Her Title is "The Magdalene"
Posted by Joan Norton at 8/23/2009 5:45 AM 
Categories: Starting A Magdalene Circle
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
Categories: Starting A Magdalene Circle
Tags: Mary Magdalene 14 Steps To Awaken the Sacred Feminine Women in the Circle of Mary Magdalene
Yes, her title is "The Magdalene". It includes being "the Bride" but it is not limited to being "the Bride". You wouldn't expect a limited or narrow definition of someone who was known as "The Woman Who Knew the All". You'd expect her to be many things and to be changeable. Even contradictory at times. That can be the nature of the Sacred Feminine. 
Mary Magdalene has been the shadow in the Christian story and it's only just now that women are discovering and defining her for ourselves. We feel the right, we feel the capability, and we feel the creative urge to do so. It's right that we "fill in" the ancient stories with who we are now, that's the nature of an evolving religion. Even those who like to stick to "the Word" can't help but put their own psyche's definitions of "the Word" into their interpretations. That's the usefulness of religious stories. Through them we feel ourselves to be a part of the greater Mystery and the greater Mystery to be pertinent to today. Through the symbols and the stories of our religion we understand ourself to be a hostess to the wisdom and goodness of Heaven and Earth. The word "Magdalene" means goddess, means vessel for Life, means Sacred Life Ever-Renewing, means Woman, means Feminine Spirit Within, means Sacred Complement to Sacred Masculine, means Mother, means Daughter, means Bride. The prophecy about her coming into the Christian story means it was expected that there would be a Feminine Messiah standing beside a Masculine Messiah. We've had her as a kind of background Mother of the God for 2,000 years and now, with the turning of the age into Aquarius, we are going to have her as the foreground Sacred Partner of a "not harmful" new Sacred Masculine. I'm quite sure Jesus is ready. I have a statue of him in my garden and he always looks so lonely to me, like he's waiting. She's beautiful, who wouldn't want her for their Bride?
Yes of course, ... who wouldn't want her for their Bride? But the deterioration of women's status being what it is, the "Magdalene within" us has to be careful about where we give our partnership. We have a long history of being used, of either being naive or aquiesing under pressure to our own undoing. It's hard to give up the feeling of "getting in trouble" for speaking up for ourselves, of speaking our heart's mind. I had a dream that pictured this situation well. In it, I was in a group of women all dressed in wedding dresses that were modern. The one I had on (and loved) was made of eyelet with apricot colored ribbons around the bodice. Like a child's dress, I'm embarrassed to say. The message was clearly that I was having a naive attitude about something in my relationship life. Women can't afford to be naive in relationship anymore. I think one reason many women have rejected the title of "Bride" for Mary Magdalene is that it feels like a weak word, like it has built-in aquiescence to values which are undermining to the Feminine. But we've never been able to test that out in a Christainity of the Partnership Paradigm. Until now, going forward into the Aquarian Age of the divine partnership of heaven and earth. That's why I love the creative outpouring towards Mary Magdalene, it's what is carrying the story forward. And we have Margaret Starbird to thank for this, over and over again. Margaret has a wonderful essay on her website about Magdalene's title, which will give a fuller account than I have.
So.... let's write songs to her and to him as the husband we'd want, let's paint pictures of her heart's soul journey through earthly life, and let's pray to her because we now know our brain is built for mysticism. And let's pray the sequence of 7x7 beads because that's the sacred number which means Magdalene and we want to bring her vibration right smack dab into our homes.
Dear Mary Magdalene, love incarnate.
Sacred Vessel, Holy Grail,
Chosen are you in me,
And blessed is your union with Jesus,
Dearest Bride and Beloved of Christ,
Show us the Way of the heart.
Here's Sally and I and our rosasries.... feeling cheerful about the Aquarian Age. We're both on Twitter and Facebook. I'm Twittering about Magdalene "goings on" and Sally's Twittering about the jewelry she's making.
Hi, Joan. You write so clearly about the ambivalence and need for safety that I, too, have felt in this journey inward to reclaim the Divine Feminine. I have loved Mary Magdalene deeply for a while now, and she is a healing vibration in my inner life.
Because my outer life has held such wounding of the feminine, I have struggled to move toward the Sacred Union and see her as "Bride." Who would be worthy of her, (of me), and not wound her? my inner voice protested. I found peace at times in knowing that when I let Her arise in me, a truly Sacred Masculine could also arise. So I focussed on Her, not him. On Sacred Feminine, not Sacred Union.
I struggled with the Magdalene prayer, too. I didn't like the line about Her being chosen by Jesus above all others. I felt that She chose him, like in the old stories from that area of the world, when the Queen anoints the consort -- not the other way around.
But I like the way you made this prayer "our" own. I love the line, "Chosen are you in me."
I had to re-write the original Magdalene prayer over time, too, so I didn't balk at what still felt too patriarchal. I like your new prayer even better than my own. I feel at ease with the prayer now and feel its power to allow the Magdalene vibration move in and through me. I know I'll love using it daily with my Magdalene rosary. Thank you so much for you love and guidance.
Love,
Sandra
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Dear Sandra,
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Hi Joan,
Thank you for upholding the really balanced view of Sacred Partnership, of which Our Lady is a part. I love many of the things you wrote, your entry made me smile...alot! I needed that.
Its important, what you wrote...."You wouldn't expect a limited or narrow definition of someone who was known as "The Woman Who Knew the All"." And you are right. And the healing that she brings does, I think, have multiple branches. I like the idea of great strength in concert with tenderness, and of the joyful Bride prepared for Sacred Union, and of a woman wisdom healer who is patient and yet acts when she needs to.
Sometimes we think that to be strong means that we never weep, but she wept, and rightly so. And she carried on beautifully with her teachings of the good heart. I think that she was a "good listener" someone who hears what is being said without coloring it with other things. That's not always easy to do, but I think it was part of her wisdom. I cannot imagine her turning away from another person's heart.
Yes, Mary Magdalene has it All. And again, thanks for the great photos and images!
Love, Jen
Jennifer Reif
"The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene"
www.demeter.spiritualitea.net
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Dear Jen,
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Hi Joan...especially like the golden overtones of the second painting...also the nuance of the expression, "a new evolving religion."..even though I think Christ wanted "her" to lead the route in opening up Christianity to the world, we now can benefit by all the stories and legends we have heard and learned about her preaching...share with others, etc..I also like the phrase, "ultiple branches." key on keyboard is out!..blessings..sheila..: )..
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Blessings back to you as well, Sheila, and thank you for your comments. Yes, we are doing both at once these days; recovering the narrative of her life in the gospel and the legends at the same time we are evolving her story forward. ..... my attention constantly gets drawn one way and then the other. I'm so glad there are so many of us inspired by her right now. We are all needed. xoJoan
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