Magdala (eBook)

The Lost Story of Mary Magdalene

Bridget Erica (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
214 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-0-6454761-0-1 (ISBN)

Infos

'For over two thousand years my name has been printed in the holy book and buildings have been erected in my honor. Yet, men in ornate robes have trampled on my words, tainted my name, and hidden my story from you. The exceptional events of my life have been erased...' Based on the life of Mary Magdalene, Magdala beautifully pieces together the hidden remnants from the past and masterfully weaves them into a fascinating tale about faith, love, and our connection with the Divine. Magdala transports readers 2000 years into the past as it follows Mary Magdalene on her journey from innocence to cherished healer, sacred confidante, wife, and mother. A stirring work of historical fiction that explores the meaning of Mary Magdalene in the face of her erased history. Magdala is a fascinating invitation to re-examine the hidden messages in Jesus' teachings and what it truly means to be a powerful woman. Perfect for readers of Meggan Watterson, Paulo Coelho, Claire Heartsong, and Clarissa Pinkola Estes, this is the lost story of Mary Magdalene as it should have always been told.

Bridget Erica is an internationally sought-after Reiki Master, teacher and healer, and journalist who covers art and design. Her passion for energy healing, combined with her personal pursuit to uncover hidden stories from the past, inspired her to re-write the story of Mary Magdalene, one of the most misunderstood and influential women and healers in history. Bridget resides in Rome with her husband and two children. Magdala is her first novel. Follow her at www.bridgeterica.com

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"e;For over two thousand years my name has been printed in the holy book and buildings have been erected in my honor. Yet, men in ornate robes have trampled on my words, tainted my name, and hidden my story from you. The exceptional events of my life have been erased..."e; Based on the life of Mary Magdalene, Magdala beautifully pieces together the hidden remnants from the past and masterfully weaves them into a fascinating tale about faith, love, and our connection with the Divine. Magdala transports readers 2000 years into the past as it follows Mary Magdalene on her journey from innocence to cherished healer, sacred confidante, wife, and mother. A stirring work of historical fiction that explores the meaning of Mary Magdalene in the face of her erased history. Magdala is a fascinating invitation to re-examine the hidden messages in Jesus' teachings and what it truly means to be a powerful woman. Perfect for readers of Meggan Watterson, Paulo Coelho, Claire Heartsong, and Clarissa Pinkola Estes, this is the lost story of Mary Magdalene as it should have always been told.

Textauszug

Foreword

From the Author

The Holy Bible, with all its versions and translations, is probably the most published and revered book in all of history. However, have you ever really reflected on the fact that the entire book — every single chapter, every single story — has been written and edited by a man? Over 2,000 years of history and not a single verse, recollection, or even a word comes from a woman. It doesn’t even include a female point of view.

You may say to yourself that women didn’t put pen to paper back then, though that isn’t entirely true. History has been changed and distorted to make us believe that women were not writers; but in truth, it’s believed that the world’s first known author was actually a female.

Enheduanna lived during the time of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back to 2285 BCE — more than 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. And yet, though she’s a remarkable historical figure, few of us know her name.

As the world’s first recognized writer and poet, Enheduanna was widely considered a “triple threat”; a proud princess, priestess, and poet. Her wisdom, compassion, insight, talent, and voice were both feared and revered during her time; but even with all that she accomplished, did our teachers or history textbooks tell us about her or share her story with us? No. Instead, her truth, and she herself, became forgotten, hidden from us.

Women’s identities, thoughts, opinions, and actions have been transformed and erased from history for too long, and I believe it’s time to correct the record once and for all. We must start to listen and learn not only from her story, but from all the strong women who have come before us.

This book is therefore the result of my life’s quest and passion to uncover the truth about one of the most important female characters in biblical history. To find out why we have never been told her story. And so, with this novel, I pride myself in revealing the true essence of Mary Magdalene’s life: all that she was, all that she witnessed and how she viewed the world. With this book, I am raising her from the dead, giving her back her voice, and showering light on her untold and often misconstrued story.

Perhaps, through the reflections and observations of a female, we can better understand history and grasp deeper spiritual secrets and meanings.

Perhaps the female version of the very same stories we’ve already heard will be completely different, with distinctive understandings, opinions and insights.

Imagine what we can learn from that female perspective.

Imagine how that perspective might have changed history, if it had been taught to us, or if we’d listened to it?

As a young girl growing up within the Catholic Church and attending a Catholic school, I remember having such strong insights into the religion I was supposedly being taught. Often, I felt so confused as to why the adults and priests didn’t seem to really understand the scriptures they were teaching us. I was even more baffled as to why they believed that Jesus would return again; why they believed, after 2,000 years, that we were still waiting for His physical return. For me, it was obvious, even then, that His death and “resurrection” were His final chapter. It was clear to me that the entire purpose of His life was that He lived as a man, a true man, who showed us how richly and deeply we can lead our own lives, just as He lived His.

