Book Review - Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls

The US Review of Books - Received January 5, 2010
Reviewed by Sue Johnson (no relation)

"Praise be to the Creator of All.
Praise be unto this Life
For she is the one foretold
To be the Messenger of Hope.
She is the Anointed One
To bring the Message of Remembrance
Of who we are.
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice!" (quote from Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls)

Dan Brown opened the door to religious artifacts with his book The Da Vinci Code. Bettye Johnson blows that door off its hinges in Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls. After visiting France, the author became fascinated with Black Madonnas, which forms the basis for her wonderful new novel centering around two women hiking the French Pyrenees Mountains and discovering ancient scrolls in a hidden cave. Bringing an American Businessman and a disillusioned priest into their secret, the women hear an interpretation of the scrolls. It appears to be the life self-scribed story of Mary Magdalene.

As the two women and their companions continue to interpret the scrolls, they become fearful that the scrolls will fall into the wrong hands. The ladies begin a cross-country trek to insure that the scrolls are placed with the proper authorities, so that they may be received and enjoyed by all. What follows is a story of passion, betrayal, and mystery told in a page-turning style.

Although this is a work of fiction, truth is found in the research on display here--truth and the seekers of truth. The novel is packed full of historical references, but the fictional elements ease the delivery of the overly intellectual passages. There is also a bit of the outspoken to please the curious mind. In the end, this is an adventurous and thought-provoking story.

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REGARDING MARGARET STARBIRD

Today I received a comment posted on the Guestbook of my website www.magdalenescrolls.com. The one who posted the comment asked if I had read the books of Starbird and saying that she lived in Washington State. The guest commenter went on to ask why don't I get together with Starbird - or something to that effect.

This brought up a memory reaching back to 2005. I had just published the first edition of Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls. I listed Starbird's book "Woman With the Alabaster Jar" in my bibliography. I met another author who suggested that she, Starbird and myself create a documentary regarding our views and research on Mary Magdalene. Each of us had different approaches. Starbird was approached and thought it was a good idea, however after asking her publisher, Inner Traditions, she declined following the dictates of her publisher.

Yes, I knew Starbird lived in Washington State and I admire her for what she has written. The commenter wrote that Starbird was a student of divinity. I am a retired ordained minister of Divine Science and for those of you not familiar with Divine Science, it was founded by three women in the early part of the last century. There were a number of great teachers and books that were spawned by Divine Science, i.e. Dr. Joseph Murphy who authored The Power of the Subconscious Mind to name one.

I have done extensive research on the background of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, and also the Bible. I have also written articles on my research and my research uncovered a different history than what the traditional so-called authorities found. I submitted my 2nd edition of Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls to The Writers Digest competition and although I was not a winner, I was a winner - the reason being that the judge gave me a hi-5 in all five categories and had this to say in answer to questions posed:

What did you like best about this book?
"Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls is a tantalizing story depicting the discovery of ancient scrolls about Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Though it covers some of the same ground as the Da Vinci Code, the writing is infinitely better and far more believable. The heroines in the story are more realistic and the adventures described in a truer voice along with a possible time-line--something very much lacking in Dan Brown's tale. Whether the reader choose to believe what is revealed in story form or not, the book is entertaining from beginning to end."
How can the author improve this book?
"No suggestions--the author knows how to write and tell a compelling and convincing story. Hopefully the promotion for this book will be enough to make those who read the Da Vinci Code want to read the Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls."

Having received awards for Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls and Mary Magdalene, Her Legacy, I don't know if having been part of a documentary with Margaret Starbird would have benefited me. On the other hand, the book could have been made into a movie or a mini-tv series. However, I am not ruling it out as anything is possible.

Ancient Tablet on Messiah and Resurrection Commentary

This is the age of revelations with new finds beyond the Dead Sea Scrolls, Nag Hammadi Library, The Book of Judas, the DaVinci Code, which caused such a furor and made money for those authors of the multudious books that popped up like weeds. We have also had the supposedly find of the tomb of Jesus and now is perhaps challenged as being false. There is also an interesting new documentary titled Bloodline.

