Quest Magazine

By John Plummer

Originally printed in the NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Plummer, John. "Speaking of Sophia & the Magdalene: Interview with Tau Malachi." Quest  94.5 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006):230-231, 233.

Wheaton Illinois, May 25, 2006

For the last thirty-five years, Tau Malachi has been a lineage-holder of a living oral tradition of Gnostic Christianity that honors St. Mary Magdalene as Christ the Sophia. He is the author of St. Mary Magdalene: the Gnostic Tradition of the Holy Bride as well as other books on Gnosticism. In May 2006, Tau Malachi visited Olcott and spoke about the Gnostic tradition of the Holy Bride, the Sacred Feminine, and the enlightenment experience in Gnosticism. He also spoke with John Plummer, author and book reviewer for The Quest. The following is an excerpt from their discussion:

John: To begin, can you tell us about your background, training, and how you came to inherit the tradition of Sophian Gnosticism?

Malachi: Yes, I encountered my teachers, Tau Elijah and Mother Sarah, when I was eight, and I basically became Tau Elijah's sidekick when I wasn't in school. For the last eight years of his life, I studied the Sophian tradition with him, and became his successor in lineage. Over the years, I have become a Sophian elder and then a Sophian tau, and also an independent bishop. Most of my life has been taken up with immersion in Sophian Gnosticism, and also study of other traditions: Vajrayana, Sufism, Native American traditions, seeing how they all work together.

J: Can you say a little about where the Sophian tradition comes from, before your teacher?

M: Of course, in legend, it comes from St. Mary Magdalene, but whether that is true or not is another story! Spiritually, it comes from St. Mary Magdalene, through the oral tradition. The point to which we can trace some of the history is about five generations of lineage holders, to about the eighteenth century, or very late seventeenth century. Given the extent of the teachings which have been passed on, we believe it is likely that it existed as a very private lineage prior to that time.

J: You refer to your tradition as Sophian Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a word that is tossed around a lot these days with many different meanings. So, for you, what is Gnosis?

M: Ah, Gnosis! Well, Gnosis is knowledge acquired through direct spiritual/mystical experience. The Gnostic experience itself has three aspects as it is taught in our tradition. One aspect is an experience of higher consciousness. Another aspect is the opening of consciousness to new dimensions, specifically inner metaphysical dimensions. And the third is a conscious unification with the Divine. So, when we start talking about Gnosis, it is a movement of self-realization or an enlightenment experience. Indeed, a lot of people are talking about Gnosis today. You hear: "Got Gnosis?" not unlike "Got Milk?" Actually, from our lineage's perspective, Gnosis is not the mental/vital interpretations we can share, but the awareness within the spiritual/mystical experience itself, within that state—a state of being. Whatever comes afterwards, whatever flows out of that spiritual, supernal experience, is interpretation. So this would be a distinction we make in that respect. Gnosis is in the moment, in the experience.

J: Continuing on with definitions, since this is Sophian Gnosticism, who or what is Sophia, and what is her place in your tradition?

M: When we speak of Sophia, we are really speaking of the feminine aspect of the Divine, the feminine aspect of Christos, the feminine aspect of ourselves as well. So, essentially, when we call ourselves "Sophians," we are saying that we are a Gnostic Christian tradition that honors the pine and sacred feminine as integral to the Gnostic revelation and salvation story. So rather than just envisioning the Divine in terms of masculine images, we see feminine images as absolutely essential to the process. Of course, we also honor St. Mary Magdalene as an embodiment of Christ the Sophia, as Yeshua is an embodiment of Christ the Logos. And it is in that interaction, for us, that Gnostic light-transmission or illumination occurs—in the interplay of the sacred masculine and feminine, Logos and Sophia.

J: In light of your latest book, St Mary Magdalene: The Gnostic Tradition of the Holy Bride, please tell us more about your tradition's view of Mary Magdalene.

M: Certainly. When we look at Mary Magdalene, especially in light of the current interest in The Da Vinci Code, the first thing we have to say is that it is very interesting that so many people have taken the book as history, considering one picks it up in the fiction section and not the historical, theological or spiritual section! And people are only going so far with it—for example, that the Magdalene is important because she is a close disciple, the wife or consort of Jesus, and has his children; which is strikingly similar to the Virgin Mary, in terms of why the Magdalene is considered a holy woman.

J: In terms of her holiness and importance deriving from Jesus, from the male figure in the story?

M: Absolutely. Sophians take it a step further, and say: yes, disciple, yes, wife/consort, but also co-equal in illumination with Yeshua, and co-preacher with Yeshua. So when we speak of her, we are speaking of a powerful spiritual master, a holy woman in her own right, apart from whether she ever had children. Dan Brown speaks of her as the mother of the royal blood, as the mother of the children of Yeshua. To us, she is the first apostle, the apostle to the apostles, and thus central to the transmission of Gnostic apostolic succession. The mother of the royal blood in this sense, spiritual rather than literal.

J: And by "Gnostic apostolic succession" you mean the light-transmission of self-realization passed down through the tradition, not necessarily the physical transmission of hands on heads, or both?

M: Well, both. individual persons, teachers, can be facilitators for others in the Gnostic experience. Can we cause it? No. But we can certainly serve as midwives if we embody something of this illumination, and it is entirely possibly to help facilitate that experience in another person.

J: Although the Magdalene's status does not derive from having Yeshua's children, I believe that your tradition does teach that they had children. You mention a son, St. Michael, in your book. I was curious about that, as I have seen a number of different versions of the story of Jesus' children. Sometimes there is a daughter, Sara. Sometimes, there is a son . . .

M: Sophians have it both ways. We are recording a very particular line of legend in this particular volume, related to the exile of the Bride in Babylon, which is closely parallel, of course, to the fall of Sophia in classical Gnosticism. So when the line comes down to us, in this particular cycle of legends, St. Michael is one of the preeminent characters. However, oftentimes, other stories will say twins, two children, one boy, one girl.

J: The Sophia/Logos, feminine/masculine polarity reflecting again at another level?

M: Yes, absolutely. And in another line of Sophian oral tradition, you will find legends related to Mary of Bethany, and there is very wild line that speaks of her as the Queen of Sheba, a feminine wisdom character, a priestess queen who comes to test a male character, a king, in terms of his wisdom. This is the difficulty in writing down oral tradition. You have to take a line and somewhat go with it, even though there may be many other stories.

