Does the idea of talking to your ancestors (spiritual or temporal) wig you out a little? It sure scared me! Growing up a Protestant Christian in the buckle of the (U.S. Southern) Bible Belt from a precocious young age, I was taught that Jesus Christ and Christ alone was the hotline to the big ‘Man Upstairs.’ This was a particular point of pride for my mom, who became a born-again believer in Jesus when I was a wee lad. She saw her Roman Catholic upbringing as ‘confused’ by contrast, wondering why they ‘had’ to jump through prayer calisthenics with heavenly middle-management go-betweens instead of going straight to the Son of Man himself.
I honor my late mother’s journey, and the reality that she felt more peace via the Ockham’s razor of evangelical Protestantism than the maximalist cosmology of her Italian Catholic family of origin, with all its saintly aunties and uncles and canonized cousins, thrice-removed.
But as I grew older and began composting my own faith, I came to believe the Catholics and Orthodox were onto something. They were echoing the near-ubiquitous animist and indigenous wisdom I heard translated and distilled for me by voices like Daniel Foor in his Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing: our forebears are still with us — right here — and wish to walk alongside us in consciousness, helping us if they can. They don’t want us to worship them; they’re people like us, who had plenty of faults in their earthly lives. But the ‘well ancestors’ are honored, powerful, and ready to come alongside us in our common work-and-play toward greater wholeness, greater peace…toward God. I began to realize that my own Scripture affirms that we’re surrounded by a great Cloud of Witnesses who are here to companion us. It wasn’t so much that we have to talk to saints and well ancestors, but that we get to.
Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo; Mary Magdalene; The National Gallery, London; circa 1535-1540
Perhaps no dearly-departed yet ever-present luminary has shown up more prominently in my life this year than Mary Magdalene. I heard her whispering to me through books, through powerful relationships, and through a kind of pregnant legacy ready to be rebirthed.
Before considering who Mary is in her present ancestral, witnessing state, it’s important to consider who she was, in life, legend, and sacred memory. Healed head-to-toe from seven powerful afflictions — principalities and powers, sometimes called ‘climates of wrath’ or even demons — Mary became a radically whole woman unafraid to companion Jesus Christ, aka Yeshua of Nazareth, the anointed, whom she anointed. They became Kingdom collaborators, close companions in ways that caught scandal, in the first century C.E. and today. Unapologetically herself, she’s the second-most-named woman in the pages of the New Testament, and features even more prominently in gospels (records of ‘good news’) that didn’t make the Bible’s canonical cut, including the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, and her eponymous release, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. (Curious? I recommend The Luminous Gospels, a powerful translation of all three with commentary.) This is to say nothing of her prominent cameos in Sophia of Jesus Christ, Gospel of Peter, Dialogue of the Savior, First Apocalypse of James, The Pistis Sophia (which is admittedly a bonkers compendium!) and general strong MM vibes with the Song of Songs and The Thunder, Perfect Mind.
So what do all these ancient texts (and generations of sacred art, a tiny fragment of which I’m sharing here) say about Mary? That she’s an apostle to the apostles, an inner-circle beloved, a benefactor among other wealthy woman who are basically bankrolling Jesus’ ministry, and someone (unlike many of Christ’s male apprentices) who is present at Jesus’ execution, arguably visionarily present right alongside him in his underworld descent where he preaches a liberating word to the ‘spirits in prison’ (see Cynthia Bourgeault’s interpretation of Mary’s Christic vision in The Meaning of Mary Magdalene). And in John’s Gospel account, she’s the first witness to Jesus’ liberating triumph over the death-dealing powers of empire and oppressive religion alike, his resurrection from the dead. According to generations of regional witness that reverberated throughout the ancient world, after Jesus’ ascension Mary and her companions left Palestine to flee the persecutions of Herod Agrippa I, crossing the Mediterranean sea and landing on the coast of Provence, establishing faith communities throughout southern France.
From Meggan Watterson‘s ‘Mary Magdalene Oracle‘
By all accounts, Mary Magdalene is a teacher, minister, anointer, healer, contemplative visionary, exorcist and preacher of resurrection power in her own right. A mirror to and embodiment of the untamable Divine Feminine, which while often repressed is known variously in Scripture as El Shaddi, the Many-Breasted One; Shekinah, Holy Glory made manifest, Sophia, the ever-present feminine principle of Wisdom, and Ruah, Holy Breath herself.
Further, Mary had a profound influence on Jesus’ own spiritual formation, arguably complicating and maturing his early influences like John the Baptist and the ascetic Essenes, into the ‘women’s ways’ of Hebrew folk healing (like using spit to heal eyesight), anointing, kitchen-table koinonia (fellowship), foot-washing, and Merkabah (‘Chariot’) visionary mysticism (see Bruce Chilton‘s vivid summary of scholarship in Mary Magdalene: A Biography). Blossoming into partnership with Miriam of Magdala, Yeshua revolutionizes his understanding of the roots and fruits of lived transformation from the locusts-and-wild honey ways of grasping spiritual energies via fasting and denial, into the open-handed kenotic-flowing path of trusting Divine abundance: feasting and party-throwing to the point where he developed a bad reputation among religious standard-bearers as a ‘drunkard and glutton.’ But to Jesus and Mary, this was the very banqueting table of the Kingdom of God being set in the midst of Spirit’s enemies, to the joy and belonging of those typically deemed least, last, lost, and left behind.