Now, we have a big stone with faint Hebrew writings that is making headlines. I have done extensive research on the hidden history of the Bible and my findings indicate to me that history is very fluid. It is similar to a meandering stream of water with now then some of the water branches off while the main continues on. There are many offshoots of history and these are what we have been led to accept and believe as factual.

I have ceased to be surprised with the latest being a three-foot-tall stone tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew. According to a New York Times article titled Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection by Ethan Bronner, the stone was discovered ten years ago by an Israeli Jordanian antiquities dealer who sold the tablet to an Israeli-Swiss collector. I find it interesting that these kind of discoveries do not reach the public for a number of years.

Supposedly the writing on the stone tablet refers to a messiah who will die and be resurrected in three days and this event mentioned on the tablet was created before the birth of Jesus. The article in the New York Times quotes Israel Knohl, a professor at Tel Aviv University as saying, His (Jesus) mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come. This is the sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not for the sins of the people but to bring redemption to Israel. Knohl is both right and wrong. Jesus certainly did not shed blood for the sins of people, nor did he die to bring redemption to Israel, but it can bring a new meaning to the Last Supper for those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

If we reason this, Jesus cannot be the only son of God. If this were so, then we must be the orphans of the universe. Christians, Jews and Muslims are not the totality of the world population. Each of us is a daughter or son of the Creator. The important thing is that we have forgotten and some have gone off on a tangent. The Jews were not persecuted by Christians for the death of Jesus until after the Council of Nicea in 325 CE.

Some scholars believe the 87 lines of Hebrew on the stone dates from only decades before the birth of Jesus and others who have studied it believe it is a rare example of a stone with ink writings in 1 BC. Man-made ink originated 4500 years ago and the inks were made from animal or vegetable charcoal (lampblack) mixed with glue. I am suspect of ink writing that is on an aged stone would last that long, but anything is possible.

There are so many assumptions about Jesus. There are those who claim he never lived and was a myth created. Others say he was born in Great Britain, or left Jerusalem and went to Britain where he married and had children. There is also a faction who allege he went to France with Mary Magdalene and yet others claim he went to India. So, who was Jesus and what was his purpose?

Jesus was a great initiate of the ancient schools of wisdom. He came in with a message that is an ancient message. How many people do you think live those teachings? How many priests, preachers, pastors teach their congregations to live what Jesus taught? Very, very few. The messages perpetuated by religions enslaves people's minds and keep them in bondage to whatever church they belong to. In order to keep them in line, the Devil was introduced. The Satan being what Churches do not want their congregation to understand and believe. Isn't it time for us to think for ourselves and to realize that it does not matter if there was a Jesus who lived and died. What is important is the message he brought and one can find that in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, chapters 5, 6, 7. There are some who will bring up the Ten Commandments. Those commandments originated in the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. History is indeed fluid and changes according to who is writing history.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DIVINE FEMININE

For eons the Divine Feminine has been nailed to a cross of prejudice, bias, suppression, mutilation, and murder. Now is the time of the resurrection of the Divine Feminine. It is the age of her resurrection in every woman on this planet. Long has she lain dormant, waiting for the moment to be rebirthed. There have been golden threads – both female and male, who have kept her alive in the form of the goddess in mythology

What were the beginnings of the Divine Feminine? From whence did she come? To understand this, one must realize that we live on the Plane of Polarity or Opposites. This is the nature of this planet and there has always been both female and male. One could not exist without the other just as there would be no electricity without the female and male. We only have to look at a garden hose and see that the female component must be hooked up to the male faucet in order to bring forth water. Each human has both female and male and the spirit inhabiting the human form has chosen to express outwardly as female or male.

We have all wondered or asked at sometime or other why women are so prejudiced against. It isn’t only the culture of the United States; historically and presently it is in almost every culture. Women are the most prejudiced against species – even more so than dark-skin people. If one were to pull a thread, in all likelihood it would go back to a brother hating his sister in one of the original pantheons of gods. Yes, there have been instances where women were a matriarchal society and there are a few isolated societies today such as the Nagovisi of Bougainvillea in the South Pacific, perhaps one in India and again in Peru.