J: Sure. One thing I appreciated about this most recent book is how you will be telling the story one way, and then you say, "Oh, and there's this other version over here" If I understand you correctly, there is no one true version, but many different tellings, which play back and forth, and somehow one begins to get a sense of the larger story.

M: Yes, for Sophians the idea is direct experience of God, direct experience of the risen Christ.

J: So, the stories, the practices, whatever, are simply there to midwife this experience?

M: Yes, they are vehicles.

J: I was intrigued by the sayings collection at the back of the book, The Secret Gospel of Mary. Can you tell us more about how this was transmitted to you, and your role in shaping it?

M: Throughout our history, our lineage holders have, from time to time, spoken wisdom sayings in the name of Mary Magdalene. And of course, every time a lineage holder, such as myself, shares these sayings, they change. They are meant to change. In terms of this particular gospel. . . There are probably about five hundred or so sayings in the tradition, attributed to the Magdalene, very specific sayings. In terms of sitting down to write it, it is the process of getting into the space to remember what one has received, and letting that come through. In this case, there was something of an intentional parallel to the Gospel of Thomas, in terms of style. In the way this gospel is presented, it is a modern Gnostic tradition. This is something some Gnostics have a question about. But if there is living Gnosis, how can revelation have stopped? And why shouldn't we have a gospel which can speak to modern people in terms they can understand, more intimately, more easily. And this was really the intention behind it: Here are these sayings, and let's weave them into a modern Gnostic scripture which can speak to us more easily today and yet carries something of the cadence, the form of the tradition.

J: I have found that when I utter the word "Gnostic" in popular, mainstream circles, a fairly standard list of objections quickly arises in people's minds—that Gnosticism is elitist, dualistic, anti-physical, anti-body, anti-sex, and so on. Obviously, classical Gnosticism was very perse, and such critiques may have applied more or less well to some forms of it. But perhaps not so much today. What would you say to folks who raise these kinds of objections?

M: First of all, it is great assumption that classical Gnostics were any of these things. When reading Gnostic scripture, it is important to always remember that it is meant as metaphor, in the context of spiritual teaching. It is not literal. So we have some questions about what they were really saying in these scriptures.

J: This is fairly different from the approach to the Bible that most Western, Jewish or Christian people have grown up with

M: Yes. Fundamentally, Sophian Gnosticism would speak of a non-dual philosophy.

J: A Western Advaita Vedanta?

M: Yes, very much so. This would propose that the appearance of dualism points to the dualism in consciousness. This is the discussion among Sophians when we talk about the Demiurge, and such matters. We are speaking of cosmic ignorance and the dualism in consciousness which we all experience. From a Sophian perspective, everything can be a vehicle of illumination: our bodies, our sexuality, our work, our hobbies, everything. Nothing is excluded. For us, this is closely related to our inclusion of the pine and sacred feminine. When we speak of the world as imperfect, we are actually saying "impermanent," and we are acknowledging creative evolution. Here in the material world, things move very, very slowly. Nature savors her evolution. We are not looking for perfection here, but for realization. Rather than looking outward for happiness, we are learning to discover our peace, joy, and happiness inwardly, in which case our lives become a vehicle for that fulfillment, that satisfaction. So rather than a dualistic model, we actually have a non-dual one. Now, for some people, a dualistic model can play out well during particular aspects of their spiritual journey. For example, if someone has had a very hard life, it can be very useful to take a view that the world is fundamentally dark and hostile, seeking a transcendence of the world in the Light and Spirit. These are ideas which are useful in spiritual life and practice, with particular people at particular times—not a formal Gnostic view of the world, as though dogmatic creed and doctrine.

J: So we are back again to everything serving the birthing of the inner experience.

M: Yes

J: I was intrigued by your view of the Second Coming—that it would be feminine, not focused on one individual but a group phenomenon. Can you elaborate on this?

M: If you go back to earlier periods in the lineage, they were often viewing a reincarnation of Magdalene as a central figure in the Second Coming. And this then evolved to, well, a woman who bears a child, a very special child. And then this comes down into the experience of modern lineage holders, who say: Wait a second, the next stage of this is multiple individuals, a collective, as this is how the pine and sacred feminine works, in multiples. There needs to be a balance between this First Coming, which was received as masculine, with the feminine. My teacher's teacher was Tau Miriam, a very powerful British woman, apparently quite something, and a lot of people were looking to her in this regard. But she said: No, no, no, not yet, but it will come to pass. Tau Miriam was a great shaper of our lineage in its present form today. Before her, you hear hints of a much more closed order, a secret society, perhaps not unlike Martinism. You hear more of this before her time, and she revolutionized this in many respects. She pointed out that giving birth is always a process, and that perhaps the Second Coming is a wave-like event of many women who are embodying the Sophia principle, as consciousness changes more and more to be able to receive that. If we are talking about the illumination of humanity, women have to share equally in that with men. Anything else does not make sense. We are looking at the Second Coming as the reception of the Holy Bride, which is innately an awareness of Christ Consciousness in a larger segment of collective humanity, not one individual.

John Plummer Ph.D., is a freelance theologian, author of several books and articles on esoteric Christianity, and most recently, coauthor with John Marby of Who Are the Independent Catholics?

By Joan Price

Originally printed in the NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Price, Joan. "The Divine Mother in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga." Quest  94.5 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006):226-228.

The luminous heart of the Unknown is she,

A power of silence in the depths of God.

She is the Force, the inevitable Word,

The magnet of our difficult ascent. 

Savitri, Book 3, Canto 2

The Divine is given to us in the great formula of Sachidananda, which can be translated as pure being (sat), consciousness (chit), and bliss (ananda). It has a transcendent, yet self-absorbing aspect, but also a dynamic multi-dimensional fullness. Sachidananda continuously pours forth its essence into the different worlds of existence and enters back into them as their inner substance and support.

In Sanskrit, the term for energy is shakti, the force or active power of the Divine and it signifies the feminine principle. In the Tantric tradition, and according to Sri Aurobindo, Shakti is the Divine Mother, the Consciousness-Force of God. As creator of the worlds, Shakti is manifested in all things, and is at the core of Sri Aurobindo's teaching of Integral Yoga. The following from Sri Aurobindo's, The Mother, describes three facets of the Divine Mother.

