I have been lucky enough to have visited Saint Baume and the area near Marseilles where Mary Magdalene is believed to have landed when arriving from the sea in a place now called Saint Maries-De-La-Mer with Our Lady and a young girl called Sarah. This is the Saint Sarah that many Travellers who used to be known as Gypsies (from the word Egyptian ) believe they are all descended from. It's for this reason that many travellers visit Saint Maries-De-La-Mer to celebrate over the weekend of October there every year.
.jpg "The Church at Saintes-Maries-De-La-Mer where Gypsies come to carry out the ritual of carrying statues of The Holy Marys and saint Sarah from the sea to the chapel there.")
It’s important to understand the background to story of Mary Magdalene , to understand the meaning behind images in the European painting tradition that revolved around the making of images of her. Certain attributes appear in works about her and they form a language that tell the viewer that the painter is initiated into what the church would have seen as the heretical tradition surrounding her
Two Mysterious paintings by Del La Tour Showing a pregnant looking Mary Magdalene holding what we now can interpret as the skull of Jesus, though art historians used to explain it as a symbol of repentance and her fecundity would not be mentioned.
Mary The Magdalene is believed to have lived and spread her teachings from the Grotte Sainte-Marie Madeleine not far from there and inland in Provence. This is a very dramatic cave high in the cliff of the sheer faced mountain there . When you take the walk through the shady forest and climb the many steps up and enter there in the cool darkness you can see there a statue of her holding a tiny egg and a very old marble altar amongst other things.
Her imagery is strongly associated with the sea for this reason of arriving on the shores of the mediterranean and also for the belief that she brought with her the child of her union with Jesus…. Saint Sarah (this is regarded as apocryphal by the Christian orthodoxy of course ) Her association with the sea allowed her imagery to absorb imagery associated with other pagan cults that flourished around the Mediterranean Sea such as the cult of Artemis the Greek Goddess of the moon ,wildness, nature and hunting. Artemis is also the twin sister of the sun god Apollo and known in Roman culture as Diana. But the absorption of this imagery was also taken into imagery surrounded Our Lady, The Stella Maris , the star of the sea, so it is a less clear cut matter.
The Association of Mary Magdalene with the sea can be seen in the background of paintings behind the cave and the story has been contained in folk tales one that we have come to know as the story of The Little Mermaid. Of which there were numerous versions before we received the modern watered down version. This idea is particularly well covered in Margaret Starbirds book, The woman With The Alabaster Jar . I mention this because Starbird traces many bases her arguments in her numerous books on the subject through Art and symbolism. I will come back to this connection again
Here in this painting ""Mary Magdalene in Meditation" by the French Brothers Antoine (Brother) Le Nain ....
The open book is shown as a sign of her spiritual cation as a teacher of the Gospel and she holds across her concealed abdominal area and between her knees the skull of Jesus. This is very done highlight th idea that Jesus gave her a child. She appears in the Grotto high above the French are of Provence at Sainte Baume that became associated with her .
Sarah means Princess in Hebrew. This belief was accepted by the French monarchy who believed they were descended from this bloodline. Hence the reference to the “Sang Real” (meaning the blood royal and also becoming known in time as the Holy Grail, the cup believed to have been used at the last supper ). For this reason in many paintings of Mary Magdalene she is also depicted with a skull fand a cup or alabaster jar.
The skull is depicted also because it was believed that she brought the bones of Jesus with her and they came to be hidden somewhere in France (to look into this aspect of things research ideas connected with Rennes Le Chateau ) . Her hair is also depicted as long and red symbolising the Holy blood and long royal bloodline Sometimes she is shown with red hair flowing over her body. She is often shown as fecund in her midriff in paintings and sculptures of her. Her hair would conceal her modesty but this "ambiguously" means wflowing over her womb and sexual organs. This is no coincidence.
Through the Merovingian line, French Kings who believed they were descendants of this Royal Bloodline were known to have brought their wives tor their brides to be to visit the cave there. Many kings sought to intermarry in Europe to attain the entry of their descendants into this sacred bloodline believing it to bestow them power and prestige amongst the nobles who understood and accepted its significance. This practice continued into what is left of the aristocracy who still display their family heraldry containing this imagery whose real symbolism is known only to those initiated into this belief. Of course this idea of the sacred bloodline has become a reason and an excuse in history and contemporary times for institutionalised human cruelty and political manipulations by those who say “God is On their side” giving them the right (they think) to forcefully cling to temporal power.
Louis the fourteenth is included in the list of 40 French kings who are said to have visited the Grotto which also includes Louis IX, Louis XIII and Francis I. For this reason the walkway leading to the foot of the cliff is called “The Kings Path” (Chemin des Roys). A pilgrim in past times made the approach to the Grotto on their knees.
