The astonishing
success of Dan Brown’s bestselling book, The Da Vinci
Code, and the radical overreaction to it by orthodox and fundamental
forms of Christianity is revealing; obviously its subject
strikes a powerful cord in our psyche. Although Brown’s
work is fictional, the subject of a sacred relationship between
Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the inclusion of the Sacred Feminine,
and the mystery of the Holy Grail all touch a deep part of
us – a place that intuits a greater and archetypal truth.
Whether knowingly or unknowingly, when Dan Brown writes about
secret societies preserving the inner and mystical tradition
of original Christianity, and of secret knowledge being passed
down from one generation to another concerning mysteries of
hieros gamos or the “sacred marriage,” he points
directly to living traditions of Gnostic Christianity. The
mysteries are only partially spoken in his book, and the context
in which they are put may differ from the teachings of actual
gnostic traditions. However, the basic ideas presented accord
very well with the Sophia Tradition of Gnostic Christianity.
Some four years ago, as I was writing the sections of The
Gnostic Gospel of St. Thomas that discuss the relationship
between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, I had no idea the subject
would become so popular. Today, of course, I’m constantly
being asked what Sophian Gnosticism teaches about this sacred
relationship. And though the subject is approached in my book,
there is certainly more that can be shared.
First, it must be said that
nowhere in the New Testament does it state that Jesus was
celibate. As a matter of fact, in Judaism an unmarried man
is considered incomplete. Typically, all Jewish holy men –
teachers and prophets alike – were married. It would
have been highly unusual for a recognized rabbi (teacher)
to be single. Originally, Christianity was a Jewish spiritual
movement, and Jesus taught Jewish individuals primarily. Bearing
that in mind, it would have been easier for students to accept
that Jesus was married than to accept a rabbi unwilling or
unable to sustain a marriage. This is quite the opposite of
the unnatural view we have been lead to believe – that
the union of Jesus with a wife and consort would somehow diminish
his spiritual status. The truth is that it would have exalted
him all the more, and this is precisely the Sophian view.
Jesus’s interactions
with various women as recorded in the gospels prove very interesting
when one understands the plight of women in ancient Palestine.
At that time, Jewish women had no legal standing, could not
own property in their own name, could not bear witness in
court, and could not speak in their own defense. They could,
however, be divorced on a whim by a man. They had little part
in Jewish spirituality at the time, and certainly did not
hold spiritual authority or have the right to be taught directly
by a holy man. Yet, Jesus teaches a Samaritan woman at a well,
and she goes into her town and brings others to him, bearing
witness of him. He praises a poor widow who gives all that
she has into his circle’s treasury. He delivers a woman
from a death sentence for adultery, and he heals a woman considered
unclean from a twelve-year illness. He even raises a young
girl, the daughter of Jairus, from the dead. Again and again
he appears relating directly with women. When male disciples
attempt to keep children away from him, as though they were
an inconvenience, he insists on seeing them and blessing them,
in accordance with the wishes of the mothers who brought their
children to him. In other words, he had a radically different
view of the feminine than others in the time and place in
which he lived. It would seem that he intended to bring about
a balance between the masculine and feminine in the spirituality
he taught.
In the gospels when Jesus
sends his disciples out to teach and initiate he sends them
in pairs, telling them two must go out together. In a letter
to the Corinthians, there is an interesting hint as to what
the disciples going out to minister in pairs might have actually
meant. We have been lead to believe that it was the twelve
male disciples sent out in pairs, yet it is written: “Do
we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife,
as do other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?”
(I Corinthians 9:5) This seems to allude to a man and woman
going out together to teach and initiate, not two men unaccompanied
by women. Likewise, it reflects the idea that the balance
between male and female was likely a strong part of the original
Jesus movement.
Although the place of the
Sacred Feminine and the sacred relationship between Jesus
and Mary is never spoken outright in the canonical gospels,
there certainly are some interesting hints.