The Mother is the divine Conscious-Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme . . .Transcendent, the original supreme Shakti, she stands above the worlds and links the creation to the ever unmanifest mystery of the Supreme. Universal, the cosmic Mahashakti, she creates all these beings and contains and enters, supports and conducts all these million processes and forces. Individual, she embodies the power of these two vaster ways of her existence, makes them living and near to us and mediates between the human personality and the divine Nature. (26-7)

What a mystery she is! Due to her transcendent quality, the Divine Mother or Mahashakti is beyond worlds and links the Supreme Being to all creation. In her consciousness, she holds all the truths that need to manifest and shapes them into form. All is her delight in the Supreme Being and her embodiment of the eternal mysteries. Everything that is in the universe and in our world is what the Divine Mother reveres and the Supreme sanctions.

Through her universal quality, Mahashakti works out the substance and soul of each universe that she has made and her very presence in them gives life, harmony, and meaning to all things. She is the cosmic soul of the transcendent Divine Mother and in the universe are many planes of her creation. At the summit are worlds of divine truth, beauty, and goodness, where all beings are souls and powers and bodies of the divine light. In these worlds the Divine Mother is a dynamic power of divine will and knowledge. On the higher universal planes, all beings live and move in truth, harmony, and perfection.

Through her individual quality, the Divine Mother embodies both the transcendent and universal by making their power active here on earth for the descent of the divine in each individual form. However, because we humans live in the physical worlds of the mind and body, we feel separated in consciousness from our source. But no matter how much we struggle with our imperfections, and continually fail to recognize the Divine Mother's grace, we too are a center of her knowledge, power, harmony, and perfection. Our world exists on a plane of ignorance that is searching for the divine light and truth that has to be brought down here so we can climb back again into the infinity of the spirit. Thus, the Divine Mother not only governs all from above but in her deep and great love, she descends into our lesser world of ignorance—ready to lead us from the darkness into the light, from falsehood into truth, from death into immortality. Her aim is nothing less than to spiritualize matter.

The Mahashakti has many aspects, which Sri Aurobindo calls "powers and personalities." Of these, he points to the four aspects that are the most active for the evolution of our world towards its "destined goal of perfection." They are Maheshwari (knowledge), Mahakali (force), Mahalakshmi (harmony and beauty), and Mahasaraswati (perfection).

Maheshwari is the power and personality that presides over the infinite expanses of knowledge.

She is the mighty and wise One who opens us to the . . .cosmic vastness, to the grandeur of the Light, to a treasure-house of miraculous knowledge, to the measureless movement of the Mother's eternal forces. Tranquil is she and wonderful, great and calm for ever. Nothing can move her because all wisdom is in her; nothing is hidden from her that she chooses to know; she comprehends all things and all beings and their nature and what moves them and the law of the world and its times and how all was and is and must be. (37—8)

Because her wisdom and compassion are endless, Maheshwari can raise the human soul and nature into the divine truth. Although she is above our thinking mind and beyond our will, she can lift them into wisdom and flood them with divine splendor. She is always tranquil, great, and calm. Nothing can affect her, because she is wisdom and nothing that she chooses to know can be hidden from her.

Maheshwari deals with us according to our nature and when we are ready, she guides us into the grandeurs of the supreme light. Though her compassion is endless, if we are hostile and turn away from her knowledge and wisdom, she too turns away leaving us to live in our chosen shadows of ignorance. How long we reject her is up to us. The truth of things is her one concern, knowledge is her power, and building our soul and our nature into the divine truth is her mission.

Mahakali embodies force and will. She is the divine warrior that smashes all obstructions and speeds our human aspiration and effort upward into the divine majesty.

There is in her an overwhelming intensity, a mighty passion of force to achieve, a divine violence rushing to shatter every limit and obstacle. All her divinity leaps out in a splendour of tempestuous action; she is there for swiftness for the immediately effective process . . .

Dangerous and ruthless is her mood against the haters of the Divine; for she is the Warrior of the Worlds who never shrinks from the battle. Intolerant of imperfection, she deals roughly with all in man that is unwilling and she is severe to all that is obstinately ignorant and obscure; her wrath is immediate and dire against treachery and falsehood and malignity, ill-will is smitten at once by her scourge . . . (40-1)

Like the eagle, Mahakali can take us to the highest reaches of truth or strike us down in anger. The timid fear her and the brave adore her strength. If we have the courage to follow her flame, we can achieve in a day what would normally take us years—even lifetimes. Our indifference to the divine work infuriates her and, if necessary, she will strike us awake with sharp and swift pain. Her divine violence rushes to shatter every limitation and obstacle we construct against living the divine life. Yet, as forceful as she can be, this aspect of the Divine Mother has a deep love and kindness as intense as her wrath. By the grace of her fire and passion and speed, we can achieve the goal now rather than later, for her goal is nothing less than having us experience the flame of divine ecstasy.

The third power and personality of the Divine Mother is Mahalakshmi, the soul of all beauty and harmony in creation. She manifests the hidden charm and attraction that draws us toward the divine bliss. This power of the Divine Mother touches the heart of each of us with joy and longing.

For she throws the spell of the intoxicating sweetness of the Divine: to be close to her is a profound happiness and to feel her within the heart is to make existence a rapture and a marvel; grace and charm and tenderness flow out from her like light from the sun and wherever she fixes her wonderful gaze or lets fall the loveliness of her smile, the soul is seized and made captive and plunged into the depths of an unfathomable bliss. (45)

Life is turned in her supreme creations into a rich work of celestial art and all existence into a poem of sacred delight; the world's riches are brought together and concerted for a supreme order and even the simplest and commonest things are made wonderful by her intuition of unity and the breath of her spirit. (47-8)

But, again, it is not easy to meet her demands of harmony and beauty of the mind and soul, because where there is ignorance—where love and beauty are lacking—she will not enter. If so-called love and beauty are mixed with baser things, such as jealousy and selfishness and hatred, she will soon depart because these qualities are not pure. She refuses to fill her lovely chalice with envy or strife, greed or ingratitude. For it is through pure love and beauty that Mahalakshmi unites us with the Divine. If we admit her into our hearts, she will reveal the mystic secrets of divine harmony that surpasses all knowledge and stays with us forever.

Mahasaraswati is the Divine Mother's power of work and her spirit of perfection and order. Of all the feminine principles, she is the nearest to physical nature. Recall that Maheshwari opens us to the cosmic vastness, Mahakali gives us the force and passion to achieve, and Mahalakshmi brings the secret of divine harmony. It is up to the fourth personality, Mahasaraswati, to organize all of the above powers and guide them to completion.

