Category: Jesus’ Family, Marriage, Childhood

God is only he / him, no hers. Also Jesus celibacy “doctrine”

Margaret Starbird writes on the GoddessChristians forum:

Yesterday I had an opportunity to attend an Episcopal Mass of the Resurrection (memorial service) for a friend. The Episcopal Mass is very similar to the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead–with which I’m familiar. I recognized the hymns and knew some of them by heart.

But I couldn’t say the creed in its entirety, and I noticed the very exclusive use of “he,” “him,” and “his” in referring to God…..

Which reminds me of a lovely story my mother used to tell about a little girl who went to Mass with her parents and half-way through the service she tugged on her mother’s arm:  “Mommy, Mommy. I love the “hyms”….. but are there any “hers”?

I’m sure the service was very comforting to the family gathered there….. but I felt a bit as if I were in a museum…. I feel we’ve already moved to a more “life-affirming” place and the old prayers and vocabulary don’t seem to feed me anymore.

It’s a bit strange to look back and see how so many of my views have shifted in the past twenty years. I had to stop teaching CCD for Catholic children when I realized that I don’t believe in Purgatory….But just for the record, the Roman Catholic Church, while it has a doctrine of the Virgin Birth, does not have a doctrine about the celibacy of Jesus.

peace and light–Margaret
http://www.margaretstarbird.net

Lore Kemsley then wrote in:

Hi Margaret,

I am interested in this statement, because everything I’ve read states the RCC believes he was celibate. I’m guessing the key is in the word “doctrine,” but that’s only my surmising while feeling confused.

Here are references I found after reading your post:

http://www.catholic.com/library/Celibacy_and_the_Priesthood.asp

Although most people are at some point in their lives called to the married state, the vocation of celibacy is explicitly advocated-as well as practiced-by both Jesus and Paul. 

http://www.jesusdecoded.com/catholicchurch1.php

The theological concept of a celibate clergy is based on the Church’s belief in the example of the celibacy of Christ himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_celibacy_(Catholic_Church).

Theological foundations

Theologically, the Church teaches that priesthood is a ministry conformed to the life and work of Jesus Christ. Priests as sacramental ministers act in persona Christi, that is in the person of Christ. Thus the life of the priest conforms to the chastity of Christ himself. The sacrifice of married life for the “sake of the Kingdom” (Luke 18:28-30, Matthew 19:27-30; Mark 10:20-21), and to follow the example of Jesus Christ in being “married” to the Church, viewed by Catholicism and many Christian traditions as the “Bride of Christ”.

Scriptural foundations

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) in Salt of the Earth also explained that this practice is based on Jesus’ preaching on the eunuchs or celibates “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” which links with God’s decision in the Old Testament to confer the priesthood to a specific tribe, that of Levi, and who unlike the other tribes did not receive from God any land – an essential need for one’s posterity as a wife and children are today – but had “God himself as its inheritance” (Numbers 1:48-53).

Loretta Kemsley  President

Women Artists and Writers International
Publisher of MOONDANCE: Celebrating Creative Women
Our vision, our wisdom, our strength
http://www.moondance.org

In This Intimacy, a love poem Jesus & Magdalene

Wow.  Rock on poet Wynn Manners.  He has done it again with this passionate Magdalene / Yeshua poem.  See his website for more.

In This Intimacy

In this intimacy, a sense of enlacement
with your voice whispering,
whispers-to-whispers, breath-to-breath
lips mesh-mush-yes, this too,
& tongues… dancing tongues…
caressing magickal lilt to the song
of this golden tenderness,
third-eyeing bedazzling fusion of souls,
as minds, dreams meld to emerge
as rose petals mystically one rose
arising with fragrance singing
the soul of the infinitudes,
eternities of delicately touching
in shimmering glow, our flesh
iridescent in this meshing
of intertwining fibres of
the lifesong of your loving
merging with the lovesong of my life*ing
binding us free into mercy’s tender regeneration,
sweet compassion’s tears falling into infinity

~~wynn manners

Wynn says: more poetic LoveWords between Mary Magdalene and Yeshua can be accessed here:

http://cosmicwind.net/800/Cmwl/ExMM/ExMM.html

Jesus “just” a myth or historical? –OR BOTH?

Mystery School member Faith writes:

One author that I have read and gained a lot of insight from is the late Alvin Boyd Kuhn. I imagine that you have read some of his works, too. What he revealed about the Christ being “the fire of Divine Intelligence” distributed among all of humanity, I believe is true. He explained that all of the myths of antiquity are depictions of the descent (incarnation), evolution in matter (Mother), and ascent (resurrection) of the Christ (the Sun of God) in us, as us. This being the meaning of the Gospel stories, I wonder whether or not Jesus and the Apostles were actually historical people. I understand that “the living Jesus” of the Gospel of Thomas was the Cosmic Christ, not a particular human being.

