The Magdalene Rosary Signifies Return To Feminine Instincts
Posted by Joan Norton at 6/20/2009 7:27 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
It might seem an unimportant choice to make to either pray the Marion devotional rosary or the Magdalene devotional rosary, but the more I research the bead's history the more I feel the horror of what's been done to women in the good name of the Mother. Mother Mary was said to have come in a vision to St. Dominic at his nunnery in Prouille in 1214. St. Dominic placed particular spiritual emphasis on "enclosing women" to save them from their families suspected of heresy. Heresy, as we all know, was the Way of the heart, the way of love, and the way of celebrating Mary Magdalene as "our Lady". St. Dominic was a grand Inquisitor who brought about holocaust-like death of a whole group of people. He didn't do it all himself, of course, but he apparently loved and approved of the burning of whole villages ( like Minerve) full of people who practiced their spirituality in a way he didn't like.
He was said to be an extremely fervent dogmatic preacher with only a few successful converts. His charisma wasn't working and he needed new tools. He reported that he had a vision of the mother of Jesus and she told him to institute a rosary practice which would guarantee her protection if you served her, and it would act as an armor against hell and the heresies. Dominic said that Mother Mary told him that the rosary practice will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world. I don't know about you, but red flags go up inside me when I read those words, "withdraw men from the love of the world".
Why does this make a difference to us right now in our world-on-the-edge? I believe that the definition of a rosary practice which began in 1214 was the beginning of a spiritual "train of thought" in christianity which has turned women against themselves. By being trained in repetitive thinking "away from the love of the world" we have sent our instincts into hiding in the closet. In 1214 they had better be in hiding in the closet or you would be killed.... we all know the horror stories of the Inquisition and the subsequent witchburning holocaust of the Middle Ages. St. Dominic and his fake vision of what Mother Mary would say have encouraged women to turn against our own bodies, which is where our instincts are felt and known.
(see www.temporarytemples.co.uk for more patterns of instinctive harmony)
Instincts are "an inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and often a response to specifi environmental stimuli." Inborn, impelled from within. They are our inner wisdom which makes us know what's safe and what's not safe, what's healthy for us and what's going to cause illness, what makes us happy or unhappy, what's right for our particular individual children and family, and what is the best path of spirituality for us. We know now from science that we have spiritual instincts, just like sexual instincts. We have an "inborn pattern" and a physical place in our brain which wants to engage with deeper questions of meaning. Instincts show themselves in impulses in our body , feelings, or intuitions. If we train our mind away from "love of the world (i.e. the body) " we're surely going to miss our own body and heart's clues for a better life and a better world.
St. Dominic thought that was a good idea and he invented a rosary to train for it. There was a time when the church was proud of their "Grand Inquisitor", inventor of the Marion rosary, and pictures of him were prominent.
Only recently we've come to know that women's instincts are to "tend and befriend" when there's a problem to figure out. Our instinct for peace and harmony has been shoved in the closet but now it's let out again. That's why I get so enthusiastic about the Magdalene Rosary with it's highlights of the gospel stories and the legends of Mary Magdalene and Sacred Union. Personally, I never would have thought of creating a Magdalene Rosary, probably because I wasn't raised in the Catholic Church and didn't have a heartfelt attachment to the rosary beads. The heresy of the new Magdalene rosary came through Margaret Starbird's personal revelation while praying on her traditional Marion rosary. I come to be its defender through everything I know about the Sacred Feminine and all the years of supporting women in self esteem, which will always go back to spiritual self esteem. Sacred Union means spiritual self esteem for women.
I very much doubt that Jesus' mother, the beloved mother-in-law of Mary Magdalene, would counsel women against the wisdom of their own bodies and their own hearts. She's been besmerched. The number seven is sacred to the Sacred Feminine, it's identified in Sacred Geometry as a number which creates patterns especially sacred to Her. It's our pattern.
Here's a medieval picture of "a Mary" pregnant and spinning thread. The Cathar people who Dominic and the Inquisitors exterminated, held their schools of learning in their weaving shops. It is said that Dominic got his idea to start his nunnery "of enclosed women" from this. Another way the true teachings of the heart of Sacred Union were taught were through a catechism of cards, each carrying a bit of the repressed story. You can see more about that in Margaret's book about tarot .
Mary Magdalene's stories are the stories of earthly women living earthly lives, following our instincts to "tend and befriend" and create greater harmony between people. We can look to our Magdalene to help us through our own stories by asking her to "show us the Way of the heart."