Always she holds in her nature and can give to those whom she has chosen the intimate and precise knowledge, the subtlety and patience, the accuracy of intuitive mind and conscious hand and discerning eye of the perfect worker. This power is the strong, the tireless, the careful and efficient builder, organizer, administrator, technician, artisan and classifier of the worlds. When she takes up the transformation and new-building of the nature, her action is laborious and minute and often seems to our impatience slow and interminable, but it is persistent, integral and flawless. For the will in her works is scrupulous, unsleeping, indefatigable; leaning over us she notes and touches every little detail, finds out every minute defect, gap, twist or incompleteness, considers and weighs accurately all that has been done and all that remains still to be done hereafter. (49-50)

Mahasaraswati holds in herself an inexhaustible capacity for flawless work and exact perfection. According to Sri Aurobindo, Mahasaraswai is nearest of the four to physical nature, she is most concerned with organization, execution, and construction, all of which she carries out with a dedicated thoroughness. Carelessness, negligence, and indolence she detests. And she has no sympathy for those who leave things undone or half done. Nothing short of perfection satisfies her and that is why she is ready to face an eternity of labor, if needed, to complete her creation.

Of all the Divine Mother's powers, Mahasaraswati is the most long-suffering with our human imperfections. She is kind, smiling, and helpful, and not easily turned away or discouraged, even after our many failures. As long as we are straightforward and sincere, she is our friend and mentor through all difficulties. With a smile, she chases away clouds of gloom, stress, and depression. In her quiet and persevering way, she is always there to help us turn to our higher nature. All the work of the other powers leans on her for its completeness, for she assures us of a strong material foundation in our adventure of consciousness.

We can now sum up the principles of Sri Aurobindo's vision of the Divine Mother. The Supreme Being is the one source and support of all existence. Cosmic manifestation takes place when the secret potentialities of the Supreme are brought forth by the Divine Mother. And the key to this dynamic self-disclosure of God is found in the principle of harmony among all beings. Thus, there is nothing to fear, for the Divine Mother, the Consciousness-Force of the Supreme, is on earth with us like a sunlit path, and the atmosphere around us is bathed in her luminous knowledge, force, harmony, and perfection. We have only to open ourselves with inner sincerity in order to receive them. Everything is prepared and the future is in our hands.

References

Ghose, Sri Aurobindo. The Mother. Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1965.

———. Savitri. Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 2000.

Joan Price, Ph.D. is professor emeritus of philosophy at Mesa Community College and a long-time member of the Theosophical Society. She is author of several books and papers as well as a college textbook, Philosophy through the Ages . Her latest book Climbing the Spiritual Ladder was released in September 2006. Joan is an animal lover with three dogs, a cat, and several flocks of wild geese and ducks that camp on the lake by her house for daily handouts. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

By Carol N. Ward

Originally printed in the NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Ward, Carol N. "Mary Magdalene and The Voice of the Silence." Quest  94.5 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006):211- 215.

In both the Catholic and Protestant traditions, as well as the popular culture of the Western world, Mary Magdalene is portrayed by the Church as a prostitute who was redeemed by her love for Jesus Christ. However, neither the Eastern Orthodox traditions nor the Gnostic traditions portray her in this way. The labeling of Magdalene as a prostitute originated with Pope Gregory the Great when he issued Homily 33 in 591 AD (Leloup xiv). Gregory claimed that the seven devils that Jesus cast out of Magdalene were the seven deadly sins, and reinterpreted her act of washing Jesus' feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. He wrote,

She had coveted with earthly eyes, but now through penitence these are consumed with tears. She displayed her hair to set off her face, but now her hair dries her tears. She had spoken proud things with her mouth, but in kissing the Lord's feet, she now placed her mouth on the Redeemer's feet. She turned the mass of her crimes to virtues. (Haskins 96)

Gregory asserted that Mary Magdalene, Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, and the unnamed sinner in Luke who anoints Christ's feet were all the same person (Haskins 16). And although the Catholic Church officially redacted this decree in 1969, his depiction of Mary Magdalene is still believed by many as the "Gospel Truth" (Haskins xiv). The power of one pope to change the world's perception of a Biblical character, hundreds of years after the fact, and for over a thousand years into the future, gives one pause for thought.

In reality, little is known for certain about Mary Magdalene. Indeed, even the origin of her name is unclear. Magdalene may indicate that she came from the town of Magdala (Migdal), located on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Gennesaret) just north of Tiberias. (Other sources agree with Pope Gregory that she was from Bethany.) Still others argue that Magdala means "tower, magnificent, or great," and that calling her Mary Magdalene is like calling her "Mary the Great"(Starbird 51). But, either way, she is presented as an independent woman—by place of birth or nobleness of being—rather than by husband or other male relationship as was usual at the time. This, in itself, is a clue to her strength, power, and uniqueness.

When perusing the Bible to learn more about Mary Magdalene, we find that the synoptic Gospels do not give a lot of detail on her life. But according to Leloup (8), they do agree on four points:

She was one of Christ's female followers.

She was present at the crucifixion.

She was the witness of his resurrection.

She was the first to be charged with the supreme ministry of proclaiming the Christian message.

Additionally, Mary's name is placed first six of the seven times the women who followed Jesus are listed. And, in the Gospel of John, the risen Jesus gives her special teachings and commissions her to announce the good news of the resurrection to the other disciples, for which she is often called the "Apostle to the Apostles." The Gospel of Luke identifies her as one "from whom seven demons had gone out." This reference to a cleansing has none of the moral judgment that Pope Gregory later attached to it, but can be open to other interpretations. For example, it could just as easily be postulated that her seven chakras were opened by being in the presence of Jesus. Similar transformations are documented of those who reached enlightenment in the presence of the Buddha.

In the Gnostic Gospels, we find that Mary Magdalene is shown as a prominent disciple of Jesus. Instances of this exalted status are found in the Gospel of Thomas, First Apocalypse of James, Dialogue of the Savior, Sophia of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Philip, and the Pistis Sophia, as well as the Gospel of Mary from the Berlin Codex. These works portray Mary as one of the interlocutors in the dialogues between Jesus and his disciples. She is demonstrably a member of His inner group and well-able to articulate the teachings to those who have trouble understanding them. For example, in Dialogue of the Savior, the narrator confirms "she uttered this as a woman who had understood completely" (Robinson 252).