Katia answers:

Hi Faith! Good thought-provoking questions. You have hit upon the historicity of Jesus argument long debated by theologians and historians since the writing of the New Testament. In the past 200 years the Myth vs. Historical Jesus debate has raged with new fervor. It’s fascinating.

I abscribe to the JRR Tolkein (Lord of the Rings author) and CS Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia) viewpoint. CS Lewis was struggling with the Jesus myth thinking it was all symbolic, archetypal, etc. and therefore he couldn’t believe it was “real”. His best friend Tolkein told him something very profound. Yes, said he, Jesus is a myth and the fulfilment of myth. An archetype bearer. But Jesus’ story is a myth that also happens to be true…historical. In other words, BOTH are true! This is why the debaters can’t solve this issue, because they are both right.

It’s like an onion. Each layer is “real” separately but they are part of a whole truth. The whole onion. Dream interpretation can be that way, too. Dreaming your brakes went out and you can’t stop your car can mean you should literally check your brakes — this could be your intuition warning you of a physical danger. AND it can mean that you are a bit out of control in your waking life and need to figurately “put the brakes on” regarding some issue or situation in life. We would ask the dreamer, how are you going too fast, how do you need to slow down and get control, get safe? So both interpretations can be true simultaneously. Like God can be real in the spiritual realm as well as the physical realm if She chooses. It’s cool! Goddess came as Mother Mary — Mary was an archetype-bearer of Sophia or God-the-Mother. And Magdalene and Yeshua also bore archetypes. They “actualized” the male and female wise-teacher god/goddess Krishna, Buddha archetypes or entities.

>Faith wrote:

>The ancient Gnostics deplored those who believed the gospels as literal history.

Katia writes:

I have always read that there were 200 or more Gnostic sects and they were about 50-50 on the historicity argument. In other words, some Gnostics believed and taught he had come in the flesh — perhaps they had great grandmothers who had been healed by him or heard one of his famous sermons, etc. The Mandeans are a Gnostic sect still alive today in Iraq and they believe firmly in the historicity of Jesus. They think he stole the messiah-ship from John the Baptist, but they believe they were all historical characters! I have studied Valentinian and Sophian Gnosticism and enjoy it very much. Valentinus certainly believed Jesus was historical. But the Sophians seem to have clergy who believe one way or the other depending on personal preference. They need to merge the opposites — do the Zen on it(!) and realize that BOTH are true. Yes he was a Sun-god myth and Dying-resurrecting God and yes Christianity is/was a cool solar “cult”. But. He also got himself a body and walked around this earth awhile, just like Buddha and Aristotle did. Wisemen who lived centuries before Jesus — and made their mark on earth even bigger a mark than Jesus some could argue! — yet they are never thought to be un-historical, or myth-only.

>Faith wrote:

>These ideas have me feeling uncertain concerning the ideas concerning Jesus and Mary Magdalene implied in the lessons and suggested readings at the Esoteric Mystery School.

Katia writes:

You are not the first member who has brought up this discussion with me. Our Catechumen Lessons, most of them, are quite old. We’ve been using them for years with a bit of overhaul here and there, but I am wondering if I need to address the myth vs. historical debate — that BOTH are “true” — right from the start. What do you think? Where specifically do you think in the Catechumen lessons maybe we are emphasizing too much of the historical Jesus and not reminding folks of his mythical cosmical (is that a word?!) function/fulfillment? I mean, what was it — besides the fact we recommend members read Holy Blood Holy Grail (HBHG) — that got you feeling uncertain, as you put it?

>Faith wrote:

>As symbols of elements of our Being they inspire us to lovely virtues and ideals, and faith in our inner powers. But if the stories are regarded as historical, I can easily see how the ideas in the book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, developed among literalist people over the centuries. A bloodline of Jesus misses the whole point of Gnostic teachings, which is the Inner Christ nature which is being brought to birth within us as children of the Father-Mother.

Katia writes:

Oh so true about HBHG making people go LOOPY when they think of the literalism of it. Margaret Starbird herself says the bloodline thing is a huge distraction, a big red herring that makes people miss the point just as you say. She says believing/realizing Jesus was a lover and a co-parent in the physical realm is enough. We don’t also have to believe his descendants are alive today. Too much ego gets in there — and too much insanity. I get emails ALL the time from people thinking they are one of them.

If only that bloodline hype hadn’t mired us in the physical so much after some decades of being “only” in the spiritual / mythical realm. Hah. Margaret told me once that the bloodline nonsense really muddies the waters and I believe it can be a stumbling block big-time. So you are definitely on to something, yet I still “confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh,” as the test of spirits tests for….

