Magdalena Asteroid #318
Magdalena asteroid was discovered 24th September 1891 in Nice by Astronomer Augustes Charlois.
It is not known definitively why he chose the name Magdalena for her but he lived in Provence and worked in Nice and both places have strong associations with Magdalena.
Magdalena has an Orbit of 5.71 years and is in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. All these asteroids are helping us in some way manifest our potential in the outside world (as opposed to the inner world of the personal planets) and also open us to a more trans-personal way of being.
Another connection I would make with her physical characteristics is that she has a steep inclination of 10.6 meaning she is invisible from Earth for long periods of time. Asteroid Persephone shares this attribute and was named for her journeys in and out of the underworld.
Having been systematically erased from the annals of history as an important person in Jesus’ ministry and personal associations, ‘invisibility’ is likely to be an issue for anyone carrying the Magdalena archetype.
There are two sides to this story – the role of the Priestess which I believe Magdalena was, is by virtue of its nature, where one is creating change from the inner levels, invisible. Sharing certain information with too many people dissipates the energies, which is why secrecy is part of so many mystery schools. In this sense the Priestess embraces invisibility, wraps herself in her cloak and the sanctity of the temple. This is quite counter cultural in a world where being visible essentially is equated with being successful. One way this archetype manifests is the need to be at peace from striving and the need to be recognised.
The other side is a grave miscarriage of justice. Mary Magdalena above all the other disciples understood the essential messages of Jesus best according to Cynthia Bourgeault in her book The Meaning of Mary Magdalen: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity. Bourgeault is a scholarly writer as well as an inspired Christian Priestess and I like the way she lays out the evidence for us. I do also appreciate the intuitive, channelled material available but its good to have some solid research thrown in there too.
The 2018 film Mary Magdalen I feel is a sensitive and accurate description of the unfolding of events and her difficult relationship especially with Peter who was more militaristic in his approach and still does shape the vast numbers of Christians today. It was an interesting part of my assessment to be a Christian priest in the years 2018 – 2020 that one criteria for your suitability is your ‘Peter’ attitude and evangelical zeal to convert the message of Jesus to others.
The essential difference, having been on quite a journey with this myself, is that Peter and the rest of the Disciples are waiting for Christ to return and in the meantime set about converting many millions of others to wait with them. Its quite a passive and yet paradoxically militaristic approach and often ignores and denies the need for inner transformation. The more evangelical you are the more you believe that a certain set of rules need to be followed with some rigidity – otherwise God will punish you or your family. This has led to the persecution and misery of many people especially those on the LGBTQ spectrum. I would also challenge the idea that God punishes people and would err more towards we live in a universe of natural laws, and if we ignore the cause and effect there may well be a price to pay, a lesson to learn and sometimes the results can be tragic.
Magdalen understood that the Kingdom Jesus talked about was to be built within ourselves, in the vessel of the body. Rather than being dismissed, the body and embodiment are at the heart of the mystery. To sustain togetherness with the Christos, the Beloved is the whole point when he is NOT physically present, because this was the fuel for her transcendence triggered by his crucifixion. In his Resurrection though she came to understand she could never be separated from him even through death, and the same if true for all of us. If you are in a Sacred Partnership this is most likely a bridge you will have to cross yourself.
Love is everywhere, it is the most powerful force in creation and even death cannot end it.
The sexual energy of Magdalen is important because it is the sensual force behind her creation abilities on the inner level, it’s essentially what gives her her power. I sometimes feel though that many books about her glamorise the sexual possibilities between herself and Jesus, but I feel this misses the point of who she really was in relation to him. She was the female consort, the Priestess who enabled him to do his work.
Emphasising the sexual element of Magdalena I feel also may buy into the whole slandering of her as a whore. Actually when I grew up believing that as many did, it didn’t matter to me she had a been a whore. The fact that she wasn’t came as a shock, that Pope Gregory essentially manufactured the whole story. It is perhaps testament to Magdalena’s transformative powers that the Roman Catholic Church retracted this and named her Disciple to the Disciples not so many years ago. Many Christians around the world are still caught in the whore story though none-the-less.
