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| Queen of Vessels : The Mystery of the Bridechamber A tantric ritual, the anointing of the Bridegroom |
'The Coptic Gospel of Mary, found in the fifth-century papyrus codex,
is the only known gospel to have been written under a woman's name, that
of Mary'.* There are those that interpret this Gospel to have been
written by Mary Magdalene, others say it is Mary, the mother of Jesus.
'As a controversial saint now emerging for the first time from the
shadows of Church history, the Magdalene has become today even
more important as one of Jesus' closest disciples and arguably
the most magnetic and yet problematic character in the whole of the
Christian story. It is becoming apparent that her importance
to the development of early Christianity's mysterious bridechamber
sacrament has been greatly underrated.'
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| Mary Magdalene, as priestess of the Mysteries of the Bridechamber, re-enacting the tantric ritual of the Bridalchamber Anointing the King - www.hergracesacredart.com |
'Mary's gospel is an exercise in first-century equality....
Clearly, Mary was a woman of wisdom possessed of many
such occult secrets, and in a time of terrible crisis after the master's
death she showed herself well able to lead the group. Yet,
as a leader, Mary is handicapped by her gender and must
plead for understanding and acceptance of her fellow male
disciples. Yet, this undeniable female imprisonment has not
always existed, a fact of which spiritual leaders like Jesus, versed
in the doctrines of the Old Religion, must have been well aware.
For almost four thousand years - from about 7000 BCE to 3500 BCE,
in the depths of the Neolithic age - an advanced culture
complex existed in which women were truly free and responsible
equally with men for the building and creative organisation of their society.'
'With the fall of Jerusalemn, both the Pharisees and the Judaeo-Christians were
freed from political constraints to pursue their own course. In the same period
Christians launched into the production of both the New Testament gospels
and a large corpus of Gnostic gospels, such as the Gospel of Mary,
the Pistis Sophia, the Gospel of Truth, the Dialogue of the Saviour, and others.
All these apocryphal documents betray Qabalistic themes centred on
the rite of the sacred marriage and the new role of the feminine
principle as an essential subtext in Christian discourse.
Yet apart from Jesus' occasional references to himself as bridegroom
the sacred marriage theme is noticeably absent from the
Christian scriptures, and the disappearance of the Gnostic texts
themselves for nearly two thousand years has reinforced the
common assumption that Jesus' embrace of the messianic function
meant that women and tantra had no place in his life.'
The symbols of Mary Magdalene as priestess of the
Mysteries of the Sacred Bridechamber
In the Queen of Vessels (traditionally Cups)
Mary Magdalene is seen dressed in the colours gold
and purple depicting alchemical transformation and
wisdom. She is surrounded by symbols of alchemy
and the trantic principles of death and rebirth.
In the background is the jar of sacred spikenard oil.
A very rare and precious oil traditionally linked to the ancient
mysteries of anointing the sacrificial King and the tantric ritual
to take place between the King and his Lover in the Sacred Bridal
Chamber.
Mary Magdalene holds a chalice or the Holy Grail which contains
a living fish. The symbol of the fish was a symbol of the Goddess
which was appropriated by the Christians. The old religion explains
that we come from the waters and it can be linked to the ancient myths
of when fish grew legs. This myth is also linked to the story of
Quetzlcoatl and the plumed serpent. The name Mary can be linked
to Mares, the Ocean or Sea of Consciousness and Existence and
Isis (whom preceded Mary in the Egyptian myths) were depicted to
travel in her boat across the sky.
'The apocryphal texts give full support to Mary Magdalene's role
as Jesus' spiritual partner. They frequently refer to Mary as
Sophia, Spirit of Wisdom, and claim that Jesus gave her the
title 'Apostle of Apostles' and called her Mary-Lucifer,
the Light-Bringer.'
De Voragine, the Dominican archbishop of Genoa,
called her Illuminant and Illuminatrix, both enlightened and
empowered to bestow enlightenment on others.
Of course there are many discussions, views and paths based on the
interpretation of the Mysteries of the Bridechamber.
The Gnostic gospels with their talk of images, metaphorical
garments, and symbols in general, seem to struggle continually
to make their multileveled and spiritualized worldview comprehensible
to their readers. In a spiritualised view and understanding the
Hieros Gamos, the sacred mystery of the Bridechamber, takes
place in the inner Bridechamber, in the spiritual self. It is a coming together
of the masculine and feminine inner self, the ultimate tantra, beyond
physical sexual intercourse.
In the bridechamber, death is annulled. The true marriage, the living
marriage, is not to be found in this material world where death dwells.
This is the Gnostic teaching of the Sacred Bridechamber Mystery.
It also describes the interior union that is possible between compatible souls
who have been adequately purified.
In the Gospel of Mary, she points out several times that the Master
has 'proclaimed the child of humanity' - that is, the divine
self-goverining principle - to be the Inner Guide
within each of them. Here Mary indicates that the disciples
have achieved mastery of the higher cerebrospinal energy
centers critical to the birth of spiritual love. That is the criterion
of a full individuated human being - that she be one who has
mastered the energic secrets of the higher chakras and no longer
needs the physical sexual act to establish a blissful
psychospiritual union with another human being.
Such a one meets the bridechamber of the heart,
where the true psychic marriage takes place.
blessings on this the feast day of Mary Magdalene, Beloved and Bride
blessings
Hettienne
*Extracts from Victoria LePage, Mysteries of the Bridechamber as well as
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