I have a clear memory of being at a school mass when I was about nine years old. The priest was addressing the staff and students, and asked, “Where is Jesus and when will He return?” Looking back, I know it was probably a rhetorical question, but at nine years old, I didn’t know what a rhetorical question was, so I boldly stood up in front of the entire school — 800 pupils, plus teachers — and said: “Jesus lives in each and every one of us. He lives in our hearts. We don’t need to wait for His physical return, as He is already alive in each and every one of us.”

For me, even at nine years old, the question was absurd because the answer was so clear. Why didn’t everyone already know this and why were we continually told this unrealistic story of the physical resurrection? Men don’t rise from the dead — and Jesus had to be a man, for if He was simply divine, there is no point to His entire story. Jesus being purely divine only works to separate us from Him, but Jesus being a simple man works to unify us with both Him and the Divine. Therefore, Jesus had to live a mortal life, completely and fully as a man, so He could best unite us with God.

My hunger to expose the truth of the Christian theology only grew stronger and stronger as I reached my late teens and early twenties. When I learnt about them, I immersed myself in the Dead Sea Scrolls (also known as the Nag Hammadi texts), which are a collection of ancient scrolls and writings that were uncovered in Egypt in 1945. They’re considered to be the earliest writings and recordings of Jesus’s life, and many people believe the Gospel of Thomas may have actually preserved the true words of Jesus.

I purchased as many copies and translations of the texts as I could find. I read historians’ and theologians’ points of view on both the texts and the Christian religion in general. I wanted to know everything. As I went through all of my research and reading, something started to stir within me. I could feel that something was still missing for me, and it was hinted at in the Gospel of Philip. After reading this gospel for the first time, I started to make sense of all the original gospels and biblical stories. I realized that I wanted to discover more about Mary Magdalene, that I wanted to know her story and learn from her. I couldn’t accept that the Church Fathers had simply turned Mary, the mother of Jesus, into a virgin, and Mary Magdalene, an unknown woman, into a prostitute and a sinner. It just seemed too simplistic — an obvious manipulation of the truth.

What was it about these women and their lives that made the Church Fathers erase their stories and make over their identities? What were they so afraid of? I wondered.

So, I began reading books about Mary Magdalene, hunting for her story in whatever I could find. But my appetite to learn of her essence, her knowledge and deep understanding of Jesus, was always left unsatisfied. The books I found were either hypothetical, historical points of views on her possible life (completely missing the point of all the mystery and her spiritual journey), or ambiguously Gnostic and filled with incredibly difficult-to-grasp concepts.

After a decade of searching, I finally surrendered and accepted that the book I was looking for did not exist. And so, it became my mission to write it myself. I did so by tapping into my inner child, who had such a strong connection with and insight into Jesus’s life and His true message, and aligning myself with the young, ambitious and deeply spiritual female I am.

Completing this book has taken me more than eleven years, with a large part of that time spent in Rome. Along the way, I’ve also traversed my own journey of healing, becoming a Reiki Master Teacher, opening two clinics in Australia, founding the Australian Centre for Clinical Reiki and teaching Reiki healing to hundreds of pupils.

It was through my journey to become a healer that I learnt how to reconnect with Mary Magdalene, and fully understand her role as a healer. Ultimately, after more than a decade of interest in Mary, the eight years of learning and growing I embarked on in order to practice Reiki healings, was what helped the final chapters of this book come to me. It was then that I felt as though Mary’s story was revealed.

My own personal journey as a healer has taught me about life, our bodies, our souls and our connection or disconnection to God and the Divine. As I healer, my primary role is to reconnect people with their higher selves, with their higher purposes, and with God, or the Divine, or Source (or however one best connects with the terminology). I am simply a witness and a vessel who channels this space and healing — the rest unfolds with ease and grace. I call this the grace of God.

These things together — my research, my spiritual journey, my quest to discover Mary Magdalene’s story — have culminated in this, my gift to every woman who has been searching for the truth.

It is so very unfortunate that powerful men of the past re-wrote Mary’s story, erasing her as much as possible from our records. I truly believe this was because of who Mary Magdalene was and what she stood for. Her in-depth wisdom, actions and knowledge threatened their fragile systems, their perceived paths to power and glory. It saddens me that women over the centuries have not had access to her teachings, or even had a knowledge of who she really was. Modern women of so many different cultures and faiths have been failed. They have been robbed of a true female role model, one who stood up against the evil undercurrents of a heavily patriarchal world.

I ask you now to take a moment to reflect and ask yourself: What would it mean if Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus? If Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus? How would the history of the world be different if Mary Magdalene’s stories, her gospels and the other Nag Hammadi texts had always been available to us? If they were researched and talked about?

There is a stunning and miraculous reason why the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi texts were kept hidden and safe for almost...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.7.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Historische Romane
• ISBN-10: 0-6454761-0-2 / 0645476102
• ISBN-13: 978-0-6454761-0-1 / 9780645476101