Josefa de Óbidos, Saint Mary Magdalene (c.1650: Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro, Coimbra).
And yet, subsequent generations of increasingly male-dominated church leadership feared Mary’s power and influence, claiming ownership of the Jesus Movement and smearing her as one of the worst things they could imagine: a sex-worker whose hot-bloodedness was a temptation Jesus had to hold at literal arms’ length, as is often depicted in Medieval and Renaissance paintings of a groveling Mary and a Christ who couldn’t be bothered. And so Mary entered a kind of Act II of shared memory, away from her fiery life and legend, into the male handwringing that’s been named the ‘virgin/whore dichotomy.’ Institutional religion through the intervening centuries couldn’t decide if Mary’s chief legacy was that of a remorseful, penitent sinner, or if she continued on in some whoring half-life, tempting women in each generation to play the holy harlot in some hare-brained heresy. Mary maligning probably reached its apogee all the way back in the sixth century C.E., when Roman Catholic Pope Gregory gave his infamous Twenty-Third Homily, saying “She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. And what did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? . . . It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts…” And so a bad reputation was solidified.
From Meggan Watterson‘s ‘Mary Magdalene Oracle‘
If Magus Mary and Harlot Mary represent Acts I and II of her life+afterlife, Mary Magdalene has also experienced a kind of third renaissance as the ultimate blank canvas of a feminist (and post-feminist) spiritual renewal. “Hidden” historical speculation and channeled material abound, naming Mary as a priestess of the Egyptian goddess Isis, a secret wife to Christ spawning the Merovingian Dynasty, and an initiate into sacred sexual mysteries ready to give contemporary seekers the keys to a subterranean Queendom of desire and manifestation.
My cards on the table, I’m a classicist. I resonate most with Act I Mary, the OG — or OM, as it were. But I don’t see her as static, standing stock-still on the shores of her own historical moment, be it in Palestine or Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
Because I’ve embraced the reality that the Cloud of Witnesses indeed precipitate our lives beyond their mortal coils, I see Mary active in the subtle worlds of consciousness — in what Sufi scholar Henry Corbin names the ‘imaginal realm,’ a very real mode of perception visible through training the ‘eyes of the heart’ in contemplative seeing. Through this seeing, I hear Mary speaking with surprising candor, sympathy and interaction with her afterlife portrayals in Acts II and III. Beyond men’s insecure posturing, repentant-sinner Mary is a powerful avatar of compassionate grace, and the potential to recover from anything. And Act III Mary represents a long-overdue repudiation of harmful purity culture; in exploring the fullest imagining of her relationship with Jesus and her own sexuality, this Mary represents the alchemical reconciliation of apparent opposites, the sanctification of desire and domesticity, the marriage (thanks KW) of sense and soul.
As French priest and theologian Jean-Yves Leloup provokes,
The real question is not whether Yeshua was married (again in the formal sense of the word). Why should that be so important? The interesting question is this: Was Yeshua fully human, with a normal human sexuality that was capable of intimacy and preference? Again, we invoke the proverb of the sages of early Christianity: ‘That which is not lived is not redeemed.’ If Yeshua, considered as the Messiah and the Christ (from the Greek Christos, a rendering of the Hebrew Mashiah), did not live his sexuality, then sexuality is unredeemed. In that case, he could not be a Savior in the full sense of the word, this eventually led to the institution of a logic, especially in Western Roman Christianity, that was oriented more to death than to life.
(Leloup’s fuller reflection on this is well-worth reading.)
Mary Beale, ‘The Penitent Magdalene’ (c. 1672: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide).
In my encounters with the whole Mary Magdalene — through reading, prayer, art immersion, imaginal experience, and cultivating conscious-love relationships — I’m discovering that she contains multitudes. The now-ancient Mary of history, Palestinian koinonos (companion) of the world’s most overexposed and misunderstood man, has thoroughly metabolized her own deeply misunderstood and contradictory reputation. She stands poised, ready to speak grace and truth and power to us, about the realities obscured in both members of this pivotal Power Couple, so that we can fully become ourselves, today.
I’m about to add an additional mode of encounter to my experience: Pilgrimage. As I mentioned recently, I’m co-leading Mary Magdalene Pilgrimage in Southern France, beginning next week. We actually still have room — two spots left if you’re feeling called! Comment below this post if you’d like to come, or email me at mike [at] mikemorrell [dot] org. Pilgrimage is a time-honored practice where seekers travel to the thin places in geography where something sacred is said to especially dwell, in order to introduce us to the nearness of holiness and power that’s been with us all along.