This brings a whole new meaning to Louis XIV’s title of “The Sun King”, the imagery of which proliferates Versailles which I visited last week. This was why he and other Monarchs almost fanatically came to believe in the “Divine Right of Kings. “
(The Repentant Magdalene :Cagnacci 1660
If you look closely you can see the opened jar of ointment beneath the arm of Martha and in front of the face of Mary Magdalene. she has stripped herself of her rich clothing belongings and behind her plays out an allegorical scene symbolising repentanc in the spiritual space so to speak. Mary is ......" almost completely naked. With her, there is her sister Martha who urges her to abandon her sinful life and join Jesus. She is pointing at the angel representing Virtue behind them who is pushing out a devil, Vice. Moreover, in third plan, there are a couple of women. One of them is crying while the other seems annoyed, personifications of Contrition and Vanity, respectively.)"
As I mentioned I would come back to, In the imagery of many, many paintings we can see references to these ideas about Mary Magdalene. The story in the bible that she broke a jar of ointment on the floor and washed the feet of Jesus with her hair is a conflation of two stories. This idea can be explained by reading a book written by Brian Cleeve Called “The Fourth Mary” which is available online. https://sevenmansions.org/the-fourth-mary-brian-cleeve/
Here is depicted the tradition of The Magdalene's Nudity being modestly covered by her long red hair (though it is gilded here ). This long hair is the symbol of her divine bloodline. A living Grail.
"This unusual nude figure represents saint Mary Magdalene as a mystic ascetic. According to legend, the repentant sinner lived a secluded life in the cave of Sainte-Baume, clothed only by her hair.
Every day she was raised up in the sky by angels to hear the heavenly chorus. The statue appeared on the German art market in the 19th century and was purchased by the Louvre in 1902."
But the idea that Mary Magdalene had a Jar of Ointment and that there existed a drinking cup that Jesus carried with him on his travels that was used at the last supper also joins together at times in Marian and Magdalenian imagery. This was the cup believed to have been brought by Our Lady, Mary Magdalene and the third figure that had dark skin who was in fact the servant girl of this holy family. However the story has numerous versions. The central idea is also that Sarah was the name of the grandchild of Our Lady and the daughter of Mary Magdalene. It is she who becomes known as the princess as the meaning of her name tells us .
At the heart of this story for anyone who wishes to look, is a truth . This truth is that this part of France was at one time part of the Roman Empire and was known as Septimania. This occupies approximately the same area we know today as The Languedoc Roussillon area which again only recently changed into the province now known as Occitanie.
Here we can see the absorption of Goddess Cults into the imagery of Our Lady when in this case she is depicted with the moon at her feet.
Also we can see this in images of her as The Star of The Sea : Stella Maris
when she becomes strongly associated with the sea.
This association also evokes the imagery of Venus/aphrodite the goddess of Love who is shown being born from the sea often in a large shell.
This area was where Herod came to spend his breaks away from the heat of Judea. There is evidence of very early jewish settlement in the region and in Provence. It is also believed that early jewish peoples occupied an area even further inland which became known as Avalon. The family of Jesus came to escape persecution in Jerusalem and to find a safe place for the child who inherited His bloodline. This necessarily had to be kept a secret and it remained so for many years. The Grail travelled eventually with the grandson of Joseph (whose name was also Joseph to England) .This tradition has been kept alive in the imagery of Artist / Writer William Blake amongst others.
Joseph of Arimathea on the rocks of Albion by Willam Blake.
This itself was derived from Michelangelo's image of him
For many years this imagery entered into the visual language of the stone masons of Europe who often, unbeknownst to the orthodoxy, incorporated this apocryphal story into the rich and often gnostic imagery of the cathedrals. Many examples of this can be found, I saw, at Notre Dame and Chartres cathedral . A few weeks ago I saw at Chartres a whole line of female figures holding chalices in their hands which when looked at in the light of this story more likely reveals the idea of the sacred bloodline than the interpretation that they were just images of female saints holding chalices.
The Jewish kingship from the line of David was a maternal and not a paternal bloodline . So its female members were the living grails starting with Our Lady herself of course. Images of the Tree of Jesse abound in stained glass to reinforce this point. Jesus is often shown nailed to this tree in manuscripts and elsewhere also.The tree becomes The Cross of the crucifixion.
These gnostic beliefs maintained by those who kept these secrets, along with the presence of jews within the powerful families of southern Europe, became one of the main reasons for the atrocities of Albigensian crusade, effectively a genocide in which many Cathers died . This was led by the French King Philip II and supported by The Pope in order to wipe out Catharism, Catharism was an unorthodox christianity led by "Parfaits" members of the community who gave up their live to preach their religion to others in their community. They were known as "The Pure Ones" or perfect ones. They were horribly massacred by the crusade at places like Montesgur and Beziers sometimes being mass burned at the stake. It is believed that the true story of Mary Magdalene was known to them and also that mysteriously they hid a treasure believed to be the grail itself. It is behind these stories that one needs to look for the real Truth.
Later came the Spanish Inquisition. This inquisition also took place in places we now know as part of France and other areas. At these times this area was in land that was much envied and coveted by the king and this was another economic reason to use religious persecution as a way of acquiring properties and wealth. A practice we see today being used in Gaza to seize lands and commit genocide upon its people. As we used to say in Ireland, one mans terrorist (or religious fanatic) is another mans freedom fighter.