Funny and lucky how we can believe in both. It’s so very Zen…

I think much of this Jesus-was-just-a-cool-myth is an understandable backlash against obnoxious churchianity insisting one BELIEVE in Jesus, “ACCEPT” him, believe, believe, BELIEVE in him! Ugh. Many free-thinking people are put off by this extreme mind manipulation. Believe like me or you will DIE. Uh, no thanks we say. Knowing instinctively that their lopsided Jesus never did exist, we then kinda throw the baby out with the bathwater and say well, I guess he never was an historical person at all! These goof-ball fanatics have sure scared me away from being down-to-earth about this.

There are so many cool Zen masters that everyone knows by name. And dozens of inspiring wandering rabbis, teachers, mystical rabbis. There are Buddhist sages and Hindu sages galore who lived at the time of Jesus and before that nobody doubts whether they existed or not. It’s because those sages aren’t being singled out and shoved down our throats, aren’t being used as a weapon. Even King Arthur is said to have existed although they know there were several characters whose stories may have been compiled to make his myth. The King Arthur myth is mythology, but he still probably was based on a real live man. Some say even Osiris was perhaps a real Pharoah way back in Egypt’s distant pre-historical origins. The Gods and Goddesses of the Northern Europeans may have been real people, or used real people just after we emerged from the last Ice Age.

Jesus gets the most attention because he has taken the most abuse! Manipulative control-freaks have hijacked his story, name and his teachings for such a long time. They are really turning a lot of us off. Fact is, Jesus was a liberator, a Zen-master sage dude whose true message and teachings have been all but lost. I think we can find the real teachings there under the layers of churchianity, and I think what he taught is very inner, very esoteric, at least semi-gnostic, and completely alternative to the extroverted “mundane” un-mystical mainstream.

Ya gotta have Faith, like your magikal name. <grin> Yet you also gotta resist insulting your free will, not to mention your intelligence!, by this oppressive mainstream beast best called by the name “Churchianity”.

–Katia

Magdalene Podcasts, Martin Luther, Married Jesus, Dan Brown, Mormons

Authors Joan Norton, Margaret Starbird and Burl Hall and the rest of us were discussing Martin Luther and the Sacred Feminine on our GoddessChristians forum.  Margaret wrote in as follows:

Among other strange opinions of Martin Luther, I stumbled into a quote of his from “Table Talks” to the effect that Jesus had affairs with three women: the women at the well, the woman taken in adultery, and Mary Magdalene.  I found this really interesting because it appears to me to be a “garbled” reference to Cathar beliefs that Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, and the woman taken in adultery were all the same person (one woman–not three)…. But Luther was suggesting that Jesus had promiscuous relationships with all three! Pretty bizarre behavior, in my view!–in a time and place where people had strong taboos about promiscuity and were stoned for less….and from a rabbi who warned that to think lustfully about a woman was tantamount to committing “adultery in one’s heart.”

> VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – In the latest Vatican broadside against
> “The Da Vinci Code,” a leading cardinal says Christians should
> respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend
> Christ and the Church he founded.

Since Dan Brown derived his basic ideas about Mary Magdalene and Jesus from my “Woman with the Alabaster Jar,” I would like to say that when I wrote that book I was coming from the heart of the Roman Catholic Church and a charismatic prayer group that included two priests and six lay people to which I had belonged for about 15 years at the time. 

These people were encouraging me and praying for me while I was doing my research because we had been shown as a community that there was something important missing from the foundations of Christianity that had to do with the “denigrated Feminine.”

I gave my “Alabaster Jar” manuscript to my Roman Catholic priest/pastor–and to two Protestant ministers in 1991- before I ever dreamed of sending it to a publisher. All three of these clergymen knew me well and encouraged me to publish my book. In fact, the Catholic priest told me, “This could heal the Church.” I offered “Alabaster Jar” as a gift to the Church–one that would enable the patriarchy to embrace the “Feminine” embodied in Mary Magdalene and welcome her home with rejoicing! What a shame that they cannot see the healing that would inevitably flow from the “nuptials of the Lamb and his Bride.”

Carl Jung states in “Answer to Job” that it is incongruous to visualize Jesus embracing a church filled with people. He needs to embrace a woman… This image is beautifully expressed in the stained glass window from the Kilmore Church at Dervaig, a town on the Isle of Mull, (posted on my website) which shows Jesus and Mary “hand-fasted” (clasping right hands)–a symbol for marriage in the Christian liturgy…the “Bride” represents her land and people–as in the ancient metaphor of Yahweh’s undying love for his people….

There was never any intent to attack Jesus…. I was trying to “heal the wasteland” that ensues when the “Feminine” principle is denied and defamed, forced into exile and silenced….