As I’m preparing for this potentially life-altering pilgrimage, I’m pairing it with another potent practice aimed at attuning breath and heartbeat, mind and intention:
Over the centuries, many friends of the Beloved along the path of Mary Magdalene and Yeshua of Nazereth have prayed Novenas charged with power and tenacity.
What’s a Novena?
The word “novena” is derived from the Latin word for nine, or “novem.” Typically, a novena refers to nine days of prayer, asking God for a specific intention, often through a Saint’s intercession. Novenas are a beautiful way to grow purposeful, consistent, and persistent in daily prayer. There are a few reasons why the number nine might be significant. The first comes from the Acts of the Apostles, when Jesus told his disciples to gather together and pray after his Ascension into Heaven. Tradition tells us that the Apostles, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, went to the Upper Room and prayed together for the nine days between Jesus’ Ascension (believed to have been 40 days after his Passion/Passover) and Pentecost. (Source)
In this nine-day season of prayer, you’re uniting your heart with a saint or angel, toward God, usually for fulfilling an urgent need in your life. These prayers are often engaged with the aid of a rosary or other prayer beads, though this is optional. The aim is to be in a daily rhythm of prayer, thanksgiving, getting in touch with the desires of our hearts, and joining together as part of a larger movement of unitive seeing and collected presence — cultivating greater vision, coherence, and embodied love.
I wanted to pray alongside Mary Magdalene in this rhythm, but I couldn’t find an already-existent Novena that actually resonated with the Mary I’ve come to know. So I crafted my own, drawing from two traditional sources — one from the West, and the other from the East. I begin with a contemporary Novena to Mary Magdalene from a Roman Catholic website as my point of departure, freely adapting it. Then for some potent Magdelenic elixir I draw on an Orthodox Akathist Hymn of Mary Magdalene, which follows a hymn pattern stretching back to the sixth century in central Asia. (Those in the Christian East seem to have far fewer hangups around rightly revering this remarkable woman.)
I then brought to these sources my past year’s intensive Mary Magdalene studies, drawing on biblical, noncanonical, historic and legendary sources, as well as my own unfolding relationship with Mary in prayer.
‘Mary Magdalene,’ Bernardino Campi, 1522-1590, From the collection of: Art Gallery of New South Wales
I crafted this Novena especially for participants of the upcoming Mary Magdalene Pilgrimage in Southern France, but I also want to share it with you so that you can join in the essence of what we’re exploring, wherever you are.
In the written prayers that follow, I want to highlight not only Mary, but how the Divine Feminine shows up as a moving, haunting ‘minor key’ in the Christian lineage despite later attempts at suppression, even in the keystone Novena prayer traditionally referred to as the Lord’s Prayer or ‘Our Father.’
I’m aware that all of us are coming from our own places, spiritually. Some of you considering embarking on this spiritual adventure come from Christian backgrounds; others of you don’t. Some of you have understandably challenging associations with traditional religious prayers and cadences.
All of us are seeking to more fully inhibit what’s alive for us now.
Regardless of gender, we’re also seeking to bring balance and harmony to the masculine bias historically present in ‘the children of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar.’ The ways in which Judaism, Christianity, Islam and their offshoots have obscured the historic, biblical, and vital experiential aspects of the Divine Feminine are tragic, and thankfully are being redressed in our day as the children of all authentic spiritual lineages are finding each other and learning from one another. We’re rediscovering the One inclusive of — and beyond — all gender expressions.
Here’s my conviction: While remaining rooted in traditions that nourish us, we have permission to speak to Reality/Love/God in ways that listen deeply to what She is saying to us and speaking to our heart’s deepest needs now.
These gently-reworked traditional Novena prayers can reconnect us with everything alive from our earlier faith journeys, while helping heal the hurts caused by unhealthily patriarchal religion and culture. And if you’re someone for whom traditional prayers aren’t particularly triggering and hold enduring value, you’re welcome to pray them instead of or alongside these. We’re not seeking to get rid of anything of value, but instead give everything room to breathe and find its healthy new grounding.
Are you ready?
I’m inviting anyone who feels called into a nine-day season of prayer with the Magdalene; beginning today.
Instructions for each day:
- Begin with the Sign of the Cross. (To watch Fr. Richard Rohr teaching me about the embodied meaning of the sign of the cross and how to enact it, go here.)
- Pray the Birthing Prayer, three Hail Marys, and the Glory Be — counting on your fingers or prayer beads (optional).
- Pray the Magdalene Novena for that day.
- End with the Sign of the Cross.
- Optional: Enter into 20 minutes of Centering Prayer or other quiet meditation.
- Feel “the Good coming into your midst…acting with the elements of your nature…reuniting you with your roots” as you become more truly human (Anthropos). (See The Gospel of Mary Magdalene)
- Arise from your prayer and reflect its fruits in every creature and inanimate friend you encounter.
