5 The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
An Eternal Perspective
7 “Then will [matter] be [destroyed], or not?”
The Savior said, “Every nature, every form, every creature exists in and with each other, but they’ll dissolve again into their own roots, because the nature of matter dissolves into its nature alone. Anyone who has ears to hear should hear!”
We are immediately placed within a discussion that features the fate of all matter. The word “matter” is derived from the word for mother, and so it makes sense that Magdalene would be concerned about this issue since she is serving as a Mother to the Church.
We learn that matter is not destroyed as such, but that it is dissolved into its essence where the root is the definition of its essence. The explanation continues:
Peter said to him,"Since you’ve explained everything to us, tell us one more thing. What’s the sin of the world?”
The Savior said, “Sin doesn’t exist, but you’re the ones who make sin when you act in accordance with the nature of adultery, which is called ‘sin.’ That’s why the Good came among you, up to the things of every nature in order to restore it within its root.”
Peter has a question which has an unexpected answer. There is no sin but there is adultery which produces a thing called “sin”. “The Good” coming among them must be the Messiah or the True Image of Man, and the goal of this interaction is to return all nature to the root, which we learn above is to restore that which will not be destroyed—namely that which when restored to its own root is an essence that is not destroyed. How do we know “the Good” restoring the root restores the essence that will not be destroyed? Because we know sin, which is adultery, is the destroyer of the essence. It follows then that that without sin or adultery matter is restored. A very similar process can be observed when one makes tinctures from herbs. The herb’s essence is “dissolved” into a tincture, which is then used for the effects which are most often concentrated in this form. The herb has been “dissolved” into its essence. A succinct explanation follows:
Then he continued and said, “That’s why you get sick and die, because [you love what tricks you. Anyone who] can understand should understand!
“Matter [gave birth to] a passion that has no image because it comes from what’s contrary to nature. Then confusion arises in the whole body. That’s why I told you to be content at heart. If you’re discontented, find contentment in the presence of the various images of nature. Anyone who has ears to hear should hear!”
So people die because they are tricked into doing so by an adultery nature which is sin, which causes them to be inconsistent with their root or essence.
Furthermore, Matter, in this case, going back to Eve, gave birth to passion or desire that has no image. An image, in this case, means something that has a duplicate or a “type” in heaven. It is easiest to think of this as a blueprint. Passion has no blueprint, because it is contrary to nature. In other words, one does not see in Nature creatures pursuing ends out of passion. Rather, nature goes on about the business of propagating life. Confusion occurs in the body because the passion has no analog. The body begins to desire things that it does not require or need. The cure, it is said, is to be content at heart. If you are discontented, one should go for a nature walk. This sounds not entirely different than Buddhism in the sense that all suffering comes from desire. The goal, then, is to find relief from desire.
At this point, we move from the subject into a bit of a different angle:
The Gospel
When the Blessed One said these things, he greeted them all and said, “Peace be with you! Acquire my peace. Be careful not to let anyone mislead you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ Because the Son of Humanity exists within you. Follow him! Those who seek him will find him.
We are supposed to find peace which is undisturbed by wrong desire by extinguishing it through the Son of Humanity.
This Son can be found within. Therefore, one could say that the goal of meditation then becomes to find the Son of Humanity within. It is not, by this advice, inherently an external process and in fact people will try to point to others as having this presence when in reality it is an inwards matter.
Those that look inwards correctly will find Him. We continue:
“Go then and preach the gospel about the kingdom. Don’t lay down any rules beyond what I’ve given you, nor make a law like the lawgiver, lest you be bound by it.” When he said these things, he left.
The lawgiver of all lawgivers is Moses. Here the disciples are being given the charge to teach the message the Messiah has given, but not to make further laws that might bind them. In other words, in a contract one wishes to cover enough clauses to try to keep everyone safe but not so many that the contract is injurious to the parties within the contract. This implies that Moses all ready provided enough rules. These words of advice prove not to be a consolation:
But they grieved and wept bitterly. They said, “How can we go up to the Gentiles to preach the gospel about the kingdom of the Son of Humanity? If they didn’t spare him, why would they spare us?”
