Magdalene Mysteries: The Left-Hand Path of the Feminine Christ

ISBN-13: 9781591433460

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company

Publication Date: 04-07-2020

Pages: 560

Product Dimensions: 7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.20(d)

Seren Bertrand is a visionary creatrix and spirit keeper with a degree in English literature and modern philosophy who is dedicated to restoring the lost global feminine wisdom traditions. The coauthor of Magdalene Mysteries and Womb Awakening, she lives in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. Azra Bertrand, M.D., has a degree in biochemistry and studied at Duke University School of Medicine, with research at the NIH. He has been a pioneering doctor and mystic for over two decades, following the feminine pathway of alchemy. The coauthor of Womb Awakening and Magdalene Mysteries, he lives in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.

Read an Excerpt

Preface: Our Love Letter

Dear Rose Pilgrims,

We open the prayer circle of this book, and invite you to take your seat. Red rose petals are scattered at your feet, and the harpist strikes a note. We have a tale to tell.

Mary Magdalene is a talismanic name—it has magic within it. Before we start our Quest, we should pause a few moments at the temple gates and really drink in the essence of this name. How much can fit within two simple words? Entire worlds it seems; a new dreaming, a renewed holy matrimony of the universe. A forbidden herstory of such magnitude it could melt entire worldly structures. This name is a deep, spiraling, serpentine power portal; play with it on your lips, feel its thrilling, enchanting, alluring, disturbing call. Mary Magdalene, Marie Madeleine, Miriam of Magdala. Miryai e Mara, Mary. Mary. Mary. The Magdalene. Maria. Our Mary. Mari. Maryam. This name is truly a secret and dangerous invocation; it belongs on hidden manuscripts of lost incantations and alchemical formula. It is a lost promise, now remembered.

Jesus gave his disciples and cohorts spiritual names that reflected the essence of who they were. He called Peter “the Rock,” he called Judas “the Knife”—and he called his beloved spiritual partner, Mary, “the Portal”—meaning mystic yoni gateway. Magdalene is a word of great feminine power: it derives from the Semitic ’ma-gadala, meaning “Great Mother,” as well as the Aramaic magdala and Hebrew migdal, both meaning “elevated, magnificent or tower.” In ancient Semitic, mag and dal are among the oldest primitive roots, signifying “great, powerful, magical” and “portal, doorway”, respectively. They are shared across other language families: the word maga is also the feminine version of mage—a magician. The Biblical Greek amygdale derives from the same roots, and means “almond” in the sense of a mandorla or “Magic Doorway,” portal of the Goddess. The name “Magdalene” at its origin means Magic Doorway of the Great Mother, the primordial Goddess, the Tree and Source of Life.

Even to this day, iconography of mother Mary is often held within an almond mandorla. This is a coded wink, “for those who know” that there is a secret “Mary Mystery” waiting to be revealed. This symbolism of the magdala encompasses both the sacred doorway of the woman’s womb, and the mystical womb of consciousness sought out by all the great alchemists, shamans, and initiates. This divine gateway was also symbolized by the rose, and those who followed the Magdalene Mysteries were known as initiates and priest/esses of the “rose line.”

This mandorla or “Mystic Rose” also suggests the amygdala region of the brain, the intuitive, feminine “feeling” center in all human beings, which is a portal to the cerebellar cosmic mother consciousness, and can initiate profound awakenings. Using this lunar wisdom the priestesses initiated others into the intuitive, visionary, divine love of the Christ Mysteries.

. . .The earliest shamans in the archeo-anthropologic record were shamankas; they were women. They were adorned in the color red, with mineral paints. Their figures were carved on cave walls with hands raised up in the orans and ka prayer positions of magico-spiritual invocation. Their vulvas featured prominently in paleolithic art, with “V” and “M” vulvic symbols engraved on stone and bone, later called “Witch Marks” in medieval times. Their womb-vulvas were considered the greatest source of their mana, their spirit power. Over time, this ancient lineage of womb shamans would gradually shapeshift into priestesses.

The first art or symbolic communication created by humans was an “M” engraved onto a sea shell on the islands of Indonesia, 500,000 years ago, showing us that the spirit of the Mermaids of Magdalene were with us from the beginning. The mysterious letter “M” is a doorway of primeval sea magic, our original mother matrix.

Mary is also a priestess name that means “beloved, honored and womb awakened.” And in the apocryphal Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Mary is described as “Magdalene Skywalker”—she who conquers and travels through space, which intuitively places her beside the ancient Dakinis from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, divine feminine deities and teachers who are described as cosmic “sky dancers”.

In the Aramaic of the Syriac tradition, to this day, the name for God is “Maria Alaha”, and in the byzantine Eastern Orthodox Church Mary is considered to be the fountain of life, the divine wellspring, the holy waters of life. Mary is the honorific title for the great goddesses of ancient Egypt, Isis or Ast, meaning the holy throne, and Hathor, the Great Womb.

