The Woman With the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail

Rating:
Summary: Revolutionary theories gently offered
Review: The Woman With the Alabaster Jar was recommended by so many people, it was the first book I'd intended to read on the controversial subject of Mary Magdalen's relationship to Jesus. It didn't turn out to be the first, but it would've been a great place to start. It's not a book about gnosticism specifically, but a collection of facts and theory regarding the relationship of Mary Magdalen and Jesus, or Miriam of Bethany and Yeshua, as they're often named in the book.

Margaret Starbird began her research of this subject in the hopes of debunking Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, having read it from the perspective of a devout Catholic. Somewhere in the course of her research, she found herself supporting many of their claims. Her journey explored the life of one of the most enigmatic women the world has known, or at least thought we knew.

The Woman With the Alabaster Jar begins with a prologue, a fictionalized account of Mary Magdalen's flight to Egypt with Joseph of Arimathea, the subsequent birth of a daughter, Sarah, and finally a voyage across the Mediterranean into southern France. This account is based on theory only, and Starbird concedes throughout this book that her conclusions can't be proven. But she adroitly connects numerous historical threads and "fossil" information in a credible speculation about how the early days of Christianity, and particularly the life of Mary Magdalen, may have played out after the execution of Jesus.

The theories raised here may be difficult for anyone steeped in the canonical gospels, or who is a devoted follower of established Christianity. They'll be seen as disturbing, or as nonsense, or again as heresy. But to those who have had doubts or have left Christianity because there were certain precepts they found themselves unable to believe, or for those who have always seen Jesus as a great teacher, but human, this book opens up a new way of considering his life and teachings.

The information is presented in a way that makes for fast and easy reading, in contrast with more scholarly treatises on religious history. It's a human story, told in human terms, giving the lay person access to a gathering of information difficult to come by elsewhere in as palatable a form. Complete footnotes are provided at the back of the book, where they don't intrude on its reading ease. The color plates are magnificent. As a student of Tarot, I welcomed the images from the so-called Charles VI Tarot (more correctly known as the Estensi or Gringonneur Tarot) and the theory of its possible origins as a way of teaching the Grail heresy in secret.

I found one weakness in the book, in what I perceived as redundancy, and perhaps too much effort to put things in layman's terms. It's possible the author underestimated the level of understanding of her readers. On the other hand, what I perceived as repetition may have derived from the number of times the themes actually repeat through history, adding possible weight to their veracity.

The information is presented respectfully, even lovingly. The author is clearly a devout person, who has great regard for people of all beliefs. She exhibits sensitivity for her subject matter and its possible impact on others' faith. Her theories and the evidence supporting them, though revolutionary in nature, are at the same time gently offered.

Rating:
Summary: Answers a lot of questions
Review: I have been doing research into the overlap between the Old Religions and Christianity, and this book certainly presents some valid items for consideration! I have not checked out her references yet - after I do that, perhaps I'll raise the rating to 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book .
Review: To think that Jesus had a child, what a wonderful thing to know and believe and that his bloodine is here with us. He married and loved and known his beloved Mary Magdelene. This is the good news.
Why have we not known this all this time? Shame on those for hiding the truth.




Rating:
Summary: A Simplified Holy Blood Holy Grail
Review: I've read a lot of the reviews and wondered what points I'd make in mine. The first one is that the continual mention of Dan Brown's book THE DA VINCI CODE, which is fiction with a thready root in fact, should not be compared to scholarly research and investigation.

This book takes on one of the sacred cows of Christianty; the virgin birth, and the sexuality of the Christ.

Even though I was totally indoctrinated into the fundamentalist Christian faith from my very first breath, I was fortunate to maintain the ability to think and question for myself. Apparently not everyone is that lucky.

One of the very first things I questioned and personally debunked was the Virgin birth. I knew that it takes a sperm and an egg to make a baby, and that ghosts, holy or otherwise, simply didn't have the right equipment to make a baby. I couldn't understand how anyone could believe that story. Then I began to wonder why the story was told in the first place and there began my journey of study and investigation into how the Virgin myth began and more importantly why people felt they had to believe it in order to have a relationship with God.

I've read every available text on the dead sea scrolls, the nag hamadi libray, the origins of church doctrine, studied the hermetics of the bible in college and loved every minute of it.

