Mary Magdalene

While searching for depictions of Mary Magdalene for this post, I came across this beautiful painting of Mary and Jesus. I don't know who the artist is because it was not credited, but it's from the website by the

Nasarean Religion of the Essene Way.

I've been interested in Mary Magdalene for a long time but you know, there's not a lot of facts out there about her. The Bible is not a good source. She's mentioned more in the Gnostic Gospels particularly, of course, in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene but also in The Gospel of Thomas, Pistis Sophia and The Gospel of the Egyptians (the latter of which I have not read).

I bought myself a small icon pendent of St. Mary Magdalene for my birthday along with one of Jesus. I've been thinking on them quite a lot. If you've read the Gnostic Gospels, you learn that Mary claimed to have been given certain spiritual knowledge by Jesus and, when she tried to share it with the other disciples, they started dissing on her, asking why Jesus would have told things to her-a woman!-he didn't tell them. Basically, they discounted her because she was a woman.

The more I think about this story, the more I know that the reason she, of all the people in Jesus' circle, was chosen is because-not in spite of-she was a woman. When a person is outside of what is the cultural norm, that person often has fewer "boxes" to break out of (boxes/illusion/assumptions/egotraps). Mary was a woman in a culture in which to be a women was to be less than to be a man. The male disciples came from several different backgrounds, some wealthier, some working class, some not-so-nice, but they all had the "benefit" of being men; they were insiders by nature of their gender. Mary was obviously intelligent, compassionate, curious, a good listener and a quick student and she had the gender perspective of being outside the norm so she could hear Jesus' lessons and truths with fresh ears ("those who have ears, let them hear"). She was open, literally, to his teachings.

Something I was listening to a couple of weeks ago got me thinking about Logos=Word and Sophia=Wisdom. I was thinking about how Jesus was the Word made incarnate, the Breath of Life. I am a word person; I always score incredibly high on tests of verbal ability. I know, though, that words, logic, are only half of it. Wisdom, intuitive right knowing, is the other half. I'm finding it interesting to think about Jesus and Mary balancing the two things. That whole male/female logic/intuition thing. In the Gospel of Philip, it is written, "As for the Wisdom...she is the mother of the angels. And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene".

I've got Joni Mitchell's song, "Passion Play (When All the Slaves Are Free)" in my head today:

Magdalene is trembling

Like a washing on a line

Trembling and gleaming

Never before was a man so kind

Never so redeeming

Enter the multitudes

In Exxon blue

In radiation rose

Ecstasy

Now you tell me

Who you gonna get to do the dirty work

When all the slaves are free?

(Who're you gonna get)

I am up a sycamore

Looking through the leaves

A sinner of some position

Who in the world can this heart healer be

This magical physician

Enter the multitudes

In Exxon blue

In radiation rose

Misery

Now you tell me

Who you gonna get to do the dirty work

When all the slaves are free?

(Who're you gonna get)

Enter the multitudes

The walking wounded

They come to this diver of the heart

Of the multitudes

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

Oh, climb down, climb down he says to me

From the middle of unrest

They think is light is squandered

But he sees a stray in the wilderness

And I see how far I've wandered

Enter the multitudes

In Exxon blue

In radiation rose

Apathy

Now you tell me

Who you gonna get to do the dirty work

When all the slaves are free?

(Who're you gonna get)

Enter the multitudes

The walking wounded

They come to this diver of the heart

Of the multitudes

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

Oh, all around the marketplace

The buzzing of the flies

The buzzing and the stinging

Divinely barren

And wickedly wise

The killer nails are ringing

Enter the multitudes

In Exxon blue

In radiation rose

Tragedy

Now you tell me

Who you gonna get to do the dirty work

When all the slaves are free?

(Who're you gonna get)