Magdalene's life - part 3

Wow -- this is the first time I've sat down today -- I've been very busy packing the house for moving. (Hiring someone to do it would cost too much $$$... sure would be easier though.)
Alright! Time for my Magdalene post of the day. Last post I promised more about MM's personal life, and I hope to deliver just that. Let's see...

Magdalene as a prostitute. This has been debated widely by historians, after the first mention of it was by Pope Gregory III the Great. All of my research has lead me to this:
Magdalene's family had sent Mary off from her home in Magdalea, to marry a rich man in Bethany, when Mary was only 15 years old. Along the way, Mary was attacked by bandits -- who raped her and took everything she had. All her money, her donkey, supplies and food. The only thing Mary still had with her was her bottle of costly perfume. Back in the day, woman were forbid to work, so Mary's only option of survival was to become a prostitute. Out of this, she bore a daughter, who she named "Tamar". When Tamar was 12, Mary's sins were cast out by Yeshua (Jesus), obviously ending her "career" as a prostitute.

Magdalene's appearance.
 If you search "Mary Magdalene" on the internet, most likely it will pull up pictures of a young girl with long, red hair. Mary's home, in Magdalea, Israel, probably had a percentage of 0% red heads. Even any European browns/blondes would be quite rare. The idea of Mary being a redhead came from her repenting for her sins -- she became known as the woman whose sins were forgiven. (Red is often the representation color for sinfulness.)          

This is a better interpretation of her:  

 

As oppose to: 

(Red robes, red hair.)
Alright, I think I've pretty much covered everything I wanted. Pretty short post I know, I'll try and be better next time. 

Thank you for reading! I will write part 4 soon, but I haven't planned it out yet. Hopefully tomorrow I will have more down-time to write!
~~Clarabelle

 

Magdalene's life - part 2

It's hard to top that last gospel post, but maybe I can provide a more serious post this time.

First -- let's start with the Gospel of Mary. It starts off,  " These are sayings, spoken by Salome the Maiden in the name of St. Mary Magdalene, which women of wisdom have held in trust. Mary said, “If you know the Woman of Light, you will know your Mother and be reborn of the Mother Spirit as a child of light. Because the light is bornless, you will have eternal life."
All in all, the gospel has 249 sayings in it. Some I was VERY impressed with, and I actually forwarded quite a lot of female-powered ones to my mother during her divorce with my father. Here are my 5 favorites:

1. A woman asked Mary, “How can a woman be holy?” Mary said, “The man who is holy knows he is no man, therefore it is the same for a woman. Those who see male and female see only an appearance, for inwardly there is neither female nor male. These appearances are like shadows, and those who grasp at shadows and do not look to the Light miss the mark of Truth.”

2.  Mary said, “You go down into the water and you die, because the reflection is shattered on the surface. When you rise up you come alive, for knowing your origin you no longer cling to a reflection or an image, but are reborn of your true essence. The nature of this essence is no-thing, and knowing this you will rule over the entirety.”

3. A woman said to Mary, “You are the holiness of womanhood we have been waiting to see.” Mary said to her, “What have you been doing while you were waiting? If you see this in me, then it is in you. All the while it has been with you! What were you waiting for?” 

4. Mary said, “You say I am a woman, but see, I am a man, and I am a woman, and I am neither man nor woman. You go looking for the anointed, but do not see. So long as you are looking, you will not see. When your seeking comes to an end, you will find.”

5. A man asked Mary, “Who is greater, you or Yeshua?” Mary said to him, “Truly I tell you, the Anointed is the Anointed, whether male or female, and the Anointed is exalted above every head, even the highest among the angels in heaven and Aeons of Light. As for Yeshua, he is greater than I, for I received everything from him. And so it is for every disciple, he or she is never greater than the teacher.”



Amazing. Obviously, Mary is a very wise woman.  Mary once said, “Blessed is one who knows sorrow and suffering, for that person will know life.”. Is that true or what? I could write about this amazing gospel all day, but for now I must move on. 
There is a gospel called "The Gospel of Pistis Sophia", which revolutionized Gnostic beliefs. In this gospel, I saw a new side to this angel of a woman -- my gosh, she talked, and talked, and TALKED. I actually found myself giggling, when Peter Simon, her rival apostle, pretty much told her to shut up already. This is what he said:
"My Lord, we will not endure this woman, for she has taketh the opportunity from us, and hath let none of us speak, but she discoursed many times."
And Mary got back at him with:
"My Lord, I am scared of Peter; for he hateth our sex."
        Well, things just got awkward real fast.  
Great reason to be scared of him, Mary. Anyway... off that extremely awkward topic... 