Yes, sadly the Christian church, especially in the Middle Ages and on, became brutal, violent, and really a political machine rather than a spiritual center. Women did not fair well by and large, nor did many of their iconic representitives in the Bible and the Church.
Even Jacobus de Voragine, whose stories of the saints contain the story of Mary Magdalene's journey to Gaul, was a Dominican I believe, and part of that order that carried out the brutality of the Inquisition.
But for me, I no longer desire to hang on to old resentments and hurts, when abundant joy in Their Union is available. None of the negative history of the Church reflects the goodness of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, who lived so long ago before those terrible times.
For me, Mary Magdalene is so important for everyone; she has the full range of humanity as well as divinity within her and she brings forward the purest love, a love that heals and mends and balances, a love available to all without reservation. And she also carries within her the revisioning of Jesus, the reclaiming of his true character in the Sacred Masculine as good and honorable. We must allow Mary to help us rebuild our relationship with the Sacred Masculine, as we see her Beloved through her eyes. We live in a world of women and men, and with the healing of both the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine, we can truly build a better world.
Love, Jennifer
"The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene"
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Thank you very much, Jen, I appreciate your taking the time to pull the energy forward in love. I wanted to make the connection about our instincts and I couldn't really make it without pointing out the history of our instincts being "trained" towards heaven rather than earth. It was so specific and we are so specifically recovering them now. The recovery is for men too, of course. Sacred Union. xoJoan
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Thanks for writing this. I didn't know about the background of the Marion Rosary! How hideous. The weaving of women goes back thousands of years..as the weavers of life, the earthly and the spiritual together. Lots of info on Greek vases of the goddess/the power of women and weaving. I had Cathar relatives..
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Hi Cintra,
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Hi Joan...thank you for the essay of enlightenment for all of us to absorb and enjoy..Instict, free spirituality, inner wisdom and number 7. loved all the subjects you incorporated..St Dominic was probably trying to use and twist Christ's quote to his disciples, ""You are no part of the world just as I am no part of the world."" I think Christ was referring to intentional sin, however, I always fall back to a simplistic christian viewpoint because that is all I know...but, we're seeing a new revolution in Iran being led mostly by women who are tired of enclosement and abuse..the way of the heart, to tend and befriend, and the promotion of greater harmony between the masculine and the feminine is alive and well..Mary Magdeline is returning inside women everywhere?..no doubt about it.....thanks also for the crop circle...the number 7 is so prevalent in the moons at the top of the circle,7,..and at every seventh corner is seven orbs...blessings...: )....
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Hi Sheila, Thanks very much for your thoughtful help. I think the phrase you used, "fall back to a simplistic christian viewpoint" is just right because that's what we're trying to do..... to consciously re-include the feminine principle that was there in the first place.
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Hi Joan and Shiela,
Yes, fall back to what we once had, the early 'Christian' point of view, to "to consciously re-include the feminine principle that was there in the first place." I silently shouted a big ol' yes! What we are desiring, asking for, working toward is a "simpler view," a very natural view of the spirituality of life.
In the Nag Hammadi codice, "The Apocryphon of John," Jesus teaches John by calling the Eternal "the Mother-Father of the All," and he also uses the phrase, "The blessed one, the Mother-Father." And there are quite a few examples of Jesus talking about the Sacred Feminine as Sophia.
I love the part of Genesis where God is referred to in the pleural, almost like the Old Testament scribes neglected to edit out a remnant of their ancestral heritage, the old Cannanite Mother and Father God relationship...
From Genesis 26: "...let US make [humankind] in OUR image, according to OUR likenes."
Love, Jennifer
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Hi Jen,
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Indeed the traditional marion rosary was far from perfect with its "pray for us sinners" part keeping us caught in the consciousness of being unworthy sinners.
However I doubt the medieval world would have been ready for anything more advanced. But Mother Mary is very much in my heart, and she brings to us the love of the Mother when this world would keep us apart from her heart. And she has released new rosaries through modern messengers such as the wonderful ones on the Mother Mary's Garden website. There is also a guide to how to give rosaries there under the spiritual tools section.
We are all representatives of the Divine Mother here on earth! And when we ascend back to the heart of God as both the Marys did, we can continue to bring her love to the world as I believe both Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus did.
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Hi Rebecca,
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