In the triptych above the inner door at Mary Magdalene’s basilica at Vézeley, France, (the “Madeleine”), the left hand of Jesus is missing-probably vandalized, although it may have just broken off. What an incredible reminder that he can’t be “whole” without her! Since Judaism in the first century didn’t have a word for “bachelor” –and the word the Jews now use is “ravak”–“empty”–maybe we need to revisit the foundations of the Christian faith and restore the “lost Bride.”

peace and light,
Margaret
“Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile”
http://www.margaretstarbird.net

 

Joan Norton, author of Mary Magdalene Within, responded:

    Hi Margaret,

    I wonder if Martin Luther’s  interpretation of the three women as Jesus’ “involvements” influenced Joseph Smith’s Mormon revelations that Jesus had more than one wife?  I know they put the  ritual of the bridal chamber at the center of things, but with the extra added twist of more than one wife.

     I put up a new podcast meditation today called “Beloveds in the Garden” at http://marymagdalenewithin.podomatic.com    and I don’t mean Jesus and three Beloveds! (chuckle)

  xoJoan

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And author Burl Hall wrote in with the following intriguing thoughts:

You say it all, Margaret.  In my work, I have come to the opinion that the wasteland we have created in the environment (endless wars, ecological destruction, sensationalist medias, etc.) is a mirror to the wasteland of our minds. I talk somewhat of the surface level ego mind, or empirical/rational thought as surface level with deep thought, the Feminine, lying underneath. By underneath I don’t mean this as a power relationship.  Indeed, Tehom, the Depths of Genesis 1:2, is Feminine and is the foundations of the Universe and ultimately the Mother of Light (Manifestation).  Furthermore, it is She that becomes this world.  As the Hindu Ramakrishna puts it, “The Unmanifest (Being…Tehom…Brahman….Yahweh…Marie…Tao) shines forth as Shakti (the Goddess, Divine Energy, Sophia)…and Shakti takes form as this entire universe.”

Sometimes when I close my eyes I watch images dance in my mind.  They tend to shapeshift and will often play with me as if I were an external being.  They are so much fun. And, they appear aware of me as much as I am aware of them. … When I watch these images dance (they do indeed have a life of their own that is beyond my controlling ego) I realize they are the creation of something deeper…furthermore, I realize that the power within me that is creating this wonderful display is not separate from that Power that births, supports and dissolves the cosmos.  To “see” that Power, I go behind the images and into the Darkness, the Darkness upon the face of the Deep.  (Mary or Marie also means Ocean as per the terms Marine, Marina, etc.).

So, when Sophia (the Agent of Becoming, the Holy Spirit) came upon Tehom as the Holy Spirit in Genesis and the Holy Spirit moved upon Marie in the New Testament, are we perhaps repeating the same story?  “The Unmanifest (Marie) shines forth as Shakti (Sophia) and Shakti is simply the luminous darkness of the Unmanifest,” Ramakrishna says. Or as Paul McCarney says, “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me.  Speaking words of Wisdom, Let It Be.”  Mary and Sophia are akin to water and wetness, they are not two.  McCartney may not have been consciously aware of this….but, hey, Sophia speaks beneath the ego.  Anyhow, the way I see this relation of Mary the Magdeline (She of the Temple Towers is a definition?) as Wife and Mary the Virgin as Mother.  These are not, from a non-historical perspective, two Women.  From a mystical dimension, the birth from Marie is reflective of Motherhood of Woman while the Fate function of Woman is reflected in the Magdeline as Wife or Bride.  I look at this as the Goddess as Mother and the Goddess as Fate.  One is birth from Woman, the Unmanifest, the other is the return Home, to the Unmanifest.  Women in their physical bodies mirror this cosmic power of birth, maintanence and fate or dissolution.

This too speaks of Jung with his notion of the Feminine as the Unconscious.  I do not see the Feminine as Unconscious as much as suppressed.  When I think of Sophia, I think of Her in my body and think, “Now I don’t know how my heart is beating or how fast, yet She is in my body monitoring all of this and through a complicated system of communications is making changes.”  This same intelligence is worldwide and, indeed, universe wide.  Earth is an integrated system every bit as much as our body.  Furthermore, the surface level intelligence doesn’t know how to listen (which manifest in the words of many women who say that men don’t know how to listen…this is true for how we relate to women AND our inner worlds, which are suppressed at worst or at best turned into media propaganda (e.g., advertising…this is one reason we have created a wasteland).

Suppressing the Feminine externally is the suppression of the Feminine internally.  I recall as a child how many artists, true artists, were ridiculed as being effeminite. Why?  Because they are able to tap into the wild, unruly and surprisingly rebellious or evolutionary Feminine Intelligence.  Deep Femininty is a danger to the status quo for She is the agent of change.  As the Book of Wisdom says, “She renews the world.”  All things change and transform in accordance to Sophia.  This is why the Feminine scares us.  It means dissolution of the old and the birth of the new. 