Birthing Prayer
Abwoon d’bwashmaya
El Shaddai! O Birther of the Cosmos, you create all that moves.
O Thou! Outpouring Life of all, Creator of the Manna, Milk and Honey that sustains us.
Respiration of all worlds, we hear you breathing—in and out—in silence.
Source of Sound: in the roar and the whisper, in the breeze and the whirlwind, we hear your Name.
Radiant One: You shine within us, outside us—even darkness shines—when we remember.
Name of names, our small identity unravels in you, you give it back as a lesson.
Wordless Action, Silent Potency—where ears and eyes awaken, there heaven comes.
Your kin-dom come, your rhythms be danced, on Earth as in Heaven
Feed us this day with your Manna, Milk and Honey
Release us from all debts
Even as we release those indebted to us
Free us from all Powers that that would keep us constrained
Deliver us from the illusions of lovelessness
Into Your boundless care.
El Shaddai! O Birther of the Cosmos!
So it is. Amen!
(Drawn from the ‘Lord’s Prayer,’ inspired by the scholarship and teaching of Neil Douglas-Klotz)
Hail Mother Mary
Hail Mother Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Beloved is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of your womb, Yeshua.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us, your children:
Now and at the hour of our death.
So it is. Amen!
(Inspired by renditions and conversations with Rebekah Berdndt)
Glory Be
Glory be to Sophia,
Shekinah,
And Ruah ha-kodesh
As She was in the Beginning
Is Now
And flows ever-becoming
So it is. Amen!
(What do these Divine feminine names in Christ and Magdalene’s lineage mean? Watch or listen to God Our Mother: Where Can She be Found?)
Mary Magdalene Novena: The Prayers
The earliest representation of Mary Magdalene we have, from the Dura Europa house church in Eastern Syria, on the border with Iraq, circa 240 CE.
Mary Magdalene Novena — Day 1
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Spark in us the love of You she showed in releasing everything that hindered her flourishing in order to companion You faithfully.
Fiery Magdalene, ancient Scripture tells us that you lived fully before you encountered Yeshua. Naturally, you picked up some heart-bruises along this journey. After Yeshua drove seven maladapted powers out of you, you renounced their influence and chose to walk the Way of thorough healing, sensuous anointing, visionary clarity and uninhibited living.
Please bring my petitions and desires before the Banqueting Table of the One you and Yeshua feasted with so joyously!
You left behind your limiting habits and partnered with Yeshua in anointing, teaching, healing and feasting. You remained faithful to the Way even amid Yeshua’s suffering and execution by the powers-that-be.
Pray for me, that I may never waver in my metanoia, my repentance from the ways that keep me stifled and playing small. Pray that I may keep faith with my own awakening heart.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion I)
Prepared by the Beloved for a ministry equal to that of the apostles, O holy Mary Magdalene, you partnered with your companion Christ; this is why we lovingly praise you with hymns. As you had great boldness before the One, by your supplications deliver us from all manner of misfortunes, that we may ever cry out to you with joy:
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved your sweetest Companion more than all good things!
(Ikos I)
The Creator of the angels and Lord of hosts, Who foreknew with Providence, chose you, O holy myrrh-bearer, from the city of Magdala, freeing you from the snares of Wrath’s powers, and thereafter you proved yourself to be a faithful koinonos to the Way, zealous for Divine glorification in your life and ministry. And, marveling at Shekinah’s dispensation concerning you, we cry out to you in enlivened conscience:
Rejoice, you whom Yeshua loved more than any other woman!
Rejoice, you who were called by the Anointed into this wondrous light out of the darkness of deceit;
Rejoice, you who through Divine grace remained available in body and spirit to the end!
Rejoice, you who with inner fire utterly preserved your heart and humility of spirit;
Rejoice, you who, first of all, were counted worthy to behold the risen Christ!
Rejoice, you who thoroughly conquered the power of the enemy;
Rejoice, you who have shone forth in mighty trust and fervent love for Christed Reality!
Rejoice, you who loved your companion Yeshua with all your heart;
Rejoice, you who served your awakening Heart faithfully, even unto death!
Rejoice, you whose soul was made new by grace;
Rejoice, you who stored the preaching of the Liberating Word in the treasury of your heart!
Rejoice, you who announced the news of the Resurrection to the other apostles;
Rejoice, you who were honored by conversation with an angel!
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved the sweetest Yeshua more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
Magdalene Master, Mary Magdalen surrounded by eight scenes of her life, circa 1285, tempera on wood 178×90 cm Galleria de L’Accademia, Florence.
Mary Magdalene Novena – Day 2
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to inhabit the devotion to You she showed in releasing what did not serve and becoming one of Your friends.
Compassionate Magdalene, your life before encountering Yeshua brought joys and hurts. After Yeshua drove seven demons out of you, you blessed and taught one another in the ways of anointing, healing, and contagious joy.
