Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
04-05-12
Blog
Bride of the Easter Mysteries
In the Christian Gospels, the anointing of Jesus by the woman with the Alabaster occurred several days before the Passover...John's Gospel says "six days before the Passover" and Mark says "two days before." Matthew places the event during Holy Week (copying Mark nearly verbatim) and Luke takes the whole scenario away from Bethany and places it early in the ministry of Jesus in some unnamed town in Galilee, calling the woman a "sinner." Only John names the woman who anointed Jesus: Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, but he borrows a significant detail from Luke: the woman "wiped her tears from his feet with her hair." In any case, the event did not occur on "Holy Thursday" (Passover) but rather, a few days earlier. The Catholic Church celebrates the "Feast of the Holy Chrism" on the Tuesday before Good Friday (Mark's "two days before Passover").... Jesus admonished his disciples to tell and retell the story of the anointing "in memory of her."
From "Heures d'Etienne Chevalier" illumination
by Jean Fouquet c. 1452-1460
Those who claim that Mary’s most significant role was as “Apostle to the apostles” miss the importance of the connection of the Passion story with the "sacred marriage" and sacrificed king mythologies of the ancient world. The whole passion story (IMO) begins with the anointing of Jesus by a woman--a royal "Bride" who represents her land and people, the "assembly" (Greek "ekklesia") as Bride of the Sacred King. Together they are reenacting the ancient rites of "hieros gamos" (sacred marriage) which celebrates the eternal return of the Life Force in the springtime in the northern hemisphere. The Bride anoints the King at the banquet, reminiscent of the scenario in the Song of Songs. The royal Bride and Bridegroom consummate their marriage, and then, later in the liturgical sequence of these ancient (pagan) rites, the King is arrested, tortured, mutilated, executed /sacrificed and laid in a tomb. After a period, usually on the third day, the Bride and her maidens return to the tomb to mourn the deceased King and are overjoyed to find him resurrected in the garden.
Haven't we heard this story before? It's a very similar story in the myths of other god/goddess couples in the ancient Near East (Tammuz /Ishtar, Adonis/Aphrodite, Attis/Cybele, Isis/Osiris, Astarte/Baal. Easter is named for “Oestare,” a pagan goddess derivative of Ishtar and Astarte. This ancient rite of the Bride mourning the deceased king also provides the scenario presented in Micah 4:8-11, the prophetic passage addressed to the "Magdal-eder," that sums up the story of Mary Magdalene in four short lines: "Why are you crying? Have you no King."
How can we fail to notice the "Bride of the Easter Mysteries"? It was the role of the royal Bride to anoint her husband and to meet him resurrected in the garden.
Some would have us call Mary Magdalene by the title coined for her by Hippolytus of Rome (150-235): "Apostle to the Apostles."
Won't that make her about equal to Peter? We know the Magdalene was requested to carry the Good News of the resurrection to the other apostles--but is that really her most important role? Her greatest claim to fame?
Claiming the important role of Apostle for Mary Magdalene may give women in the Church a voice and some added authority within its walls----but it will never heal the desert or make the flowers bloom! The "sacred marriage/hieros gamos" was never about "Mrs. Jesus." It's about the sacred partnership of "Logos" and "Sophia" at the very heart of the Christian story—a hieros gamos partnership that was to have been our birthright---sadly broken in the cradle of Christianity. It can only be restored when Mary Magdalene is restored to her proper role as the "Divine Complement" of Christ. This story is not about sex in the first century; it's about imaging the Divine as intimate partners in a "sacred symbiosis"--creating a mandala for balance: the "Cosmic Dance."
We celebrate the "Sacred Reunion" of the Beloveds in the garden on Easter morning-- the "eternal return" of the Life Force.
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Noli me tangere ("Don't touch me")
Alexander Ivanov (1806-1858)
Lilium Regis
by Francis Thompson (1910)
O Lily of the King! low lies thy silver
wing,
And long has been the hour of thine
unqueening;
And thy scent of Paradise on the
night-wind spills its sighs,
Nor any take the secrets of its
meaning.