In the Gospel of Thomas, it only has 2 short references to Mary. I minds well include them:

Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary go forth from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. Jesus said: Behold, I shall lead her, that I may make her male, in order that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who makes herself male shall enter into the kingdom of heaven

Feminists/Historians argue that he meant to make her a living spirit, and not just "male". (as Mary said:  “You say I am a woman, but see, I am a man, and I am a woman, and I am neither man nor woman. You go looking for the anointed, but do not see. So long as you are looking, you will not see. When your seeking comes to an end, you will find.”) So I believe Peter Simon is the sexist one here.

Second:

Mary asks Jesus, "Whom are your disciples like?" Jesus responds, "They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field.' They [will] undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them"

I honestly have no idea what that means.

Now, moving on, the Gospel of Philip. This even mentions Mary in a way different than a lot of gospels, here it states her as His "companion" -- read here:

There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister, his mother and his companion were each a Mary.

:later: 

And the companion of the saviour was Mary Magdalene. Christ loved Mary more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Saviour answered and said to them, "Why do I not love you like her?"

                                            Burnn.  

*yawns* Goodness, I'm tired. It's 7 PM, ugh, guess I should rap this up.

Thanks everyone for reading! Next up: Mary's personal life
~~Clarabelle
 

 
       

Beginning -- Magdalene's life, part 1

As Rebecca West had said, "I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that difference me from a doormat or a prostitute.", and while that might not be true for most women, it surely is for Mary Magdalene.
One night, I was awake very late. Thinking to myself, "Imagine, if Mary Magdalene was born male. She would be in the Bible, as a strong role model, and even maybe the Lord's husband. Imagine that." Smiling to myself, I made a mental note to remember that. Just how crazy it would be.
Even if there were never any canonical/non-canonical gospels found with Mary M in them, just in the Bible alone there would be enough to prove Mary in fact was Yeshua's (Jesus) wife. Let's start:

First off, remember the scene where the unnamed woman (In LUKE if I'm correct) comes into Pharisee's house, and anoints the Lord's feet with perfume with her hair? Well, I can honest -- woman back then had to keep their hair covered, otherwise it would be considered dirty -- and I'm just going to be frank, it'd be the equal to a modern-day woman revealing her breasts in public. So yeah. Unless Mary was, erm, "free-spirited", perhaps, she probably would be modest enough to control herself -- unless maybe around her husband... hint hint. (I honestly can't understand why Biblical historians can't take note of that.)  

Second, Mary is sent to anoint the Lord's body, when she finds out he has risen. Back then, it was a costumed for a wife to prepare her husband's body for burial. (If the wife wasn't available/dead, it would be given to a mother or sister. Only a woman very close to the man would get this task.)

And, on top of that, there have been many, many Gospels with Mary in them. Some even go as far as this:

"...It was the season when the bright morning star heralds the passage of the sun in the gate of the east. As the morning star arose, Mary spoke, saying, 'My Lord, why have you brought me out here? Why do you touch an unclean woman, for you are a Holy Man and it is forbidden by the law?' Yeshua said, 'Woman, I am the fulfillment of the law. The purpose of the law is to bind the demiurgos and archons and to destroy the hold of the devil, not to bind the soul of the human one. I have brought you here because you shall be my bride and consort, and I shall be your Lord and husband. In you, the Soul of the World shall be redeemed.' Mary said, 'I know you are my Beloved, but how can this be? You do not understand who I have become, that I am unclean defiled, so that no righteous man can take me as his wife.' Yeshua said to her, 'The woman of whom you speak of is not the woman who sits with me now. You speak of the dead, but you are among the living. Yesterday no longer exists, tomorrow has not yet come to pass. The only existence is today, and those who are alive today are the living ones. My beloved, I receive you as you are and you as you were before you were born and as you forever shall be, the illumination and glory of this I Am.' 

When Mary heard these words, she cried out saying, 'My Beloved, My Savior, My Soul and My Truth-Adonai!' And they embraced and the Lord kissed her on the lips for the first time. ..." 

D'awwwww... that was sweet. I can honestly say this is very canonical, in my mind at least, and I cannot see why it shouldn't be elsewhere. (That, OR I could just change names and certain words, and write a best-selling love story. Ya know.) 

Alright, I'll rap it up. I said what I wanted, and it was great. Next I will be going into more Gospels, as many as there is. Not sure anything can beat that one though. 

Thanks for reading! Woo! 

~~Clarabelle 

some above has been referenced from Tau Malachi @ LLEWELLYN