Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The historical Mary Magdalene.

It's spring and the world is again bursting forth with new possibilities.

I just did a lecture on Mary Magdalene's Message at Unity in Chicago. It will soon be up on U-Tube. I find that people are interested in her story as an influential person in history, people want to have the circulating stories either debunked or affirmed. Then they want to know what she was teaching her groups of people in France, in the colonies they established in Ireland and England, and what she and Jesus were teaching before they had to escape from Jerusalem in fear of their lives.

Historically speaking:

She was most likely married to Jesus. A rabbi at the time would be expected to be married, there were many duties that could only be performed by the wife, and if Jesus was unmarried he would not have been respected. It would have been mentioned somewhere. Also, the wife was the only one who would be allowed to tend his body after the crucifixion, and Mary Magdalene laid him in the tomb. Did she stay with him through the night? Maybe. 100 lb. of aloe vera were brought to the tomb. Aloe vera is usually used to heal skin wounds, and certainly not to prepare for death. Maybe she prepared his body, not for death, but for further life.

She was a priestess. In the Bible, she is present at all the rituals. She poured the oil over his head anointing him as king. She anointed his feet at the last supper. She stood next to him during the crucifixion. Did she administer the herbs in the sponge that was given to him? The herbs that most likely made him unconscious and made him appear dead? The Romans were willing to take him down after only some hours of the day. Even Pilate was surprised at how short of a time it took. His bones were not broken. He could have survived. He was well taken care of in the capable hands of the most powerful priestess, his wife.

In Provence there are legends about her arriving with an attendant. Was it her daughter, her sister, her servant? Sarah is being honored there as the champion of the gypsies. There are legends in England about the three children; Sarah, Jesus and Joseph. They all were educated like their parents and became the "branches" on the "vine", of the family tree.

Read the book for the real stories.

Coming out with new title: Rituals in Sacred Stone, Mary Magdalene's message of self empowerment.

I'll continue presenting her teachings in the next entry.