The Gentiles, it seems, are not fans of meditation or the Son of Humanity as evidenced by how they treated the Son of Humanity. This is cause for alarm among the disciples, as they are not in a hurry to be crucified for the message they are now charged with teaching. Mary Magdalene intervenes:
Mary and Jesus
Then Mary arose and greeted them all. She said to her brothers (and sisters), “Don’t weep and grieve or let your hearts be divided, because his grace will be with you all and will protect you. Rather we should praise his greatness because he’s prepared us and made us Humans.”
When Mary said these things, she turned their hearts [toward] the Good and they [started] to debate the words of [the Savior].
Previous to the Messiah, Mary Magdalene points out, the people were something other than “Human beings”. This implies that if one does not look within to find the true Son of Humanity, they are never really human beings! If that is not a reason to meditate, I am not sure one will find one. Magdalene comforts them by reminding them of YHVH’s grace, and that their proper expenditure of energy should be towards praising YHVH for doing this miracle with which to begin. Evidently, this is “good enough” for everyone as they begin to debate what the Messiah means. Quickly the conversation turns to Magdalene:
Peter said to Mary, “Sister, we know the Savior loved you more than all other women. Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember – the things which you know that we don’t, and which we haven’t heard.”
The Messiah loved Magdalene more than all other women because, as we mentioned, she is acting as a sort of Bride which is a type of the Church. Peter knows she knows something nobody else does which implies she was taught something rather secret as compared to everyone else. Magdalene obliges:
In response Mary said, “I’ll tell you what’s hidden from you.” So she started to tell them these words: “I,” she said, “I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to him, ‘Lord, I saw you in a vision today.’
“In response he said to me, ‘You’re blessed because you didn’t waver at the sight of me. For where the mind is, there is the treasure.’
So Magdalene had spiritual courage and stamina such that she did not shy away when she saw the vision of the Messiah before her. The Messiah tells her that this is a good thing, because she is treasuring in her mind that which ought to be treasured which is a blessing. We begin to get into some very deep metaphysical waters:
“I said to him, ‘Lord, now does the one who sees the vision see it in the soul or in the spirit?’
“In response the Savior said, ’They don’t see in the soul or in the spirit, but the mind which [exists] between the two is [what] sees the vision [and] it [that …]
And just like a bad Monty Python sketch, we have more missing pages and words. This is quite disappointing because the answer is going to give us an integrated picture of how the mind works between the soul and the spirit. For those that meditate and understand the Eastern philosophies, this sounds a lot like what many Hindu gurus have stated, and also what Zen practitioners describe. We do not then get the benefit of having a Western/Messianic/Christian treatise on soul/spirit duality which calls to memory the mind/body duality of Descartes and his radical position of doubt later devised. We can only guess what is here said and so indulge me in some speculation for the purposes of this book. We can imagine that what was said might be:
“The mind exists between the soul and spirit and is what perceives a vision, which is the meaning of the phrase”let your eye be single”. For when your spirit and soul and mind are in harmony, all lenses act as one and all work in harmony with one another. When one lens is out of focus, so too is the vision muddied. Therefore, receive my spirit, acquire my peace, and still your mind. Only by so doing will you receive “True Vision” neither distorted by desire, nor the longings of the soul, nor the vexations of spirit. Remember also that my people perish for lack of vision.”
This sounds convincing as to what His answer might have been to me. Perhaps in some Vatican archive someone will “accidentally find” an intact copy and we can all later see how close or far my approximation is. If such an event were to happen and it was verbatim, boy, that would be something!
Since we have so many pages missing, there is a predictable jump in the text and we are “dropped” in the middle of the next part of the Gospel which appears to be describing something called “powers”. We appear to enter the text at the “Second Power”.
If we think of these powers as Chakras, then the first four Chakras are here related with the Fourth spreading out in a way we might say is “horizontal”. This would make the Second Power cognate with the “Sacral Chakra”. We get no mention of the First, which is a pity. In order for the Gospel to make sense, though, it seems to me we are going to need a “base” and so I am, again, going to have to ask you to indulge me on what the Gospel “might” have said:
“And the Soul settled into the First Power, which is called Sloth, and it was asked why do you strive for anything beyond what you see before you? Do you not have everything you need?
The soul replied and said ‘If a person has a house, why do they ever leave it? The house is a habitation of the person, but it is not sufficient in and of itself to be alive.’
With this, the soul overcame the First Power.”