Magdalene’s sacred colors were always depicted as red and green. Red was the symbolic color of a Womb Priestess, a witch-shaman of the feminine. Green was the color of the wild fertility of the forest and the Earth Mother’s body. These alchemical “color codes” reveal Mary Magdalene (MM) as an elemental witch, sexual maga, and herbal adept in the medicine path of Sophia.

There has been an underground stream of worship of Mary Magdalene for almost 2,000 years spread across the near-east, Egypt, and all across Europe, supported by secret orders of initiates. These occult left-hand path traditions often explicitly name Mary Magdalene as a priestess-shaman, and revere her as the Holy Womb—recognizing her as the wisdom-keeper for a lineage of female magicians and oracles, and the birth-portal of Christ Consciousness.

Rather than just modern “wishful thinking,” these secret teachings were clearly encoded in the middle-ages by famous artists, philosophers, and alchemists, often in “plain sight” for those who could “see”—and we can still peer through this magical mandorla, this doorway of wisdom, kept open by the alchemists, even today.

There is a revelation underway, as something lost and veiled is returning to us. Can you sense the fragrance of the lost rose-garden, calling out once again?

Table of Contents

Prologue

A Love Story Miryai Yeshu x

Introduction

Visions of the Rose-Left-Hand Path of the Feminine Christ 1

Our Love Letter

Meeting Mary Magdalene and Sacred Masculine Vision Rose Pilgrims 13

Holy Whore of Sophia Mary Magdalene 25

Portal 1 Magdalene Chronicles

Mary Magdalene's Lineage, Her Lifetime, and Her Legacy

Magdalene's Lineage: The Dragon Priestesses

Chamber 1 Dragon Mothers-Ancient Elemental Magic 49

Chamber 2 Mermaid Priestesses-Chalice of Holy Waters 58

Chamber 3 Moon Shamans-Serpent Daughters of Fire 69

Chamber 4 Divine Whore-Inanna, Mistress of the Vulva 80

Chamber 5 Goddesses of Galilee-Temple of Asherah, Wisdom of Lilith 107

Chamber 6 Motherline of Christ-Son of the Goddess 134

Magdalene's Lifetime: Story of the Feminine Christ

Chamber 7 Apostle of Ecstasy-Magdalene, the Female Pope 152

Chamber 8 Divine Prophetess-Ancestry and Origins of Magdalene 158

Chamber 9 The Circle of Marys-Feminist Ministry of Jesus 169

Chamber 10 Holy Matrimony-Were Jesus and Mary Married? 177

Chamber 11 Resurrection Mysteries-The Crucifixion and Divine Rebirth 185

Chamber 12 Bishops of Sophia-Female Spiritual Leaders 194

Chamber 13 Gnostic Magdalene-The Salvation of Sophia 201

Chamber 14 Tantric Temple-Ecstatic Mystics on the Path of Love 207

Magdalene's Legacy: Rose Line of the Grail

Chamber 15 Heretic Queen-Magdalene's Escape to Europe 216

Chamber 16 Magdalene Order-Cathar Priestesses of the Dove 223

Chamber 17 Red Witch-Scarlet Saint of the Wise Women 230

Chamber 18 Templar Wizards-Robin Hood and Maid Marian 241

Portal 2 Magdalene Codex

The Ghent Altarpiece-Art and Symbols of the Holy Grail

Chamber 19 The Ghent Altarpiece-Gateway to the Mysteries 251

Chamber 20 Pilgrimage into the Painting-Art of the Grail 257

Chamber 21 Templars of Burgundy-Alchemists of Mary 265

Chamber 22 The Lady in the Landscape-Body of the Goddess 273

Chamber 23 Magdalene and the Sibyls-Prophetesses of Sophia 278

Chamber 24 Red Throne-The Original Sacred Altar 291

Chamber 25 Feminine Eucharist-The Primeval Sacrament 300

Chamber 26 Fountain of Life-Womb of the World 309

Chamber 27 John the Baptist-Waters of Life 315

Chamber 28 Divine Sophia-Return to Love 321

Portal 3 Magdalene Vision Quest

Pilgrimage Path: Stories, Oracles, and Personal Rituals

Chamber 29 Honoring the Motherline-Walking the Red Path 337

Chamber 30 The Way of Love-Awakening the Feminine Soul 395

Chamber 31 Magdalene Mandala-The Wheel of the Witches 401

Chamber 32 Sacred Union-Entering the Bridal Chamber 451

Chamber 33 Ministry of the Magdalene-Return of the Wild Feminine 467

Acknowledgments 474

Notes 476

Bibliography 490

Index 507

About the Authors 523