Please bring my petitions and desires before the Christed One Whom you companioned with such tenacity!
You turned away from ensnaring limitations to live God’s in-breaking reign. You are an example of consecrated radiance to all who wish to be faithful apprentices to the Way of Beloved Living. Yeshua loved you more than the other disciples, and kissed you on the mouth often. You conceived abler soul from the grace within each other.
Pray for me, that I may partner with transforming Love each day of my life. Pray that I may grow in my relationship with Reality at every opportunity.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion II)
The holy Mary, beholding herself delivered from the seven cruel demons, cleaved unto Christ-Anointed, Vanquisher of Hades, with all her heart, teaching all humanity to venerate Beloved God, not with their lips alone, but with their whole life, and crying out to Source: Alleluia!
(Ikos II)
The human mind is at a loss, pondering how you rose from such affliction to the summit of angelic life by the grace of Sophia, O right laudable Mary Magdalene. Since having you as our good intercessor, we entreat you fervently: Deliver us from the abyss of ensnarement, that with love we may cry out to you such things as these:
Rejoice, you who escaped cruel enslavement to the demons;
Rejoice, you manifestly denounced the deception of the wicked spirits!
Rejoice, you who taught all to have recourse to Beloved God amid the assaults of the enemy;
Rejoice, you who urge us not to despair amid great sorrow of soul!
Rejoice, you who has shown all us stumblers the way to radiant set-apartness;
Rejoice, you whose being recognized the omnipotence of Divine grace!
Rejoice, good instructor in offering Divine gratitude;
Rejoice, faithful teacher of God’s true praise!
Rejoice, you who in your life have shown us the right path of abundant living on Earth!
Rejoice, protectress of our souls from the deception of the Accuser;
Rejoice, O our fervent mediatress before Christ in all sorrow!
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved your sweetest Koinonos more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
Paolo Veneziano, Mary Magdalene in ecstasy with clipeus: detail of Virgin and Child, portable tripych with Crucifixion, circa 1335, 74,5,x75 (original work), Galleria Nazionale,Parma.
Mary Magdalene Novena – Day 3
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh.
Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to imitate the virtue she showed in courageously releasing her demons and becoming one of Your cherished friends.
Empowered Magdalene, we do not know the specifics of the road you walked in earliest life. But we know that you devoted your life to the Way of Beloved Living after the Seven Climates of Wrath evaporated from your being.
Please bring my petitions before Beloved God to Whom you devoted your life!
You did not allow yourself to wallow in misery over your mistakes, grievances, and harms. Instead, you accepted the mercy of Yeshua and blossomed in the radiance of the Way. In kissing your souls met — birthing awareness, potential, and joy.
Pray for me, that I may always embrace every kiss Beloved God offers me, in spirit and body alike. Pray that I may never allow any obstacles to deter me from growing in intimacy with Love.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion III)
By the power of divine grace, as well as by your own good volition, you left the house of your father without regret, as did Abraham of old, and joyfully followed the way of Beloved God; This is why we entreat you, O glorious Mary, apprentice of the Anointed:
By your supplications enlighten our hearts with love for God, that we may cry out to our Beloved, now and forever: Alleluia!
(lkos III)
Possessing the divinely-bestowed power of wisdom, O Mary Magdalene, as a faithful apprentice you utterly rejected the glittering façades of deception’s power, and you truly serve the Word Who impoverished himself for us in his great lovingkindness. This is why we cry out to you with enlivened conscience:
Rejoice, good apprentice of Yeshua;
Rejoice, instructor in true love for God!
Rejoice, you who recognized well the vanity of the seven powers;
Rejoice, you who joyfully spurned their false shine!
Rejoice, you who considered the beguilements of ego to be as naught;
Rejoice, you who before time pointed out the good path of life to the gatherings of God’s faithful friends!
Rejoice, you who guides all along the Way to abundant living;
Rejoice, you who left your home in Palestine do works of compassion abroad!
Rejoice, you who have found the lovingkindness of Christ-Anointed here and in heaven;
Rejoice, for thereby you have attained everlasting blessedness!
Rejoice, O wise ewe-lamb who fled from wicked wolves to Yeshua, the kind Shepherd;
Rejoice, you who have entered into the fold of his reason-endowed sheep!
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved the sweetest Koinonos more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
Antonio Veneziano, Mary Magdalene, 14th Century, tempera on wood, dimensions unavailable, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican.
Mary Magdalene Novena – Day 4
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to imitate the love of You she showed in telling others about Your actions within her so that they might befriend You as well.
Much-maligned Magdalene, fearful men have tried their best to obscure the power of your deeds and the fragrance of your testimony. But just as the egg in your hand transformed from white to crimson as you testified to Emperor Tiberius Caesar about the power of the Anointed’s resurrection, so we acknowledge your enduring triumph in the face of empire and other powers that seek to deface us today.