We can see here that the “First Power” attempts to convince the soul that there is no need to seek anything else beyond the “Physical needs” of the body. This, the soul rightly recognizes, is a “soul trap” that discourages the type of onenesss realization that the Gospel of Mary Magdalene is trying to achieve. Therefore, the soul must answer back in the formula of the rest of the Gospel in a manner that subdues the Power with a Truth. As I indicated, this is an extrapolation of what I imagine the Gospel might have said and is done so that the further information makes sense in a framework and we have less of a feeling of having been dropped into a cold river midstream. If you feel strongly that I am wrong, then discard it and invent your own scenario, but be sure you do it with wisdom. First principles are of the same importance as tree roots.
With that, we move on to the second power:
“And desire said, I did not see you descending, but now I see you ascending. Why do you lie since you belong to me?
The soul answered and said, I saw you. You did not see me nor recognize me. I served you as a garment and you did not know me.
When it said this, it (the soul) went away rejoicing greatly.”
The good news concerning these verses is that we must extrapolate less. We know that the Power here at the Sacral Chakra must concern desire, and indeed we can all understand that the Second Chakra, is, in no small way, a Chakra that concerns desires where pleasure is involved. Desire is not happy to see the soul moving beyond it, and so it questions. Desire believes that the soul is its possession. This obliges the soul to answer in return to say that the soul could see Desire, but desire was blind to the soul. Indeed, we can understand passion to be a blind element of existence. The soul served passion as a garment—something that covers usually—and it—that being desire, did not know me. The soul, then, covers desire which is itself ignorant of the soul. Normally, we think of garments as something that are easy to remove, and the body that remains as the more “solid” entity. Here, however, the “garment” is being treated as the more “permanent thing” and reminds us of the story in the Bible about having the right “clothes” for the wedding feast. Let’s take a look at that quote:
“Mat 22:11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: Mat 22:12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Mat 22:13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Put differently, without the “Soul” as a garment, one does not get to enjoy the wedding feast and so is thrown “into Hell”. Again, this is treating the garment as being “more important” than the body it would seem, or at least as “a requirement for the body to exist” in any eternally pleasant manner.
We can imagine that the soul rejoices greatly because Desire, both in meditation and Biblically, causes us all manner of trouble since when we are acting out of our desire nature we are not acting from our soul nature necessarily. Magdalene, ever the renunciant, overcomes her own desire here at the Second Chakra, that place where for women, children are conceived and carried. Desire, it would seem, does not especially like us to have an “upward momentum” when it appertains to soul growth.
With the Second Power overcome, the Third Power emerges:
“Again it came to the third power, which is called ignorance.
The power questioned the soul, saying, Where are you going? In wickedness are you bound. But you are bound; do not judge!
And the soul said, Why do you judge me, although I have not judged?
I was bound, though I have not bound.
I was not recognized. But I have recognized that the All is being dissolved, both the earthly things and the heavenly.”
The Third Power or Third Chakra point, is referred to as Ignorance and so it would seem reflects some intellectual process. It is on the ground of presumed understanding that the conversation with it commences when it asks its question “Where are you going? In wickedness are you bound. But you are bound; do not judge!”
What a fundamentally different world this would present if everyone understood its import. We often hear phrases like “Judge not lest ye be judged,” but this is usually applied to some context that quite specifically needs some kind of judgment or discernment. What is here being said is that the soul was “bound” to the body because of wickedness. Because of this wicked binding, judgment should be suspended since how is a wicked person to know what is good or right? The soul, however, replies “Why do you judge since I have not?” In other words, the soul has not judged itself to be wicked. How is it intelligence based upon the will, or the Third Chakra, should know better? The admission follows that yes, the soul was bound, but there has been no binding performed by the soul. This calls to mind the Authority of Peter, who is given the charge as follows:
Matthew 16:9 ”I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
The soul, in the Magdalene Gospel, sidesteps all this by suggesting that though it was bound, it had no need of binding since it never made the distinction that it was adjudged wicked. Sin, therefore, it seems binds, and innocence it would therefore it seems, loosen.
Perhaps the fact that Peter was crucified whereas Magdalene was not has something to do with the story. She simply “Arose to heaven” whereas Peter may or may not have been turned upside down and crucified. Certainly he was crucified. Whether or not it was upside down is a matter of some debate, but if it is so, it could only be that he was somehow “upside down” to the kingdom and as the story goes, considered himself “unworthy” on that count.
