the heros's journey model and  that Mary Magdalene's story of Sacred Union is the feminine counterpart.  The story of the heart's journey on earth, as lived for men as well.  It's a story of individuation rather than the story of "compliance" that the Church Father's dreamed up.  As you well know because you've been on the individuation path for a long, long time;  the development of the soul through the heart Way is always going to be unique to each one of us... but we have the archetypal pattern which governs the general  outline.   Lately I've been aware that some people think that  going "the Way of the Magdalene and Sacred Union"  is a path of compliance to what they think are "Christian values".  I want to quote the Analytical Psychology Club of L.A.'s current catalog  about   Carl Jung's theories of the  path of individuation, which is the path of the soul. " The major thrust of psychology  is oriented towards alleviating suffering, facilitating better relationships, healing early wounds, and promoting a reduction of psychological conflict. Jung's perspective, in contrast, is oriented towards individuation, which emphasizes a separation from the collective psychologies in the service of something larger."    The story path of the soul's journey on earth  is the story of  the  feminine (Magdalene)  in relationship with the  masculine (Christ)  and it will always be a unique and individual story lived through individuals in relationship to "something larger".  
      Thanks for being there, xoJoan
      Reply to this
Leave a comment

Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Enter the above security code (required)

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.