While atrophied religion flinches in fear from the tenderness that comes with embrace, you touch joyously in anointing, partnering with your Partner who says: “When you drink from my mouth you will become like me; I will become like you, and the hidden things will be revealed to you.”
Please help me feel heaven and earth’s kisses, O Mary, bringing my petitions and heart-desires before the throne of Resurrection so they rest on the Footstool of my life! Bring my heart, my relationships, my community back from the dead, restoring the years the locusts have eaten!
Pray for me, that I may taste abundant love each day in all her many guises, and be a conduit of touch-able blessing to others. Pray that I may do all I can to be a faithful companion to those Life has placed on my path.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion IV)
The tempest of demonic rage assailed the temple of your soul with great force, O holy Mary, but was unable to shake it utterly, for you discovered liberation on the firm rock of the Faith of the Anointed; and standing thereon, O wise woman, you teach all to chant unto our All-good God the hymn:
Alleluia!
(Ikos IV)
Hearing, O divinely wise Mary, that rooting in the Way’s soil you found true gladness of heart, justice, peace and joy in Holy Spirit, we also seek to blossom in the Sun while sharing a plot in Eden. And to you, as co-heir to the Master Gardener, we exclaim:
Rejoice, you who love the heavenly sweetness of Divine fellowship;
Rejoice, you who find true life in the Vine!
Rejoice, you who by faith provide for us an image thereof;
Rejoice, you who now dwell in the joy of heaven forever!
Rejoice, you who ever-taste of the food of paradise;
Rejoice, you who kindle within your heart the fire of love for God!
Rejoice, faithful companion of Beloved Yeshua;
Rejoice, earnest intercessor for us before God!
Rejoice, O our helper amid tribulations; rejoice, O our humble and powerful teacher!
Rejoice, all-honored habitation of Holy Spirit;
Rejoice, flute whereby the music of God’s grace falls upon our ears!
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved the sweetest Koinonos more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
Chalices of Mystery by Lewis Williams, 2009.
Mary Magdalene Novena – Day 5
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to inhabit devotion to You she showed as she apprenticed to You and became Your close companion.
Catalyzing Magdalene, we know that you were a faithful follower of Yeshua after he altered the Seven Climates within you. You weren’t only his apprentice, you became a dear friend and companion to Humanity’s Son, Space-Conqueror. In your anointing you helped him grow into his vocation of Anointed One, the Christ.
Please bring my petitions before your dearest Yeshua, and the Creator who enfolds you both!
Scripture tells us that you were distraught when you thought that someone had taken your Rabboni’s body from his tomb. When he appeared to you, you embraced him and did not wish to let him go. He gently told you not to cling to what was, as what’s to come is more beautiful still.
Pray for me, that I may grow to be companion of the Way like you. Pray that I may do all I can to grow in inner vision and outer expression.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion V)
Among the myrrh-bearing women you were shown to be a divinely guided star leading all to anointing and the Anointed, O glorious Mary. And now, standing with these powerful maidens, mothers, and crones continually before the Blessed Trinity, by your supplications cause us also to be admitted to their sacred choir, illumining the challenges of our life with your light, that we may cry out to God with joy:
Alleluia!
(Ikos V)
Beholding the Christed One hanging upon the Tree, O holy Mary, you showed wondrous courage; for many of his apprentices deserted their Master. But as your soul and mind were afire with his eternal divine teachings, you stood in its awful shade, sharing in the saving sufferings of Yeshua. This is why, seeing this your valiant courage, we cry out to you:
Rejoice, adornment and ornament of wise women;
Rejoice, goodly joy of all faithful!
Rejoice, you who suffered with your beloved Koinonos as he hung upon the Cross;
Rejoice, you who have shown us the path of tenacious faith in your own awakening heart!
Rejoice, you who by such love has obtained great boldness in intercession before God for us;
Rejoice, beauty and boast of women!
Rejoice, mighty refuge for faithful; Rejoice, you who are mightier than powerful men!
Rejoice, you who are wiser than the wise of this world; whom the Master praised as one who fully understands!
Rejoice, for God revealed to you the mysteries of true Wisdom!
Rejoice, for Logos-Sophia taught you true theology;
Rejoice, you loved Yeshua Anointed more than your own life!
Rejoice, O Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved the sweetest Koinonos more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection; William Etty (1787–1849)
Mary Magdalene Novena – Day 6
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to incubate the love of You she showed in the great trust she had in You.
Liberating Magdalene, you shed your habits of ego like an ill-fitting garment, becoming close with Yeshua during his ministry of anointing, teaching, healing and feasting. You remained faithful to him even through his suffering and execution by the powers-that-be. In turn Yeshua knows you completely and loves you devotedly.
Please bring my petitions before Beloved God, bestower of all good gifts!
Though it was not always easy to be one of Yeshua’s inner circle, you held fast to your trust in the Way. Your devotion did not waver, even when the other portion of your Abler Soul was unjustly executed.