The Gospel of Mary presents her as a leader among the disciples. She does not fear for her life after Jesus' death, but goes forth and visits the tomb of Jesus, while the rest of the disciples hide in a locked chamber in fear of the authorities. The Savior praises Mary for her unwavering steadfastness. She experiences a vision of Jesus and receives advance teaching about the fate of the soul and salvation. It is this vision that she shares in her Gospel, which is unfortunately incomplete. Still, it is clear from this Gospel that she was a comforter and instructor to the other disciples, some of whom respected her in this role and some of whom challenged her authority.

During the sixth century, many legends of Mary Magdalene were created. It was around this time that the last temple of the goddess was closed, and the Catholic Church officially outlawed goddess worship. It was also during this time that Pope Gregory delivered the sermon that redefined her in terms more compatible with his vision of the role of the feminine in the Church. Some legends say that Mary Magdalene was a powerful preacher for a short period after Christ's death. As she was contemplative by nature, she soon retired to a cave where she fasted for thirty years, being borne up by angels everyday for spiritual sustenance. Little was heard of her for centuries. But in the twelfth century, with the rise of the grail legends, the worship of Mary Magdalene again became prevalent and churches claiming to have a relic of her flourished.

Other legends, especially in Provence, France, celebrated her as the mother of Jesus' daughter, Sarah. Sarah may be a title rather than a name as it means "queen" or "princess" in Hebrew. In Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France, there is an annual festival from May 23 to 25 at a shrine dedicated to St. Sarah the Egyptian, also called Sarah Kali, the Black Queen. This festival originated in the Middle Ages, and is in honor of an Egyptian child said to have been brought over by Mary Magdalene, Martha, and Lazarus in 42 AD. Sarah is symbolically black because she is a secret and that only the initiated may know her true origin. There is speculation that the Black Madonnas, which were created over a span from the fifth to the twelfth centuries, and are still venerated in Poland, Spain, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia and other European countries, are really depictions of Mary Magdalene and Sarah, rather than the traditional Madonna and Child. Some proponents of this theory say there is evidence that the royal bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene flowed in the Merovingian monarchs of France. Merovingian breaks down into "Mer" or "Mary" or "the sea," and "vin" for "the vine." So it can mean "vine of Mary" or "vine of the mother" possibly representing the bloodline of Mary Magdalene and Jesus.

In twelfth-century Europe, there was a strong appreciation of the feminine, especially in Provence, where women held fief and manor by right of inheritance as early as the tenth century. The cult of Mary Magdalene heralded her as the patron saint of gardens and vineyards, the mediatrix of fertility, beauty and the joy of life. She filled the role of the love goddess of antiquity. During this time, Jerusalem was recaptured, and the Order of the Knights Templar, which has become well-known through The Da Vinci Code, flourished.

The legends of Mary, and other esoteric teachings were later forced underground by the Church through the ruthless torture of the Papal Inquisition which started in 1233. Mary Magdalene was again repressed and Mary, mother of Jesus, believed to be a virgin, was held up as the role model for women in the Church.

Mary Magdalene is making her return, but it has been slow. In 1772, a fourth-century parchment was found (Codex Askewianis). It contained the Pistis Sophia, which features a dialogue that Jesus conducted with Mary Magadelene and the other disciples. In 1896, a papyrus codex dating to the fifth century was found (Codex Berolinensis 8502). It contained two texts entitled "Gospel of Mary" and "The Sophia of Jesus." In 1945, the Nag Hammadi texts, which contained several works that made mention of Mary, including a second "Sophia of Jesus" were discovered. Some early third century Greek fragments have supplemented both the "Gospel of Mary" and the "Gospel of Thomas," one of the Nag Hammadi texts. In 2003, Karen L. King, a Biblical scholar, published Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle, which places the two extant fragments side by side. It is believed ten pages of the "Gospel of Mary" are still missing.

The following is an excerpt from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene found in the book The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle by Karen L. King (16-17). It describes the ascent of the soul to heaven by the severing of various ties to the earth. Its message is very similar to that of The Voice of the Silence and describes one of the secret teachings that Christ gave to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection and picks up after a four-page gap in the original manuscript. In these four pages, the soul has conquered the first of the four powers. This power was probably named "Darkness." The excerpt begins when the soul is confronting the second power, "Desire."

And Desire said, 'I did not see you go down, yet now I see you go up. So why do you lie since you belong to me?'

 

The soul answered, 'I saw you. You did not see me nor did you know me. You mistook the garment I wore for my true self. And you did not recognize me.'

After it had said these things, it left rejoicing greatly

 

Again, it came to the third Power, which is called 'Ignorance.' It examined the soul closely, saying, 'Where are you going? You are bound by wickedness. Indeed you are bound! Do not judge!'

 

And the soul said, 'Why do you judge me, since I have not passed judgment? I have been bound, but I have not bound anything. They did not recognize me, but I have recognized that the universe is to be dissolved, both the things of earth and those of heaven.'

 

When the soul had brought the third Power to naught, it went upward and saw the fourth Power. It had seven forms. The first form is darkness, the second is desire; the third is ignorance; the fourth deadly envy; the fifth enslavement of the body; the sixth is the foolish wisdom of the flesh; the seventh is the wisdom of the wrathful person. These are the seven Powers of Wrath.

 

They interrogated the soul, 'Where are you coming from, human-killer, and where are you going, space-conqueror?'

 

The soul replied, saying, 'What binds me has been slain, and what surrounds me has been destroyed, and my desire has been brought to an end, and ignorance has died. In a world, I was set loose from a world and in a type from a type which is above and from the chain of forgetfulness which exists in time. From this hour on, for the time of the due season of the aeon, I will receive rest in silence.'

 

After Mary had said these things, she was silent, since it was up to this point that the Savior had spoken to her.

Desire tries to keep the soul from ascending by saying it belongs to the world below and the powers that rule it. In the soul's attempt to escape, it is claiming that it does not belong to the material world. Since Desire did not see the soul come down from the heavens, it assumes it must be from the material world. The soul says that Desire did not recognize it because Desire thinks that the garment of flesh is the true spiritual self. Desire has unwittingly admitted that it never knew the soul's true self by saying it didn't see it descend. The response of the soul unmasks the blindness of Desire and the soul passes on. This particular passage from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene resonates deeply with The Voice of the Silence, in both meaning and expression.

