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Mary Magdalene: Christianity's Hidden Goddess

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As with most books that tackle alternative religious thinking, this book seems to be inciting two extreme responses: one condemning the book (the Institutionalized Christian perspective), and the other praising it (the alternative thinking" perspective). And both responses to this book are to be expected. After all, when new ideas are suggested that conflict with entrenched, assumed history, there will always be those who defend the institution and those that refute it. For the curious who have not yet picked up this book, just knowing that this book presents an argument strong enough to invoke the reactions you're reading here should let you know that there is something to this book that will show you there are other well documented perspectives out there than the one traditionally presented in the Western world and by traditional Christianity.

After having read many Gnostic texts (the book of Enoch, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary, etc), as well as the biblical ones and other materials, I do believe that Lynn Pickett is on to something here. The institutional church has indeed on occasion rewritten factual history about ideas and biblical characters now assumed to be native to Christianity (See Pope Clement's letter regarding the Secret Gospel of Mark, for an explicit example of how New Testament history has been revised). Gnostic texts, historical works like the Slavonic Josephus, preserved mythological works, and the discoveries of modern archeology offer those of us who choose to not accept the dogma the opportunity to see things from the perspective of the political and religious climate that existed at the time of Yeshua (Jesus) through to the 4th century. As Lynn Picknett asserts, there is overwhelming evidence to support the idea that Jesus was as much influenced by the ancient Egyptian teachings as he was by the Jewish teachings (To see some of the Egyptian roots in Christianity, research the origins of Baptism, the word "Amen", the ankh and the cross, the introduction to the Lord's Prayer, etc).

Lynn Picknett does an excellent job at the beginning of this book of describing the means by which the marginalization of Mary of Magdala has had an adverse affect on the rights of women in society and shaped the social foundation of the society in which we live today. Picknett then draws from much of the latest information in biblical scholarship to develop a rather convincing alternative point of view of Mary of Magdala's historical role.

Yes, the last few chapters of the book are rife with awkward speculations and shaky ideas. And this book doesn't even BEGIN to tackle the historical origins of the secret societies that are mentioned in this book 'as needed.' But the depth of information proceeding the conclusion are more than enough to warrant a purchase and a read.

Die-hard, King-James-bible-toting, Jesus-loving traditionalist will probably be easily disturbed by the information presented in this book and give it a low rating. Understandable. I can discern that POV - especially if one is angry about the last few chapters. So a warning to new readers - be aware that books like this one are for those who are ready to accept that there is more to the truth than the selective religious history and long standing assumptions we are all spoonfed as children.

And remember, as long as you have faith in God, there are no questions or facts that can shake your faith. They will merely reshape it.

I selected this book to get a more in depth analysis of the latest theories about Mary Magdalene. The first chapter is a scathing indictment of the Catholic Church, both past and present. The remaining chapters are devoted to systematically destroying the very foundation and basis for the Catholic Church, in particular, and Christianity, in general. At least the Author makes no secret of her bias. While I found many aspects of the book interesting, there was little support for these theories and no logic for her conclusions. Ms. Picknett would quote a section of the Gnostic Gospel and then reach a wild conclusion that this section confirmed that Jesus was involved in sexual rituals, etc. No matter how many times I read the source quote I could not see how it supported her conclusion. You need to read this book with a critical eye because so many of the author's conclusions are pure speculation or wishful thinking on her part. I am planning on reading other books on Mary Magdalene to get a more balanced account of this biblical figure, and would recommend that those interested in learing more about Mary Magdalene do the same.

Like many another author these days, Lynn Picknett is interested in Mary Magdalene. Who was this Mary and why are there conflicting views of what she might have been? While some see her as the unacknowledged bride of Christ, Picknett suggests MM was an Egyptian priestess schooled in the mystery religions of the time which involved the pracice of 'hieros gamus' or ritual sex. Picknett says MM might have been Jewish as there were plenty of Jews living in Egypt at the time JC is supposed to have lived and preached. So MM could have been both Jewish and a practioner of the Egyptian mystery religion. The New Testament indicates that the `Holy Family' moved to Egypt when JC was quite young, so he too may have become involved in the foreign religion.

