What comes to mind when the name of Mary Magdalene is mentioned? Repentant sinner? Prostitute? These are the answers that I received when doing research for this paper. I brought up the name of Mary Magdalene to people who have a religious background and these were the answers that I would get. In watching the video of Ancient Evidence: The Real Mary Magdalene, I discovered reasons why there were negative connotations associated with the story of Mary Magdalene. Could this be further evidence of a decline of a goddess tradition representative of women who had ‘power? In ancient times, before historical recordings, there was evidence of a goddess tradition. This evidence also shows a decline of the goddess tradition, moving towards a tradition of a god. Eisler and Lerner are two authors that write about the decline of the goddess tradition, but have different ways of describing this transformation.
Their writings are merely assumptions because there is no factual evidence of a goddess tradition 5, 000 to 6, 000 years ago, although they have a way of writing that persuades the reader in believing in their theories. In addition to this theory of the goddess tradition and the power of women and how it has declined, I would like to relate this to the controversial biblical story of Mary Magdalene. When talking about Eisler I am referring to Chapter four, Dark Order Out of Chaos, from her book The Chalice and the Blade. The region of the prehistoric society of which she refers to is in ancient Europe 5, 000 – 6, 000 years ago. The two main ideas that she writes about in this chapter is the partnership model and the dominator model as “social organizations.” The partnership model refers to when men and women worked the land together to live. Eisler’s writings reveal her goal to see the return of the partnership model.
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During this time of partnership Eisler points out that there was a women centered culture in Ancient Europe. “On the contrary, the prevailing ideology was gyno centric, or woman centered, with the deity represented in female form.” (Chalice and the Blade, pg. 43) This states that society valued the women’s role as the creator of life. Eisler uses the chalice as a symbol to represent the women in the society of partnership. The chalice is a cup signifying the femininity of giving the gift of life. Then the symbol of the blade changes the partnership model to the dominator model.
The blade represents the patriarchal society dominated by man. This dominator model of society evolves from the advancing of tools and weapons, warfare and fighting for territorial rights, and the influence of the invaders for a patriarchal society and the belief that women should not maintain power. The blade takes away life in order to hunt and kill and women lost their place in society. This is what shifted the partnership model to the dominator model or from the goddess tradition to the tradition of a god.
Lerner is another author who demonstrates the decline of the goddess tradition in a different scholarly manner. The text that I am referring to is The Creation of Patriarchy by Lerner, Gerda. Lerner starts off by stating that her theories on the decline of the goddess tradition are clearly speculative because she is writing about a time that is lacking historical written evidence. She then states that changes in religion correspond with changes within the environment. Lerner focuses on three stages of development in religion, from a religion focusing on a goddess to a religion focusing on a god. 1.
Mother Goddess 2. Mother Goddess and Consort (heirs games meaning sacred marriage) 3. Male God with insignificant or nonexistent wife. There are three aspects to the first stage of the mother goddess: the maiden, the mother, and the crone.
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The maiden represents new life, the mother represents the ability to give life, and the crone represents death and taking away life. The second stage is the realization of husbandry and that men have a role in the creation of life. The goddess realizes the importance of the husband and wife relationship. This is demonstrated in myths about women losing their husbands after they procreate. The women mourn and feel a great deal of grief, so she goes to find him in the after life and they both come back to life in the spring.
The third stage is the God becoming significant and the goddess becoming almost nonexistent. This comes about with the male realizing that he has an equal partnership in the creation of life. Religious beliefs are connected to societal changes and the creation of the patriarchal society. The biblical story of Genesis demonstrates how man is the most prominent figure in a story of creation. Kingship and military leadership also affected the transition of the goddess tradition to the tradition of a god.
All of these aspects created a change in power and resulted in a male dominated society. The story of Mary Magdalene relates to the theory of the decline of goddess worship. Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus and was known to wash his feet with her tears to be redeemed for her sins. She was a witness to two of the most important events of Jesus’ life, his crucifixion and his resurrection. She somehow got the reputation of a prostitute and an outcast.
How did she get this reputation? Was this reputation made up in order to take away from her connection with Jesus? Did her connection with Jesus show that she had power over the disciples of Jesus? Was Mary Magdalene not able to have power in a male dominated society? In 1896 there were historical writings found in Northern Egypt consisting of the gospel of Mary Magdalene. In this gospel Mary is the one who is in charge of telling the disciples the teachings of Jesus. In these teachings she talks about the conversations that she has with Jesus. This gives Mary power and shows that she has wisdom. One of the disciples, Peter, challenges Mary and attacks her teachings. Peter does not understand why Jesus talks to a woman instead of speaking to a man.
It is evident that there was a power struggle between men and women. Mary became a leader and this was not encouraged because she was a woman. Women were squeezed out of powerful roles in religion when Christianity became institutionalized. Maybe it was decided to refer to Mary as a prostitute because Mary was a sinner and prostitution was a common sin in those times. Maybe linking her to inappropriate sexual acts was a way to weed her out of leadership. This topic is highly controversial, but it is significant in showing the decline of a woman leadership role.
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All of this information is speculative and cannot be proved to be true but it does sound believable. The story of Mary Magdalene and the writings of Eisler and Lerner show the decline of goddess worship. All of these ideas lead us to think that Goddess worship did exist.
