115    MARY FROM MAGDALA                                                         115

This Mary is known from the    common Gospels     as one of those women who  provided for Jesus and the apostles out of their means.  She was  perhaps  a  women who was healed by Jesus.    She went with Jesus on the last  journey to Jerusalem,  witnessed the Crucifixion,  followed to the burial and returned to prepare   spices.  She did  find the tomb empty and had an interview with the  risen Jesus.    She has been confused with an  unnamed fallen women  who anointed Christ's feet      The  word  Magdala  has

after that been misunderstood.    She is not  the     sister of  Lazarus and Martha. 

    The Gnostic Christians did hide such   Gospels as    "Gospel of Mary"   from the  persecution of  the anti-Gnostic majority.  Part  was  found 1896 in "The Akhim Codex" and published by G R S Mead in his book "Fragments of a faith forgotten"1900-1906.     We  read that Peter requests Mary to proclaim what the Lord had revealed to her,    thus acknowledging the great   distinction   which  the Lord   had always  permitted her above all  women.   She  tells  them   what  the Lord  had appeared  in  a  dream  .

Andrew and Peter rejects her testimony. But pages are missing. The Nag Hammadi Library was found  1945 and published 19978  with many Gnostic fragments as The Gospel of Mary where  the Lord speaks a Gnosis  about nature and sin and sickness  and death. Jesus says "the Son of Man is within you. Follow after him. Do not lay down  any rules beyond what  I appointed for you and do  not give a law  like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it. Mary is the Saviour's beloved possessed of knowledge and reaching superior to  that of the public apostolic tradition.   Her superiority is based on vision and private relation and is demonstrated in her capacity to strengthen the wavering disciples   and turn them toward the Good. The Gospel of Mary was originally written in Greek some time in the second century.  Now do we have   fragments  of  Coptic copies.       The confrontation of Mary with Peter is also found in the Gospel   of  Thomas and in the Pistis Sophia   and the Gospel of the Egyptians.

Mary says once that the Lord has   " prepared us and made us into men"      In  the Gospel  of  Thomas (114)    do we find the    same expression  as when  the  Lord says about Mary  " I  will  make a  man  of her so that she is a living spirit  like a  real man.     Jesus says:   each  women who makes her self  into a man shall enter heaven.      This  is a Gnostic    expression   or   parable:   each common soul is named a women but the enlightened spiritual soul is  named  a real man.   These  types  of  parables may not be liked and  not  understood by   majorities of people.    But in old religious parables  is our higher nature  often named divine man or son   and the lower more human nature is equalled to a women.  That  does not hinder Gnostics  to write  about   the  highest  God as divine Mother.         It  is  one of  the difficult problems  that human words  are not   fitted  to express  divine  realities

   In the Gospel of Mary we may read that Peter says to Mary:  "Sister, we know that the Saviour loved  you more than the rest of women. Tell us the words of the Saviour you remember"  Mary answered and said       What is hidden to you  I  will  proclaim  to you.     And  she began to speak  to them these words

She said     "I saw the  Lord in a  vision     and  I  said  to  him    Lord  I       saw  you to day  in  a vision.

He answered and said to me    Blessed are you  that you did not  waver  at  the  sight  of  me

For where the mind is  there is the treasure   I  said to him:  Lord,  now does he who sees  the vision see it   (through )  the soul  (or)  through  "the spirit"   The Saviour answered and said      He does not   see  through the soul ,  not through the spirit,  but the mind which  (is)  between  the   two - that is   (what)  sees the vision  and it is ( Here is still   missing pages)    When Mary had said this she   fell silent since it was to this point that the  Saviour had spoken with her.  Andrew answered and said  to the brethren:    Say what you wish to say about  what she has said.  I at least do not believe that the Saviour said this   for  certainly   these teaching are strange ideas.        Peter answered and spoke concerning  these same things.  He questioned them about the Saviour:        Did He really  speak  with  a  women  without  our  knowledge  (and)  not  openly?   Are we to "turn about and   all  listen  to  her-     Did  He  prefer  her  ?

    Then Mary wept and said to Peter  My  brother Peter what do you think  Do you think that I thought this up myself  in my heart or that I am lying about the  Saviour.   Levi  answered  and  said   to   Peter  ....  you  have always  been   hot-tempered      Now I   see  you  contended  against  the  woman   like  the adversaries.    But if the Saviour   made  her  worthy    why are you indebted to reject  her.   Surely  the Saviour knows her  very well    That is why  he loved her more  than us.   Rather let us be ashamed and

put on the perfect man……              ( We  find  here again the  expression  "the perfect" man)

and acquire him for  ourselves  as he  "commanded us    and preach the Gospel    not laying down any other rule or other  law  beyond what the Saviour said 

      GOSPELS   from women with  gnosis are not many today but as said above we do find  more and more fragments.  The Gnostic   original  Christians  did as Jesus speak about the Holy Ghost as   divine Mother,   of    Christ,   of  Gods and of all.     In the Free Catholic Church and its services  is the Holy Ghost named in  the original Gnostic way as  "the divine Mother,  Theotokos in Greek,   that is the  Mother of God.   In the      very  old  Egyptian,  Jewish and  Indian religions we do find the same idea about the divine Mother.  Messias was the   "son of  the Queen"  who in the Jewish rite   was representing  the motherhood  of God.   Later on   in  history  we  have  seen   how God  has  among   exoteric   common   Jews- Christians   been understood as  only male.  That  mistake  has had  bad result.   But when now  the Gnostic  fragments are coming back and permitted    we may believe that  a more enlightened time comes     The Lady Mary is for many  Orthodox and Catholic branches  a representative or even    incarnation of    the Universal Mother, Holy Ghost.   Wisdom  =  Prajna Paramita of Buddhists,     Isis  in ancient Egyptian Mysteries     and with  other names  in  gnosis  of   Indians     and in  Jewish  Kabala.                 Chinese Dragons  and words  of Mohammed   are remains of the  same hidden Wisdom.    The Free Catholic Church does not abolish the Father-Mother-prophets of religions  - only  restoring  and pointing to     the  non-manifested Pleroma