Picknett uses a variety of sources to make the case that JC was an Egyptian magus, not unlike Simon Magus, and perhaps John the Baptist. The Egyptian religion was preoccupied with life and death unlike the Jewish religion of the time. According to Picknett, the Talmud suggests JC was an itinerant 'Egpytian' preacher leading people astray.

In TEMPLAR REVELATIONS, Picknett and her co-author Clive Prince, demonstrated a keen interest in John the Baptist, who was thought to be the `patron' of the Knights Templar. In MM she revisits and expands this theme and re-examines the possible connections between the KT and the Mandaeans of Southern Iraq who practice a Johnnite religion centered on Baptism.

At times while reading this book I thought Pickett stretched her material a bit thin to make a point. On the other hand, she raises some conflicting, disturbing and unresolved notions such as why does New Testament writing depict JC as both the advocate of the meek and mild (more feminine), and the hot tempered fellow who wrecked the Temple in Jerusalem and cursed the fig tree (more masculine)? Could it be that JC's followers combined the Johnnite message of LOVE with that of the militant JC after John died? Most disturbing of all, Picknett suggests the JC followers may have had a role in John's demise. Leonardo da Vinci apparently despised JC and revered John the Baptist. Pickett suggests Leonardo may have been aware of a rivalry between the two that cost John his life.

Was Mary Magdalene the wife of Jesus? Lynn Picknett thinks so, and she shows us a startling picture of the pair, with Mary Magdalene portrayed as spiritually superior to Jesus. Taking the Bible and the Nag Hamadi scrolls and other recently uncovered documents as her sources, she picks her way through the evidence that Mary Magdalene was a wealthy and learned woman, possibly a black woman and possibly schooled in the Egyptian mysteries. Picknett also draws heavily on the research she and Clive Prince did for their popular book, The Templar Revelation, particularly the material showing a connection between Jesus and Egypt.

She begins with her own indignation at the way the name of Mary Magdalene has been used to degrade and abuse women, citing the "Magdalene Laundries" in Great Britain where young girls guilty of sexual "sins" were forced to live and work in the oppressive laundries, under the cruel tutelage of nuns. Called "Maggies," these women were wrapped in the shame of Magdalene, the supposed harlot. But Picknett tells us (as any of us who have looked into the subject well know) that there is no evidence that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. She may have had a sexual side, but there was no shame in it. Picknett concludes that Magdalene and Jesus may have been partners in a spiritual rite that included "sacred sex." Dan Brown, in The DaVinci Code, tells us about a custom called "hieros gamos," ritual sex for the purpose of spiritual enlightenment. Picknett traces this custom to Egypt and suggests Magdalene may have been an Egyptian priestess who practiced such rites.

Picknett compares Magdalene to Helen, the beautiful black woman who accompanied Simon Magus on his travels, who performed exotic dances in chains while crowds watched and waited for Simon to perform "miracles." Simon Magus was associated with John the Baptist, leading to questions about whether John and Jesus performed the same magician's tricks as Simon.

Other writers have compared Jesus and John the Baptist and cited evidence that the Baptist had a considerable following and may not have been the solitary wildman living on locusts and honey in the desert as he was traditionally portrayed. In fact, he may have been a rival to Jesus, with his own large contingent of followers. It is a fact that there are to this day sects that revere the Baptist and hold Jesus in low regard. The Mandaeans are modern remnants of such a group. In medieval times, the Knights Templar were believed to have revered the Baptist and their members were said to spit on the cross of Jesus as part of their rituals. And further evidence comes from the Cathars, who were wiped out by a papal crusade for their heretical beliefs concerning John the Baptist. The Cathars also believed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were lovers.

But Picknett goes over the top when she tries to unite Mary Magdalene with the practices and beliefs of the Baptist. Working with the fascinating material she and Clive Prince presented in The Templar Revelation about the many churches in the south of France (former home to the Cathars) dedicated to Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist, she tries to reconcile why people who loved and honored Magdalene also loved and honored the Baptist. But the connection is simply not clear.

