Healing The Divided Goddess—Forgive Us, Mary Magdalen

While having coffee with two Ethiopian friends—he’s an environmental scientist; she’s an epidemiologist—I shared my clinical expertise on holistic alternative treatments for her mother’s arthritis. Afterwards, she commented on my happy energy—I was the dancing queen at a housewarming party—as if I was an enigma. And at the same party another old friend wished to engage me in a serious spiritual conversation, but the music was too tempting, passion was in the air, studiousness took a backseat to joyful celebration. How difficult is it to comprehend the mix of precious wisdom and abandoned delight?

Going out in the world to speak to my colleagues or present my work to the public, I am expected to dress and act a certain way. Would I be taken more seriously if I wound my long hair in a bun, wore dark-rimmed glasses and high collared suits? Why must a powerful woman emulate a man? Why can’t we partake of the wisdom of a brilliant mind which is packaged in a ripe luscious form?

Because it is the nature of human consciousness to create duality out of Oneness. Long, long ago we severed the Sacred Feminine aspect of the Divine into two. One—a pure wise goddess. The other—a sexy siren. The Greeks have Athena the virgin goddess of wisdom and Aphrodite the goddess of love, beauty and the patron of prostitutes. The Romans had wise Minerva and lovely Venus. The Hindus have the virtuous goddess of wisdom Saraswathi and the sacred prostitute Lakshmi the goddess of abundance; the Buddhists have life-giving Tara and wrathful Lha mo; the Sumerians have Ninhursag the earth mother goddess and Lilith the daughter temptress; and the Christians have Mary—the virgin mother and Mary Magdalen—the whore.

The "virgin" is wholeness, exclusive, impenetrable gestating potential. She sits upon the sacred pedestal, untouchable yet revered by humanity. She is the mother—the gan eden—the womb. The Divine Mother is the earthly body—the firmament upon which reality exists.

The "whore" is expansive, all inclusive, living all possibilities, sharing all with everyone. Her experiences are universal, sensually oriented so that those in the earthly realm may taste, touch, hear, feel and see what she perceives. She is the daughter—the lover—the bride. The Divine Daughter is emotion uniting body, mind, and soul.

Humanity spent thousands of years worshipping the mother energies as Gaia the body of life, then looked up into the cosmos and began revering the father energies as soul separate from form. Around the time of the Buddha, through Muhammad, and epitomized by Yeshua—the son energies emerged—teaching in parables, engaging the mind, the Divine Son uses blade-like energies to carve consciousness.

While the Sumerians used the blade (^) to denote the masculine, the chalice (V) represented the feminine—the womb-like aspect of the Divine filled with potential life, the everlasting cup overflowing with abundant wisdom.

Now is the time of the daughter energies—no longer is the sacred chalice to be held upside down and wielded as a weapon to control human emotion, but the Holy Grail shall be filled with abundant joy and wisdom.

Perhaps Mary Magdalen with her uncovered hair baring her wisdom to all who dared to partake of her as the goddess Sophia was considered a "whore" in comparison to the mother Mary who was the "virgin".

Let’s examine the language. Whore comes from the Gallic horas which means beloved woman. The ancients revered the horas who shared their talents of healing and enlightenment by bestowing gifts in honor and gratitude. Like much from the ancient world, concepts filtered through Puritan ideals in Victorian times have become adulterated. A once revered spiritual healer becomes an abhorred prostitute.

I have an affinity to Mary Magdalen, for like she, I bare all to most everyone, sharing my essence and my presence to teach and heal. Perhaps birthing LoveDance into the world will help heal the divided goddess. I can only pray it is so.