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Magdalene's Lost Legacy: Symbolic Numbers and the Sacred Union in Christianity

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As the curator of Magdalene.org, I read many books about Mary Magdalene. I've been aquainted with Margaret Starbird's books since her first title, "The Woman With The Alabaster Jar," but have had the impression that, more than anything, her writing expressed a very personal journey. That changes with her most recent book, however, in which she does a wonderful job of reminding the general reader of the origins of Christianity, the environment in which it developed, and how it's entirely possible that the initial message has been all but lost.

By far, the best parts of the book are the sections on history, but the gematria work presented is nothing to take lightly. In the same tradition of John Michell's "Dimensions of Paradise" and David Fideler's "Jesus Christ Sun of God," (both of which are referenced in this book), Starbird carefully applies the rules of Greek gematria to uncover coded messages in the New Testament. This is NOT "The Bible Code," which is based on a completely inappropriate system; this is a historically accurate use of number within words and phrases.

The biggest question about the gematria is this: was it INTENTIONALLY included in the words and phrases mentioned? Or is it all a big coincidence? Starbird believes that the numbers are intentional, and I have to agree that there appears to be a higher than usual degree of connection in the passages that match up. Regardless of the answer, there is more than enough material here to provide food for meditation and examination of what Christiantiy *should* be about.

In MAGDALENE'S LOST LEGACY, Margaret Starbird continues her exploration of the message of Mary the companion of Yeshua (Jesus) by examining the gematria of the canonical gospels and other books of the Bible's New Testament.

As every statistician knows, the Greek alphabet consists of symbols like "delta" and "pi" that also work as numbers. Starbird suggests that using Greek alphanumerics to encode relevant passages, early "heretical" Christians hid verboten material in otherwise inoffensive text. Irenaeus, a church father of the 4th century who ordered the destruction of Gnostic material (such as the books found at Nag Hammadi) knew of this practice and forbade it. However, the "heretics" did not listen to him, and they hid material about the Magdalene in the New Testament - in the synoptic gospels and the mysterious Book of Revelation. Starbird says modern computers have provided scholars the means to decode these arcane messages. (She provides a Greek key you can use to interpret passages in Greek included in the book).

Hidden numbers aside, Starbird poses a question asked by other scholars - why do specific numbers appear in the books of the Bible and do they matter. For example, why were 153 fishes caught in a net (John 21:11) or why were there x number of loaves and fishes? The Book of Revelations suggests the `beast' is 666. In gemetric code, 666 = the solar principle. Starbird suggests the solar principle without a lunar principle leads to a desert. Day without night or Sol alone = "raw abusive, power, the power of the tyrant" or the male element run amuck. When the male element is combined with the female (lunar or night =1080) they form 1746 the symbolic equivalent of "the grain of mustard seed" or "the kingdom of God within." The marriage of sol and luna or masculine and feminine (1746=union of opposites) is also the gematria for "Jerusalem the city of God."

This wonderful book continues Starbird's exploration of messages about the Magdalene hidden in plain sight for two millennium. And, don't miss the land of milk and honey (it has to do with sol and luna).

This book is certainly thought-provoking, as it examines esoteric coding that suggests occult symbolic meanings contained within the texts of Christianity. There are now numerous books that claim to expose various forms of hidden information in Biblical texts and apocrypha. In this book of Starbird's the focus is on the symbolism of masculine and feminine polarities in the Jesus & Mary Magdelene characters, and their alleged marriage being a symbolic spiritual union of polarities. One thing that neither Starbird nor most other authors of this genre make an effort to examine is the question of how many of the characters and events described in the religious texts are purely symbolic and metaphorical versus how much is actual history or "staged" history designed to play out esoteric symbolism. The characters of Jesus and Mary (both Marys, actually) are not original to Christianity, and the gnostic symbolism suggested by Starbird is far more ancient than Christianity, which makes one wonder how much of the Christian stories were created for passing metaphysical knowledge to intitiates and how much had any connection to historical persons. Starbird has done a nice job of examining one level of hidden information in the Christian texts, but this leaves many unanswered questions and does not provide any clear insight into the literal history of Christianity's alleged initiator.

I have read all of this author's book, which are greatly research and intimately presented. This is her greatest work so far, and in stating the obvious ~ the true foundation and inception of Christianity ~ she has taken a step in faith as she was raised with certain dogmas, beliefs and attitudes.

This book confirms what I have long known to be the truth and seeing it so concisely presented by such an accomplished theologian is wonderful.

The writer's love for the Magdalene is apparent in all her works, and raising her back to her appropriate place, seems to be her 'lifes work'. This book, as well as all Mrs. Starbirds others, touch the sacred feminine within me and encourage me to once again reconnect with our lost Goddess.

After I read this book, I reread her other works, including the one on Tarot Trumps...great research, smooth delivery style, what will she come up with next~!

One of the leading authorities on the life of Mary Magdalene (MM) renews her thesis by examining the Greek/Hebrew practice of Gematria (converting letters into numbers and examining the meaning of the numbers) and its implications for our understanding of who MM was and what her role was. Starbird draws heavily on the work of John Mitchell (The City of Revelation) to show that MM was the bride of Jesus and that the choice of words (e.g., the Magdalene) reinforces this conclusion. While this is the central thesis of the book, Starbird goes beyond her discussion of MM and delves into some more general concerns facing early Christians and shows how the use of gematria was a second layer of knowledge passed on by the gospel writers.

This book is well written and well organized. although it is not a scholarly text as such. Starbird is not examining the gematria theories of Mitchell and others and she tends to accept uncritically some of the assumptions. For example, merely listing the phrases which total 1746 ("grain of mustard seed", "Emmanuel the son of Mary", "Fruit of a vineyard") really tells us nothing, except that the text has been subjected to a mathematical algorithm that extracts such data. Were these phrases written specifically to reflect this number, or was this mere chance? Who can say! Moreover, the practice of adding or subtract 1 or 2 seems to be an example of "fudging" at its best.

Putting aside the scientific acceptance of gematria, Starbird uses it to support her theories and to provide us with a fascinating and educational exploration of Mary Magdalene.

This book will appeal to people at all levels of inquiry into early Christian life and the life of Jesus and MM. The more information you have going in, the more useful the book will be.

Following up on the success of her other Mary Magdalene books, Starbird wrote Magdalene's Lost Legacy. This book focuses on Starbird's belief that the New Testament contains wide use of gematria - the sums of certain phrases to produce sacred numbers. Starbird believes that the gematria of the New Testament reveals the union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and that the gematria was the cornerstone of the earliest Christian community. I had a difficult time reading this book. I never really believed in a Bible Code, and I don't need to believe in one for the Bible and/or Christianity to make sense. As much as I admire Starbird and her work, this book had zero impact on my life.

How does one live sequestered in public? Margaret Starbird, a true Theologian, has the answer: Christianity, the soul as Bride of the Universal.