Margaret Starbird - Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile

In memory of her

Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile

Controversial and provocative.... Starbird puts her distinctive touch on re-examining the legacy of Mary Magdalene and reclaiming the long-exiled Lost Feminine; an insightful journey, a beacon of hope for our time.

KAREN RALLS, PH.D., AUTHOR OF
THE TEMPLARS AND THE GRAIL

A superbly written and meticulously researched work by a scholar of great integrity. Her insight has once again made a significant contribution to my understanding.

TIM WALLACE-MURPHY, COAUTHOR OF
CUSTODIANS OF TRUTH: THE CONTINUANCE OF REX DEUS

Acknowledgments

Without the loyal and unflagging support of my husband and children, I could not have taken this path less traveled. My lifes journey has not always been comfortable for them, and I thank them now for their faith in me that allowed me to make my quest. My father has always been a rock in my life, and his acceptance and encouragement of my work has been more important to me than I can ever express. I also want to thank my close friends in the prayer community Emmanuel, especially Mary Beben, Sue Gehringer, and Faye Biskup, who have continued to offer insights and suggestions in addition to their prayers over many years of spiritual kinship.

The competent support of the editors and staff at Inner Traditions, Bear and Company has been enormously helpful in my work. I especially want to thank Peri Champine for her expert help with assembling the art in this volume, Jon Graham for his assistance with art, and Elaine Cissi for her insightful editing. We are instruments playing in a common band. I am also immensely grateful to the staff of the Grandstaff Library at Fort Lewis, Washington, for cheerfully researching my interlibrary loan requests, without which I could never have written any books, especially this one.

I want to thank Lesa Bellevie for her ongoing commitment to the www.magdalene.org Web site and community e-mail list letter that she so generously supports and moderates, a forum that has made huge contributions to research of Mary Magdalene and her manifestation in consciousness. I am particularly indebted to Lesa for sharing insights about the Bride in Exile, a phrase that so beautifully expresses the lost bride of the Christian mythology (see her article at www.magdalene.org/pagan_scholars_talk). Also invaluable are the many supportive letters and e-mails I have received over the years from people affirming the value of what I have written. Some have honored me by sharing original artworks or poetry, some have recounted their dreams and visions. I thank them for their confidence in me and for sharing the journey. My life is made immeasurably richer by the gifts and insights of these fellow pilgrims.

Lilium Regis

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!

FRANCIS THOMPSON

INTRODUCTION

Mary Magdalene: Woman or Archetype?

For I tell you the truth: many prophets and righteous men have longed to see what you see, and they have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.

MATTHEW 13:17

Centuries of desert exile stretch behind her as she crosses the threshold of the third Christian millennium, regal in her bearing, still clasping her alabaster jar. From her new vantage point, she gazes eagerly toward the future with renewed hope. We celebrate her joyful homecoming, embrace her warmly, singing and rejoicing, dancing before her way, as we experience an enormous surge of interest in this woman called the Magdalene, the woman most beloved among the many followers of Jesus Christ mentioned in the sacred texts of Christianity.

The gospels of the Greek Bible assert that a number of women accompanied Jesus during his ministry in the Roman-occupied province of Judea. We have pictured women walking side-by-side with his male disciples, carrying their food satchels and water jars, perhaps trundling carts bearing the belongings of the troupe following the itinerant rabbi Yeshua. And on gospel lists of women closest to Jesus, Mary Magdalene is almost always mentioned first. Apparently she was in some memorable way preeminentFirst Ladyin the eyes of the community who knew her.

Information like this, read from between the lines of the gospels, encourages us to search the record for the historical Mary Magdalene. As we examine available sources, we sense that her importance is much greater than the biographical details known about her, so scant and inconsistent, though her legends and images have flourished for two millennia in Western culture. The rich tradition of Mary Magdalenes influence and meaning must be examined at levels beyond the literal and historical; she must be encountered on allegorical/symbolic and mythological levels as well. She is not merely a first-century Jewess who was touched by Jesus and knew him wellhis ardent disciple, his beloved friend, and first messenger of his resurrection. These details are not disputed. But exalted as these roles are, Mary Magdalenes mythic stature is immeasurably greater: She is the carrier of the powerful archetype of the sacred femininethe lost bride so long denied in the Christian mythology. In this book we will search for her at these levels of meaning, seeking her many faces, contemplating her example of unconditional love, faithfulness, and compassion, and pondering her union with her beloved bridegroombridegroom of Israel and bridegroom of the soulChrist himself.

Who was this woman whom the four Evangelists called the Magdalene? For more than fourteen hundred years, Christian tradition dubbed her a penitent prostitute, an unsubstantiated and slanderous epithet rescinded by the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church in 1969, when it was finally, officially recognized and publicly acknowledged that no scriptural evidence could be found to support the spurious tradition. What do we actually know of this Mary? Why is reclaiming her story of such paramount importance at this moment in our collective spiritual pilgrimage on planet Earthso important that in some circles it is called the resurrection of Mary Magdalene? Who is this enigmatic woman whose story tugs at our hearts, whose image fires our imaginations, whose song haunts our souls?