Lets dive deeper the role of Magdalena as priestess which is informed by three sources.
Firstly an 8 week course I did with Cynthia Bourgeault through the Centre for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in New Mexico alongside reading her book. I highly recommend this course if this archetype calls you.
https://cac.org/online-education/mary-magdalene/
Secondly my experience of having Evangelical Christian parents and having a life time of experience of the dismissal and deep unease about Mary Magdalen. My often traumatic immersion in Christianity in childhood and my journey to priesthood from 2018 to 2020 when I studied Theology and current thinking in the Church of England has given me insight into the myriad of beliefs that Christians hold worldwide. The tendency though in most of the traditions is towards the Kingdom that is something that will arrive from the sky with Jesus in a second coming event, and is problematic because it tends to point us away from inner transformation.
Finally a pivotal life experience I had at Mont Serrat in Spain in 2018 where I found myself taken back in time and space and understood that the death and resurrection of Jesus was made possible by a whole group of disciples and Magdalena was at the heart of it. My feeling is from this experience is that the human woman Mary Magdalena received a powerful transmission from Jesus as he died. She held this transmission in the vessel of her body and it became available over the aeons to many more. It feels that the time of its release at wider levels into humanity is right now in the Age of Aquarius – that we (part of the collective) are an Avatar holding the Cosmic Christ within us and it is awakening. It also always feels to me very much connected with the awakening of Gaia’s consciousness too. The purpose of the Avatar is to heal the wound of separation in the way Mary herself had to transcend her grief and not being able to be physically present with Jesus after his death and resurrection, but knowing at a deep cellular level that they would be connected for all time. When we too find this sense of connection with the Cosmic Christ within, it is a game changer for the whole world. Sacred Partnerships will often be the way in which we heal these wounds in ourselves.
Returning to the story of Magdalen after the crucifixion, she comes to France in a boat which apparently had no oars so the ocean chose her destination. Here she landed at a place now called Saint- Maries-De-La-Mer in the South of France.
There are many Black Madonna's in France and Spain and other Mediterranean areas that remember her presence there and I have had a number of wonderful and powerful encounters with her myself over the years.
The early teachings of Christ were therefore held in 2 major ways that are not widely acknowledged: firstly through Mary Magdalena and secondly through the early Christians, who later went into the deserts after Constantine converted in 312AD. These early Chrisitans realised the new militaristic state religion was a pale reflection and dangerous corruption of Jesus’s teachings.
According to Cynthia Bourgeault these teachings later are transmitted to Italy through the Order of St Benedict at the time when the Holy Roman Empire was starting to flail.
One of our most recent transmissions I feel of this is the Gene Keys which came from a vision Richard Rudd had at St Benedict’s chapel in Italy many years ago where he saw the Eye of Benedict. This to me makes total sense of the transmission of the Divine Feminine through Gene Key 22 and its distinctly Christian flavour in for example the Seven Sacred Seals work.
The second way we have received the transmission is through the discovery of a remnant of a scroll in Egypt in 1896 and it took scholars many years to recognise its significance. In this scroll the pre-imminence of Peter is called into question, and it says that it was Mary alone who had fully understood the teachings of Jesus.
This is a quote from the Smithsonian Museum website and the full article is worth reading if you want to know more about this story
“For example, Peter’s pre-eminence is elsewhere taken for granted (in Matthew, Jesus says, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church”). Here, he defers to her:
Peter said to Mary, “Sister, we know that the Saviour loved you more than all other women. Tell us the words of the Saviour that you remember, the things which you know that we don’t because we haven’t heard them.”
