Writings

Articles

Margaret Starbird's essays on the sacred feminine, the hidden language of symbol and number, and the Sacred Marriage at the heart of the Christian story.

Essay · Mary Magdalene

Mary Called Magdalene

The true source of Mary's title "the Magdalene" — from the Hebrew and Aramaic for "tower" or "fortress," a mark of greatness and pre-eminence rather than the slander of a hometown or a sinner. A reading of the Bride who anoints the Bridegroom, and of Micah's prophecy of the Magdal-eder.

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Essay · Sophia

Loving Wisdom

On Sophia — Holy Wisdom, the Beloved sought by sages and kings — and the “Great Divorce” that set her aside. A meditation on the reunion of Sophia and Logos, the Bride and Bridegroom, embodied in Mary Magdalene.

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Essay · Partnership

Imaging God as Partners

A church banner reading "Every day is SON day" awakens a troubling question: what happens to a civilization that worships only the masculine face of God? Tracing the cosmic dance of the sacred marriage from Sumerian temples through the Song of Songs to the Gospels themselves, Starbird argues that the woman who anointed Jesus was not a prostitute but his Sister-Bride — and that the Holy Grail of legend may be the lost wife carried to safety in an "earthen vessel.

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Essay · Symbolism

The Archetypal Mandala of the Star of David

The mandala of the hexagram — the "Star of David" — is far older than Judaism, an archetypal emblem of sacred union formed by the intertwining of the male "blade" and the female "chalice." From the cosmic dance of Shiva and Shakti to the medieval alchemists' "Philosopher's Stone," it is the hieros gamos of the ancient world — and the missing link between Christianity and Judaism. A meditation on harmony in diversity.

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Essay · Mythology

Sacred Union in Christian Mythology

In all four canonical Christian Gospels, Jesus is anointed by the Holy Bride as the Sacrificed Bridegroom of the ancient rituals of hieros gamos.

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Additional essays can be added to this page as they are gathered.