For example: In addition to
St. John, three women have the faith and courage to be present
at the crucifixion. Meanwhile, all of the other men are in
hiding, too afraid to show their faces. Interestingly enough,
the image of three women brings to mind the three principles
of the Sacred Feminine and the cycles of a woman’s life
– the maid, mother, and crone.
Women accompany Mary Magdalene
to the tomb of Jesus, as if they were serving as an escort
to a widow in mourning. And it is to Mary Magdalene that the
Risen Savior first appears, as though to his most dearly beloved.
In the Sophian Tradition, the woman who anoints the body of
Jesus with costly perfume before the crucifixion, though unnamed,
is said to be Mary Magdalene. This alludes to a priestess-queen
preparing a priest-king for a rite of sacred sacrifice –
a mythical event commonly associated with the pre-Christian
mystery traditions of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece.
In other words, there are hints even in the canonized Scriptures
of a deeper mystery transpiring in the Gospel – one
that included the Sacred Feminine and the supreme mystery
of hieros gamos.
Gnostic Scriptures are significantly
more straightforward with regard to the sacred relationship
between Jesus and Mary Magdalene; the inclusion of the Sacred
Feminine; and the mystery of hieros gamos in the Christ revelation.
In the Gospel of St. Thomas – albeit in a somewhat awkward
fashion – the final saying clearly cites the equality
of men and women by putting forth a statement of Jesus saying
he will make Mary Magdalene “male” like the men
who are his disciples. In saying this of Mary, he says this
of all women – that in Spirit they are equal to men.
The Gospel of St. Philip goes even further, clearly stating
that Mary Magdalene was the wife and consort of Jesus, and
that he taught her more than any of his male disciples. This
gospel even alludes to her as Jesus’s equal and co-preacher
of the Gospel. In the Gnostic Gospel entitled Pistis Sophia
(“Faith-Wisdom”), Mary Magdalene is portrayed
as his inmost disciple and serves in a capacity much like
that of a divine muse; inspiring and facilitating the outpouring
of secret knowledge from the Risen Savior.
The sacred texts of Gnosticism
found in the Nag Hammadi library get even more explicit if
one understands the language of initiates of ancient Mystery
Schools. According to Gnostic Scriptures, there are five sacred
rites: baptism, chrism, wedding feast, ransom, and the bridal
chamber. The term “wedding feast” is what Christian
Gnostics call the eucharist of bread and wine, while the term
“bridal chamber” connotes the mystery of hieros
gamos (the sacred marriage). Although the exoteric idea of
redemption from sin may play of role in the rite of the holy
eucharist as performed in some traditions of Gnostic Christianity,
the true nature of “salvation” is, in fact, quite
different. The idea is not so much a salvation from “original
sin,” but salvation by restoration to the original blessing,
which occurs in the unification of male and female. Accordingly,
the bread represents the Logos and the wine represents the
Sophia, the male and female aspects of the Christos. Thus
the eucharist is a ceremony celebrating their mystical union
or sacred marriage – the union of the Divine Masculine
and Feminine through which all creation transpires, as well
as redemption through divine illumination.
This original blessing is
reflected in Genesis in the story of the creation of the First
Adam (literally, the first human being). At the outset, Adam
is both male and female and therefore in a state of hieros
gamos. It is only when there is a division between male and
female – Adam and Eve – that cosmic ignorance
enters into play and the “fall” from a state of
grace transpires. Thus, from a Sophian perspective, it is
through the dynamic balance and unification of the masculine
and feminine that “redemption” through divine
illumination occurs. The male and female are actualized and
made complete in one another. And, in their union, the great
creative power of Divine Being flows through them. This state
of restoration to unity of the male and female is called the
Second Adam, the Great Seth, or the Image of the Bridal Chamber
in Sophian Gnosticism.
This alludes to a very different
meaning in the symbol of the cross as it is understood in
some schools of Christian Gnosticism. Like the symbol of the
lingam-yoni in Eastern Tantric Traditions, which represents
the union of the Divine Male and Female energy, the holy cross
bears the same meaning in Gnosticism: the vertical axis is
the Divine Masculine, Christ the Logos, and the horizontal
axis is the Divine Feminine, Christ the Sophia. These two
cosmic principles are personified by Jesus and Mary Magdalene
in the Gnostic Gospel as taught in the Sophian Tradition.