The Gospel continues that the “Soul was not recognized”. On the other hand, the soul recognized that everything is dissolving in both the heavenly and the earthly which as we earlier learn when it comes to matter is its ultimate destination—to dissolve into essence. Again, these words sound more than a little familiar:
Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
Words and things dissolved into their root, remain.
With the Third Power overcome, the Gospel progresses to the Fourth:
“When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, which took seven forms.
The first form is darkness, the second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven powers of wrath.
They asked the soul, Whence do you come slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
The soul answered and said, What binds me has been slain, and what turns me about has been overcome, and my desire has been ended, and ignorance has died.”
So the Fourth, or the Heart, would appear to replicate the entirety of the Light Body/Chakra System of the standard Middle Path. Darkness would be the Root, desire the Sacral, the third the Solar Plexus where ignorance resides, the fourth the Heart, which is excited by death, the fifth or Throat the kingdom of flesh, the sixth or Third Eye the foolish wisdom of flesh and the seventh the Crown or wrathful wisdom. All of these powers reside in the heart, which is where this meditation ends.
All of these forces “team up” and ask where one comes or goes using the title slayer of men, which we would take to be sin or adultery from the text, and then, perhaps a little more mysteriously the title “conqueror of space.”
Apparently, in Moscow, there exists an entire monument to the “Conqueror’s of Space”,1 but probably the term means something more akin to “inheritor of the land”. Both of these things seem to point more than a little at Biblical Cain, who did a fair amount of man slaying and land taking. Perhaps it simply refers to Israel which came in and killed all the inhabitants of the land of Israel and then “took it”? Either way, the soul replies that “what was binding it is dead” firstly. What would have been binding it? Sin. So sin or adultery is dead and faith remains. The second part is “What turns me about has been overcome.” This would seem to mean that when people “inherit land” they start to concern themselves about matters concerning the land instead of what serves the soul. This turns them “upside down” or “about” relative to the kingdom of heaven. If we combine the two then, we would arrive at something like the heart suggesting, through the host of its dark powers, the adultery of the inheritor of the Earth—namely Eve, where do you think you are off to?
With regards to that which comes from the Gospel that that which was the slayer has been slain, and what turns her about much more could be said. In a roundabout way, we might be able to see these things as “sin and death” meaning that the “light body” is now “fully on” where the soul is concerned. If there is any doubt, the last line of “And my desire has been ended, and ignorance has died” clenches it, as the meaning from our walkthrough is that the Sacral chakra desires are overcome and ignorance from the Solar Plexus—read “solar ego” is dead. The result, as mentioned before, is probably the “rainbow body” or the spiritual soul without the “dross”.
The Gospel continues:
“In a aeon I was released from a world, and in a Type from a type, and from the fetter of oblivion which is transient.
From this time on will I attain to the rest of the time, of the season, of the aeon, in silence.”
This is a heavy statement. Let us see if we can unpack it.
In an aeon, presumably meaning an “age”–which I will define here as “an Astrological Age”–I was released from a world…here we will stop. Does she mean the “heavenly world, the worldly world, both, or neither?” We do not necessarily know. In a “type” from a “type” we could say that the type is woman and the sign is whatever her astrology sign is. The construction here is a little ambiguous. Does she mean that she has been released, from the previous clause, in a Type from a type, or does she mean to say simply an assertion that she is IN a TYPE from a type released? Maybe the next clause will help for context. And from the fetter of oblivion which is transient. Ah. So yes, released from the Type from a Type or else the “and” would imply oblivion and entail that she had been destroyed since being IN a Type is transient unless it be heavenly. So, the statement here seems to me to be saying she has overcome the entirety of the world and all of its “subconscious and conscious roles” including oblivion which may or may not be related to “soul destruction”.
The final statement is that from this time forward to the end of the season of the Aeon, she will be silent. Remember, however, it might not be just her that is silent, but perhaps the nature of the soul of the Church for this whole discourse began when Peter asked her this:’
‘Peter said to Mary, “Sister, we know the Savior loved you more than all other women. Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember – the things which you know that we don’t, and which we haven’t heard.”’
We know that the discussion in the text continues, because there is more:
“When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it was to this point that the Savior had spoken with her.
But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, Say what you wish to say about what she has said. I at least do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are strange ideas.”