Mary responded, “I will teach you about what is hidden from you.” And she began to speak these words to them.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-mary-magdalene-119565482/
By a series of wonderful synchronicities the Gospel of Mary Magdalen was eventually published the same time as the Nag Hamaddi scrolls which were discovered much earlier, providing a rich diversity of understanding of the teachings of Jesus and showing from many directions how positive he was towards Mary Magdalen and women in general.
The central teaching of Jesus put forward in the Gospel of Mary Magdalen is Ihidayo ‘The Eye of the Heart’. It has much in common with Brain Math in that there is an attuning of the brain to the heart waves which are much slower vibrations. Also it is a practice which fosters deep compassion, to see all that is unfolding around us through the supreme intelligence of the heart.
It is in this way, living from the heart, not in a sentimental way, but in a fierce and courageous way is the building of the Kingdom within ourselves.
The Gospel of Thomas supports these deeper teachings of Yeshua
Earlier on is this piece of writing I asserted that Mary Magdalen was a Priestess and I’d like to explore the story of the crucifixion through this lens. In the course I participated in of Mary Magdalen Cynthia Bourgeault creates and enacts a mystery play that begins with Mary washing Jesus's feet with Spikenard oil.
Imagine the scenario - Jesus is at the home of someone important as a guest and there is a party going on and in bursts Mary Magdalen. She proceeds to bathe his feet using her hair to lovingly wipe them down and he graciously accepts this gift. Spikenard is an expensive precious oil used in death rites, carried out by the ancient priestesses. I want to highlight too the use of plant medicine which later the Christian Church came to persecute during the Witch Hunts.
Here long before anyone else we see that Mary perceives Jesus’s death is close – close enough to begin the death rites. What a poignant moment it must have been for them, the impending separation from her beloved.
Traditionally at Easter we begin the story with the Last Supper where the disciples gather for a final meal. In the famous Leonardo painting we find Mary Magdalena here by his side and I feel a truth in this that she was there and close to him.
We then move into the Garden of Gethsemane where we see symbolically that the other Disciples are not fully awake, they are not able to keep guard and stay awake.
During his arrest and crucifixion the male Disciples abandon ship - who can blame them it must have been very frightening - but we see that both Mary Magdalen, a second Mary figure and his Mother Mary stay with his at the foot of the cross. This is where I feel from my mystical experience at Mont Serrat that Mary Magdalen received the full transmission of divinity in a human body to share with humanity and to unfold the teachings, take them over the sea to France.
When Jesus dies Mary stays with him outside the tomb for 3 days and it is therefore her who sees him first after the resurrection. Having begun the death rites with the Spikenard oil here we see her completing them praying with the body. It’s always intrigued me when Jesus appears he says ‘do not cling to me’. I can imagine her joy at seeing him, that clinging to him was exactly what she wanted to do but I feel Jesus is saying to her she needs to maintain and hold the transmission, the Kingdom within her own body. It is in this moment that I feel Mary transcends the wound of separation and truly understands the deep and empowering nature of what Jesus has been sharing all along, the mysteries of inner transformation.
Mary finally goes to tell the other disciples and is met with disbelief and jealousy, especially on the part of Peter who as we know goes on to build the church that Rome would adopt carrying this seed of corruption of jealousy and suppressing the positive attitude Jesus had towards Mary and women in general. Jesus was a rule breaker, a societal revolutionary in gender politics and mixing with other cultures from the traditional Jewish laws. It’s no wonder the authorities took him out when you start to see him as a true Revolutionary for Justice and Freedom.
I attended a Church of England talk a few years ago that put forward evidence that initially Jesus was trained as a Priest in the Essene community in Jerusalem which had very strict rules on celibacy, no alcohol etc. We know that at some point he leaves this and joins forces with Mary Magdalene Priestess of the Great Mother and Ancient Middle Eastern mysteries. She is a healer using oils, a woman who understood deeply the mysteries of life and death.
The discovery of Magdalena
Magdalena was conjunct Ceres at 49.1 within 2 minutes at the time of discovery.