I understood how the current bible came to be and in that understanding it meant even less because I saw it as an incomplete document and very self-serving to the MEN who created it. I've done comparative religion and read things that left me shaking my head wondering how it could be that the Hermetica shared so many spiritual concepts with the bible?

As I grew in my resesarch and knowlege I began to question why, if Jesus was of the line of David, (which the bible claims in the same breath it says Jesus is the son of the holy ghost which means he wasn't of the line of David..head spinning) I knew that he would have been of the rabinical line and knowing my Hebrew laws and history, I knew that had Jesus been a Rabbi, he would have been required BY JEWISH LAW to marry, and that all aspects of that marriage would have been strictly regulated by the law.

If Jesus wanted to be taken seriously by the Jews he would never have flouted that tradition. He may have consorted with the poor and downtrodden, the Zealots and the prostitutes, but he could not have done as much as he did if he'd ignored Rabbinical tradition and law in regards to marriage.

I found this book a simpler easier to read version of Holy Blood Holy Grail which focuses on bit by bit building of the evidence. This book also focuses on the feminine and the author's interpretation of what I used to think were "fairy tales" made me rethink some of my old long held beliefs.

I'd learned years ago that women used to be equal with men in the early Christian church (until Peter's jealousy and Paul's perversion ruined it) and I knew that the Catholic Church rooted out and eliminated any and all remote sects that still honored women's roll in the church.

The author is right, a man a lone creates imbalance. Her interpretation of the damage done to the WORLD by the denial of the role of the feminine devine has been devastating. OF course Christ married, he was a man, he felt everything and experienced everything a normal man would. He claimed to come to earth to experience the life of a man and what sort of "son of God" would he be if he left out one of the most important aspects of MANHOOD...the relationship of man with woman.

The truth is right there in front of our faces. What risk do we take if we "see'it? I'd always wondered why people needed Mary to be a virgin and Jesus to be unmarried in order to believe in and love God. What faith would be tumbled should absolute proof come tomorrow that Mary was no Virgin and Jesus married and fathered a child? The idea that Jesus was more of a man than previously thought...that he knew the joys of physical and emotional love and bonds with a woman makes him even more "loveable", more one of us, more of everything they claim he was.

This book is a nice easy introduction into the deeper issues. It's not a book for the faithful Christian who would only be angered and lash out. (Although the root emotion of anger is fear so I'd have to ask what they were afraid of?)

We've let the men in Rome run our lives since the Cannon and the inquisition. I for one will celebrate when the Church of Rome crumbles as it surely will. They won't be able to "do" the inquisition to us again, and they can't govern people and dictate to people who can think and read and study for themselves. Americans espeically are reluctant to allow a priest into their bedroom to tell them how many children they can have, and even the stauchest Catholic has to wonder how, in the face of a deadly disease, the Catholic church can look their "people" in the eyes and tell them they can't use condoms. I guess the same way they used to look a desperate loving husband in the eye and tell him it would be a sin for him to save the life of his wife at the expense of the child.

The time is close for the rebirth of the feminine divine, and the reunification of the Prince with his Bride and in my opinion it can't happen a moment too soon.

Rating:
Summary: Unreferenced work
Review: I am very interested in this subject matter and am not a religious fanatic (only a recovering Catholic!). I am, however, a scientist and must know where any information is coming from for it to be of any use. I am assuming this book is not a fictional work.

The first chapter is a "story" about some biblical-sounding folk "The Lost Bride". However, there is no reference, background, or anything given for the story itself. Who wrote it? When was it written? Is it from the Gnostic gospels? Did the author fabricate it? Where did it come from? I.e. - why should I care about this story???

I put the book down and haven't picked it up since.


Rating:
Summary: Yet more proof...
Review: Amazingly, Starbird uses many biblical sources to prove Magdalen was the wife and mother of Jesus' child. It's staggering the amount of information packed into this book. There is a whole world of heritical / Gnostic sources that she could have relied on, but instead she used mostly uncontroversial sources. She is a master at pointing out the hidden, but obvious, meaning of religious symbols and art. It's easy to see the influence this book had on Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Many of Brown's plot points are taken directly from this book.

A more Gnostic, possibly pagan, perspective on the Magdalen story can be seen in Jesus and the Lost Goddess.