Andrew whose name meaning is man, is skeptical on account of the judgment that the ideas are “strange”. Another disciple intervenes:
“Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things.
He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?
Then Mary wept and said to Peter, My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior?”
Peter is not a “hoped for intervention” but rather casts the entire event into something like a “Who did the Messiah love best?” contest.
Mary answers the accusation, but unhappily since Peter is “not believing her”. She gives Peter one of two choices—either she has invented a fiction, or she is a liar. This account is, so far, not anything the two disciples mentioned so wish to hear. Finally, Levi steps in:
“Levi answered and said to Peter, Peter you have always been hot tempered.
Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries.
But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well.
That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said.”
Levi contends that the Savior knew Magdalene very well, and it is therefore why he loved her more than the disciples. Knowledge, is, of course, a Biblical word that often means “conceived through sexual relations” and the gospel leaves this point open. Whatever the case, Levi says that because the Messiah knows Magdalene very well, he loved her more than them. Whether or not the Messiah loved her more or not seems to be a moot point, but the Gospel seems to be pointing at something here—the other disciples were jealous concerning something to do with how the Messiah loved Mary Magdalene.
Levi counsels them—stop messing around, and step into the spiritually perfect man—the chakra-aligned Adam Kadmon and go preach the gospel taking care, which is unusual for Levi, to not lay down any other rule or law beyond what the Savior indicated. There the account ends, and there the gospel ends.
It is more than coincidence, it seems to me, that the woman in the Garden of Eden is lied to and perhaps has some strange ideas, and then has to cover her shame as does her husband. In this account, the exact opposite appears to be the case. The woman, Mary Magdalene, tells the truth and is accused of being deceitful or at least not truthful by one disciple whose name means “man” and the other whose name means “stone”. Perhaps there is another connection through scripture that we might miss otherwise:
Revelation 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.
Since Adamah, or Adam means red, and Peter is accused of being hot-tempered by Levi, and Andrew is a name which translates as “man”, could it be that since when one is “hot-tempered” they are often red-in-the-face that the giving of the stone which is white relates to a purified Adam? Perhaps putting on the perfect man and becoming “perfect” and conquering as Magdalene relates to the “Conqueror of Space” and cleansing the “Church” of which she surely is a type, results in membership to the “white stone”? If so, it would seem then that being “hot-tempered” is a state that the original Adam must have had some issue concerning.
There is another parallel to this process from Alchemy:
In an interview conducted by Mircea Eliade at the 1952 Eranos Conference, Jung spoke of the final stage of the alchemical opus as well as the mystery of the coniunctio. He saw the integration of the opposites, and especially of evil and blackness, as one of the greatest problems of psychology:
“For, as long as Satan is not integrated, the world is not healed and man is not saved. …
…In the language of the alchemists, matter suffers until the nigredo disappears, when the “dawn” {aurora) will be announced by the “peacock’s tail” {cauda pavonis) and a new day will break, the leukosis or albedo. But in this state of “whiteness” one does not live in the true sense of the word, it is a sort of abstract, ideal state. In order to make it come alive it must have “blood,” it must have what the alchemists call the rubedo, the “redness” of life. Only the total experience of being can transform this ideal state of the albedo into a fully human mode of existence. Blood alone can reanimate a glorious state of consciousness in which the last trace of blackness is dissolved, in which the devil no longer has an autonomous existence but rejoins the profound unity of the psyche. Then the opus magnum is finished: the human soul is completely integrated.” 2
How on Earth can “Satan” be integrated? The entire process of putting on the perfect man and clearing out the chakras involves “casting Satan out”. Perhaps a better idea of what Jung SHOULD have said here is that the work is not complete until the Shadow is integrated which makes one susceptible to temptation from Satan when the Shadow is yet to be integrated.
Likewise, it would seem Jung is also mistaken in his view that the whiteness must “have blood”, unless he means the Blood from the Crucifiction which seems unlikely. What good would it do for someone to put on the perfect man, change from a red Adam to a white one, and then go right back to red after receiving his new name? No, instead, we learn that Jung was still stuck in some of the old ancient mystery schools of Egypt–a kind of perpetual crucifiction loop–but he does hit upon the right point at the very end which we would say from our above analysis arrives at the point that the white stone does: the opus magnum is finished and the human soul is completely integrated. More importantly, however, the human soul is restored to its former place: the Garden of Eden or Jerusalem.