This is 19 Aquarius in the Zodiac, so asteroid Magdalena does have a special resonance with Aquarian humanistic energies. Imagine my delight to find Magdalena discovered in this Gene Key with its shadow of Reaction, Gift of Revolution and Siddhi of Rebirth. Even as a child in the Evangelical church I felt the revolutionary nature of Jesus was what I loved about him – of course no mention of Mary was made then – even Mother Mary was considered to be irrelevant to the story. I love also the conjunction with Ceres who embodies the Goddess wisdom transmitted through the aeons by Inanna (Sumeria), Isis (Egypt) and Demeter (Greece) and it really confirms for me the importance of this wisdom tradition that became so much part of Jesus’s incarnation and teachings.
The Sabian Symbol for 19 Aquarius is
"A forest fire quenched"
Theme: Satisfaction – I would add overcoming the wound of Separation
Inspiration: Unfulfilled love or physical sexual desire leading to transcendance
Forest fires burn with a hunger that defies immediate extinguishing. The technique of controlling a fire is more one of managing the laws of combustion such that what the fire wildly desires is gradually denied, rather than putting the fire out all at once.
In human affairs, and especially in human passion and desires, a little self-control goes a long way to fulfill a truly satisfying experience.
In the words of Lilly von Schtupp ("I'm Tired" from Blazing Saddles), "Men are always coming and going and going and coming and always coming too soon".
https://sabiansymbol.typepad.com/blain_bovee_sabian_symbol/2012/02/aquarius-19.html
The Sun was conjunct Venus in Gene Key 46.4 at the discovery around 2 days after a Venus Star Point in Libra. At the time of beginning my research it was also a few days after the first Venus Star Point in Libra opening a 100 year portal ahead on 22 October 2022.
The 46 is one of my favourite Gene Keys with Otter being its Dream Arc animal – soft and playful, dipping and diving in the water. It moves from the Shadow of Seriousness, to the Gift of Delight to the Siddhi of Ecstasy. From The Gene Keys by Richard Rudd
“The 46th Gene Key governs your relationship to your physical body. It is part of the codon group known as the Ring of Matter, which programs the developmental process of incarnation from the point of conception to the age of 21. Specifically, the 46th Gene Key relates to your first seven year cycle in which all your Shadow patterns are hot-wired into your physical structure — your posture, your breathing patterns and your relationship to the physical world through touch. It takes a child seven years to fully incarnate on the physical plane”
“Siddhic states are all a matter of magnetism. You have to expand yourself far enough to become one pole of the energy field — to be the negative pole or the attractor. This is exactly what we humans are — receiving dishes for universal frequencies. If you can expand your consciousness far enough, then the highest frequencies actually descend into you.”
“The Jacuzzi of love that swirls around these people is so tangible that it can even be felt by people of the densest frequency. If you are highly developed in your own frequency, you can physically feel such a person’s aura from miles away. People who manifested this ecstatic Siddhi in the past have left its imprint in the place where they lived, even though they may have passed away hundreds or thousands of years ago. It is not that this 46th Siddhi is any more powerful than any other Siddhi, because in essence they are all the same, but that this manifestation of divine consciousness lies so close to the physical realm and emerges so strongly through the physical body.”
What we see through the Gene Keys teachings therefore is how important this energetic imprint of the Sun is where Asteroid Magdalena was discovered and therefore entered our human consciousness in a new way. Human Design teachings adds to the importance of this specific place in the zodiac
46.4 is considered the place in the i Ching and Zodiac where the involutionary energies have a unique access to physical reality, which confirms also to me that ‘embodiment’ is crucial in the understanding of Magdalena and Yeshua – that the Kingdom is created within the Human body. So rather than the body being reviled for its desires, where we are open and loving, curious towards our bodies and desires we begin a journey of uncovering these mysteries. So many theologians are operating from the mental level alone these days completely missing the importance of the body and sexual energy in the Christ mysteries.