When to himself his form appears unreal as do on waking all the forms he sees in dreams. When he has ceased to hear the many, he may discern the ONE--the inner sound which kills the outer. (14)

 

And on page 15, it states, 

 

If thy soul smiles while bathing in the Sunlight of thy Life; if thy soul sings within her chrysalis of flesh and matter; if thy soul struggles to break the silver thread that binds her to the MASTER: know O Disciple, thy Soul is of the earth.

The Voice of the Silence also tells us about ignorance: "The name of the first Hall is IGNORANCE--Avidya." (19)

In the Gospel of Mary, the power of ignorance is judging. This gives us an insight into the nature of ignorance. It is judging others without knowing who or what they are. The soul has knowledge of that which ignorance knows nothing. It states that because everything in the lower world is to be dissolved, the powers of the transitory world have no real power over the eternal soul. It is because there is a body that there appears to be sin. Since flesh is impermanent, there is actually no sin, judgment, or condemnation. Again, the power itself gives a clue as to how to escape it by saying the soul is bound. The soul is innocent because it acts according to the nature of the spirit: it does not judge others or attempt to dominate anything or anyone.

The Voice of the Silence says "Silence thy thoughts and fix thy whole attention on thy Master yet whom thou doest not see, but whom thou feelest" (32). When we do this, we are no longer ignorant. "The Dharma of the 'Heart' is the embodiment of Bodhi, the Permanent and Everlasting" (49).

The fourth power has seven forms—darkness, desire, ignorance, death, flesh, foolishness and wrath. Collectively, they are called "Wrath." Wrath says that the soul is a murderer because it has cast off the material body and a conqueror because it has traversed the spheres of the powers and overcome them. Again, the soul reinterprets the charges against it. The soul contrasts the subjection to material bonds—desire and ignorance—from which it has escaped, with the freedom of the timeless realm—silence and rest—to which it ascends. It conquers Wrath and moves on. At this point, Mary herself becomes silent and models the perfect rest of the soul that has been set free.

During Mary Magdalene's lifetime, views about the judgment of the dead were combined with the idea that angelic (or demonic) gatekeepers attempted to stop the souls and send them back into bodies. These notions were based on astrological beliefs that the planets were powers that governed the fate of all beings in the world. The soul's ascent was seen as an attempt to escape these arbitrary and unforgiving rules by successfully passing through each of the planetary spheres. Sinful souls were unable to escape and were returned to the flesh. Moral purity as well as preparation for the questions was necessary to reach the higher heavens. Similarly, Fragment III, The Seven Portals, of The Voice of the Silence, also tells us how to escape reincarnation by ascending through the portals. In both texts, warnings and advice are given on how to successfully navigate the dangers and temptations to be faced.

The patriarchal model created by the Church defines women in terms of their sexual and relational roles to men: virgins, wives, mothers, widows, and prostitutes. The Church declared that Mary, Mother of Jesus symbolized the archetypal roles of "Virgin" and "Mother," and as Jesus, the Savior, could not possibly have a wife, the Church was unwilling to acknowledge Mary Magdalene as "Virgin" or "Mother." The role that was left was a prostitute, and it was assigned by Pope Gregory the Great.

But in reality, the Gospel of Mary, other legends, and apocryphal works reveal Mary Magdalene as spiritual teacher, interlocutor, and close confidant of Jesus during his ministry on earth. The excerpt from her Gospel, explored earlier in this article, shows that her message is similar to that of Blavatsky and other great esoteric teachers. This view of Mary Magdalene places her in a new role or archetype—that of the "Teacher" or "Savior." Mary Magdalene was more than just a student or disciple of Christ, she embodied his teaching and had a powerful message of her own to share. It is not her relationship to men that defines her. Mary Magdalene stands on her own as a woman, a teacher, and a spiritual leader, much like Madame Blavatsky.

---

References 

Blavatsky, Helena P. The Voice of the Silence. Wheaton, IL: The Theosophical Press, 1947 

Haskins, Susan. Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993. 

King, Karen, L. The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 2003. 

Leloup, Jean-Yves. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 2002. 

Robinson, James M. The Nag Hammadi Library. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1978. 

Starbird, Margaret. The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail. Rochester, VT: Bear & Company, 1993.

 

Carol Nicholson Ward is currently one of the directors of the Theosophical Society in America from the Eastern District. She serves as president of the Mid-South Federation of TSA and as treasurer of Pumpkin Hollow Farm. She currently resides near Charleston, SC and dedicates much of her free time to the work of the Society.

By Carol Winters

Originally printed in the NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Winters, Carol. "The Feminine Principle: An Evolving Idea." Quest  94.5 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006):206-209, 215.

Our culture has had a long heritage of associating the feminine principle with what it means to be female and the masculine principle with what it means to be male. As a result, both men and women have traditionally been locked into rigid culturally-defined gender roles that have not been helpful for anyone who wishes to live a more meaningful, creative, and soul-making life.

However, this situation is changing. Today, we are more aware of the physical and spiritual harm that this perspective has caused to both the individual and to society. Thanks to Carl Jung and H. P. Blavatsky, we are beginning to learn that a fully integrated individual is a unique and balanced expression of both masculine and feminine traits. A brief look at the ancient development of the feminine principle and its resultant interpretation by the dominant androcentric or male-centered culture will heighten our current collective understanding of this concept and deepen both our awareness and our effectiveness for creative personal and cultural growth.

It all started long ago, at the dawn of human consciousness, when some said, "In the beginning was Mother Earth, the primal vessel that contains all things." The Great Mother was inclusive. From her womb emanated all life, and from her body all of her family received the gifts of nourishment, shelter, and transformation. When her children died, she enfolded them back into herself to be reborn anew. This early concept of what was later to become the feminine principle was that of a nature-based, interconnected existence for all creation, both in life and in death. Eventually our ancient "foreparents" understood that the female body also embraced the creative life-giving patterns of Mother Earth: its womb generated and protected life, its breasts nurtured, its arms embraced and comforted. The feminine principle became associated with early female experience, and was conceived as the creative vessel of life that contains, nurtures, and protects.

Most anthropologists agree that women invented the earthenware and baskets that held the provisions for their clan's hunting and gathering activities. They prepared animal hides to make clothing and tents to protect against the cold. Eventually, vessel evolved as a ceremonial container used to offer gifts to goddess, in supplication or in thanksgiving for bodily needs, and later, as a ritual receptacle of offerings for spiritual transformation and renewal. Priestesses first offered these ceremonial sacrifices to Mother Earth and goddesses. Eventually, priestesses and priests presented their offerings to goddesses and gods. And finally, the offerings were made only by priests, and exclusively to one male god. Today, the feminine principle represented by the chalice remains a container for spiritual transformation.