Anyway, you probably weren’t looking for all of this in a response.  Its the prozac!  Thanks for your post and your work.

–Burl

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I posted some thoughts about the Vatican saying Magdalene and Jesus being married is an insult, a blasphemy against Christianity and that Christians should rise up and riot, bring lawsuits, etc. against those who believe these harmless (and inspiring, if you ask me) things.  I wrote:

Yeah, notice how they are quick to say Christ and the “Church he founded” have been gravely insulted by the suggestion he may have been a full man with a woman and kids in his life yet, yet, YET, they do nothing when those horrible paintings of someone urinating on the crucified Jesus, or defecating on him or Mary are displayed prominently in famous NY (and other city) art galleries.  That is one reason to call a “Christian Fatwa” if you ask me and is similar in theory (altho not degree!) to the Mohammed cartoons.  Just imagine if urine and feces had been done to Mohammed.  They freaked when the pages of a copy of the Koran might have been used as toilet paper when Muslims (and others) burn Torahs, Bibles and flags all the time.

Don’t get me started…. but rock on Margaret for tellin’ ’em like it is — the Church needs the “denigrated Feminine” RESTORED and it ain’t an insult to nobody, least of all Jesus/Yeshua.

Katia

 

Bloodline the Movie, evidence of Magdalene & Jesus in France

Magdalen Papess Card by Robert PlaceEveryone is talking about — and my friend Joan Norton, author of The Mary Magdalene Within, is blogging about — the mysterious film coming out next month called Bloodline: the Movie. The filmmakers interviewed Margaret Starbird whose work we very much appreciate and very much study in our Order of Mary Magdala. Margaret told us on our Yahoogroups forums she doesn’t even remember a word she said the day they interviewed her because producer Bruce Burgess showed up on her doorstep, cameras in tow, just hours after she had learned of the death of her beloved father. She had forgotten he was even coming. Evidently the interview ended up being quite powerful because the Bloodline movie people have posted it in full to their website (click on Screening Room).  I need to go over and have a look. They also have an interview with the supposed head of the Priory of Sion, an organization I thought was basically made-up by Frenchman Pierre Plantard (of Holy Blood Holy Grail fame). The film claims to be following up on the mysteries of the groundbreaking book Holy Blood, Holy Grail (as brought into the public forum by DaVinci Code), a sort of whodunnit digging thru clues and artifacts in France and uncovering a chest of treasures dating to 1st Century France. Somewhere online a few years ago I saw photos of the contents, on a website of one of the filmmakers, I believe. Anyway, there was a scroll (I think) and a cup (the Holy Grail?) and some other items. Very cool. Then the Indiana Jones type explorers found a tomb with a mummy draped in a shroud bearing a red cross.

It sounds a bit fantastic, too good to be true, but hey, I will be in the front row watching the movie and taking notes. Well actually, I don’t live where it’s going to be screening! Bloodline: The Movie is being shown only in limited theaters in Los Angeles — and maybe New York? Joan has it posted on her blog where you can go view it in L.A. on May 9, I think it is. They are going to have a question and answer session after the premier. Then it’s going straight to DVD after that, so the rest of us won’t have to wait too long.

Sophia, copyright Hrana Janto, used with artist permission. Note her wings, holy spirit dove, pregnant belly with crescent moonThe blogs and forums are all discussing the topic and it’s good to have dialog about our favorite Christian “theory”, that Magdalene and Yeshua were married and the Sacred Union is at the heart of Christianity.I say theory because as Margaret Starbird often quips, “we don’t have a marriage certificate!” Having both a Christian Goddess and God is a spiritual “doctrine” that brings Christianity into balance, no longer a lop-sided dysfunctional religion, but one with heart AND soul. I believe Mother Mary was also a Judeo-Christian Goddess, an incarnation of Sophia, the God-ess mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as being co-creator with God, called the Holy Spirit and Tree of Life. See Proverbs 8 and the apocryphal book of Sirach.

You and I have Christian goddesses! — and acknowledging them can make all the difference in our spiritual practices.

As for the Bloodline Movie, I only hope they are not gonna say that mummy is Jesus’, since we just went thru all that agony (and I believe, nonsense, call me a snob) over the Talpiot Tomb.

If they imply it is Magdalene’s body, then okay, I can handle that. I guess I can even be open to it being Yeshua’s, since I do believe after the resurrection he lived among his disciples awhile (one Gnostic text says 11 years!) teaching and getting the teachings preserved. I mean, he died to deliver that message, so it makes sense he’d want them to get it right. Okay, we didn’t said message so well back then, but he, Magdalene and their students seeded the earth’s consciousness so to speak so that now we can get the point, or at least work on getting the mystery. Digging around the ‘Net, contemplating and pondering, researching, studying ancient wisdom, is delving into those mysteries…

What mysteries are you studying, pondering or digging into lately?

