Mary Magdalene: ‘Resurrect Your Heart’, Trance-Scent- Dance!

Mary Magdalene will kick us off as we shift into the Heart Chakra this month.  Especially since this Thursday is “Holy Thursday”- the Thursday before Easter–it commemorates Jesus’ ‘Washing of the Feet’ of the Apostles before the Last Supper.

We are going to alter the schedule and do Trance Scent Dance this week instead of next, because MM is the heart and soul of Easter and perhaps the inspiration of Jesus’ ‘Washing of the Feet’ because she washed his feet a few days before.

Typical, Mary Mag, right?  Breaking all the rules!  She challenged heavy patriarchal views of women, back in the day and has patiently put up with being called a penitent prostitute for 2 millennia and counting!

It was VERY uncommon for women to travel without chaperones or husbands and yet she and other women managed to travel as holy women with Jesus.  He was very cool that way. 

She was likely married to Jesus, though that is a very controversial statement to many, but whether they were married or not, I do believe they shared the deepest of love, deep enough to make you cry.

And as a woman of means, she was said to have partially funded his ministry.  But it was because of her devotion to the path, that she was his favorite and is known as the ‘apostle of the apostles.’

Mary Magdalene as a Scent Priestess:

Her act of anointing Jesus was also met with a lot of disapproval.  In this painting, she anoints Jesus’ feet with a whole jar of Spikenard oil.

When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you,but you will not always have me.”

Actually I love how Jesus is seemingly so ‘politically incorrect’ here and is totally cool with being lavished with this expensive oil (worth 11 months of wages!) and not giving it to the poor!  I’d say he had good self-care boundaries!  But there is a deeper meaning here than self-care 😉

He continues: “When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”  Matthew 26:6–13

Jesus is trying to emphasize the significance of this sacred act.

“To be anointed with oil higher than being immersed in water.  It is when we are anointed, not when we are immesed in water, that we become Christians.  Christ was celled Messiah because of this:  he is “the anointed one.”– The Gospel of Philip

Even Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1958 involved anointing which was considered so holy, it was the only part of the ceremony where the cameras shut off.

Jean Yves Leloup, a french scholar, explains “that Mary Magdalene walked the path of the sacred marriage.  She demonstrates with her actions that she had become a bridge between the worlds. 

This act of anointing Christ’s body couldn’t have happened with just anyone.  The fact that Mary was the one to have anointed Christ is a fact that marks her profound significance.” [Wattersen, p.200]

And that’s why Jesus stands up to the disapproval of the apostles and emphatically makes the point, “what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” 

This anointing practice would have been part of her knowledge as a ‘myrrhophore’, a scent priestess, trained in the temple of Isis in Egypt. 

Leloup believes “that Mary Magdalen understands how to master the transition to death… whose unguents were used to achieve the transition over the threshold of death while retaining consciousness.” [Wattersen, p.200]

So she’s actually preparing him for his ascension.  And that’s why she uses so much oil!

The traditional way of portraying MM throughout history, is with a vessel of holy oil, that comes in all shapes and sizes, reinforcing her identity as a Scent Priestess.

Though she would not have been redhead and fair-skinned, being darker skinned and more traditional Israeli looking, these paintings were in code.  Including the vessel in Renaissance style paintings was a way to preserve the significance being a Scent Priestess who anointed Jesus.

As Megan Wattersen says, “Anointing is still the most sacrd aspect of ritual in the Christian tradition.  But we have forgotten the memory of the woman who made it sacred.” [p.201]

Though it was common at that time and also in Egypt to prepare a body for burial by washing it and anointing it with spikenard, myrrh and aloes,  Mary Magdalen anoints Jesus extensively with spikenard a few days, or possibly a weekbeforehe was to die.



I am grateful to Luisa’s blog f where she adds: ‘It is not a “sweet” smelling oil, but it was a smell many of the people at that time would associate with death.’ 

Which is also why they would be annoyed with her because she poured a whole pound of spikenard on his feet and the aroma must have been super thick, filling the whole room,  and you would not be able to avoid the reason why, so asking “why this waste?”  is missing the point, probably intentionally.