Picknett has plenty to say about the Baptist, who was beheaded by Harod -- but not, as the Bible says, because his stepdaughter's dancing so entranced him he offered her anything she wanted. Picknett suggests instead that there may have been a plot to do away with the Baptist. Who would stand to gain? She suggests that Jesus may have wanted to eliminate his rival and may have been involved in John's death. She makes much of the "head on a platter" and ties it in with the allegations that the Templars worshiped a head. Could the head of John the Baptist have been one and the same as the Holy Grail? These are interesting speculations, but what was there about the Baptist that caused followers down to this day to regard him as the true "son of God" instead of Jesus?

A lot of Picknett's thoughts derive directly from her feeling that the Church supposedly founded by Peter was led by men who wanted to suppress women. That did not include Jesus, who loved and honored Mary Magdalene. If you accept the Gnostic Gospels as authentic ancient documents, then you must accept that Jesus loved Mary Magdalene and considered her his closest disciple, the one who really understood his teachings. It appears from these writings that Peter hated Magdalene and was jealous of her intimacy with Jesus. Not only did Peter try to downplay her role, but the church he founded asserted male supremacy at every opportunity. Is it surprising that the church fathers would edit out any passages that honored Mary Magdalene?

Picknett goes so far as to suggest that there may be more ancient documents that prove that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were sexual partners (married or otherwise) that the church has acquired and suppressed. She debunks the widely-circulated story about the Arab youths who discovered the Nag Hamadi documents, that they took them home to their mother who burned some as cooking fuel, not realizing their value. Picknett suggests this is a cover story for the disappearance of scrolls whose contents were too hot to handle.

Her ruminations here reminded me of another highly controversial book, The Jesus Scroll by Donovan Joyce, published in the early 1970s, which alleges that Jesus did not die on the cross, but actually perished at Masada as an old man. Supposedly, the excavations of Masada conducted by Yigael Yadin (the same man who acquired the Dead Sea Scrolls for Israel) turned up a scroll written by Jesus. The Jews who held out on the huge rocky summit were all found dead by their own hands when the Romans finally stormed the top. Among the dead was one "Jesus of Genesereth," author of the scroll that Joyce says he saw. The scroll has since disappeared, and among those suspected of concealing it, to keep its explosive contents secret, is the Catholic Church. Joyce's book is long out of print and difficult to find, but I have a copy.

Like Picknett who had her own personal emotional angst over religion driving her ideas, Donovan Joyce too had an axe to grind. He was denied access to Masada by Yigael Yadin who apparently thought Joyce was involved in theft of the scroll. In his book, he writes in an acerbic and sarcastic manner about the life of Jesus. Like Picknett and other writers, he believes Jesus was married and his most likely wife is Mary Magdalene. He provides his own speculations on who she was and, like Picknett, points out that, according to the Bible, Mary Magdalene was wealthy and used her money to support Jesus and his work. Picknett gleefully notes that if Magdalene was a prostitute, then Jesus lived off her sinful earnings!

Lynn Picknett has raised some interesting possibilities with her book, but mainly she chases her own demons in painting Mary as a black goddess who practiced exotic sexual rites with her companion, Jesus, who emerges as a clever and not very likable magician. It's a picture that doesn't hold together very well. Picknett is better when she writes with her usual collaborator, Clive Prince. While I share her indignity at the church's brutal and callous disregard for the spiritual power of the female side of humanity, I think we all need to continue the search for the real Mary Magdalene. It's a search that may never end because the sources are so few and our understanding of the nuances of meaning of these ancient documents so subject to adding our own spin. But I hope the search goes on, for many of us will never stop wanting to know the truth.

I was looking forward to reading this book as I'm interested in Mary Magdalene and early Christian history as well as story as a modality in itself. I have read much of the alternative theologies/histories etc. as well as the more mainstream material. I was disappointed in the author's often digressing into her own very personal and seemingly "anti-church-Jesus-Mary the Mother" feelings. She's also unfortunately, inaccurate in many statements she makes, which is worrying in a book that prides itself on being well-researched. One obvious error is her referral to the "Immaculate Conception" in a number of places throughout the book, where Lynn Picknett seems to think that it has something to do with the conception or birth of Jesus and Mary (his mother)'s virginity or lack thereof. The Immaculate Conception is of course, a doctrine of the Catholic church that says that Mary was conceived without sin. It has nothing to do with her virginity or lack of it. There were quite a few other inaccuracies but this one is one of the most repeated. And if something that could be so easily checked out...a quick search on google does it ... could be so much in error in this book, what else is misconstrued or simply wrong here?