Pray for me, that I may do all I can to grow in trust and devotion to life’s calling and the relationships that help us all arrive here. Pray that I may be faithful to Reality’s call in the Great Work (and Play!) of this moment.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion VI)
By your grace you heal the infirm and make weak vessels strong, O Christ our Maestro. For the myrrh-bearing women stood by your Cross and announced the grace of the Cross to all without fear; and the choirs of wise women, hastening to emulate the choirs of the angels, ever vigilantly cry out to the Holy Trinity: Alleluia!
(Ikos VI)
Seeking to be illumined by the light of true knowing of God, O wondrous Mary, when you saw Divinity’s incarnation hanging upon the Cross, you said, weeping:
“How is it that our Light now accepts a voluntary extinguishing?” And we, knowing of your glorious enlightenment by the grace of Holy Spirit, cry out to you:
Rejoice, you who wept over the crucified Christ from the depths of your heart;
Rejoice, you who found everlasting gladness in the mansions of heaven!
Rejoice, you who provide us with an example of beneficial weeping;
Rejoice, for you are our continual joy! Rejoice, true consolation of all the sorrowful;
Rejoice, for you suffered with Christ on earth, for his sake!
Rejoice, for you are glorified with Yeshua and dwell together in heaven;
Rejoice, mighty conqueror of all our enemies!
Rejoice, speedy helper amid all our tribulations;
Rejoice, for your memory is sweet to all friends of God!
Rejoice, for your name is most precious to the whole Beloved Community;
Rejoice, true vine of Christ’s Vineyard!
Rejoice, O Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved the sweetest Koinonos more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
“Mary Magdalene in the Garden with Jesus” Rowan and Irene LeCompte, National Cathedral, Washington, DC.
Mary Magdalene Novena – Day 7
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to imitate the virtue she showed in courageously proclaiming the power of Resurrection, Anointing, Healing and Vision.
Clear-voiced Magdalene, during the earliest days of the movement you and Yeshua started, you became Apostle to the Apostles. But you weren’t always believed by your fellow Way-farers, facing enemies from within the faithful community and outside it. You went into exile, fleeing the persecutions of Herod Agrippa I, crossing the Mediterranean sea finding refuge on the coast of Provence.
Daring Mary, you became a powerful preacher, healer, anointer, and visionary in your own right. In history you have been ignored, pigeonholed, and outright slandered. But true-hearted seekers continue to discover the truth of you beyond your ‘bad’ reputations, and in so doing see our own stories through new eyes.
Please bring my petitions before the great Restorer of Stories!
Pray for me, that I may always command the pen of my own life’s story. Pray that I may grow in every virtue necessary for consecrated radiance.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion VII)
Desiring to comprehend the invincible power of the Cross, with the other women you stood in the presence of the suffering of Christ at the foot of the Cross of the Liberator until the end, O all-glorious Mary. And experiencing the pain of the Mother of the Maestro with her, you cried aloud in perplexity:
“What is this strange mystery? He Who sustains all creation has willed to suffer!”
And with love we cry out to him Who of his own will was lifted up upon the life-bearing Cross: Alleluia!
(Ikos VII)
A wondrous woman you’re revealed to be in your powerful partnership, O blessed Mary; for showing it forth in your bitter lamentations, collapsing in anguish before him Who was taken down from the Cross, you bathed his open wounds with your tears. And following the noble Joseph and Nicodemus, the lover of justice, you wasted no time with the other holy women bravely going to the tomb of the Savior, at once weeping and comforting his all-immaculate Mother as she wept inconsolably, her soul pierced by a cruel sword. And we, knowing your courage to be such, humbly cry out to you:
Rejoice, you who washed the all-pure wounds of Christ with your tears;
Rejoice, you who manifestly suffered with his all-immaculate Mother!
Rejoice, you who remained with Christ even unto his burial;
Rejoice, you watched with perplexity as Life was laid in the tomb!
Rejoice, O our good teacher of tears of repentance;
Rejoice, you instruct us to wash away the sins that stain our outer garments!
Rejoice, you who urge us to soften our hardened hearts;
Rejoice, you who provides us an example of true wisdom!
Rejoice, you who teach us to be ever-mindful of the sufferings and joys of the Anointed One;
Rejoice, exalted companion of Christ;
Rejoice, you pleased the Liberator and not men!
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved your sweetest Koinonos more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
Healing Love: The Embrace of Christ and Mary Magdalene Print (After ‘The Kiss’ by Gustav Klimt)
Mary Magdalene Novena – Day 8
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to imitate the love of You she showed in her steadfast service to her life’s purpose.
Tenacious Magdalene, the faithful honor you as a great saint because of your fidelity to your companion Yeshua – in life, death, and resurrection.
Please bring my petitions before Beloved God with such tenacity!