–Katia

Told In Memory of Magdalene, Day of His Anointing

The Wednesday of Holy Week is possibly the day Magdalene anointed Jesus with the oil of kings contained in an alabaster jar. To be called Messiah, a word meaning “anointed one”, Jesus had to be anointed at some point in his ministry. The rites of Sacred Marriage known throughout the ancient near east also required an anointing to establish sacred kingship. A priestess representing the holy bride would do the anointing of the sacred king, he would die and then be resurrected 3 days later as a symbol of bringing life (the life of Spring) back to the “dead” earth. The Biblical evidence points to Jesus / Yeshua and Magdalene as having carried out this ancient rite of Sacred Marriage, including the public anointing of the Messiah and King of Kings.

RationalChristianity.net says “The anointing by Mary took place in the last week before Jesus’ death (Jn 12:1, Mt 26:1-2, Mk 14:1), and Jesus said the anointing was for his burial.”

Yeshua then prophesied that Magdalene’s anointing of him did was such a significant gesture it would be told in memory of her for all time. His exact words were: “She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” (Mark 14:9).

On Holy Thursday at the “last supper” Jesus told his students and family to “do this in memory of me,” meaning break bread and drink wine. Interesting the remembrances — both of them sacraments? — that Jesus established.

Our Order of Mary Magdala observes the Wednesday before Good Friday as the day of anointing. There is no proof that it happened on that day, but it is quite possible.

View our esoteric observances of Easter Week.

Attended Margaret Starbird Workshop Today

Husband and I went down to The Villages, Florida this morning to attend a Margaret Starbird workshop. We first met Margaret back in Spring of 1999 in Dallas and have seen her at least once a year since then. This all-day seminar with her was awesome. She had so many new slides, new tidbits, and new anecdotes. Tomorrow she will be in Tampa, then Oklahoma, back home to Washington State, Eugene Oregon (to speak at my friend musician Katherine Conrad’s Unity Church!) followed by her trip to North Carolina in April. Margaret’s full 2008 schedule is on her webpage. She’s got some eclectic items on her page, everything from intriguing artwork with mysterious symbols and their esoteric interpretations to suggested movies with the Magdalene / Yeshua Sacred Union theme.

Nice to hang out with likeminded folk today, many of them senior citizens(!) and see the growing awareness of Her, Our Divine Lady of Christianity. I got some cool new ideas for my popular God Has a Wife! presentation, too… I will be presenting it in Gainesville, Florida in March at our new Christian Goddess live study / devotion group; or come check out our nine year old GoddessChristians forum with 1400 members [Update: Now 1900 members] — all part of the work of restoring the Sacred Feminine to Judeo Christianity from which She was violently removed centuries ago.

Hope to encounter you laboring in this vineyard, too…!

-Katia

June 3rd Wedding at Cana? Jesus & Magdalene’s Anniversary?

Well shoot, I missed it by one day. I meant to post this yesterday on June 3rd.

Carol from Florida (whom I met in Phoenix last month at the 3rd annual Divine Feminine conference) told me according to an Edgar Cayce book, The Life of Jesus, June 3rd is the date of the Wedding at Cana. Has anyone else heard of other dates for Cana?

Carol wrote:

I think Sunday June 3, is the same day as the wedding in Cana, the day Yeshua turned the water to wine.
Do you believe it was the wedding of Yeshua and Magdalen?
I’m having a glass of red wine to celebrate.

I wrote back: Yes, I do believe the wedding at Cana was theirs. On a trip to Israel while on the way to Cana we sat at an intersection for a long time in a bus. I looked out the window and there was a sign saying, “Magdala” and another saying “Cana” with the distance to these villages in kilometers.

A sudden impression came to me confirming a long time suspicion (but I hadn’t been sure) — the wedding was theirs. It all fit together.

Most people who don’t agree it was his wedding cite John 2:2 where it says he was invited to the wedding, which of course a bridegroom would not be invited to his own wedding. They also say John 2:12 indicates Jesus going home with his mother after the wedding, but I disagree about that. It says he and his whole band go to Capernaum for a few days (why is that going home with mother?) and that could be their honeymoon! So there.

So we were supposed to have a glass of red wine yesterday, guys! Never too late — we can have it today in honor of their wedding, in honor of him turning water into wine. The wedding feasts often lasted for a whole week in the ancient world. If not, they would be on their honeymoon about now so we can still drink to them and the Sacred Union!

Katia

Magdalene & Jesus Teachings more important than Bloodline

A longtime friend and correspondent of mine (her name is Lore) wrote the following which I believe sums up nicely how the “bloodline” is not important, not something to obsess over.