On the positive side, there is a lot of information in the book. It is in some ways a good summary of much of the alternative writings of recent years. There's enough there to make you curious to read up on Gnosticism, the non-Canonical gospels, Early Church history (which was a little more varied than one big bad church coming down on everyone else!) and the old traditions of Europe that honor the Black Madonnas, the Grail & Mary Magdalene. It also opens up questions on the traditions & history of Israel as well as emphasizing aspects of African religious history (Ethiopia/Egypt etc) and mentions some mystic traditions that are worth learning more about.

You just need to take some of the interpretation as possibility... way out on the edge possibility at times... rather than proven facts, no matter how proven the author thinks they are.

This truly is an amazing book. It takes the reader on a fascinating and enlightening journey, answering as many questions as it asks. A must for christians and sceptics alike. Anyone with an interest in alternative history will love this book. There's enough factual information, brutal honesty and shocking revelation to keep everyone hooked. I couldn't put it down and when i did, i picked it right back up again.
Outstanding.

This book starts mildly, actually insidiously, with raising good questions about disturbing details in Leonardo's paintings. She gradually builds up a case about Mary Magdalene being the favorite apostle. (As the book winds up to a crescendo of vicious attacks on Jesus as a fraud, she proclaims that Mary Magdalene "is perhaps the most famous woman in history".)

Her multiple conspiracy case builds slowly (more plausible in the earlier chapters) and makes John the more probable Messiah - like a sort of mix up of John and Jesus in the nursery, with the mothers adoring the wrong babies. This mix-up however reads like a malicious rewriting of Jesus's early life arranged by devious early catholic fathers who burnt and suppressed the truth. This and other arguments are built on the most tenuous circumstantial evidence mostly taken from some of the more obscure Nag Hammadi texts.

As a conspiracy theory it makes Kennedy conspiracy theories, or "Elvis is still alive" theories, look tame. The writing is repetitive and given to drawn out flimsy inferences. In the last two chapters of the book, her hatred of catholicism and of Jesus comes out full force. She seems to feel (and hope) that her "evidence" will topple the Christian religion.

At least that's what I felt like the author was on at times during reading this. I enjoy reading alternative views of Mary Magdalene and seeing where people got their ideas, but this book started strange and got further and further beyond the realm of reality with every chapter. No matter what you're looking for in a book about Mary, I wouldn't start here.

This is an engrossing paperback book about the life of Mary Magdalene. It is different in most of the usual stuff about Mary as it looks at both the Gospels and Gnostic sources as to who she was and where she came from.

The book starts off discussing the Magdalene laundries, where young women were sent in Ireland if they were considered immoral or fallen. Unwed pregnancies and dating a boy without a chaperone would send a young girl to one of those places. They were terrible places where the girls were beaten and had their hair shaven off by the nuns. This part of the book is used to tell how Christians (mainly Catholics) viewed Mary Magdalene before books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code changed the perception of her.

Some who are devout Christians will not like this book as it looks at the possibility that Mary Magdalene was a symbol of Isis and was a part of the cult of Isis. It also suggests some unflattering qualities to Jesus' personality, and backs them up with many lines in the New Testament. Jesus possibly took some of his ideas from paganism, or was a Pagan himself.

There are many interesting aspects of this book, and it is well researched with a nice bibliography and cited references. My problem with the book is Ms Picknett refers to some plates of paintings and goes into detail about some aspects of them. The plates are very small and one cannot see what is being pointed out. Some may not like the speculations done in the book, but she states what is speculative and does cite the references for the other stuff.

This book is for people who have an interest in Mary Magdalene, and should keep those who are open minded entertained.

I haven't read this particular book. My quest for information was completely sated by the book, Mary Magdalane, Myth and Metaphor by Susan Haskins. You'll love it.