Pray for me, that I may grow in greater intimacy: with my precious body, my undying spirit, and the nous that unites them both. Pray that I may grow in my relationship with God, neighbor, and Earth each day.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion VIII)
The burial of the Bestower of life, Who grants life to all, appeared a strange thing to you, O divinely wise Mary. And wounded by the love of him, while yet enshrouded in the gloom of grief, you brought myrrh to his sepulcher and poured forth tears as sweet-smelling anointing oils. This is why, you now abide in the fragrant mansions of paradise, ever crying out to God with the choirs of the angels: Alleluia!
(Ikos VIII)
Yeshua was all sweetness, all joy, all life to you, O holy Mary. And seeing the stone rolled away from the tomb, and finding him not, you didst hasten, lamenting, to Simon, the living rock of faith, and to the other apprentice, whom Jesus loved; and with anguish over this you didst say unto them: “They have taken my Rabboni from the tomb, and I know not where they have laid him!”
But now, free of that sorrow, you rejoice eternally with the Anointed in heavenly places. And, hoping that by your supplications we may enter into the same joy, with enlivened conscience we on earth cry out to you thus:
Rejoice, you who accompanied the Man-Slayer and Space-Conqueror in the imaginal realms of the heart;
Rejoice, you who companioned your Koinonos even as he faced his underworld descent and ministered to the spirits in prison;
Rejoice, you overcome the darkness of night by the radiance of your love for Christ;
Rejoice, you who teach us to keep nightly vigil in prayer!
Rejoice, you who are illumined with everlasting light in heaven;
Rejoice, you who have bought the kingdom of heaven with poverty of spirit!
Rejoice, for after your sorrow over the sufferings of Christ you found abundant consolation;
Rejoice, O meek woman, inheritor of the land of celestial paradise!
Rejoice, you hungered and thirsted for the justice of Christ,
for you now eat your fill at the banquet of heaven;
Rejoice, O merciful one, who found the mercy of the Master and fervently entreat his mercy for us!
Rejoice, for, as one pure of heart, you now behold God face to face;
Rejoice, for you, first of all, were deemed worthy to behold the resurrection of Christ, our everlasting Peace!
Rejoice, you who were persecuted for the sake of Christ’s righteousness, for yours is the kingdom of God;
Rejoice, you who acquired eternal gladness and a great reward in the heavens!
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved the sweetest Lord Jesus more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
“St. Mary Magdalene” by Br Robert Lentz OFM, contemporary icon.
Mary Magdalene Novena – Day 9
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to imitate the devotion to You she showed in serving You wholeheartedly to her last earthly breath.
Wise Magdalene, the details of your life and death have been cloaked in mystery, both through deliberate obscuring and the sands of time. But heart’s wisdom testifies that you lived most of your life after your companion’s Ascension communing with the Christ, in community and solitude. Through the strength of your trust, you produced an egg alchemizing in resurrection’s testimony. In the Cave of the Egg, your own heart flashed crimson as you continued to transform.
Please transfigure my petitions before the Ever-Living One!
It is believed that you remained with your fellow Way-farers in the days following the Anointed’s Ascension. Though the early Companions of the Way had many enemies, you held fast to your trusting love of your life: of deliverance, teaching, anointing, visioning and healing.
Pray for me, that I may always be a set-apart apprentice of Love’s Way and Beloved Community. Pray that I always return to my awakening Heart, even when I’ve temporarily lost my way.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion IX)
Every rank of the angels was amazed at the great mystery of your glorious resurrection, O Christ our Commander; and Hades was shaken, seeing You descend into the uttermost depths of the earth and break asunder the everlasting bonds which held the captives, O Christ. And, rejoicing with the myrrh-bearing women, we cry out to You with gladness: Alleluia!
Ikos IX
Even the tongues of the most eloquent of orators do not suffice to recount your great sorrow as is fitting, O glorious Mary, when you stood outside the tomb, weeping. For who can describe the pain of your soul when you did not find the Lord, Whom you loved more than life, in the sepulcher?
Your grieving heart could not accept the consolation offered by the radiant angels. And remembering this your sorrow with enlivened conscience, we chant to you such things as these:
Rejoice, you who entered the cave to see Yeshua the Anointed;
Rejoice, you who now behold him seated upon the throne of glory!
Rejoice, you who saw the radiant inhabitants of heaven while yet on earth;
Rejoice, you who received from them the joyful news of the resurrection of Christ!
Rejoice, for you now ever rejoice with them;
Rejoice, you who brought myrrh to Christ with love!
Rejoice, you who sweetly hastened to the sweet-smelling fragrance of the myrrh of Christ;
Rejoice, you who release the bitterness of the joys of the oppressive world-order!
Rejoice, you who love the heavenly sweetness of Jesus;
Rejoice, O sweet and tender plant of Yeshua’s orchard!
Rejoice, right fruitful vine of the garden of God;
Rejoice, you who are shown to be a temple of the most Holy Spirit, all adorned!
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved the sweetest Yeshua more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
I hope this Novena was enriching for you. Please let me know how it’s unfolding for you in the comments below! Feel free to sign up for regular updates here if you aren’t already.
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