In Sophian teachings, first
and foremost this union of masculine and feminine principles
is understood inwardly, within oneself – a “sacred
marriage” the male and female aspects of ourselves on
psychic and spiritual levels. On a psychic level (or mental-emotional
level), this means the union of the male and female aspects
of our psyche through which our personality and life-display
are brought into a full and harmonious manifestation and our
true intelligence and creativity becomes expressed. On a spiritual
level, it is the union of the heavenly and earthly aspects
of our soul of Light through which we experience various states
of higher consciousness or divine illumination.
Yet, in the Sophian teachings,
this union is not exclusive to the spiritual and psychic levels.
It is also spoken of in terms of physical union – a
sensual and sexual mysticism that views love-play as a holy
sacrament that embodies the Light of the original blessing
in which we were conceived, both above and below. In other
words, the Sophian teachings propose a dynamic balance between
heaven and earth in our lives. They consider our bodies and
lives as sacred expressions of our souls of Light. The body
and soul are equally holy from a Sophian point of view.
If the idea of Jesus as married
seems strange or offensive, or the idea of the inclusion of
our bodies and sexuality in our spirituality sounds outrageous,
then there is certainly something within us in dire need of
being acknowledged and healed. Quite frankly, the idea that
our bodies and sexuality must be excluded from our spiritual
life and practice, or are in some way opposed to enlightenment
or God, is a strange and unnatural idea that makes very little
sense (at least from a Sophian perspective). After all, our
bodies and lives are part of God’s creation. So is the
drive of creatures to the joy of procreation, and our own
recreation in our human experience of love and sexuality.
If this is true, then the whole of ourselves and our lives
is inherently sacred and holy, assuming we open ourselves
to embody something of the Divine within them. Isn’t
this the true message of the myth of the Divine Incarnation
central to the Gospel: that the human being is meant to embody
something of Divine Being? Such embodiment of Divine Being
implies a complete integration of the Divine into all aspects
of ourselves and our lives. This must necessarily include
our body and sexuality also; hence the celebration of hieros
gamos on all levels.
To the Gnostic Christian,
the belief that Mary Magdalene was the wife and divine consort
of Jesus does not diminish him as the Christ-bearer. Rather,
this Gnostic view includes her as Christ-bearer also, so that
in the sacred marriage of Jesus and Magdalene we have an image
of Christed manhood and Christed womanhood – supernal
or Messianic consciousness embodied in male and female form.
To speak of the enlightenment and liberation of all human
beings, but to reject the idea of an enlightened woman does
not seem to make much sense. How would Christ-consciousness
be different whether embodied by a man or a woman? Why would
women be isolated from it? These are certainly questions Sophians
would ask, and questions that are integral to the Sophian
view of the Gospel.
There is a plethora of myths
and legends in the oral tradition of Sophian Gnosticism, including
various myths concerning the Holy Grail. In the Sophian Gospel,
this holy relic is not created by Joseph of Arimathea, but
by St. Mary Magdalene. While some stories speak of the Grail
as an actual cup in which Mary caught some of the blood and
water flowing from the side of the Savior, others clearly
speak of Mary herself as the Holy Grail. This idea plays out
in a number of different ways.
There certainly are teachings
that tell us Jesus and Mary conceived a child through their
sacred marriage, and that tell us about the mystery of the
Sangreal as the lineage of the royal blood-line that followed.
One can only wonder at the kind of soul such parents might
draw into incarnation while enacting the mystery of the hieros
gamos. Truly, it would seem a soul of a very high grade would
be drawn into such a sacred and holy union. Indeed! This is
reflected by the name given to the child in Sophian legends,
St. Michael, a name literally meaning “one who is like
unto God.” Other legends speak of a daughter named Sarah,
which is the name of the “Mother of the True Faith.”
