Who was Mary Magdalene? What do we really know of her?

The canonical Gospels of the New Testament suggest and the Nag Hammadi "Gospel of Philip" affirms that she was the companion, even the consort, of Jesus. Can we find further proof that she was the beloved counterpart of Christ?

Legends abound about this "other Mary" who is mentioned so often in the Gospels: she was healed of seven demons by Jesus, stood at the foot of his cross.then accompanied other mourners to his tomb and was first to return to find him resurrected on Easter. She was the most prominent woman in the Gospels, mentioned first in seven of the eight lists of women who walked with Jesus. She tried to embrace her "Rabboni" in the garden on Easter, and ran to tell the others that he had risen from the grave. She was the first bearer of the Good News, the first "Apostle." And yet, with no scriptural justification whatever, later traditions called her "prostitute."

Who was this woman? What became of her? What can we know of her?

First of all, let me state my skepticism that any conclusive or indisputable evidence exists which we could call FACT regarding the whereabouts of Mary Magdalene after the resurrection. Logically, she must have disappeared from the community of Christians in Jerusalem, because the author of Acts does not mention her, and neither does Saint Paul, in all likelihood because they did not know where she was. I believe that the family and friends of Jesus did not fully trust Saul/Paul who had been an early persecutor of their community and that they were very quiet about the whereabouts of Mary Magdalene (justifiably so, since other family members of Jesus were later liquidated during prosecutions of Christians).

One strong legend mentioned in the late sixth century by Gregory of Tours, the chronicler for the Frankish kings, repeats a very old tradition that Mary Magdalene died in Ephesus, where she had lived with Jesus' mother and John the Evangelist, the reputed author of the fourth Gospel. This tradition is refuted by a document in Latin by an anonymous author of the fifth or sixth century, who refers to an earlier document in his introduction and then states that Magdalene traveled to Aix-en-Provence in the company of Saint Maximin.¹ The Roman Catholic Church has always preferred the Ephesus tradition; it put the Magdalene far away from the virulent rumors of the bloodline of Jesus and the "Holy Grail" ("sang raal") that flourished in France and Western Europe. The Roman Catholic Church has very recently attempted to adopt the view of the Eastern Orthodox that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany (the sister of Lazarus) were two separate women, although Pope St. Gregory I "the Great" stated in a sermon delivered in 591 in Rome that Mary Magdalene was the same as the sinner in Luke's Gospel who anointed Jesus' feet and also was to be identified with Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who is also said to have anointed Jesus with nard (John 11:2 and 12:3).² So from the end of the sixth century in the Western church, tradition held that those two Maries were the same woman. I believe the people knew this from the dawn of Christainity and that Pope Gregory I was probably merely articulating what he already knew to be the treasured faith of Christians.

My own story of Mary Magdalene and little Sarah, published as a prologue in "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar," is fiction. I deliberately wrote fiction because I have no hard evidence about the existence of "Sarah" --only a strong intuition that a child of Jesus survived. I told a story of Mary Magdalene fleeing to Egypt after the Crucifixion because the strong "Gnostic" tradition of Magdalene as "the Beloved" comes from there, found hidden in the codices of the Nag Hammadi library. Even if she didn't herself go to Egypt, her "myth" was there.

And when I discovered that medieval legend insists that there was a "dark child" on the boat, a child who is called "Sarah, the Egyptian," I speculated that she might be the daughter of Magdalene for several reasons deeply rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. She might be symbolically "dark" for reasons associated with the "hidden" bloodline of the princes of Judah, whose appearance, described as "brighter than snow and whiter than milk," is now "blacker than soot, they are unrecognized on the streets" (Lamentations 4). "Sarah" means "princess" in Hebrew.

A second prophetic Scripture dear to the hearts of the people of Israel would likewise be fulfilled in her: "Out of Egypt I called my child" (Hosea 11:1). Perhaps the child Sarah was called "the Egyptian" by virtue of the fact that she was actually born in Egypt. But in stating this, I realize that I could be talking about people who "coined the myth" rather than any physical reality of an actual "flesh and blood" child of the union of Magdalene and Christ.

Written traces of the "Grail heresy" of the bloodline of Jesus in Europe cannot be found until the Middle Ages,³ but folk tales of the little lost princess are much older. Is this "folk memory" the custodian of a suppressed and hidden truth? Or was it only a "myth," a story too dangerous to be told? Among others, Emma Jung, the wife of the famed psychologist Carl Jung, and their friend Marie-Louise von Franz, believe that the oral tradition of the "sangraal" ("blood royal" in Old French) circulated in Europe throughout the Dark Ages.

The Gnostic "Gospel of Philip" mentions Mary Magdalene as the "consort" of Jesus, one of the women who was his constant companion, his "koinonos."⁴ This is significant because Roman Catholic tradition declares that the Apostle named Philip evangelized Gaul. Perhaps here again we are looking at "myth" rather than hard empirical evidence. I venture to suggest that the Apostle Philip probably never even set foot in Gaul, but rather, it was this "Valentinian" treatise, the Gnostic "Gospel of Philip," with its pointed references to the intimate union of Christ and Magdalene, that was honored in Gaul. The intimate relationship of Christ and Mary Magdalene was so highly honored that a cult of Mary Magdalene grew up across the Mediterranean from where the Gospel of Phillip had originated--among the Gnostics in Alexandria. Was this because the people of Gaul already knew the story of the archetypal Bride and Bridegroom--the "Beloveds"--of the Christian story?

