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I am so sick of their tired old predictable tripe that everyone has already heard a million times.
reply to post by adjensen
It's the "Conspiracies in Religion" Forum, for pete's sakes. Where else are we supposed to argue?
I try to sing this song
I...I try to stand up
But I can't find my feet
I try, I try to speak up
But only in you I'm complete
Gloria...in te domine
Gloria...exultate
Gloria...Gloria
Oh Lord, loosen my lips
I try to sing this song
I...I try to get in
But I can't find the door
The door is open
You're standing there
You let me in
Gloria...in te domine
Gloria...exultate
Oh Lord, if I had anything
Anything at all
I'd give it to you
I'd give it to you
Gloria...Gloria...
All of these symbols have exoteric and esoteric meanings. The cup, for example, is a universal symbol
of the Divine and Sacred Feminine, and reminds of St. Mary Magdalene as the Holy Grail, Christ the
Sophia who is the Mother of Royal Blood – Mother of the Gnostic Apostolic Succession. The alabaster
jar points to the initiation she imparted to Master Yeshua as a priestess-queen of the Divine Order, and
also to the Shekinah of Messiah as the true power of the Chrism-Anointing. The book represents her
knowledge of the mysteries – the outer, inner and secret gospel, and to her embodiment of SophiaWisdom. The skull points to the truth of impermanence, as well as to wisdom, but also to secrets of the
resurrection and ascension – specifically to the ability of the Gnostic adept or master to enact the
transference of consciousness.
The red egg is a bit more unusual symbol. According to legends in orthodoxy St. Mary Magdalene had
occasion to bear witness regarding the resurrection before the emperor of Rome, Tiberius Caesar.
When he heard her story, in ridicule he said to her that a man could no more be raised from the dead
than the egg in her hand could turn red, at which point the egg instantly turned crimson red, or so it
has been said.
The skull and egg taken together, however, hold a much more profound and esoteric meaning: for the
red egg represents the red mother seed “at the base of the spine,” the ascending force of the serpent
power personified by the Holy Bride; and the skull represents the white father seed “in the crown on 6
top of the head,” the descending force of the serpent power personified by her Bridegroom. Thus,
taken together they are symbols of the mystery of hieros gamos – the sacred marriage, not as anything
outward but as an inward event that leads to the dawn of Christ Consciousness, as in the experience of
Lord Yeshua and Lady Mary. In the Sophian tradition, frequently a red stone egg and a quartz crystal
skull are used in shrines dedicated to Our Lady for this reason – crystal skulls also holding the
implication of the Body of the Resurrection, the generation of the Body of Light.
Sophia (Σοφíα, Greek for "wisdom") is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism, Orthodox Christianity, Esoteric Christianity, as well as Christian mysticism. Sophiology is a philosophical concept regarding wisdom, as well as a theological concept regarding the wisdom of the biblical God.
For countless years before the birth of Christianity and for many years after, many women knew power in the competing mystery teachings that everywhere surrounded the new and jealous "Fathers" in their new and jealous church: Pythagoreans, Epicureans, Cynics, Therapeauts, and most especially, Gnostics held women in equal regard....
The "story" of the Magdalene is ancient. It was told by the early Gnostics, and before them the Egyptians, and before them the Sumerians…for surely this story goes back to the dawn of human self-awareness. Like all great stories, it asks eternal questions which are the very same questions we ask today. "Who are we?" "Why are we here?" "Where is here?" "Why" is here?" And: "What happens to us when we die?" These must have been the very first questions asked by the very first humans gazing up at the ancient stars....
Those who wrote the first gospels, both canonical and Gnostic, gave the name Yeshu (Jesus in Greek) to the Christ Aeon and the name Mary Magdalene, or Mariamne Magdal-eder, to the Sophia Aeon....
But Sophia, who is Mary Magdalene, is the Goddess who not only created matter, she lived in it to show us we are not alone in our suffering. And Christ, Her partner and equal, is Gnosis, who comes if we call. He comes so that we know we are much more than we think we are, that we are, in fact, eternal and loved and filled with Spirit, and that we can all go Home again.
It's a beautiful story, a profound story—and it is completely misunderstood by those who "borrowed" it from the Gnostic teaching.
All Pagan godmen have a female Consort who resurrects Him from the grave. Osiris by Isis. Attis by Cybele. Tammuz by Ishtar. Christ by Mary Magdalene. There is always a female divinity mourning a slain god and seeking his body for anointing…and this part of the story is as old as human time. It's very much a part of the myth of the Goddess and speaks of the true worth of the feminine and her part in the dance of reality.....
The Christians hid the Consort. They could not lose Her entirely because they themselves did not understand the story they were trying to tell. But they degraded Her. They made her into a penitent, serving only to show us how forgiving Jesus was. They took away Her divinity as they've tried to take it from us. By so doing, they have unbalanced the entire world...because ideas about reality move the entire world.