Others have said, "In the beginning was blood and the moon." The natural and periodic red waters that flowed from women's vulvas were observed to do so with the rhythmic cycles of the moon. The same Mother Moon who caused the primal life force, the red waters to flow, also sent forth the white waters to Mother Earth to make all things grow and flourish. The amazement and wonder of these women's mysteries gave birth to human consciousness, of life reflecting back upon itself.

The female life cycle of maid, mother, and crone was modeled with the rhythm of the moon. The new or waxing moon was a metaphor for the childhood or maiden time of her life. The full moon symbolized her sexual fulfillment, her fruition as mother, and her economic role as contributor to the community. Later, as a crone or Wise Woman during her waxing moon stage, she matured both as a family and a spiritual leader in her community. During the time of her menses, when the moon died and the sky was dark, she withdrew from community life and sexual activity and retreated into her internal wisdom. Just as the moon died and was resurrected again in three days, so too could the woman be physically and spiritually renewed. The many stories that we know today regarding death, resurrection, and renewal have their beginnings in these ancient women's blood mysteries. Another early concept of the feminine principle, the cyclic union between self and others also began with these early rites.

Hera, goddess of women's mysteries, personified the feminine principle as understood during this ancient, preliterate time. She had many titles, including Seat of Wisdom and Queen of Heaven. Virgins annually bathed in a nearby river, in ritual spiritual purification and dedication to her principles. (Most scholars agree that the original meaning of virgin was woman, regardless of her sexual proclivities.) But as patriarchal society came to dominate, this yearly sacred bath developed into a woman's pledge of her physical virginity to her husband. The meaning of virginity, then, devolved from that of psychological and spiritual intactness in relation to wisdom into one of physical chastity under the dominion of a husband.

During the Neolithic period, many believed that blood contained the human spirit. Over time, sex became tabu—both sacred and dangerous. Sigmund Freud agreed with anthropologist Robert Briffault that the ritual enactments of menstrual tabus were the beginning of moral principles for all primitive societies. The Indo-European derivatives for menses include measure, meter, diameter, geometry, moon, month, menopause, and metis. R'tu in Sanskrit has roots that mean both ritual and menstrual (Grahn 5-6). Consequently, the development of the feminine principle in the ritualized women's blood mysteries was also a central organizing factor of human culture. The resultant birth of primitive astrology was conceived in a unity of what we now consider both science and religion.

In time, men's blood rituals, patterned after the women's mysteries, were enacted in thanksgiving, supplication for a successful hunt for food, or in ceremonial preparation for a neighborly foray. Historian Gerta Lerner theorizes that the social practice of capturing and enslaving the women of enemy tribes during those raids created the patriarchal family in which women became subordinated to men, their sexuality controlled by the men who owned them. This practice eventually became enforced and strengthened by law. Female subordination gradually led to the notion that women were inferior to men. The perceived truth of the human condition understood "man" to be the norm that defined what is human, and "woman" was defined in relation to "man."

Further, women's natural, life-giving blood mysteries were perceived as inferior, less sacred, more unclean. At the same time, men's violent blood letting in hunting and warring, the taking of life, emulated a cultural model for what it was to be male. Whereas heroism marked the violent force of men's blood activities, shame characterized women's natural bleeding and reproductive processes. As a result, the feminine principle associated with the cultural concept of female being was relegated to a secondary and relational role to the masculine principal, the model by which men were to live their lives.

During the Homeric and classic Greek periods, Athena personified the prevailing cultural ideal of the feminine principle. During this evolutionary period in human consciousness, Father Zeus swallowed and assimilated his pregnant wife, Metis. From his head, he then rationally gave birth to their daughter, Athena, fully armored and ready for war to defend the polis. This unnatural act signaled the end of the female as creatrix of life and of a nature-based consciousness. Athena, the creation of her father, also replaced her mother, Metis (meaning practical wisdom) as a new paradigm of wisdom--that of law, order and justice. Her father's daughter, Athena was demoted in status from one of equality and independence on Mt. Olympus to that of his fully capable administrative assistant. She became the mediatrix between him and humanity, "And I alone of all pinities know of the keys which guard the treasury of heaven's thunder" (Aeschylus 366)! At the same time, unmarried Athena modeled physical chastity, her only acceptable alternative to the confines of a patriarchal marriage.

Athena's physical virginity also marked the change in human thought regarding the split between spirit and matter. In a world increasingly perceived in rigid dualities by the dominant culture, the writings of Plato and Aristotle reflected the phallocentric gender norms of the time. Their words set a crucial and authoritative precedent that continues, even today, to perpetuate the notion of the inferiority of the feminine principle in a circular movement of social convention within philosophical, scientific, and theological parlance.

Plato's dualistic view asserted that materiality or nature is associated with femaleness, and spirituality or higher reasoning with maleness. He believed that men could perform all tasks better than women, and that the highest form of love was between men. The essential functions of women were to run the households and to produce heirs. Aristotle's understanding of reality linked dualities such as spirit-matter, mind-body, reason-nature, light-dark, active-passive, hard-soft, good-bad, and ultimately male-female. The first concept in each of these dualities is superior, relates to males, and is considered a masculine quality, while the latter word is inferior, relates to females, and is referred to as a feminine attribute.

Aristotle's notion of female inferiority was twofold: scientific and social. Aristotle reversed the ancient pre-literate understanding that conception and life-giving is singularly a female phenomena by theorizing that the active male gives form and spirit, or movement, to the passive, shapeless matter of the female: "For the female, as it were, is a mutilated male, and the catamenia [menses] are semen, only not pure; for there is only one thing they have not in them, the principle of soul" (Clack 36). Aristotle thought that the duty of a woman was to submit to a man, for just as the soul or mind rules the body, so masculinity, understood at that time as being male, must dominate femininity, understood as being female. The wisdom of the feminine principle—natural, vibrant, creative and life giving—was gradually banished to the underground, hidden, but nevertheless still active (a masculine quality!) and flourishing.