Over and over I have asked myself why the idea of Mary Magdalene as the intimate companion of Jesus kept resurfacing throughout the centuries. Why would this belief never really go away? Was it only because people are romantic and wanted to link the enigmatic Great Mary with the Savior? Or was there something or more substance that kept the "myth" of "Sacred Union" alive?

The "Gnostic" Christianity that grew up in Egypt was far more egalitarian and liberal than that of Saint Paul and his "orthodox" friends. Could that be because Mary Magdalene once resided there among them? Or was it merely her MYTH that had lived there?

No. The evidence that Mary Magdalene and Jesus together provided the model for the "hieros gamos" (Sacred Marriage)in Christianity is found in the Gospels themselves. The numbers coded by gematria in her name indicate that Mary Magdalene was the "Goddess" among early Christians.⁵ They understood the "numbers theology" of the Hellenistic world, numbers coded in the New Testament that were based on the ancient canon of sacred geometry derived by the Pythagoreans centuries before.

The Greek epithet "h Magdalhnh" bears the number 153, a profoundly important value used among mathematicians to designate the Vesica Piscis--the ()-shape identified with the "sacred Feminine' in the ancient world.⁶ This symbol, the "vulva," has obvious attributes of feminine regeneration and the "doorway" or "portal" of life--the "sacred cauldron of creativity." It was a very ancient ancient, even archetypal symbol for the Goddess. It was called the "holy of holies" and the "inner sanctum." Almonds were sacred to Venus. The symbol abounds in cave art of ancient peoples discovered in shrines where the fertility of the earth and the female was honored. It was no accident that the epithet of Mary Magdalene bore the number that to the educated of the time identified her as the "Goddess in the Gospels."

And yet, the orthodox patriarchs often chastised the Gnostics for their numerical analysis of certain Scripture passages. What exactly were they trying to suppress?

Because she is not mentioned in the book of Acts or Paul's epistles, I think it likely that the "lost years" of Magdalene between A.D.30-42 were spent in Alexandria, a cosmopolitan city with a large Jewish population. This theory fits the "myths." I also think it possible that at some point she might have returned to Jerusalem, to her brother and sister, and then, witnessing the persecutions of Christians by Saul (Paul), the family might have decided to emigrate to Gaul.

Legends of Provence declare they arrived in "a boat with no oars" at a place named Rha on the coast of Gaul that was, of all things! sacred to the Goddess--the town now called Saintes Maries de la Mer. Like the Gospels themselves, these legends are inconsistent; they are not concerned with FACTS but with STORIES! It is these stories that have circulated in Europe for centuries and refuse to be extinguished, surfacing every now and then to see if the world is ready to receive them. In a way, they remind me of the dove that Noah kept sending out to see if it could find a place to land, a place that might be habitable after the ravages of the flood.

In light of recent official disavowals of the legends of Saint Sarah by the Roman Catholic hierarchy, I was fascinated to learn that the Vatican sent a Apostolic Nuncio to concelebrate Mass with six bishops and numerous priests at the Basilica of Marie Madeleine in St. Maximin in 1980, to commemorate the 700-year jubilee of the finding of her grave in Provence. What did these prelates know about Mary Magdalene's presence in Provence? And how long have they known it? And why do they now desire so desperately to discount the legends attached to it? Can they not see that the "dove"--the ancient emblem of the "sacred feminine"--has landed?

I look forward to the day when we all celebrate together the "second coming" of Christ --this time he comes as the very human, loving husband and father that his beloved Mary knew him to be. Perhaps at last we picture them reunited, healing at last the wounded, seared, and scorched earth--the legacy of patriarchy. Perhaps we can picture them--the New Adam and the New Eve--holding hands in the garden restored.

Ave Millennium "MM" - "2000"

Notes:

1. Edith Filliette. Saint Mary Magdalene: Her Life and Times (Newton Lower Falls, MA: Society of Mary Magdalene, 1983) 137-139.

2. Susan Haskins. Mary Magdalene, Myth and Metaphor (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993) 96 quotes homily XXXIII of Pope Saint Gregory I.

3. See Margaret Starbird, "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail" (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Company, 1993) for detailed discussion of the medieval heresy of the "sangraal," the royal bloodline of Davidic kings and the art, artifact and folktale where the dangerous knowledge of this heresy was hidden.

4. James Robinson, ed. "The Gospel of Philip" in "The Nag Hammadi Library: In English" (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981) 135-136. Haskins, op. cit. 40, says that the word "koinonos" is correctly translated as "partner" or "consort," a woman with whom a man has had sexual intercourse. It is this word that describes the relationship of Mary Magdalene and Christ in the Gospel of Philip.(Perhaps we also need to reevaluate the legends surrounding "St. Valentine"!)

5. See Margaret Starbird, "The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine" (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Company, 1993) 140-141, 159-160, for discussion of the value 153, the sacred number of "the Magdalene" encoded by gematria in the Gospels. This number occurs also in the the Gospel of John, chapter 21.

6. See John Michell, "The Dimensions of Paradise: The Proportions and Symbolic Nmbers of Ancient Cosmology" (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990) 71-73, 79, and David Fideler,"Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism" (Wheaton, IL:Quest Books, 1993) 211, 307, for detailed explanation of the generative properties of the () in the ancient canon of sacred number. Also see Jonathan Hale, "The Old Way of Seeing" (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994) 76-85 for an eloquent discussion of the symbolism of the Vesica Piscis and its feminine.