To Gnostics, none of this is "true" as in literally factual. Sophia's story is a parable for the plight of the lost human soul seeking Gnosis—or God consciousness. Sophia is the soul. Christ is that which enlightens the soul.
Mary Magdalene is the "Woman Who Knew the All." She is Sophia, symbolic of our quest for Christ / The Kingdom of God / Gnosis / Enlightenment / HOME.
Originally posted by Logarock
reply to post by theabsolutetruth
Hardly. Its a celebration of Eve taking the fruit first and then giving it to man. Thus she is the mother of all "wisdom" in that regard. Wisdom of the Snake, knowing good and evil and thus delivering death in the form of an apple.
Originally posted by BlueMule
Originally posted by Logarock
reply to post by theabsolutetruth
Hardly. Its a celebration of Eve taking the fruit first and then giving it to man. Thus she is the mother of all "wisdom" in that regard. Wisdom of the Snake, knowing good and evil and thus delivering death in the form of an apple.
Good and evil are a pair and so are life and death. So Eve delivers life too if she delivers death. And with it, the world. The world is sustained by the tension between all pairs of opposites, unlike The Garden.
By gaining knowledge of one pair of opposites (good and evil), Adam and Eve gained knowledge of them all, and the world as we know it was born.
Patristic Christian leaders in the fourth century banned the Pistis Sophia. The British Museum acquired a copy from a doctor in 1795 who got it from an unknown source. Written in Upper Egyptian Sahidic dialect translated from Greek, the text shows Jesus instructing his disciples in esoteric mysteries, in particular, Sophia's fall and repentance, symbolic of the predicament of individuals.
The Pistis Sophia (Faith Wisdom or sometimes translated as Faith of Sophia) dates to A.D. 250–300 and is one of those Gnostic scriptures that was once thought to have been destroyed by the orthodox early church but has survived. The text suggests that Jesus did not ascend to the Pleroma but stayed on earth for 11 years, teaching his disciples until he had brought their knowledge up to the first level of the mystery.
The text explains the falling and rising of the soul, Gnostic cosmology, and desires that must be overcome for one to achieve salvation. Sophia's descent symbolizes the descent of the power of redemption in the divine feminine. Three Biblical female images express this power. They are Eve, the Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene.
In the Pistis Sophia, Jesus' last teaching takes place on the Mount of Olives 12 years after his death and resurrection. Here, he teaches his disciples (Martha, Matthew, Philip, Peter, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Salome, among them) about many realms of the invisible world. He instructs them in esoteric mysteries.
At one point during the discourse, Peter, Jesus' hot-tempered, impulsive disciple (whom some have labeled a mysogynist and others have called tender-hearted), complained to Jesus that he and the other disciples cannot endure Mary Magdalene because she talks too much, depriving them of the opportunity to speak.
Two things are notable about this passage. The first is that Jesus treated his female disciples as equal participants with the men in his discourse sessions. The second reveals Peter's intolerance of Mary Magdalene. Her questioning of the Savior and her ongoing discourse is not to Peter's liking, nor would it have been tolerated by the orthodox Christian fathers who followed Peter after Jesus' death.
Mary Magdalene tells Jesus that she is afraid of Peter, because he threatened her and because he hates her sex. The Pistis Sophia, along with the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of the Egyptians, and the Gospel of Mary, illustrate tensions between these two important disciples of Jesus. The tensions between these two echo outward into the earliest groups of Christians, before the orthodoxy had established itself and ordered the destruction of any texts offering competing viewpoints.
In the Pistis Sophia, Jesus calls Mary Magdalene “blessed.” He praises her spiritual understanding, saying that she is more spiritual than the others. Jesus tells Mary Magdalene that she will inherit the whole Kingdom of the Light. Some feminist theologians believe that Jesus, in his enthusiastic support of Mary Magdalene, intended for her to be his spiritual heir over his ministry.
They say that Mary Magdalene occupied a special place in his heart, and that he told her she was blessed beyond all the women upon the earth and would be the “perfection of all perfections.” Some translations say she would be the “completeness of all completions.” Mary Magdalene asked him if she could speak directly and he told her to speak in openness and not be afraid. He told her to ask him any question and he would reveal the answer to her.
Originally posted by theabsolutetruth
Mary Magdalene tells Jesus that she is afraid of Peter, because he threatened her and because he hates her sex.
Originally posted by Logarock
But they had life. The world as we know it is an abortion of the original condition. But nice try at sugarcoating the thing.
Originally posted by BlueMule
Originally posted by Logarock
But they had life. The world as we know it is an abortion of the original condition. But nice try at sugarcoating the thing.
The Garden is a mystical place not a geographical place. Like Saturn's gut. Like a Buddhist Pure Realm or "Buddha field". They did not have life. They had a super-dream realm in the collective unconscious.
But nice try at literalizing the thing.
edit on 8-4-2013 by BlueMule because: (no reason given)