Lore writes:

While these matters of possible [bloodline] heritage are interesting, on a personal level I don’t find them too relevant because I focus on the teachings of Yeshua and MM rather than them as historical, which cannot be factually established beyond a reasonable doubt in any case. There is no proof that any of them actually existed, although I believe they did. But the teachings definitely existed no matter its origination.

Bloodline heritage is only important in the context of a tribal or royalty situation. Spiritual heritage is not passed via DNA. Since it is spiritual heritage I am searching for, I don’t focus on family or tribal heritage. In fact, focusing on it can be harmful because it is meant to exclude by establishing an elite class. By the very definition of elite, everyone who isn’t included is excluded and becomes “the other” and even “subhuman.” This elite concept has been used to justify genocide, slavery, and extinction of other species. It has also been used to harm women and deny them their rights for centuries.

There are few facts we can definitely ascertain from the Bible. Those facts have to do with places (such as the existence of Magdala and Nazareth — or nonexistence of same) or events that can be corroborated via historical sources independent of the religious scripture. No where can the existence Yeshua, Mother Mary, MM be independently corroborated, even when one would expect such corroboration to appear, like Roman crucifixion records.

That lack of corroboration does not demean the meaning of these texts. Even if they are completely mythological, they are important. However, they are no more important than the mythologies of other peoples, many of which they pay a striking resemblance to. I know many are consternated over this thought. I find great peace in it because it proves who consistent divine inspiration is.

Science Proves Jesus DID Resurrect? Fabric of Time

Now this looks interesting.  I’ve always believed that the Shroud of Turin, whose marks cannot be duplicated by science and whose carbon dating to the Middle Ages was proved false (it is dated to the Holy Land, first century by pollen and other evidence) proves somebody (or, some -body) resurrected under that cloth.  Most likely Jesus since he’s the one everybody claimed resurrected, on pain of their  own deaths they claimed it.  The science of this is way cool.  Ask our 3rd Degree Templars, they have been given the third degree over this whole Shroud argument…. hee hee, pun certainly intended.

The Fabric of Time television program described below airs this week on Good Friday, which is basically the Christian Yom Kippur — a solemn day for fasting, deep thought and religious contemplation.  I think I will mark on my calendar to watch this show.  As long as there are not too many fundamentalist Christians screaming about me and mine going to hell, I should be able to get thru a mainstream Christian produced documentary.    — Katia

ION NETWORK TO COUNTER JAMES CAMERON’S ‘LOST TOMB OF JESUS’ DOCUDRAMA
Christian Newswire
April 1, 2007

http://www.spcm.org/Journal/spip.php?article8265

DENVER, CO – While former “Titanic” director James Cameron’s recent documentary, The “Lost Tomb of Jesus,” makes what scholars believe to be an unscholarly and poorly documented attempt to refute Christ’s Resurrection, the world premiere of “The Fabric of Time: Secrets of the Universe” reveals new evidence of Christ’s Resurrection through numerous scientific disciplines. The “Fabric of Time” documentary will air on the ION Network (formerly PAX-TV) on Good Friday, April 6th at 10 PM EST (Check your local TV listing).

Produced by Grizzly Adams Productions with a team of 28 veteran scientific
researchers, historians, forensic scientists, botanists, theologians, and biblical archaeologists, the feature-length program analyzes historic records, an ancient burial shroud, current medical knowledge, and scripture to build a compelling case for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“When viewers see our show that scientifically examines the 2000-year-old burial cloth which many scientists now believe wrapped the crucified body of Jesus Christ, there will be no doubt about how baseless and full of holes James Cameron’s ‘Lost Tomb’ show really is that aired on the Discovery Channel,” says David Balsiger, senior producer of “The Fabric of Time” documentary.

Startling new discoveries by physicists and other scientists around the world are shedding new light on one of the world’s most controversial and revered artifact, an ancient burial cloth known as the Shroud of Turin. Even though this piece of linen has been revered by millions of people the world over for two thousand years as the true burial shroud of Jesus Christ, that belief was swept aside by Carbon 14 (C14) tests in 1988 which concluded the fabric itself was of medieval origin. Science, it seemed, had trumped faith. But had it?

Even though three labs each separately determined that the cloth was 600-700 years old dating to about 1350 A.D., the Grizzly Adams show will reveal new scientific evidence by the late Ray Rogers, a Los Alamos National Laboratory chemist, that proves the C-14 test was in fact done on a rewoven and patched area of the shroud after a fire destroyed portions of the burial cloth in 1532. The C-14 date is accurate for the patch but not the Shroud.

“As a spiritual phenomenon the Shroud should be left to theology to discuss,” said Dame Isabel Piczek, a particle physicist and monumental artist of international repute. “But the bodily resurrection, the Shroud of Turin and the whole circumstance of the image on the Shroud involves matter, although matter seen in a startlingly different way. What we have here is probably a new branch of quantum physics that will tell us new findings about our universe.”