For example, during this period in classical Greece, Hestia was the most venerated and revered of all the Olympian deities. Hestia Sophia—voiceless, imageless, and "storyless"—became the center of the human heart and the social hearth, as well as the implicit central flame of the Greek pantheon. Hestia's carefully and lovingly tended fire burned steadily in every home and temple, attesting to her abiding, but silent presence. Hestia's light represented the unspoken feminine principle that radiated at the center of the male-dominated life. Later, in Christian churches, the vigil lamp signifying Jesus' presence in the tabernacle replaced the sacred fire once tended by Hestia's vestal virgins. Certainly, Jesus did teach and ensoul many feminine principles; however, this truth was lost in the dominant culture's literal interpretation of his male embodiment.

We also find Wisdom hidden in the Hebrew Testament: "Though but one she can do everything, and abiding in herself she renews all things ..." (Wisdom 7:27). Here, Sophia/Wisdom assumes the tradition of all the autonomous, virginal and self-powering Great Mothers, including her Hellenic contemporary, Isis, who declared, "Nothing happens without me." Several of the words used to describe Wisdom in this biblical passage include holy, intelligent, humane, all-powerful, radiant, and penetrating. It is a mix of both masculine and feminine traits. However, most of us who are familiar with the Hebrew-Christian tradition are more acquainted with the oft-quoted passage in which Wisdom is personified as the first created and playful companion of the Creator:

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth, [. . .] then I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. (Proverbs 8:11-31)

This passage drops Wisdom from creatrix to created. Nevertheless, as a master worker, she still creates. In a world dominated by dualities, Wisdom continues to view the world as holistic and transpersonal, rejoicing in nature and humanity. Foreshadowing Jesus, she is inclusive of all human beings, calling upon them to "Come eat at my table and drink of the wine I have mixed" (Proverbs 9:5)

The images of the great goddesses all reflect various aspects of the feminine principle which are ever-changing and ever-the-same. They remain ever the same because they are archetypical and relate to basic human creative and organizing impulses. However, they are also ever changing, because they reflect the evolving consciousness, authority, and mores of the perceiver or culture. The image may be archetypal, or it may be a stereotype, a prototype, or a combination thereof, depending upon the perceiver. Such is the extreme case of the Christian Virgin Mary. For several centuries, politically dominant Christians destroyed the temples and shrines of the pagan goddesses in the name of their male divinity. Christian churches and cathedrals were developed at these holy sites and named for Mary, who had been previously designated Mother of God by the early church fathers. As such, she absorbed most of the attributes of the great goddesses, including the titles, Seat of Wisdom and Queen of Heaven. As Athena before her, she was and is still the powerful and comforting mediatrix between her devotees and a male godhead. Nonetheless, for two thousand years, by the god-given authority of the Church, she could not be called "goddess" and still remains officially subordinate to her son, Jesus.

Continuing still further, the androcentric church fathers also molded the image of the very human Mary into their own prototype of the feminine principle: completely submissive, passive, and subservient. Mary's human voice was silenced, but only after she promised obedience: "Be it done unto me according to thy word." Rational theologians split the archetypal images of Maid, Mother and Crone into the irrational trio of Virgin, Mother, and Whore. Mary Magdalene, who was unmarried and had sex, but no children, labored under the designation of (redeemed) whore; conversely, Mary, the mother of Jesus, took on the impossible aspects of physical virginity and motherhood, even though she was married and was perpetually sexually inactive. Through special prerogatives granted by God, they stripped Mary of all her female blood mysteries. They purified her unclean woman's body to accommodate her title, Womb of God. Mary did not menstruate, nor did she experience labor during the birth of Jesus. Most significantly, infallible dogma has declared for over 1500 years that her hymen remained intact before, during, and after the birth of Jesus. The church fathers aggressively packaged and marketed Mary as the epitome of "feminine" virtues—voiceless, sexless, and submissive.

Today, Mary's story is evolving. Many are reinterpreting her image of the feminine principle from an irrational and unnatural literal and physical explanation to that of symbolic and spiritual realization. Self-directed, she creatively and reflectively "ponders in her heart" and then agrees to the message from God. Subsequently, she consummates her spiritual union with the Holy Spirit/Wisdom, then conceives and gives birth to her Divine Child. A most transforming experience! However, taking back the control of her body and renewing her blood mysteries from ancient prejudices still remains an arduous task.

We need to rethink the whole notion of the feminine and masculine principles. Today, we acknowledge that the substance of a new life is not uniquely a female attribute as the primitives thought, nor is it a predominately a male characteristic as the early Greeks surmised. It is, indeed, the result of a co-equal union between a man and a woman. We are beginning to become aware that what it means to live as a woman does not mean to be lock-stepped into a culturally-defined gender role that embodies and ensouls feminine attributes, and that to live meaningfully as a man does not mean that he must submit to a stereotyped ideal of masculine qualities. The emerging level of our current collective consciousness, regarding this issue, recognizes that each individual's creative and unique soul-making process is an ever-evolving dance of change and renewal between yin and yang, masculine and feminine, male and female. Secondly, we need to become more aware of language usage. It is not uncommon for writers and speakers to interchange the words feminine and female. As we have seen, these words are not interchangeable. "Female" refers to a person's sex, "feminine" is an attribute that either gender may integrate.

Perhaps we need to push the point further (another masculine principle!) by challenging the traditionally rigid definitions of masculine and feminine. For instance, what could be more masculine than the powerful, forceful, and scientific Big Bang of energy as the universe gave birth to herself? What could be more masculine than the active, hard, and powerful thrusts and pushes of energy as a mother labors her child to birth? Conversely, what could be more feminine than the soft, warm, passive scrotum that shelters, nurtures, and gestates semen to fruition?

In fact, let's do away with the idea of masculine and feminine principles altogether. By evolving our consciousness to a higher plane, each of us, according to our divine calling, could combine the best of each, and rename them life principles. Societies could do the same. By doing this, we could then engage substance and energy more harmoniously to contemplate our sacred union with the principle of Presence.

Carol Wolf Winters, Ph.D. is a cultural mythologist and theosophical lecturer in the Pacific Northwest. This article is excerpted from her book in progress, Who Said, "God Said"? The Truth behind the Myth of Female Inferiority.

References

Aeschylus. The Oresteia. Translated by Phillip Vellacott. London: Penguin, 1959.

Clack, Beverley, ed. Misogyny in the Western Philosophical Tradition: A Reader. NY: Routledge, 1999.

Grahn, Judy. Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World. Boston, MA: Beacon, 1993.