INDEPENDENT STUDY PROJECTS, ASSIGNMENTS
Mouse over the painting at right for description. Notice MM brought her AlabasterJar when she came to read and study in the Abbey.
Miscellaneous Lessons
A. Did Magdalene write the fourth Gospel?
B. Check out the Nazorean Beliefs about MM
Writing Assignments
1. Read at least two other MM books of your choice, send reports.
2. Write an essay arguing your belief/opinion as to whether you thinkMM was divine — an actual goddess incarnate — or not. Be sure tomention and compare your belief about her divinity to your belief about Yeshua’sdivinity. When you write your paper, consider such things as her and Yeshuabeing archetypes only, not actually divine. Consider the idea (as somepeople believe) that they never historically existed but are mythologicalcharacters to learn by, and live by, but no incarnations ever happened. Ifthis is a difficult assignment for you, have a look thru the large archivesof the Magdalene-list at yahoogroups.com. Reading what others havesaid and discussed about this very topic may help you come to your own firmopinion one way or the other.
3. Our Abbess, Rev. Mother Elda, requests that you readTheMoon Under Her Feet, by Clysta Kinstler and write a book report. Discuss the value of this inspiring work of fiction, which even though cannot be taken as historical fact (some call it pure fantasy) stillhas power to connect us to the lost personality and destiny of that enigmaticFirst Lady of Kristianity.
4. Read or re-read the DaVinci Code by Dan Brown and have fun withit. What is nonsense in that book, what isn’t? What do you think of thedebunkers? What vital message (if any) was Brown getting out to the publicat large? Read the archives of theDaVinciCodeForumlist for ideas. See also this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWO7ruWsvps
5. Choose one of the following controversial questions and writea two page essay arguing your belief/opinion.
a. Was Jesus married to MM in reality, oris envisioning them that way enough to fulfill our need for a partnershipparadigm at the heart of Christianity?
b. Did the Priory of Sion exist and surviveto the present? Was it fictional — if so, in part or completely fictional? Did Plantard make it all up, if so why? Were the authors of Holy Blood,Holy Grail missing the boat on this one, seeking after a mystery for thesensational effect of it? Or is there truth to this organization’s existence?
c. Did a bloodline ever exist? Ifso, do you think it is still around today and that those descendants of Yeshuaand Mary Magdalene are aware of their forebears? (They’d have to be keepinga big long-held secret and would have had to have survived the great blackplague of Europe.) Does it matter if those descendants are still aliveand aware of who they are — why or why not is the actual bloodlineirrelevent today?
d. Places. Does Rennes-le-Chateauhave mystical power? Rosslyn Chapel? The Chalice Well in Great Britain? The Cathar fortress at Montsegur? We know Chartres and Vezalayhave something mystical going on, but what about these other places? Tellwhy or why not for each of the four.
e. MM’s sex life before Yeshua. Wasshe a prostitute or sacred whore or temple sex-healer (hierodule) connectingmen to the goddess — or was the prostitution junk pure nonsense inventedby the church authorities to darken her reputation and limit her (and women’s)authority in the early church? Consider: who first called herprostitute and what large church never called her a prostitute.
f. There may be a MM controversy I cannotthink of as of this writing. Feel free to write about your opinionregarding any other controversial topic about MM. Be sure to statethe controversy clearly and write two pages as is required. If youwant to discuss or clear your topic first, feel free to write to theAbbeyCouncil about it.
Fun Stuff! Complete Two of the followinglist:
- Do an art or music survey of both classical and modern works that have MM as the subject. Such a survey requires the title of the work, your opinions about each work, and the meaning or significance (to you and/or to other viewers) of symbols, objects and colors (in paintings) or words/melodies/style (in music). Report your survey.
- Try some of the Mary Magdalene recipes posted at Magdalene.org. Send full report. And/OR Invent your own MM recipes, try them out, report. Read other OMM members’ reports here.
- Create a one week Contemplation Lab on symbols or glyphs related to MM (such as the Tower, her M initials, the Red X, Unicorns, Mermaids, the Grail and other watermarks found in Starbird’s Alabaster Jar). For ideas on how to do a Contemplation Lab, see the one in the R+C OMM Study Hall and this one on WomenPriests.org. Submit your completed Lab.
- Listen to contemporary music on your local hit stations. Find songs that seem to speak of the Sacred Marriage or the Sacred Feminine. Make a careful list. Do the same listening to Oldies, Christian rock or any music. Create a Contemplation Lab for others to use to experience this music and read the insights/connections you wrote. Submit your completed Lab. Read other members’ song reports.
- Create at least two lessons based on any of the above. Or create lessons for something else — even if not specifically about MM — that you think the Mystery School could use lessons on. Submit your lessons.
- Tell of your personal experiences of MM via the five senses. Did you “see” her in a dream or waking vision/glimpsing? Did you sense her presence somehow? Did you taste her somehow via salty tears or sweat — or even kisses? Or taste what she might have tasted in some food, drink (or tears, sweat)? Did you hear her either as a distinctive voice in your head or the voice of another person whom she was “speaking through?” Or did you “hear” her words thru automatic writing? Did you smell her via roses, lilies, or spikenard? Spikenard and rose oil are ways to smell and feel something she would’ve experienced with her five senses. (Yeshua too). Spikenard is available from the Holy Land in real alabaster jars (for less than $30) so that you can touch something else: the smooth yet warm mysterious substance called alabaster. Don’t buy the cheapie spikenard in run-of-the-mill aromatherapy bottles. Get the good stuff from Israel, available online, or ask Dr. Katia where she got hers. Other ways you might have experienced MM thru “touch” might involve sensuality, so you might wish to keep them private or to be very unspecific when describing what you experienced (!) In other words, don’t be sending any erotica into the Mystery School. Hints and vague descriptions will be FINE for such touchings/feelings! Report your experiences of MM via the five senses.
- Do a project not listed above. Write to Katia, Abbey Prioress, or to Elda, the OMM Abbess to discuss or approve it before digging in.
