“Magdalene Mysteries offers a perfect combination of historic information across millennia along with the personal interactions of the authors with Mary Magdalene. It is a book to be read over time, allowing the information to seep in. It reads as a pilgrimage, and like all pilgrimages, time should be taken to allow the path to reveal itself to you, to allow yourself to open to revelations and notice the changes that occur as a result of the pilgrimage…It is a comprehensive introduction to Mary Magdalene to those new to the subject and also a deep-dive for those wanting a deeper interaction with Mary Magdalene. I highly recommend this book and encourage the reader to walk the path of pilgrimage to the Rose with these highly informed and passionate authors.”

Autorentext

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. 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. Their previous book, Womb Awakening, received five awards, including a Nautilus Award. They live in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.

Klappentext

Discover the Womb Rites and initiatory magic of Mary Magdalene, who was revered as a Priestess and human embodiment of the Goddess

• 2020 Nautilus Gold Award

• Reveals how Mary Magdalene was a sacred priestess of the ancient Womb Mysteries, connected to moon wisdom, sacred harlot archetypes, and goddesses in many traditions, including Sophia, Isis, Inanna, Asherah, Lilith, Jezebel, and Witches

• Explains how the Magdalene Mysteries have been encoded in Gnostic texts, sacred art, and literature and unveils the secret Grail heresy of the Ghent Altarpiece

• Offers rituals and practices to initiate you into the Womb magic of the ancient priestesses and access deeper dimensions of sexuality and feminine power

A sacred priestess of the ancient Womb Rites, Mary Magdalene was at the center of a great and enduring Mystery tradition, one that touched on a stream of perennial spiritual wisdom as old as humanity. Worshipped as the human embodiment of the Goddess, the earthly Sophia, her womb was the spiritual luminatrix that anointed and empowered Jesus, transforming him into the Christ. As a priestess of the Goddess, Mary Magdalene knew how to embody the light and the dark, how to harness the magic potency of sacred sexual energy, and how to cleanse, awaken, and resurrect the soul. Yet, even though she sparked the creation of a worldwide religion, her story and teachings have been forgotten.

Unveiling the lost left-hand path of the Magdalene, the Feminine Christ, authors Seren and Azra Bertrand explore how this underground stream of knowledge has been carried forward over the millennia through an unbroken lineage of Womb Shamans, Priestesses, Oracles, and Medicine Women. They explain how the Magdalene Mysteries, symbolized by the Rose, have been encoded in Gnostic codices and gospels and in the highest art, literature, and architecture of many ages, including most significantly the Ghent Altarpiece. They examine Mary Magdalene’s connection to moon wisdom, sacred harlot archetypes, and goddesses in many traditions, including Isis, Inanna, Asherah, Lilith, and Jezebel, and look at shamanic, tantric, and Cathar expressions of sacred feminine mysteries as well as the Witch and Templar roots of Robin Hood and Maid Marian.

In this revelatory and magical text on the lost feminine mystery traditions of Mary Magdalene and the lineage of Sophia, the authors present encompassing theological, historical, mythological, and archetypal wisdom, with rituals and practices to initiate you into the Womb magic of the ancient priestesses and the path of the wild feminine.

Leseprobe
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 com…