Magdalene The Anointer

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Painting - "Supper in the House of Simon the Pharisee" by Alessandro Bonvicino
Painting – “Supper in the House of Simon the Pharisee” by Alessandro Bonvicino

On a recent visit to Canterbury Cathedral, I noticed something that had escaped me on previous visits. When entering the crypt from the side door, directly to the left is a small barely noticeable area with a few chairs facing a raised alcove. This is the chapel of Mary Magdalene. There’s not much there- a table with a simple white cloth, a small crucifixion, and two candles. Behind that a stained-glass window. Where, I wondered, was Mary Magdalene? Then I saw her, a tiny figure depicted in the window under a table where Jesus is having dinner with three male figures. In the gospels, the dinner takes place either in Bethany in the presence of Lazarus and Simon the Pharisee or according to the gospel of Luke, in the house of Simon the Pharisee.

From Luke 7:36-50-

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was sitting at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

And he [Jesus] said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

While Luke does not outright name the sinner as Mary Magdalene, in the gospel of John it is explicitly stated that the anointing woman is Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral. Taken by the author.
Mary Magdalene Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral. Taken by the author.
Detail- Window in Magdalene's Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral.
Detail- Window in Magdalene’s Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral.

The image of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus is used to show the sinful nature of Mary, as well as the virtue of repentance, and the forgiveness of Jesus.

Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince offer an alternative interpretation-

The “sinner” label, and the identification of this anointing Mary with the Magdalene, was why the church traditionally represented her as a prostitute […] But whatever her profession, clearly there was something a little dubious about this anointing woman.

There is something sensual, not to say erotic, in the image of a woman wiping her hair on a man’s feet. This was not just a matter of the eye of the beholder… The sexual subtext of “feet” already had a long tradition […] in the story of Jael and Sheba feet was a euphemism for genitals. Likewise in the story of Ruth when, after washing and anointing herself, she goes to Boaz, “uncover his feet” and gets into bed with him. Even for a woman to “lay at a man’s feet” was a euphemism (Picknett & Prince, 2019, p. 244).

The authors conclude that not only was this lineage of sacred sexuality associated with an Egypto- Christian link through the cult of Isis and Osiris but was also part of a tradition of sacred sexuality within the Israelite religion that can be traced to the cult of Asherah in her “Qadesh” aspect.

Whether Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married or had a child is unknown though I feel certain that they (and others of the time) engaged in sacred sexual rites as part of an ancient mystery tradition of initiation. This is the dangerous knowledge that leads to salvation and the early church fathers went to great lengths to supress this and other so called heretical practices.

The Jesus/Mary bloodline then may be less about a physical child and more to do with the union of spirit and matter through the “heiros gamos”, the sacred union of male/female, spirit/matter, water/fire, solar/lunar.

In celebrating Magdalene’s Feast Day, we invoke the return of a certain gnosis that has long been suppressed.

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