As to the Secret Manna, could this not be similar to the honey locusts that John ate while in the wilderness? Indeed, we know that the Book of John is linked to Revelation since it is called “The Apocalypse of John”. Whether it is food that one literally eats like the manna from the ground, or whether it is something else that creatures in an elevated spiritual state eat/ingest/are nurtured by, it sounds like a good thing to have access to.
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene appears to, through the lens we have used, confirm the Chakra system. However, there is another much quicker, less abstract version of this system with which practicing Jewish people ought to be most familiar. That system is the Menorah.
First let us define the Menorah:
The menorah symbolizes light, growth, unity, and the Tree of Life (i.e.,* unity of Torah).* All its parts were formed from a single piece of pure gold (זָהָב טָהוֹר) that was “beaten” or “hammered” into shape (Exod. 25:36). This is a symbol of the divine substance (gold has a hint of the color of blood combined with the pure white). 3
The picture proves the Menorah to be quite complex. For the moment, it is sufficient to note that the lamps listed total a number of seven. The number of flowers is listed as nine. In the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, we step through ten distinct chakra centers, with the final corresponding chakra apparently being in the Heart Chakra which are comprised of seven smaller chakras. The word “Lev” in Hebrew, we are told means “heart”. The book of Leviticus, it turns out, starts with nine words, and we note above there are nine flowers. In more advanced meditations, it is not uncommon to find sources which use higher chakras which occur usually above the head or below the feet. So, it would seem the Nine Flowers or chakras in this system symbolize an unfolding that eventually yields seven lights which can be found as all contained within the heart, or else in classic “hindi-style meditation” in the center of the body systems in a straight line from above the head to the tailbone.
Without a doubt then, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene is showing how people return to the “Tree of Life”. However, there is still another overlap which Jewish observers might know:
This is a Hanukkah Menorah which features Nine lights for the celebration of Hanukkah which happens during the time of year in the Northern Hemisphere where daylight is the shortest. The import of Nine lights becomes apparent against our above Menorah study. The Nine flowers have instead become Nine lights symbolizing again the “Lev” or the “heart” which happens close to Christmas symbolizing the rebirth of “the light”.
There is a long debate about the shape of the Menorah. Historically it seems that it was depicted as more of a “V” shape as opposed to an “Arch” shape. The priestly blessing is given by making a V shape between the middle and ring fingers on both hands. This splits the “ten fingers” into sets of four and six. Certainly, we remember that the Gospel of Mary Magdalene had us step through ten distinct chakras (possibly 11 depending on how and whether you count the seven in the heart) which terminated at the fourth chakra. Perhaps the beauty of such a system is that the relation of the six fingers then becomes analogous to that of the sixth chakra in that once the heart is right, the vision opens. This is, of course, speculation, but it is without doubt that the number six in Hebrew study correlates to the “number of man” and since Magdalene is the penitent of penitents, then the implication is that a “penitent man/woman has his or her eyes open”. Naturally, the heart of such a person would be balanced.
A relevant point concerns the middle candle in the Hanukkah Menorah which is called the Shamash. In Hebrew, this candle means “the servant/the helper”. There is a scripture about the Servant of YHVH which is quite famous:
Isaiah 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
It must be then that the servant candle relights all wicks by virtue of the suffering he or she had to bear on account of all the other lights. The scripture appears to be a Messianic one, and so we see a scenario where the servant, YHSVH, came to the woman, Mary Magdalene, and cast “Demons out of her” such that all of her “light body” was restored and she had then therefore eaten from the “Tree of Life”.
Finally, the idea concerning the construction of the Menorah sounds reminiscent of the kind of torture the Messiah underwent both on His way to the cross and upon it. Hence, one could infer that either He A) Redeemed the Menorah or B) He also became it C) or both. The “rubedo” state might be what Jung meant when he said “redness of life”, however, the only path to that state is clear when one understands the Menorah, the color gold, and the fact that the blood of the Messiah is the only “perfected blood”.