History is a record of the winners or those in power and written by men. The deeds and greatness of women has almost been obliterated from history. We get snippets of their greatness here and there. Few people know of the greatness of Cleopatra. Historically she has been portrayed as a sexual siren that seduced Mark Anthony. The Egyptian queen was a brilliant mathematician, chemist and philosopher. She wrote science books and Arabic texts suggest she met weekly with scientific experts. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a powerful queen and history has attempted to play down her role in the second Crusade when she accompanied her husband with her female knights that she had trained. These knights were women and there were approximately 300 of them. History will say that they did not fight. Perhaps they did and it just wasn’t recorded.

These were two women who used their brains and their greatness still lives. There have been numerous other great women, however history has given them bad press coverage. Almost all female rulers have bad reputations. Lucretia Borgia has been labeled a poisoner and Pope Gregory I or Pope Gregory the Great gave Mary Magdalene the label of prostitute. The Catholic Church made him a saint and for centuries women have been made to feel guilty and tainted by her label. We have had women imprisoned, sold into slavery, burned at the stake as Joan of Arc was and labeled witches. Even today in some areas of India, husbands burn women if the dowry runs out or if the husband dies, the living wife is burned alive. In parts of Africa we have young girls mutilated by having their clitoris removed so she cannot experience sexual orgasm.

These acts are not evolutionary and this is the age of the Resurrection of the Divine Feminine in its emergence from ignorance to brilliance. No longer should a woman be a sex object or kept barefoot, pregnant and in the home. The recent success of The DaVinci Code has triggered an enormous interest throughout the world about Mary Magdalene. So-called scholars have written books attempting to prove that author Dan Brown was in error. The Catholic Church has even entered into the fray. It made me wonder why and since I have done in-depth research for my book Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls, I know why.

Dan Brown’s book went further than Holy Blood, Holy Grail and touched the nerve of the Catholic Church and theologians because they have been promoting a lie and if uncovered, it would destroy their credibility.

Mary Magdalene was not a disciple of Jesus. She was his wife, his trusted friend and a teacher in her own right. She was his equal. She was the mother of their two children Sarah and James. Sarah was born in Egypt after the crucifixion and from there Mary Magdalene took her children to southern France.

The Divine Feminine is being resurrected through Mary Magdalene and she is the icon for the women of today. She was intelligent and she carried the message to Europe. Through her ministry she continued the teachings that she and Jesus attempted to impart in Palestine. Both were going through forms of initiation into a higher degree of gnosis. What is gnosis? It means to know.

Women have the innate ability to know or have intuition. It is a trait that men in power have attempted to stamp out for eons and because a god hated his sister, women were told they were soul-less and labeled with vile names. Mary Magdalene carried this stigma for hundreds of years and yet her greatness has been kept alive.

The Church perpetuated the lie about her because she was the one who carried the message to the world. It was not Peter. If one were to have a first pope, it would be Mary Magdalene. She went to France and began establishing centers for learning. The name church was not used at that time. Peter hated women and worked against her and possibly Paul. The Church was established by men who hated women although some male theologians would disagree. Virtually all records regarding Mary Magdalene and her ministry have been obliterated and those of her children. She represents the Divine Feminine.

Why has a thread of knowledge been kept alive? My theory begins with the First Crusade when the Knights Templar had their beginnings. A small group of knights who went to Palestine discovered something. There were nine in number and it is said they remained for nine years and excavated what was supposedly King Solomon’s Temple. There have been numerous books written speculating they found gold, treasures, and riches. My theory is that they discovered knowledge. I would say that these nine knights became members of an ancient school of wisdom and perhaps were taught esoteric secrets of the magi. In all likelihood they learned the truth about Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Perhaps these riches were in the form of scrolls. Why do I say this? After nine years, they formed a group that evolved into the Knights Templar and used this group as a cover outwardly of protecting the roads for the pilgrims to come to Jerusalem. It would be intelligent to use a cover for their beliefs and activities because they would have been persecuted and perhaps put to death.

