St. Mary Magdalene: Re-writing the Greatest Story Ever Told
In the mystical tradition of Sophian Gnostic Christianity, Mary Magdalene is referred to as the Holy Bride. She is understood as the feminine embodiment of the Anointed, bringing balance and harmony to the masculine aspect of God as exemplified in Christ Jesus.
The stories of the Holy Bride in the Sophian Gnostic Tradition are typically passed down from generation to generation orally and as a general rule are not written down. However Tau Malachi, the lineage holder of the Sophian Gnostic tradition followed a call to write the stories down. His book, St. Mary Magdalene The Gnostic Tradition of the Holy Bride is the result of this call and it is from this book which I recorded the audios you will hear below.
According to Tau Malachi:
"They are not meant to be factual in any historical sense, but rather are intended to be inspirational and experiential. They are designed to communicate spiritual and metaphysical truths about Divine reality that cannot be conveyed in any other way. Listening and hearing the legends, or reading them, is an adventure in sacred fantasy through which one might experience the same Divine illumination as those who tell the tales, and through which , in fact, one might bring forth new insights and inspirations via the Creative Spirit in oneself."
-Tau Malachi, from his book, St. Mary Magdalene The Gnostic Tradition of the Holy Bride
Thus, in the telling and retelling of the story of the Holy Bride an internal and personal experience of the Divine is stimulated and in so doing the very way we remember history is changed.
When we change the way we remember the past, we in effect, change it. In the sharing of these stories it is my hope to help to re-write the Greatest Story Ever Told, to begin to remember it as a story that not only included women, but one in which women played a central role in the awakening of human consciousness.
The stories of Mary Magdalene portray her as the embodiment of the perfection of womanhood. She is God in female form. By listening to her stories a portal of possibility is opened where all women can begin to experience themselves as a feminine expression of the Divine.
In the East there are many faces of the feminine. There are goddesses like Kali, Tara, Kuan Yin, Saraswati, Shakti, VajraYogini, and many more. But in the Western cultures the face of the Feminine has often been overlooked or ignored. And what few people realize is that the West has its own enlightenment traditions which show a striking similarity to the ancient traditions of the East.
Some such mystical traditions regard Mary Magdalene as the feminine embodiment of the Divine. Magdalene is the Sophia or Wisdom of God, incarnate in woman's form and is regarded as the equal and opposite of Yeshua who is the Logos or Word of God, the Divine incarnate in a mans form. The two together form the Word and Wisdom, perfect balance of masculine and feminine and offer us an example of the perfection of manhood and womanhood.
They are symbols of the highest potential of every man and every woman and are understood as a physical incarnation of the Divine Lovers. Like yin and yang, one brings balance to the other and neither can exist separate from one another. The world is uplifted by their love and the interplay of their male and female energies.
Magdalene then offers to us Western women a fresh perspective on an old story. Through this mystical and non-traditional understanding of Mary Magdalene, women are given a voice. Women are given a central role to play in a story that once included only men.
Because the past exists only by how we remember it, by introducing a new perspective into an old and imbalanced paradigm, we are offered the opportunity to literally rewrite history. The wounded collective consciousness and the individual psyche of modern woman is offered a chance to heal and be made whole as we collectively remember the story differently.
What was once His-tory, now becomes Our-story. It is said that in our modern day it is through woman that the new planetary awakening will be birthed. This is the awakening of the Divine Feminine.
I invite you to listen to the stories of Mary Magdalene not only with your ears, but also with your heart. Receive the wisdom within and behind the words. There is great power in these stories. May you receive according to your desire and may all beings benefit!