Jack Angelo - The Healing Wisdom of Mary Magdalene: Esoteric Secrets of the Fourth Gospel

To the memory of grandmother Anita,
Estella White, Lorna St. Aubyn,
Sir George Trevelyan.

THE HEALING WISDOM OF MARY MAGDALENE

Thank you! This book is a welcome gift for disciples of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Illuminating texts from the Fourth Gospel, Jack Angelo reveals the perspective of the woman who knew the AllMary Magdalene herself. Here at last, flowing from Jesuss seven miracles, are Magdalenes wisdom teachings to guide the pilgrim soul on the Way of the Heart.

MARGARET STARBIRD, AUTHOR OF THE WOMAN WITH THE ALABASTER JAR AND MARY MAGDALENE, BRIDE IN EXILE

Jack Angelo has discovered a treasure chest to which the key has been lost for 2,000 years. In this important and fascinating book Mary Magdalene takes us into the eternal, living stream of her own consciousness and decodes for us the healing wisdom, hidden until now, in the part of the Fourth Gospel called The Book of Signs. Angelo shows us how seven miracles of Jesus are intended to be a roadmap to transformation as the blessed couple both teach and model the way of total one-ness and heart-centered knowledge. Patriarchal blindness caused the message to be lost in part, but it still carries dynamic power to heal our planet and end the existential sickness that distorts much of Christian thinking. We come to realize that the beginning is right now and creation is happening as we awaken to the words of Maryam, master teacher, beloved disciple, wife, and companion of Yeshua.

MARY T. BEBEN, AUTHOR OF
THE PLEIADIAN HOUSE OF INITIATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Jon Graham for his encouragement andbelief in the book, Mindy Branstetter and all the team at InnerTraditions/Bear & Co for their dedicated approach, Jan Angeloand Gilly Adams for their support and suggestions, all those onthe Red Road and Magdalene workshops. You each have a placein this book.

Note to the Reader

I have kept foreign words and technical notes to a minimum. Many of them will help you set off on the adventure of discovery. My suggestions for further reading also present a set of reference points from which you can begin your own explorations.

New Testament quotations are from the Anglicized Edition of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, 1995. Old Testament quotations are inspired by the Jewish Publication Society translation of the Jewish Study Bible (JSB), 1999. Nag Hammadi Library references are from the revised edition of The Nag Hammadi Library, 1990.

A number of languages are used in the book. When words in a language other than English are used, they will first appear in italics. The pronunciation guide in the glossary gives an approximate version of sounds and words. Languages are fun when approached as living expressions of the human race throughout time. Just investigating a few of the words in this book will take you down some exciting paths of discovery.

The Sacred, the Source,
and Other Names for God

In this book there are a number of capitalized words that indicate aspects of the Source, such as Oneness, the Holy One, the Divine, Light, the All, Godsource, Sacred Unity, as well as soul, spirit, and the sacred, and I AM. I have chosen to use androgynous, gender-inclusive God-names. But there is no name or attribute that can begin to wholly describe the infinite, all-encompassing creative force that pervades all levels of being. We reach the limits of language, where no name or attribute can contain the Infinite. They can only hint at what is essentially dynamic. This is why, when the great shaman Moses asked for its Sacred Name, the Creators response was ehyeh asher ehyeh, which translates not simply as I am what I am, but simultaneously as I will be what I will be (Exodus 3:1314), as Rabbi David Cooper pointed out by naming his book God Is a Verb. The all-encompassing creative force, I AM, is Life, a dynamic, ever-changing, process. This is what we are.

PROLOGUE

The great cave was reached after a trek through the ancient forest that covered the mountain slopes. We rounded a bend to begin the final climb up a series of stone steps that led to the walled entrance of the cave. Here, according to legend, a woman known to the world as Mary Magdalene spent the last years of her life after fleeing from Palestine. A few hundred years ago, pious Christian monks had sealed the original entrance to the cave by building a stone wall across its front, with an arched doorway flanked on either side by three stained-glass windows, to create a space like a small chapel. Outside in front was a life-size tableau of the Crucifixion complete with bleeding wounds and the distraught figure of Mary Magdalene at the foot of the Cross.

The cool, dimly lit interior contrasted with the glare of the afternoon sun outside. The walls of the cave had been left as bare rock, here and there green with moss and algae. The gloom was relieved by light coming from a few candles so that I could just make out rows of pews and darkly painted statues set into the rocky wall. The western side of the cave was shrouded in darkness, while the best-lit central area, in front of the doorway, provided a place for pilgrims to stand and take in their surroundings. I had never been here before and yet, as I stood on the threshold, there was something strangely familiar about the place, as if some distant memory was being evoked. Though the cave was furnished like a chapel, it seemed the sort of place where bats might hang from the roof in clusters and where other strange nocturnal creatures could nestle in moist crevices. Perhaps, like the caves of the Dordogne, it had been known to the Neanderthal people, but any clues to its great age were somewhat overshadowed by the stone wall and stained glass that now enclosed it.

Someone was playing a flute. I sat on a wooden pew, closed my eyes, and relaxed in the gentle atmosphere. Then, as the haunting sound of the flute began to fade, a face slowly appeared to my inner vision, the striking face of a woman with dark features and dark hair and eyes. To my surprise I felt a deep, dull ache over my heart that soon became a stabbing pain. A moment of panic. My heart was beating too fast. I was sweating. Had the exertion of climbing the mountain path been too much for me? Why now? Had I come all this way for this to happen? I rubbed my chest and tried to breathe more slowly and deeply, but instead of easing, the ache intensified. Is this what a heart attack feels like... could this really be my time to go? What should I do to help myself... and who was there in the party who would know what to do anyway? I tried to shake off these feelings, but my mind seemed gripped by thoughts of death.

I do not hear voices, as they say, but over the years I have received impressions in the silence of my mind, some of which I interpret as voice. As I struggled with my discomfort, like an answer to my anxiety, I heard the voice of a woman: This is the pain I felt when they crucified my lord. Her voice was quiet, yet clear and strong, calm and reassuring. I was startled both by this voice and what it was saying. I had joined the party to experience the natural life of the mountain and its wild forestthe cave was to have been part of that experience.

But thoughts came rushing in. Who was this? Was it Mary Magdalene speaking, and had she been here, in this cave, for nearly two thousand years? Are you Mary Magdalene? I asked, suddenly aware that I was quite calmly listening to her and conversing with her. Her voice had the trace of a smile in it. Yes, she said, my name is Maryam.