The idea of Mary Magdalene
as the Holy Grail goes beyond this, however. As the divine
consort of Jesus, the Sophian teachings propose that the full
Supernal Light of the Messiah pours into her. They speak of
her as the inmost disciple of Jesus to whom he imparted all
teachings; the outer, inner, and secret teachings, along with
their corresponding initiations. Likewise, as the first to
receive the gnosis of the Risen Savior, she is the First Apostle,
and bearing the full teachings of the Gospel, she is the Apostle
of the apostles – the foundation of the True Church,
from a Sophian perspective. Essentially, all streams of the
apostolic succession flow out through her, as though she is
a Holy Grail overflowing with secret knowledge and wisdom
that “feeds the hungry, gives drink to the thirsty,
and heals the sick.” Thus, she is the embodiment of
Christ the Sophia, just as Yeshua is the embodiment of Christ
the Logos in the Sophian Gospel. Through their union the full
Light of the Messiah shines forth; hence the metaphor of the
Holy Child called “St. Michael.”
These ideas are not exclusive
or necessarily original to Gnostic Christianity. But, as I
mentioned above, they reflect the influence of the gnosis
within the ancient pagan Mystery Schools of the Middle East,
along with the influence of Jewish gnosis taught in Merkavah
Mysticism and the Kabbalah. They have existed in human consciousness
for a very long time, and no doubt will continue to echo and
resurface in various forms. By nature, these ideas are archetypal
and are innate to our human experience. They are integral
to who and what we are as human beings. So it is not surprising
that a fictional book based upon them will strike a very deep
cord in us and attract a lot of attention, both positive and
negative. Something in us feels there is some truth to what
Dan Brown is writing about, and that part of us is correct
– there is some truth to it, on some level. Indeed!
There always have been individuals who believed Jesus was
married to Mary Magdalene, from the very outset of Christianity,
and who believed she played an essential role in the Christ
revelation. Likewise, there have been and are now secret societies
or esoteric orders that preserve oral traditions surrounding
these beliefs, some of which, perhaps, are becoming a bit
more open with their views and teachings in modern times and,
thus, a bit less secretive.
There is certainly much more
than can be said on these mysteries. Ihe oral tradition among
Sophians, there is a wealth of myth and legend concerning
Mary Magdalene and her flight to what has come to be known
as Southern France. In The Gnostic Gospel of St. Thomas, as
well as my forthcoming books, more of the oral tradition among
Sophians about the Holy Bride, St. Mary Magdalene, will be
disclosed, along with other Gnostic teachings.
If I were to share something
practical here it would be this: If one simply opens one’s
mind and heart to the idea of the sacred marriage of Jesus
and Mary Magdalene — and specifically to St. Mary Magdalene
herself — and one contemplates her and meditates upon
her, one will find her presence quite healing and might experience
an amazing transformation in one’s consciousness and
life. She tends to have that effect on women and men alike!
This is enough to invoke a spiritual or mystical experience
of Mary Magdalene if one desires to know her. It is said that
her presence is swift to come to those who believe in her
and who seek her – she is always very near! Perhaps
this is also part of the power of The Da Vinci Code and other
books being published in which Mary Magdalene plays a part
– they naturally invoke the presence of the Sacred Feminine,
of which she is a powerful personification.
Authors Details:
Jesus & Mary Magdalene: The Sacred Marriage in Gnosticism
- Tau Malachi
Malachi eben Ha-Elijah's spiritual journey began when
he met the acquaintance of a Tau of the Sophian Tradition
of Gnostic Christianity, Tau Elijah ben Miriam. He received
the oral tradition of Sophian Gnosticism from Tau Elijah,
and has been a student and practitioner of Gnostic Christianity
for over thirty-five years. In 1983 he founded Sophia
Fellowship as an expression of the tradition, and has
been teaching and initiating others into Christian Gnosticism,
Rosicrucian Philosophy and Christian Kabbalah since
that time. - Unknown Web Site |
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