Another Viewing of “Something About Mary Magdalene”
posted May 21st, 2007 at 10:58 am by Betty
I was able to catch another viewing of the documentary Something About Mary Magdalene. This time I caught the exact words of the film’s remark about “the obsession for Mary Magdalene” that we blogged about earlier. The actual text goes this way: “Ever since the Da Vinci Code and the film The Lost Tomb of Jesus people have had an obsession for Mary Magdalene and her role in the life of Jesus.” Then the film goes on mentioning the belief that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were a couple. The rest of the film, however, focuses on Mary Magdalene’s legacy for the Christian faith. The implication is that the obsession has to do with her role in the life of Jesus, but this ignores her role as a person in her own right.
It is over against the obsession with Mary Magdalene and Jesus as a couple that the documentary stresses the role Mary Magdalene played in the birth of Christianity. One scholar, Esther de Boer, put it movingly this way: “With her, after the death of Jesus and all the grief, she was the one who was saying, I believe that he is still alive, that he is talking to us and he is in us and we can follow him though he is not physically around anymore.” For de Boer The Da Vinci Code covers up the real meaning of Mary Magdalene: what is important to see is that she belongs at Jesus’ side as the founder of Christianity.
Other scholars in the documentary stressed the Magdalene’s importance to the Christian movement: Susan Haskins referred to her as “the centerpiece of Christianity” and Pheme Perkins said that without Mary Magdalene and her message of the risen Christ, there would not have been Christianity; she is given the message because she is worthy. Marvin Meyers points out that in the extracanonical texts we find a more dynamic and intelligent image of Mary Magdalene; she was Jesus’ closest confidant — they were soul-mates. One Catholic scholar disagreed with these assessments calling them “revisionist.”
In our Monday Group, we also discussed DeBoer’s thesis that Mary Magdalene is to be identified with the beloved disciple in the Gospel of John. In our discussion we found it to be a very attractive theory. I would like to hear from you about this, as well as the point made above. If you are interested in the beloved disciple theory, take a look at John 19: 25-26. Notice how in 25 we have a list of women, the exact number however unclear. Then notice that 26 refers to “the beloved disciple.” Isn’t it logical to think that Jesus is referring to one of the women in 25? Then follow this line of thought into Chapter 20 at the tomb and the reference to “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” There are several difficulties with the theory and a central one is that the beloved disciple is referred to as “him” in various places. But DeBoer has an answer for that: She suggests that there was an intentional obscuration through the reference to her as “him.” At the time when the testimony of women was not recognized, the obscuration was needed. At the time it was probably already established that Mary Magdalene was at the crucifixion and resurrection and the Gospel wanted to establish her as a credible witness without giving it away that she was the beloved disciple. Let me hear from you about this.
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6 Responses to “Another Viewing of “Something About Mary Magdalene””
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May 22nd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I believe, with joy in my heart, that Mary Magdalene and John the Beloved are one and the same person. This insight came to me as a direct gnostic revelation when I was a wanderer in France for almost two years in 2003 - 5. I was called to France to search for my beloved, after receiving a divine sound vibration in my classically-trained singing voice. I was to search for the one who would support and promote my sacred sound vibration. But, as in The Song of Songs, I searched for him everywhere, in the marketplaces, the mountains, the villages, the fields and forests, but found him not. Instead, I found myself and I found Mary Magdalene, and I found Yeshua. I also found poverty and homelessness and lodging with a series of angels. In the hills around Rennes-le-Chateau, where I lived for nine months, Mary Magdalene showed me how she came to be known as John the Beloved. Yeshua greatly wanted his wisest disciple to be one of the Twelve. After Peter, in particluar, was abusive to her, Yeshua made Mary Magdalene ‘a man, a brother’ and baptised her John, the Beloved disciple, giving her a preferential position in the group. She wore men’s garments, and no disciple dared to exclude her again. Magdalene wrote the Book of John. It is only She who understood Yeshua’a identity with The Word, and it was She who was able to give an eye-witness account of Christ’s ministry. She took delight in disguising herself as a man, and deliberately wrote the Book of John from her persona as John the Beloved. Like Yeshua himself, and many other divine beings on Earth, she too had a twin, and that twin was John the Beloved.
I am currently writing about my pilgrimage in France, and I have written the scene of Mary Magdalene’s transformation into John. It was shown to me as though it were a scene in a film. Are people ready to accept gnostic revelation today? Are we going to repeat the mistakes of the past by losing or burying gnostic teachings in the sands of scholarship, opinion, and religious dogma?
I have kept silent, not knowing, like Elijah, how to use my divine gift. There is, in my voice, a sound vibration that is instantly recognizable as not from the Earthly realm. Are people ready to hear this sound, which comes through me from the Divine Feminine? Mary Magdalene is here with us now, coming through countless lovely women, many of whom I have met. She is certainly in my God-given voice, which contains the music of The Word.
This is, perhaps, a startling response to your question. Good! The Divine comes in startling ways, and often most unexpectedly.