The Knights Templar brought back to France the knowledge of sacred geometry and they were responsible for the architecture of the great Gothic cathedrals. The Cathedral at Chartres is filled with symbology that only one who has studied ancient symbols would know, and I have studied ancient symbols. Another aspect is that the Knights Templar promoted Mary Magdalene and it would be appropriate to say they were responsible for the proliferation of the statues of the Black Madonna not only in France but also in Italy, Spain and other countries.

There are those who will say the worship of the Black Madonnas belongs to the cult of Isis. From my viewpoint, the origin of the Black Madonna go all the way back to Ninhursag – Mammy, the creator of the human form. It’s like connecting dots where there were large gaps in understanding. Mary Magdalene was the torchbearer and she was black and Ethiopian. The Knights knew this and when you go to the churches in the Languedoc region of France, you will usually find the church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene and it has a Black Madonna.

If Mary Magdalene were alive today, I have a sense that her message to women would be

Question all assumptions, values and definitions

Become aware of one’s thoughts and the words spoken.

Question every known system of thought that places limitations on the female.

Trust in one’s own knowingness even when criticized.

Begin developing one’s own intellectual courage and it may mean standing alone.

Having the courage to stretch one’s own concepts.

Having the courage to risk failure.

Moving away from the need for approval.

Giving up stereotypes of a woman’s role.

An open mind unlocks doors to new adventures and greater knowledge. A lack of knowledge keeps a woman subordinate. An open mind also means acknowledging the greatness of some men. Men are not all bad. Most of them have been programmed to think that the female is the weaker sex. It is time for us to gently lead them away from that programming. I have been fortunate in having three sons and in retrospect I did a great job in virtually raising them alone. They are beautiful men and treat women with respect.

What else would Mary Magdalene tell the females of today? I offer something I learned as a student at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, an academy of mind and Gnostic teachings. The words we think and say are what create our lives. Our brains are like computers: garbage in, garbage out – the old GIGO. From Ramtha I learned that the word always is a key word to use and if we want to change our mind about an attitude, concept, need for approval or whatever, we create a new thought beginning with I have always…I have always been intelligent.

I have always been competent.

I have always been brilliant.

I have always been able to speak well.

I have always been loved.

I have always loved myself.

I have always had value.

I have always welcomed new ideas and new thoughts.

I have always been forgiven.

I have always been free of guilt.

I have always had an open mind.

I recommend saying your words until they become a mantra and begin each day with this until the brain accepts it and you no longer have feelings of doubt or guilt. This is an exercise for the males in your family also if they are willing to take the plunge.

The Roman Goddess Minerva and the Greek Goddess Athena have been given the attribute of wisdom. Each is depicted wearing a helmet and has been also been given the title of being a warrior. She is a great representation of the Divine Feminine and her helmet represents the skull that houses the brain. There is a beautiful reproduction of a painting by artist Mihran K. Serailian in Manly P. Hall’s book The Secret Teachings of the Ages. One can go on-line to the Philosophical Research Foundation’s site and click on Books. From there search the paintings until you come to The Opening of the Third Eye. It is worth it and this is my reminder of the power in women that has been kept from them through the ages.

Our brain is the greatest computer every created and we use so little of it. It is written that Jesus said, In my Father’s House are many mansions. During the time of Jesus, he didn’t have the words to say in my brain are many neuronets and each one is a new place I can live from. He was teaching illiterate people who could not read or write and he had to use words they could understand. Mary Magdalene was his partner and wife. She also knew this.

Today the Divine Feminine has been resurrected with Mary Magdalene being the icon and torchbearer. Now is the time for each woman to develop this within and to pass it on to her daughters and/or friends. We do not have to act a certain way or be a certain way. All we have to do is give up the past programming and be ourselves. It is that simple. Simple, yes – but not easy. The first step is to be willing to give up old habits of thinking. It takes patience and determination to change. It takes repetition over and over and over. It is seeking knowledge and applying it to our lives. It is a journey into the unknown where great riches await each of us, and great experiences with gifts that are ours to enjoy. It is a journey of becoming the Divine Feminine. You can become whatever you want to be.

copyright: Bettye Johnson