O Lily of the King! I speak a heavy
thing,
O patience, most sorrowful of
daughters!
Lo, the hour is at hand for the
troubling of the land,
And red shall be the breaking of the
waters.
Sit fast upon thy stalk, when the blast
shall with thee talk,
With the mercies of the king for thine
awning;
And the just understand that thine hour
is at hand,
thine hour at hand with power in the
dawning.
When the nations lie in blood, and
their kings a broken brood,
Look up, O most sorrowful of daughters!
Lift up thy head and hark what sounds
are in the dark,
For His feet are coming to thee on the
waters!
O Lily of the King! I shall not see, that sing,
I shall not see the hour of thy
queening!
But my song shall see, and wake,
like a
flower that dawn-winds shake,
and sigh with joy the odours of its
meaning.
O
Lily of the King, remember then the timing
that this dead mouth sang; and thy
daughters,
as they dance before His way, sing
there on the Day,
what I sang when the Night was on the
waters!
* * * * *
03-04-12
Saint Barbara and Mary Magdalene
Years ago I became convinced that the Saint we know as "Barbara," patroness of military engineers, artillerymen and fire-fighters, is actually a cover-story for Mary Magdalene.
Here is a 15th century rendering of St. Barbara and Mary Magdalene placed side by side by a Rhenish Master. "Barbara" wears the crown of martyrdom and holds both a chalice and tower. Magdalene is diminutive, eyes cast down, bearer of the alabaster ointment jar.
In 1969 the Vatican quietly declared St. Barbara "spurious" and deleted her feast day from the official Church calendar, but because they somehow failed to tell the US military units around the world, these regiments still celebrate St. Barbara's feast day 4 December at a formal "Artillery Ball."
The medieval legend of Saint Barbara is bizarre. She was the daughter, so the story is told, of a 3rd century Roman official in Syria. When he discovered that "Barbara" wanted to become a Christian, her father locked her up in a tower, hoping to solve the problem. But she let down her hair from the window of her prison cell so that her priest/mentor could climb up to her tower to instruct her in the Christian faith and bring her the Eucharist.
When her father discovered this outrage, he had his daughter beheaded, and then, on the way home from her execution, he was struck by lightning and electrocuted! We don't have to wonder why the Catholic hierarchy chose to erase Saint Barbara from its calendar!
The iconography of Barbara arrested my attention. She is invariably associated with a tower; she has fabulous long hair, a crown, and often a chalice. Here is a typical rendering of St. Barbara whose name means "foreign woman."
Below is an 11th century wall painting found in St. Edmundsbury in Hessett, Suffolk (England).
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On what grounds could an art expert insist that this image is St. Barbara? Merely because she holds a tower, she is automatically assuemed to be that saint now fallen into disrepute because her story is too similar to that of Rapunzel, the maiden of the tower in a European fairytale. But there is another "Lady of the Tower" long over-looked , one whose icons inlcude beautiful long tresses, often red, and a chalice or "sacred vessel." That Lady is Mary Magdalene, whose title is derived from "Magdal," a Aramaic/Hebew root word meaning "tower" or "fortress."
Mary Magdsalene is universally associated with the alabaster jar of fragrant ointment, often included in any artistic image of her. The Song of Solomon (Canticle) from the Hebrew Bible speaks of the "nard" of the bride whose fragrance wafts around her Bridegroom at the banqueting table, a scenario repeated in the Gospel of John (12:3) when Mary anoints Jesus at the banquet and dries her tears from his feet with her hair: "and the fragrance filled the house." The Song of Songs states, " "... the King is captivated by your tresses" (SoS 7:5) and
"How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
And the fragrance of your oils
Than all kinds of spices! (SoS 4:10)
But the association of Mary Magdalene with the chalice is also very old. Her legends include the claim that fleeing into foreign exile, she brought the "Holy Grail" to France.
Below is a 13th c. rendering of Mary Magdalene from the Ekeby Kyrkeo on the Swedish Island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. She is holding a chalice under the lance wound in the side of Jesus on the cross, a literal interpretation of her role as bearer of the "Sangraal" translated as the "Holy Grail" in later legends.