Yours, with blessings, Dia Rigden, Ph.D.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Wow! I can’t wait to read your story. I have read a couple of similar revelations, and have pondered on their message. I, too, had come to feel that Mary and John, the Beloved Disciple, were one and the same, until I read “The Jesus Family Tomb” in which Simcha Jacobovici expresses the opinion that John the Beloved was Yeshua and Mary’s son. I haven’t decided which is truth…but perhaps it doesn’t matter. What matters is that people are finding their voices and expressing their own truths. I, too, believe that Mary Magdalene is with us and is expressing herself through many people. I hope I am one of them.
Bridgitt
May 27th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Dear Betty! This is indeed an attractive thought, attractive because it is logical and puts many little pieces in a recognizable pattern. Also, being a divine truth (which also I believe), therefore speaking to us with such strength. The thought has come also to me, increasing in strength again and again, when reading the gospel of John. It is logical, just by reading the words: f ex. the moment at the tomb, described with such detail, including the whole conversation between MaryM. and Jesus - either John was there too (which he was not) or it is dictated to John by Mary (which is far-fetched) or it is actually written by the person that experienced it. Ergo. And indeed Jesus says he will make MaryM. into a man (in the gospel of Thomas).
Dear Dia, I admire your courage to express what you have recieved is the divine truth and the way you authorize your voice as a channel of divinity! It is a great inspiration, to anyone, like me, who does not dare to do this openly. I believe that one of the greatest obstacles that Mary Magdalene had, was to contiune the daring moment of speaking divine truth, as a first hand reciever and to authorize herself as thus, in the faces of the other disciples. In her own right, not in a detour thru Jesus. To follow Mary Magdalene, this is what we must do also!
Dear Dia, surely you must feel that you will only remain silent until the time is right for you to sound out! Perhaps we already do recieve your divine voice when you sing in solitude, not with our ears, but by the vibration of it, resonating within us! As Bridgitt states, I truly believe that Mary Magdalenes spirit expands among us, thru everyone open enough to be a receptacle for it. I long for the day when all our voices sound out…may it come soon!
Blessings and peace be with you all!
Anneli
May 29th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Dear Bridgitt and Anneli and Betty–
I am delighted with your responses and want to add some clarification. Bridgitt, Jesus was not old enough to be John the Beloved’s father. The zenith of Jesus’ ministry came when he was 30 to 33 years of age. John the Beloved is clearly an adult member of the Twelve, so if we estimate his age to be, say 18, Yeshua would have fathered him around the age of 12 or 13 — possible, but simply out of the question, since Yeshua was only married to Mary Magdalene at the beginning of his ministry. I know this because Mother Mary gave me the gift of a teaching on the wedding at Cana, which was the wedding of Yeshua and Mary Magdalene. (I received 6 gifts when praying and meditating in the Basilica of Sacre Coeur in Paris, one of them the teaching on the miracle of water into wine at Cana. I am not Catholic, but I was blessed with the very holy presence of Mother Mary and Yeshua in Sacre Coeur.)
Secondly, dear Bridgitt, the truth does matter very deeply, but there is a difference between expressing one’s own truth and expressing the Truth as given from the higher realms in gnostic revelation.
You are right, dear Anneli, to recognize that I am speaking from my divinity, not, however, as a channel (which is a temporary conduit) but as one who has become an embodiment of the Divine Mother. It has not been a matter of ego for me to decide to speak my truth. Rather, after 6 years of arduous and dangerous pilgrimage, months of retreat in silent meditation and prayer, after blazing initiations from Holy Spirit, after enlightenment and ascension experiences which left me understanding the nature of this reality — only after all these things do I dare to speak out from my divinity! To fully embody the divine, thereby truly following Jesus, one must fully let go of ego and allow oneself to be completely overwhelmed by the love and power of the IAM. You will know when you are there!
Yes, Anneli, people do hear my songs at great and small distances — in other cities, in France, in the cosmos! And as you say, the time has come for me to sound out — and I shall be launching my own blog from The Divine Mother very soon.
With blessings and love, Dia
May 30th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Dear Dia, I got very curious about the identity of The Divine Mother you are referring to! I feel it is wonderful that you have these revelations that will benefit us all! Perhaps you have read about the Swedish Saint Birgitta, (1302-1373) who had revelations from God. These revelations are collected in a book and I love to read them! Blessings to your blog. I hope you want to write the address when you have it.
Yet, also I have experiences of revelation and I cherish these lovely gifts from God in my heart.
About the Ego, I believe that we cannot exist as true humans without having the Ego and still, the Ego is a maze. I understand the Ego as the individual “eye” we are given, so that we can function as humans here on Earth. I believe Jesus had an Ego, for he was both true man and true God. Jesus was showing us what we can be and this is the way I wish to follow Jesus.
For myself, I want to carry my Ego (so it doesn’t carry me) and I usually do it with humour, so pretty often it knows it’s place. I am on my way, as you can see. I fully agree with you, that the Ego is really the only barrier that keeps us from being completely filled with the love of God and fully experience heaven! I am pretty sure that I, at most times, am completely human!
All the blessings to your work, Dia, and I hope you will tell more about The Divine Mother.
Anneli
June 13th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Dear Betty, Bridgitt, and Anneli–
Perhaps you will be interested in visitng my infant web-log to learn more about my journey and to read my first posting.
The address is: www.mothersong.wordpress.com
With blessings, Dia