Mary the Wife

 

February 6, 2021

Nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. (Luke 8:17)

MW Mary Magdalene. If ever in the world's history, there was a woman who deserved more to be a man hater, Mary here would be her. She went from being the wife of a dynastic king, to being a common prostitute.

 Funny that statement above, basically, it means that there are no secrets that shall not be made public. The problem with that is, too often people use shades of grey to describe whatever truth. As we delve into the mystery of who Mary really was, we will find not a shade of grey, but a huge deception. Mary, the wife of Christ, has proved to be a non-ending thorn in the side of the Catholic Church. Repeatedly, she sneaks out of obscurity and gets into the face of the church, most recently in Dan Brown’s novel/film, The Da Vinci Code.

Though Brown’s account is fictional, it is premised on fact; yes, the Magdalene was the wife of Christ and did indeed bear him children. The film was inaccurate in that the Grail does not reside in just one person, but rather resides in families, and throughout the generations since the time of Christ, it has disseminated throughout the populace. Brown would have been more correct to say that the strongest claim to the Grail resides with the family that can claim descent back to both Jesus’ and Mary’s lineage combined.

In the gospels, Jesus had various female companions, seven are cited; in all but one, the Magdalene is first named, in the other, it’s his mom Mary. We are introduced to Magdalene as a woman who “ministered unto him”;

MW Mary as his wife, has every right to be with him, and to see to his needs.

she makes her last appearance as the first person to speak with JC after his resurrection. In the first centuries of the first millennium A.D., the literature states clearly that Magdalene had a special place in the heart of JC and his followers. As time progressed, the church decided that Mary must have been a whore because a biblical reference classifies her as a “sinner”. To the bishops of that time, this meant that she was a woman of loose virtues. This, of course, being just one more instance of the church not knowing its own book, because in the next gospel verse, Mary is said to be a woman of substance and one of Jesus’s sponsors! In other gospel accounts, Magdalene is shown as a close friend and confidant of JC’s mother, who accompanies her to the crucifixion; as I’m sure that a grieving mother wants her son’s whoring prostitute at her side as her son is being tortuously murdered in front of her. So why did the church turn against this woman who Jesus loved more than all of his disciples? 

MW Jesus kissing his wife. You love your wife, and you kiss her. The misconception that Mary was a prostitute, was started by Pope Gregory I, in 591. So for an organization that had its story straight from its inception, why did it suddenly change after 271 years had passed?

What are they trying to conceal?

In other non-canonical gospels, her life was recorded, her clerical and academic status, she was known to have been endowed with knowledge, vision, and insight that not even Peter had. As we carry on, we will discover what she has come to mean in the world of fine art, how she is still relative to today. Magdalene has been painted, sculpted, been seen in stained glass, she is in fact one of the most depicted individuals. There have been portrayals of her at the cross, the tomb, and the “Do not cling to me” drama from John 20:17. Most of her depictions have nothing whatsoever to do with the Bible; most scenes have her alone, either at a table or in a glen or grotto, most feature a mirror, candle, skull, jewellery, and a book. Sometimes when she is depicted with other women, there is an ointment jar. The mirror and jewellery are symbolic of her rejection of the vanities of life (ego).

MW Mary being beautiful. If you ever need to be certain a representation is the Magdalene, she's usually portrayed with red hair, this representing fertility. She may too have a book, indicating her depth of knowledge. Sometimes she has a jar, or jug, this indicating her place as a king's wife, and her right to anoint a king. 

The candle and book, of course, represent the movement from ignorance to enlightenment, the skull, only the inevitability of death, and she, of course, represents the cup of life — her womb. Mark 16:1 says that when she and the others arrived at JC’s tomb, they brought sweet spices in an ointment jar so that they might come and anoint him. The real importance of the ointment is this though, when Mary anointed the head and feet of JC at the house of Simon in Bethany before the crucifixion.

The church has always said with some vehemence that Mary the whore was not the person who performed the anointing, they insist that JC would not be anointed by a sinner. (Funny that, considering he died for us sinners.) Luke 7:37-38 states clearly that Mary performed the anointing at the house of Simon the Pharisee. The gospels tell us that two anointings took place, John 11:2 assures us that they were both done by Magdalene. Pope Gregory I (590-604 A.D.) argued this, and finally, 1,306 years later, in 1910, the Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledged this fact.

MW The Anointer & Anointed

Magdalene was finally made a saint in 1969, which is a church feast day on July 22. In the West, this pagan feast day has been the same since the 8th century; here we have another instance of the Catholic Church appropriating Grail-related rituals. Unsurprisingly, the Roman Missal, which determines Latin Rite liturgy, still rejects the fact that the whore and Mary of Bethany are the same person. The change in 1969 to Mary’s canonical status is based on the presumption that she had repented, although nowhere in the scriptures does it say that she had repented from having been a prostitute!

So again, why did the church go to such lengths to vilify her? Obviously, there was something about her being such an important part of JC’s life that really irritated those early bishops. From day one, the church had been designed as a celibacy-based male prerogative institution, because somehow Mary’s influence undermined this new hybrid Pauline church. 

MW Mary Nude. To simplify this, the Magdalene was a beautiful young woman of who Christ loved and respected. The Essene society allowed for the full integration of women in all roles, because they are essentiakl for balancing the sacred masculine/feminine. She bore Christ's children and is generally portrayed as a red head, to represent fertility. Here we've stepped that up a notch, beautiful, voluptuous, and a flirt.