It is interesting to note that many of the 100 medieval churches on this island were built by Knights Templar who had a significant presence there. These Knights were the reputed "Guardians of the Grail family"--and presumably its secrets--during the Middle Ages. These secrets included the survival of descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the bloodline of the "sang real" (blood royal) of Davidic lineage. In the Book of Revelation 5:5 Jesus is called "Lion of Judah," an epithet reserved for princes of Judea. As his wife, Mary would have been the "bearer" of the blood royal.
I believe that Saint Barbara is a case of mistaken identity and that the woman with the long curls who held the tower in a early artistic rendering was meant to have been Mary Magdalene. Because uneducated observers did not know the Hebrew root of Magdalene meant "tower," someone made up a fabulous legend--the story of "St. Barbara"--to explain the iconography of the "Lady with the Tower," including extravagant details that excited the pious but could not survive modern scrutiny.
The two paintings below illustrate another case of mistaken identi-fication of Mary Magdalene with St. Barbara:
The painting on the left is "St. Barbara" (Werl Triptych 1438) attributed to Robert Campin, while the image on the right is "St. Mary Magdalene Readng" (1435-8) by Rogier van der Weyden.
Each woman has a vessel of ointment; St Barbara's glass vessel is on a shelf on the right, just above the fireplace mantle. The only possible reason for claiming that the woman on the left is St. Barbara is the tower barely visible from the window. Without that element of landscape, the long curls of the saint and the jar of oil would ensure the painting would be acknowledged as an image of Mary Magdalene--glorious long hair and an ointment vessel are her distinguishing icons.
The altar triptych below clearly depicts Mary Magdalene holding her tower, flanked by scenes from her life, the anointing of Jesus at the banquet (John 12) and the encounter with the resurrected Jesus at the tomb on Easter morning (John 20). Despite the tower, no one would dream of suggesting that this altar is dedicated to St. Barbara! It is most assuredly Mary Magdalene, holding the "Magdal" that is the source of her epithet "the Magdalene."
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Perhaps the "missing link" in this short discussion is the early 14th century image of a red-robed Mary Magdalene by Segna di Bonaventura (c. 1320) in which she holds a tower-shaped jar. We know the painting is Mary Magdalene because the inscription across the bottom says so!
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02-13-12
Mary Magdalene as “Orantes”
Ancient figurines of the
Goddess often show her with her arms extended in blessing or prayer, known as
the “orans” position. The person praying is called an “Orantes” (from Latin orare: “to pray”).
Here’s an image of an ancient figurine from Knossos:
This unique stance is
sometimes used in depictions of Mary Magdalene, suggesting an association with
the Divine Feminine as “Orantes.”
Two paintings by the 14th c. Italian artist Simone Martini
depict her this way:
The
Way to Calvary
From the
Orsini Polytych
c 1335
Mary Magdalene has the letter X right in front of her--one of the pre-eminent symbols associated with the alternative Christians of the Middle Ages so ruthlessly persecuted by the Inquisiton for their heresy which included belief that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were lovers, possibly based on the Gnostic Gospel of Philip which states that Mary was the koinonos, the companion or consort of Jesus, whom he kissed often, causing the other apostles to ask, “Why do you love her more than us?” Like the famous icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Mary Magdalene appears to have a scar on her right cheek, reminiscent of the text from Micah 5:1: “With a reed, they strike the cheek of the ruler of Israel.”
The Deposition
This painting of the Deposition (taking Jesus off the cross) by Simone Martini is another panel of the Orsini Polytych.
Again,
the Magdalene’s arms are raised in the classic pose of the “Orantes”—the one
who prays for the deceased. The
prevalence of this image often carved on Christian sarcophagi suggests the role
of “psychopomp”—the one who accompanies the deceased into the afterlife.
Another interpretation is that the image depicts the soul of the deceased rising into heaven. It is interesting to note that this same "pose" is called the "distress signal" in Freemasonry, used to identify brother masons in trouble.
