For our Order of Mary Magdala we have a set of lessons based on the most-inspiring book, Saint Mary Magdalene: The Gnostic Tradition of the Holy Bride, by Tau Malachi.
On page 43 in the section titled, the Union of the Bride & Yeshua there is a reference made to what Sophian gnostics call the Gnosis of Melchizedek. It reads:
“The Virgin & the Whore
Now it has been said that the Mother was the virgin and that the Bride was the whore, and both were called “Mary.” Why should the Mother be called a Virgin and the Bride called a whore? Because Mother Sophia is concealed and Bride Sophia is revealed. Anyone who seeks to know the Holy Bride will know her, but no one shall know the Mother, save the Daughter.
There is a great mystery in this, for the Mother gives birth to the Son of the Father, and the Son recognizes the Holy Bride, who is the image of her Mother. Beholding the Daughter, the Son beholds the Mother; yet Mother Sophia is ever-transcendent and it is the Daughter who is realized.
The Mother remains ever in her purity, without taint, trace, stain, nor mark, and this is also true of the Bride. Yet the Bride becomes everything and everyone, and appears to have taint and trace and stain and mark! The Mother is transparent, but the Daughter is visible light and glory and she is also fire and darkness; though in her inmost essence, the Daughter is the Mother.
Thus it has been said that Logos came for the salvation of Bride Sophia, for it is she who was bound under the dominion of the demiurgos and became the whore to the archons and even to Satan. Is not Logos the presence of awareness through which cosmic ignorance is dispelled and Wisdom nature recognized, thus enlightening and liberating the soul? A great mystery is revealed in this, for in the inmost secret teachings, the Mother and the Son and the Bride are merely personifications — what they are exists within you and is your own bornless nature. This is called the Gnosis of Melchizedek.(13) [Footnote 13: The body of inmost secret teachings of enlightenment among Sophians.]
St. Mary Magdalene sought to impart these inmost secret teachings after the Lord’s ascension. Even among the chosen apostles, few would listen and hear the secret teachings from her because she was a woman. Indeed! Rejected, the Bride was labeled a “whore” in the ignorance of men! “