The Shroud is a piece of ancient linen cloth 14 feet 3 inches long by 3 feet 7 inches wide. It contains a negative image of a man who appears to have been severely beaten and crucified. The front and backside of the man’s body are imprinted on the burial cloth. By using laser technology, two-dimensional photographic negatives of the image become anatomically accurate three-dimensional holograms of a man. Identifying this man and discovering the process that created such a scientifically advanced image of a human body thousands of years ago has captivated scientists and scholars for centuries.

Balsiger noted that throughout history thinking men and women have wrestled with the question: Does indisputable evidence exist to prove the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? “We’ve researched all the relevant elements to which thoughtful people appeal when addressing this timeless theme. We feel strongly that ‘The Fabric of Time’ will convince the most skeptical observer about the historical legitimacy of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection.”

The film reveals that following His death, Jesus was seen by numerous people, both believers and non-believers. “There were at least 500 eyewitnesses in and around Jerusalem who actually saw or talked with Jesus after his resurrection,” explained Balsiger. “Beyond the Bible, there are more than 20 non-Christian sources written between 30 and 130 A.D. that refer to Jesus of Nazareth as a historical figure. Twelve mention his death and provide details on how he died. Ten of these refer to his resurrection.”

One of the most fascinating parts of the program shows how holographic scientists in Holland created a three-dimensional holographic image of the Shroud face and body of Jesus Christ. “In all nearly fifty scientific discoveries on the Shroud tie this burial cloth to the biblical account of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ,” said Balsiger.

“Viewers will see the newly discovered scientific information presented by scientists and scholars that gives a never before seen up-close look at a three-dimensional view of the face of Christ and His entire body,” said Dr. Petrus Soons, who directed the holographic research with laser scientists in Holland. “It’s absolutely breathtaking. This is truly historic — it is an image the world has never seen.”

Dame Piczek thinks that the image was created in an infinitesimally small fraction of a second. But, she says, the image may have been created by a complex process arising as Christ’s body passed from one form of existence into another. She notes that it may be “Something akin to the Big Bang, but at the opposite end of the creation continuum — a portal opens into a new science and eventually into a new form of human existence.”

In 2004, Dame Piczek, working independently made a discovery that could change everything we think we know about the world we live in. Time, space and energy apparently interact in a way never before predicted. This discovery soon received support from two completely independent sources : a group of laser scientists and a former U.S. Apollo astronaut. According to some observers, this new information could ignite a scientific revolution, or perhaps even provide something much more important to mankind . . . like the secrets of life itself . . . perhaps even eternal life.

Dame Piczek, was fascinated by the total lack of distortion on the Shroud image, a physical impossibility if the body had been lying on solid rock. She created a full-sized, three-dimensional reproduction of the body and discovered what she believes to be a true “event horizon,” or, a moment when all the laws of physics change drastically.

“Two things are immediately obvious ; the image-forming action at a distance had ‘nothing to do with gravity’ . . . and the new field does not have an anti-field, otherwise the two images would not show the same exact system,” says Dame Piczek. “Summarizing all of these qualities, the Shroud puts us in the realm of raw creation . . . we have nothing less in the tomb of Christ than the beginning of a new Universe.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, a former U.S. Apollo astronaut, the 6th man to walk on the moon and the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, was also searching for a way to describe the quantum universe and came up with his own discovery. In the show, according to Dr. Mitchell : “If you analyze all the emissions from any physical object . . . that’s called a quantum hologram, and what we now know that we didn’t know before is that every object is a quantum object !”

Forensic scientists and chemists have determined that the bloodstains on the shroud are real human blood and contain DNA. Botanists and paleontologists have identified pollen grains on the shroud fibers as coming from various plants, some of which grow only within the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem. Other images on the shroud — flower blossoms and an identifiable coin on each eye (both Pontius Pilate widow’s mite coins minted between 29 and 33 A.D.) — have been examined in microscopic detail.

Joseph Meier, writer and producer of the program pointed out that, “Everyone who has seen the holographic images believes they solve the mystery of what Christ really looked like and agrees that, taken as a whole, it appears the Shroud provides ample scientific evidence of the literal Resurrection of Christ. It just might be,” he continued, “that instead of science proving the Shroud is authentic . . . the image on the Shroud is proving the accuracy of the science.”

Grizzly Adams Productions in-part based the TV Special/DVD on two books by Oxford-educated author Ian Wilson : New York Times bestseller “The Shroud of Turin,” (Doubleday) and “The Blood and the Shroud” (Touchstone), as well as “The Shroud of Turin” (Providence House) by Dr. Alan Whanger and his wife, Mary.

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Article sent to me by the “In Search of Jesus” News List on YahooGroups