Luisa speaks to the emotional aspect as well: ‘it was a very deliberate act by a woman that understood Jesus’ message while many of the disciples were in denial about his impending death. She was the only one in that room that got it and the only one that was willing to enter into the suffering with Jesus.‘



The story says her tears fell on his feet as she rubbed the oil onto them with her hands and her hair.  A pound of this ‘nard’ ointment or thick oil would have been much more than enough to cover his feet.

The feet are the quickest way for the oil to enter the bloodstream and soothe the nervous system.  And the fact that she uses her hair to wipe up the excess shows great intimacy, humility, and an efficient way not to waste the oil and to receive the benefit of the oil herself, joining them in this holy, transformational rite.

Luisa also points out that,
“Today, while in hospice care, caregivers will use spikenard to help patients emotionally transition from life to death. Spikenard has been shown to relieve stress and anxiety and therefore calm both body and mind… “


That she has her hair down, shows her comfort in his presence.  It was unusual for women in Jewish culture to be seen with their hair down, let along covered in oil.

Being immersed in this holy oil, may have enhanced the altered, sacred and emotional state she was in to perform this bittersweet, yet holiest of rites.

And that she performs it in front of the men also shows her non-attachment to what they might think.  There is an unapologetic, uncensored public expression of love and devotion for this man as befitting the high priestess that she is.

Wattersen says, “Anointing…in its original context, was the act of consciously acknowledging that the physical body passes away, but the soul within the body does not.  [Cynthia] Bourgeault believes that, “To reclaim anointing in its original context would make it the sacramental centerpiece of a whole new vision of Christianity based on spiritual transformation and the alchemy of love.”

And so it is! We will anoint ourselves in the spirit of spiritual transformation and the alchemy of love!

Mary Magdalen is the ultimate poster child for ‘resurrecting the heart’ and opening to Love!

Are you crying yet, or is it just me?
 

Heart chakra oils

Oils to help soothe and open the heart:

• Rose
• Lavendar
• Geranium
• Frankincense
• Melissa
• Neroli
• Sandalwood
• Ylang Ylang

If you do a search online you will find various other oils as well.  Trust your instinct and pick one you already have that you are drawn to for this practice.  We will also be working with connecting the womb and the heart which is a practice that also connects to Mary Magdalene as a Womb Shamanka!  

More to be revealed on that subject, in the future!

Mary Magdalene as Apostle of the Apostles and author of a secret Gospel

I have to add if you don’t already know, that Mary Magdalene was:

• at the crucifixion– not hiding out like the apostles who were afraid to get arrested; she was beyond brave and bold to bare the brutality!
• at the burial– where she helped wash Jesus’ body and anoint him as was the custom
• at the empty tomb– alone, waiting in the dark
• first to witness his resurrection– this is a skill, not just a coincidence

“Mary Magdalene was the one Christ resurrected to.“

Megan Wattersen continues, ” In the Gospel of of John, Christ gives Mary Magdalene special instructions and commissions her to be the one to announce the good news. Her. She is the one he chooses… Mary’s status as the apostle to the apostles also comes from this moment…  Without her capacity to receive this vision of Christ from within her, to see that he had risen, the apostles would not have become apostles themselves”

MM wrote her own Gospel! It was found among a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945.  Megan Wattersen has analyzed it in her very personable yet scholarly based, ‘Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven’t Tried Yet.’ 

She says, “The Gospel of Mary Magdalene confirms that Mary had gone through a process that allowed her to “see” Christ from within her.  She could receive a vision of him.  And the fact that Mary can see Christ, according to her gospel, is the proof that she has become “a child of true humanity,” the anthropos, fully human, and fully divine.”

As I understand this, Mary Magdalene has learned to embody her soul.  Which, in my humble opinion,  is what we are doing in our practice of embodying our womb which is a direct portal to the soul and cultivating the channel between the heart and the womb.  This is one way among others to do this!  What do you think?  Do you agree? Disagree? Have anything to add?  I’d love to know!

Megan continues eloquently and movingly about the quality of love that MM embodies: “I’ve imagined that this meeting she has with him takes place not because of sight but because of vision.  I think she could perceive him with a spiritual aperture that exists only in the heart.”  Is that stunning, or what?