6 The Mystery of the Cross
There is another parallel here consistent with some of the deeper mysteries of the crucifixion. The type of cross that the Messiah/YHSVH was crucified upon has been debated. Some believe it was like an X. Others believe it was more like a ‘T’. Still others imagine it looking a little like an Ankh. When we consider the guidance that the Gospel of Mary Magdalene provides, it becomes obvious which of these shapes is being energetically described. If it is not obvious, allow me to put it in ASCII form so that it is:
Each # is a chakra like the lamp stand with seven coming from the heart or “Lev”:
#######
#
#
#Hopefully it is obvious that this is a letter T or in Hebrew what is called a Tav. In ancient Hebrew, a Tav looked like this:
What is interesting about this depiction is that it is “leaning”. Tav was the last letter of the alphabet and one wonders that because the energetic depiction that the Gospel of Mary Magdalene describes is upright whether or not the original “leaned” because it was going to be put back “upright”. Since it is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it brings new clarity to the statement of “It is finished.” as quite literally the symbol of the cross would be the end of the alphabet as well as the work of rectification of the Tav.
The most likely word uttered, in my opinion, for “It is finished,” was M’Shalam. This Hebrew Aramic word has some connotations of a door being closed to strife and has the same roots as the word Shalom meaning peace. Therefore we begin to understand how it is that when one is sealed with the energetic Tav that they are “closed to strife” and obtain some peace. There is also, according to some, a connotation of “having been paid” as in “a debt”. We understand this in terms of the Lord’s Prayer where in some instances the words “debt and debtors” are used when asking for forgiveness as opposed to trespass and trespasses.
There is also indication that a form of this mark was used for Cain for protection, and possibly those who repented before the Flood. The color was probably different, as the mark Cain received was likely red. Black is the color derived from ashes, and so there is a sense of having “Burned through impurity” whereas with a red mark there indicates a need for a kind of burning or purging. Indeed, a burning cross is still a symbol of hatred in the collective psyche.
The Greek word used in translation is interesting as well for “It is finished.” The word most often used for this is “Tetelestai”. If we “Hebrewize” the word and get rid of all the vowels (TTLST), we discover that the word begins on a T or Tav, and ends on a T or a Tav. Therefore in that language, both the beginning and the end are represented by the consonants of the word which translates to the word spoken by YHSVH on the cross at the end.
As Magdalene is chief penitent, it is little wonder her description of the energy body describes a Tav. This increases the odds that the Gospel of Mary Magdalene was not some “made up book” by some Gospel writer other than her. While it does not rule out the possibility that some other scribe could have written such a document, it is unlikely that another scribe would have known to impart the energetic Tav as a unique imprint. Indeed, the standard would be the seven chakra system that rises upwards in a line.
So, by understanding all of these pieces, we are able to find a bridge between the Western value system which usually eschews introspection and meditation as an “Eastern” preoccupation. Buddhism and Hinduism both understand the sciences of the “Light Body” as well as various meditation techniques and disciplines that involve it. These religions differ in the regard, of course, as to the Nature of divinity and which God or Gods to serve. I see no reason to make a distinction for the purposes of this book other than to outline a few salient points:
The first essential observation is that this type of meditation technique is like a road that has many exits. It is not useful to conceive of the road as being evil and then not travel upon it because of the exits that exist that others have taken. No, a road is simply that—a potential route to travel and the exits are places where a person can “leave” and explore other networks of roads.
The objective of the travel on this road ought to be “oneness”. It is possible to experience different forms of oneness until one arrives at something they consider to be quintessential oneness. Everything else anyone maintains about the road is likely to be a distraction or worse, a trap.
It is apparent that the exit to the new Adam Kadmon template is only through means of YHSVH. It is not to say the other previous versions of the Adam Kadmon are not available, but it is to say that traversing those roads is a little like taking a spiral exit that goes downward and leads to “Darker paths and exits”. On these roads it is possible to drive through a “Bad Neighborhood” with alarming ease. Most impressions in the world of spiritual things are idols to the extent they become distractions on the road. The old adage–if you see Buddha by the road, kill him–puts this more viscerally.
There are connections between the old Eastern Systems and Western Systems. It is best to think of the teachers/prophets/Gods/Angel/God as pointing a very specific way. The way pointed to will necessarily reflect the conviction and devotion of the adherent. In other words, you get the directions that on some level you have faith for or in.
It is best to make no judgment about anyone else’s road but your own in most scenarios. This specifically applies to their ultimate exits and destinations. Of course, if someone is acting as a highwayman or robber on the road, then naturally this restriction does not apply since it will be you, ultimately, who will be robbed.