Customer Reviews

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail

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I am very impressed with Margaret Starbird's scholarly work in her book "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar". It tells the story of the lost Bride and provides strong evidence for the sacred marriage at the heart of Christianity, that of Jesus and Mary Magdalen.

It is significant that all four Gospels record the anointing of Jesus by a woman with an alabaster jar of aromatic nard. In middle-eastern liturgical practices surrounding the ancient rites of the "sacred marriage" the anointing of the sacrificed bridegroom/king was a sacred ceremony reserved to his bride. The Gospel narratives describe the pre-nuptial anointing of Jesus by the woman with the alabaster jar and contain other elements from this ancient ritual.

On seven of eight New Testament lists of the women who walked with Jesus, Mary Magdalen's name is mentioned first on the list. She was clearly "first lady" in the eyes of the early Christian community. Some early Church theologians identified the Magdalen as the model of "church" (ekklesia) whom Christ "loved so much, that He gave his life for her."

More compelling facts from Scripture and history are included in Margaret Starbird's work. She follows a trail of evidence that leads through Egypt, to the south of France, and into important historical events in Europe.

Most significant is the medieval legend of the Holy Grail (sangraal), which secretly celebrated Mary Magdalen as the Bride of Christ. The "sangraal" is the "sacred blood" -- the royal lineage of Jesus. Because the legend of the Holy Grail contained and preserved the truth about Mary Magdalen, it was ruthlessly suppressed by the Inquisition. In an effort to discount her significance, Mary Magdalen was labeled a prostitute, but she was really the "Beloved" -- the bride of Jesus.

Restoring the sacred union of Jesus and Mary Magdalen to the heart of our Christian story provides us with a model of holiness based on the sacred union of the masculine and the feminine. It affirms the true holiness and significance of women as PARTNERS in the future practice of our Roman Catholic tradition.

I have talked with Margaret Starbird. When she embarked on her research, her intent was to disprove the possibility of Jesus' marriage, but the facts led her in a surprising new direction that provides a wonderful healing message for us all.

The Woman With The Alabaster Jar provides the facts and history that will explain why women hold the key to many of the problems faced today by our Roman Catholic Church.

Father John Shuster, Roman Catholic Priest

In her beautiful book THE WOMAN WITH THE ALABASTER JAR Margaret Starbird lays out a compelling case for seeing Mary Magdalen as the `lost bride' of Jesus. Whether you believe the Jesus story was a historical event or is a myth, if you have an interest in the Grail and/or symbolism, you will want to read this book.

Apparently, many Europeans, especially in France (Provence) believe(d) the Magdalen escaped Jerusalem after her husband Jesus was executed. Eventually, she traveled to what is today Marseilles, where every year, the local people celebrate her arrival on the Magdalen's feast day. The `fathers' of orthodox Christianity were so appalled by the notion that Jesus might have had sex and produced a child let alone married the Magdalen who some how or another became linked with prostitution, that beginning in the 4th Century the church attempted to squelch the "heresy". By the Middle Ages, the church had instituted the Inquisition.

However, the harder the Inquisitors pressed "heretics" like the Cathars, the more clever they became at disguising their truth. Using European fairy tales, water marks on paper printed during the Middle Ages (and frequently found in bibles!!), and paintings of the Masters like Fra Angelico, Starbird shows how the message of the heretics was hidden in plain sight. She suggests that even the Tarot cards which appeared in Italy just after the "last" Cathar was hunted down in Spain, may have been a condensed heretical catechism.

Ever wonder why some of Botticelli's `Madonnas' are dressed in red when the Roman church instructed artists to depict the Madonna in blue and white? Did you know a branch of the US Army wears the insignia of the Magdalen on it's uniform, and celebrates a dance ball every year on the feast day of saint whose likeness to the Magdalen is uncanny? Do you know why the `Little Mermaid' is named Ariel, and Snow White "died" from a poison apple (went to sleep)? Did you know Cinderella may be related to the `Black Madonnas' of Europe including one venerated by Pope John Paul?

Starbird says she set out several years ago to refute the "heresy" she discovered in HOLY BLOOD HOLY GRAIL by Baignent, et al. and discovered not only were these authors onto something there was a whole lot more to share. This is a wonderful, provocative book.

The author presents a chain of indirect proofs to support her belief that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalen. She states that this is a tenet of heresy widely believed in the Middle Ages; that fossils of the heresy can be found in numerous works of art and literature; that it was vehemently attacked by the hierarchy of the established Church of Rome and that it survived in spite of relentless persecution.

This book is a courageous exploration of an extremely delicate question. Mary Magdalen is called a penitent prostitute by the Church. The original story of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany by the woman with the alabaster jar may have been misinterpreted by the author of Luke's Gospel since the anointing was similar to the familiar ritual practice of a sacred priestess or temple "prostitute" in the Goddess clults of the Roman Empire.

Mrs. Starbird does an excellent job of researching european history, heraldry, the rituals of Freemasonry, medieval art, symovlism, psychology mythology, religion and the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures to discover that the meaning of the Holy Grail could be the lost bride of Jesus and the female child she carried within her.

Despite the ecclesiastical criticisms leveled against them by so-called Christians, Starbird and Sweeney do an excellent job documenting their assertions in this splendid work of historical reconstruction -- scholarship, I might add, that is supported by several other notable authors and historians. This is not merely some insane theory conjured up by someone with an axe to grind against the Vatican. The authors share several brilliant insights with the reader that are truly inspired and speak to some of those long-unanswerable questions of history. Of course, no one can know the COMPLETE and TRUE story that is the legacy of the Magdalen, but these authors and others like them at least have the courage to make what information they have uncovered available to the masses despite the Church's long history of silence, secrecy, suppression and outright deception. I say, "Bravo!" and "Well done!" AND, I've ordered a second copy of this book to pass around among my family and friends.