She goes on: “It’s a re-education to see Mary Magdalene as an apostle, as a beloved disciple of Christ considered worthy enough… to come to her, in the dark, beyond death, because he knew she was the one who could see him with her heart.

It’s a re-education to think that Christ needed Mary’s love in order to resurrect, in order to be witnessed…

I love imagining that….his purpose was fulfilled because she was there to meet him.  That he was only able to bridge heaven and earth because of the human love between them.  I love to imagine that we might still have a love…to unearth, that has been age after age, making its way to the surface of our consciousness.  A love that we are finally ready for.

A love that is as human as it is divine.” [p.112]

I don’t know if it’s MM or Megan’s words or the Spikenard or the accumulation of having worked on the first three chakras or all the personal work I’ve been doing, but my heart is feeling a pang for this embodied love.  Just a glimpse but a glimpse nonetheless.  I’ve teared up quite a bit putting this all together.  And I think it’s a good thing.  I hope it’s not overkill for you.  I was going to put some of it on the blog, but I didn’t want you to miss any of it, because I think it’s so potent.

Mary Magdalen and the Red Egg

I have seen MM with a white egg and understood it to mean new life and left it at that.  And it is also a Pagan symbol of Spring and renewal, for sure.
But when I saw her with the red egg, I gasped!  Is this a sign of blood mysteries and divine birth?  I have read that MM participated in Light Conception and birthed her daughter Sarah.  I won’t go into here but I thought maybe this Red Egg was a modern day clue of that ancient mystery?

The story of MM and the red egg is not included in the Bible but it is part of early Christian historical tradition.

Per Gretchen Filz, “Historically, Christians fasted from eggs (and all animal products) during Lent.” 

Even my Catholic grandmother did, back in the day.

“When Easter approached, Christians would place their eggs, and other delectable foods that were abstained from during Lent, into a basket to take to the church for the priest to bless the foods they would eat during the Easter feast. This custom is still practiced today in the Eastern churches, and this is the origin of the Easter egg basket.”

Interesting!

“According to tradition, after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, the Magdalene—a wealthy woman of some importance—boldly presented herself to the Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Rome to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with an egg in hand to illustrate her message.

Holding the egg out to him, she exclaimed for the first time what is now the universal Easter proclamation among Christians, “Christ is risen!”

The emperor, mocking her, said that Jesus had no more risen than the egg in her hand was red. Immediately, the egg turned red as a sign from God to illustrate the truth of her message. The Emperor then heeded her complaints about Pilate condemning an innocent man to death, and had Pilate removed from Jerusalem under imperial displeasure.”


Now that is Red Egg Power! Eh?

I see blood and divine conception when I see these red eggs.  And they make me happy!  More to unearth around Mary Magdalene being part of a lineage of Red Robed Priestesses of the Rose, a Womb Shamanka well versed in the Blood Masteries, and an adept of Light Conception!

In the meantime,  lets dive into the actual practice of embodying the womb and the heart!!  Bring your oil of choice and we’ll dive into Trance-Scent-Dance and connect to MM as a Scent Priestess!

I hope you’ll join us for Womb Power, this Thursday, April 1st, ( this is no April Fool’s joke!) 5-6:30pm PT. 

First Class is FREE! (**Let me know via respond to this email or text me: 310-795-2408- at least 2 hours before class so I can send you the Zoom + Music links

The Meditation & Movement portion is now 75 minutes long- to make sure we experience all of these juicy inner connections!  And the sharing circle is 15 minutes, to help you integrate your experience.

This is your laboratory to explore energetically and through movement, your heart and womb and rest of your beautiful body and your unique movement.

You get to go at your own pace and take whatever guidance that fits and move the way your body wants to move in each moment.

Join us for Womb Power ! No previous womb awareness or movement experience necessary. This is an embodiment practice that deepens with time and there is nothing you have to feel- your body will experience something different and unique every time.This is a practice, where the journey is more important than the destination.

To the evolution of your womb!

Michelle

PS If you’d like to invite friends– please do – first class is free-they just need to sign up here