Magdalene Week has arrived, and today I am reflecting on the double meaning of the goddess scabbard: the protective solidarity of sisterhood and containment, alongside the shadow side of the blade it holds.
I have taken a decent into the Magdalene studies since my teenage years. There are many courses, events, gatherings, in every continent. The name of the Magdalene flows throughout history, with Schools offering initiations, from Pope Francis with the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene from 2016, 1996 to the present Magdalene Laundries historical documentaries, published investigations, and ongoing campaigns that brought our attention to the forced unpaid labour, psychological trauma, and mass grave discoveries, the Gospel of Mary codex purchased in Cairo in 1896 by German diplomat Carl Reinhardt and taken to Berlin, and the erroneous homily of 591 AD by Pope Gregory, also Freud to Galen and to Hippocrates, with so many more connecting Hysteria and the womb.
There is a longing for priestess-like communities rooted in sisterhood, inclusivity, and commonality. There is also the deep need for sheltered and protection still to this day. There will be no end to the mystery of seeking her ways, her rites, her initiations and that is all transformative and meaningful. It is the journey of all journeys towards the sacred. But the cautionary marker for me has been to stop mixing up the profits and the prophetesses. We are not there yet as a collective, when the price for inclusion out prices those in great need. We see high-cost mystery schoolings and charities asking for donations for women’s shelters. A balance needs to come in before we can see the Feminine line as one that is taking care of all women, all women as equal, safe and sovereign. Today the words from the Gospel of Mary still ring out. And if I were ever to advocate a teaching path, I would say this…
Read the words, go look at the Gospel of Mary, you can find it free online. Contemplate the words, rest in silence and resist thoughts, desire, bindings, turnings and open to the teachings of Hers and His in Kenosis. Through the study guides of the Gospel and Heart Centering Prayer Practice, in my opinion, I have found this to be the closest I have every attained to what the teachings may have resembled. And they can be free or worth a few books at the most. I know some will say, that the Gospel of Mary holds no evidence that She was the Author, so please do your own analysis.
Think of Her and Her story.
Dream into Her
Sit with others in Silence or Sacred Spaces
Be Cautious
Be Creative
And reflect on the history She is connected to, in both story and in name.
Women And Hysteria In The History Of Mental Health https://share.google/TluqVyE19thJ8eGZK
Jean-Yves Leloup 2002 The Gospel of Mary Magdalene Inner Traditions Publishing
The Gospel of Mary David Curtis
Cynthia Bourgeault 2004 Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening Cowley Publications
Janice Turner Salmon 