Mary Magdalen, if returned to her proper and rightful place in history, could be viewed by the Church as a powerful role model, for women as well as for men. Instead, many prefer to continue to believe a politically-motivated, misogynistic lie and portray her as a weak, repentant whore, which is anathema to those of us -- including many well-educated and enlightened Christians -- who know in our hearts what she represents. It's time to return the sacred feminine to its rightful place in Western society. Thanks to Starbird, Sweeney and other authors like them, we can begin that long journey home.

This is a very good book. The author draws heavily on Holy Blood, Holy Grail for her factual data in addition to her own research, but she makes her point more clearly and The Woman With The Alabaster Jar is much more readable. Holy Blood, Holy Grail contains more dense verbiage, and the authors develop their facts and surmises slowly and their themes very carefully, item by item. It gets tedious at times. Not so with Margaret Starbird. She comes right out with it.

The thrust of both books is that Yeshua bar Yosef (better known by his Greek name, Jesus) was married to Miriam of Bethany (better known as Mary Magdalene) and sired a daughter by her. After his crucifizion, Mary moved to Egypt where her child, Sarah, was born, and then to Provence on the Mediterranean coast of France.

The Catholic church tried to stamp out and eradicate the idea that Mary and Jesus were married and had a child because it threatened their orthodox views, and murdered 15,000 people in the Provence area in their effort, who believed the fact that Mary and Jesus had started a bloodline which survives yet. In the Inquisition, many thousands more were killed for the same reason: their "heresy," in the eyes of the church.

The theory is that the organizations known as the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion protected the secret genealogy of the holy bloodline, and the proofs of the sang raal (holy blood, which became known as the Holy Grail).

Starbird and the three authors of Holy Blood, Holy Gail make a plausible case--even a convincing one.

These hypotheses were the background for the recent best-seller, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, who also drew heavily on Holy Blood, Holy Grail for his fictional mystery.

The research is very thorough, although there is clearly much persuasive speculation involved.

I do not recommend this book for orthodox Christians who are convinced that the Bible, as they know it, is the inspired word of God and not to be questioned. This is a book better suited to people with a background in religious history, who are familiar with the Council of Nicaea and its activities, and the part played by Constantine and Theodocius in suppressing the so-called "heretical" gospels and other writings that were denied entry in the canon of scripture, and the editing, deletions and additions made to those that were included.

It is not clear that the truth of the matter is portrayed in these books, but it is quite clear that there is much evidence to support their plausibility. On balance, this is a more likely story than the virgin birth or resurrection of the dead, as portrayed in the orthodox version of the Bible.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity
and other books

Margaret Starbird is a preeminent Theologian and scholar of the New Testament and related literature and a leader of American and international culture. Her interest is spiritual rather than selfish and we benefit warmly from her insistence, from Scripture, that the Inseparable Other, the Feminine Principle, is an aspect of Divinity's play with humanity and the world. This Theologian has set a standard for discourse of all natures during the Third Christian Millennium. We owe her "Thanks" and "Well Done."

I first read this wonderful book two years ago, at the same time that my S/O was reading "The Secret Life of Jesus"... the dovetailing of the information, the beauty and the resonance of that which has been supressed, even considered heretical, for so many years, made for some wonderful conversation, and a renewal in my faith that I did not expect, but appreciate deeply. By some magic, instead of the tale disillusioning me with the Christ and his mission, instead it made me appreciate the need for his message all the more. What we need more of, are books like this one; what we need less of, is dogma!

I wouldn't be surprised if this book was used as a text for a college class. It reads like one. That's not to say that the book isn't interesting. Starbird's research is presented in a very scholarly and interesting way. It just took me awhile to get through it. I bought this book to fill in the blanks of my own knowledge concerning Mary Magdalen. After reading THE DA VINCI CODE, I had to know more. If you, too, have just read THE DA VINCI CODE, I would suggest starting with HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL. Starbird wrote THE WOMAN WITH THE ALABASTER JAR after reading HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL herself. Don't get me wrong. Starbird's book is extremely interesting and contains a lot of evidence for Mary Magdalen being Christ's lost bride. I just wish I had read HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL first.

Amazingly, Starbird uses many biblical sources to prove Magdalen was the wife and mother of Jesus' child. It's staggering the amount of information packed into this book. There is a whole world of heritical / Gnostic sources that she could have relied on, but instead she used mostly uncontroversial sources. She is a master at pointing out the hidden, but obvious, meaning of religious symbols and art. It's easy to see the influence this book had on Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Many of Brown's plot points are taken directly from this book.

A more Gnostic, possibly pagan, perspective on the Magdalen story can be seen in Jesus and the Lost Goddess.

This was a good book but not great. It offered some outstanding nuggets of information which presented me with much food for thought. The idea that Mary Magdalen was actually married to Jesus Christ and the Holy Grail is not a cup or chalice at all but Mary's womb as she carried the "bloodline" of Jesus to Egypt and then to Europe is very interesting. She backs up this thought by analyzing art of the dark ages and the "understood" meaning behind it.

There was obviously a lot of research that went into this book and I must admit that it was very intriguing. Yet I could not bring myself to believe most of it. There seemed to be a lot of leaps made between some of the information. But I do think there is enough here to warrant some more research on the subject. It would be tough to find out much of what happened because of the Inquisition and the fact that the Roman-Catholic Church purged most of the records of other religions as they stepped on them throughout time as being heresy.

In short the beginning of the book really pulled me in but from the mid point on I felt that it was a bit reaching in trying to defend the ideas it presented. But it certainly is a good book to read in combination with other books on the subject. Just don't make it your first and only one on Christianity.