Mary Magdalene / Twin Towers

Editor's note: This piece is an email that Margaret posted to the Magadalene mailing list regarding her take on the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. I am posting it here with her permission.

Dear Friends,

In response to numerous queries I have received asking about my views concerning the terrorist attacks on the twin towers and the pentagon, here are some of my thoughts over the events of the past several weeks.

The World Trade Center was a chosen target of the terrorists because it was a high-profile symbol of capitalism and the global business network--a landmark representing global cooperation. It was a secular temple rather than a religious one. This attack was not a synchronicity. If an earthquake had destroyed the WTO on "9-11" it would have been a synchronicity--but under these circumstances, it was not; it was a deliberate act on the part of fanatics with free will who chose this civilian target to maximize suffering and outrage. It was an attack on civilization and humanity, especially obvious since people from about 80 nations were killed in the attack.

For me, the symbolism of the "twin towers" is a powerful image that has a history intimately linked to Mary Magdalene. I was reminded of this when I noticed the flag of the Army Corps of Engineers flying at the scene of the attack on the Pentagon. The banner is a white castle with twin towers on a red background. But the "castle" ("citadel--"the city of God," fortress, stronghold) is, for me, a reminder of the "magdal- eder"--the "tower (stronghold) of the flock" from the prophetic passage in the Hebrew Bible --Micah 4:8-10. Since "Magdala" means "tower" in Hebrew, this passage is powerfully prophetic of the role of Mary Magdalene as the "daughter of Sion" in her role as "Bride." You might want to look up this passage in the Hebrew Bible if you aren't already familiar with it, to examine its very strong connections to Mary Magdalene who is alleged to have been sent into exile--to dwell in the fields"--after the death of her "King." This passage "foreshadows" the Diaspora of the Jewish people of whom Magdalene is the "archetypal" representative in her role as "Bride" of the Christ.

Mary Magdalene, for me, represents the "flesh and blood" of humanity, the entire human community, as the "sacred container" of the life and light of divinity--the very embodiment or incarnation of "Godde with us." She represents the both the "fallen Sophia" (feminine consciousness) and the "Holy City" (as symbol of the human family) arrayed for her nuptials with the eternal bridegroom (Revelation 21). The "sacred union" of Christ and Magdalene which, I believe, was always at the heart of the Christian story, is only a model for this much deeper "partnership" of "God" and "man/woman"--the "divine" and the created vessel (each individual as well as the entire 'human family') in which it is incarnated.

The "castle" (cit a d el) emblem originally represented the city of Jerusalem--her walls, gate, ramparts and twin towers. In Medieval art, the walls of Jerusalem often appear this way, and the "emblem" of the twin towers found on the Corps of Engineers banner was derived from this medieval emblem representing the walls and watchtowers of the Holy City. This emblem of the twin towers occurs very early among the medieval watermarks, which date from 1280. These watermarks are imbedded in the paper that was manufactured by those who opposed the repressive Roman Catholic Church (and its Inquisition, formed in 1237).

Over 13,000 Watermarks have been detected in antique Bibles and other medieval texts....unicorns, mermaids, bugles and towers are just a few of the emblems used by the heretics to hide tenets of their faith in the actual leaves of their bibles. (A discussion of some of the relevant watermarks and interesting examples appear in my "Alabaster Jar" and "Tarot Trumps" books--many of you have seen them).

Since the castle emblem was connected with the metaphor of the "Holy City" as community/Bride, it is also connected with Mary Magdalene--the "sacred feminine"--and therefore, also an emblem of PEOPLE as community. In the passage from Micah 4, the "Magdal-eder" is a metaphor for the city and people of Sion/Jerusalem.

The Pentagon was a target for obvious reasons. The five pointed star is sacred to Mars, but also to Venus, and therefore to Magdalene as Goddess of Love. The number 5 (the "pentad") in the ancient world represented "health and well-being"/humanity (the 5 senses, the five extremities, five fingers/toes on each limb). Of course, for the terrorists, it was a symbol of America's military power. In a stroke of luck, the plane struck an area where many offices were vacant because of renovations being made to the building--saving perhaps as many as 500-800 lives.

I have been brought to tears as I witnessed TV images of people of ALL faiths gathering to pray for unity, guidance and healing, courage and love in the wake of the outrageous attacks. I was shown very early in my "spiritual journey" that Mary Magdalene herself was a 'carrier' of the protoype of the Grail found in Genesis 44--the cup found in the "sack of Benjamin" that was the catalyst for the healing of the relationship of the twelve sons of Jacob--the "healing of the nations." May she now be the instrument of this "healing of the nations" as we recognize in our common humanity the "sacred vessel of divinity." It is not churches and temples of various religions that are sacred "containers"--it is PEOPLE!

The pictures we are seeing on TV, the sad stories we are hearing, are bringing home the message: we, the human family, are one child of the planet Earth. And our common enemy is characterized as "666"--the number in the ancient symbolic system that represents the the "solar" or "power principle"--power without mercy. This "fire" principle without its sacred feminine (lunar or "water") partner, results in conflagration and holocaust. Many of you have read my "Goddess in the Gospels" and have understood the gematria/numbers and the true meaning of the "666"--power (violence) with no mercy: the power of the dictator, the terrorist, the "crocodile"--the "Beast." It is the rise of the "feminine" eros --relationship, "inclusion," tolerance, nurturing and concern for children--that rises now to offset the solar "666," to mitigate and finally to contain and heal it.

This "sacred feminine" (which I identify with the Magdalene-Spirit) is deeply involved in healing and saving the planet and all her peoples and is intimately connected with "eco-feminism," the health and well-being of the physical body and other "femininst" issues that surface as we learn to celebrate humanity as the sacred container of divinity.

A colleague at work told me last week not to worry. "God has a plan," he assured me. My answer is. "Yes. I know. We are it."

In memory of her--

Margaret Starbird