We
come now to an altarpiece comprised of statues at the Basilica of Saint Remi in
Rheims. The grouping is sometimes
called a “Templar” altarpiece.
Notice the circular medallion containing the equal-armed cross of the Knights Templar Order at the front of the altar. Jesus is resting on his shroud, a length of linen owned and venerated by the Knights Templar in the 13th century. The grouping is derived from the Gospel narratives that describe Joseph of Arimithea, Nicodemus, the “Beloved Disciple” (whom the Templars identified as Lazarus of Bethany), and usually four women including the Blessed Mother, Mary Magdalene, and two others, probably Martha and Salomé. According to French legend, these same women (Mary “Jacobi,” the mother of Jesus but also of his brother James, Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary Salomé) later traveled together with Joseph of Arimathea and Lazarus, debarking on the shores of Gaul in AD 42, bringing with them the “Holy Grail.”
The Magdalene figurine in this altarpiece is “great”—even massive--especially with her arms raised in this “orans” position. She has adopted the ancient pose of the “Orantes” Goddess, one we find articulated in the medieval “Ave Maria” prayer to the Virgin: ora pro nobis—“pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”
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02-04-12
Medieval Symbolism
An
interesting article was posted last week about the drawing of "Vitruvian
Man" by Leonardo: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46204318
I wasn't particularly interested in whether or not Leonard had copied the Vetruvian man drawing from his friend, but I was very interested the comment about the "circle" and "square" in symbolism:
"Both drawings are depictions of a passage written 1,500 years earlier by Vitruvius, an ancient Roman architect, in which he describes a man's body fitting perfectly inside a circle (the divine symbol) and inside a square (the earthly symbol). "
With
this symbolism of the "irreconcilable opposites"--circle and square
representing "the divine" and "the earthly" (spirit and
flesh)--please see the photo of a 13th century drawing of the
"Fishes" representing the "Sacred Marriage":
This drawing was rendered from a photo I took in a Historical Museum in Metz, France. The original was painted on the wall of a building in that medieval town in about 1250. The perimeter of the square and the circumference of the circle are the same in the original drawing--representing the "union of the irreconcilable opposites," a symbol for "Sacred Union" in sacred geometry. The male and female images in the painting are also linked.
The bearded fish is, IMO, a clear reference to Jesus as the "Ichthus"--the "Fish" that is the symbol for Christ, now a familiar bumper sticker. The double-tailed"mermaid" has numerous associations with Mary Magdalene. She's now on nearly every street corner worldwide, via the "Starbucks" logo! Numerous mermaid watermarks are found in antique bibles and books (as described in my "Tarot Trumps" book. An article I wrote about the "little mermaid" associations with the Magdalene legends is posted here:
http://ramon_k_jusino.tripod.com/littlemermaid.html .
Interestingly enough, the town of Metz is the ancestral home of the Merovingian monarchs (5-8th c), whose legends include descent of their ancestor Merovée from the liaison of his mother with a "sea creature--half man, half fish." Might this drawing be a symbolic family portrait?
Here is an amazing stained glass window from Winchester Cathedral depicting the Lord and Lady of the Fishes.
The two fish in the flames beneath Mary Magdalene's feet are suggestive of the zodiac symbol for Pisces. Rather than swimming side by side, these fishes are crossed, forming the letter X (the pre-eminent symbol of the alternative “Grail” Church). The scene in the window is taken from John's Gospel, chapter 21: Jesus is cooking fish on the shore and tells his disciples to cast their nets over the "starboard" side. Their astonishing catch is "153 fishes." Did someone actually count the fish in the net? Not likely. The "153" is a highly significant number in sacred geometry, a number associated with the Vesica Piscis ("vessel of the fish") and with the goddesses of love and fertility. It is also Mary Magdalene's "sacred number" by gematria of her Greek title "H Magdalhnh."
For further information, please see my webpage about Circles here.
peace
and well-being,
Margaret
COPYRIGHT 2012. MARGARET L. STARBIRD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED