THE LEGEND 

A medieval legend insists that there was a "dark child" on the boat, a child who is called "Sarah, the Egyptian." Ii is speculated that she might be the daughter of Magdalene for several reasons deeply rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. She might be symbolically "dark" for reasons associated with the "hidden" bloodline of the princes of Judah, whose appearance, described as "brighter than snow and whiter than milk," is now "blacker than soot, they are unrecognized on the streets" (Lamentations 4). "Sarah" means "princess" in Hebrew.

A second prophetic Scripture dear to the hearts of the people of Israel would likewise be fulfilled in her: "Out of Egypt I called my child" (Hosea 11:1). Perhaps the child Sarah was called "the Egyptian" by virtue of the fact that she was actually born in Egypt. But in stating this, it is realized that we are talking about people who "coined the myth" rather than any physical reality of an actual "flesh and blood" child of the union of Magdalene and Christ. 

Written traces of the "Grail heresy" of the bloodline of Jesus in Europe cannot be found until the Middle Ages, but folk tales of the little lost princess are much older. Is this "folk memory" the custodian of a suppressed and hidden truth? Or was it only a "myth," a story too dangerous to be told? Among others, Emma Jung, the wife of the famed psychologist Carl Jung, and their friend Marie-Louise von Franz, believe that the oral tradition of the "sangraal" ("blood royal" in Old French) circulated in Europe throughout the Dark Ages.

The Gnostic "Gospel of Philip" mentions Mary Magdalene as the "consort" of Jesus, one of the women who was his constant companion, his "koinonos." This is significant because Roman Catholic tradition declares that the Apostle named Philip evangelized Gaul. Perhaps here again we are looking at "myth" rather than hard empirical evidence. The Apostle Philip probably never even set foot in Gaul, but rather, it was this "Valentinian" treatise, the Gnostic "Gospel of Philip," with its pointed references to the intimate union of Christ and Magdalene, that was honored in Gaul. The intimate relationship of Christ and Mary Magdalene was so highly honored that a cult of Mary Magdalene grew up across the Mediterranean from where the Gospel of Phillip had originated--among the Gnostics in Alexandria. Was this because the people of Gaul already knew the story of the archetypal Bride and Bridegroom--the "Beloveds"--of the Christian story?

The "Gnostic" Christianity that grew up in Egypt was far more egalitarian and liberal than that of Saint Paul and his "orthodox" friends. Could that be because Mary Magdalene once resided there among them? Or was it merely her MYTH that had lived there?

The evidence that Mary Magdalene and Jesus together provided the model for the "hieros gamos" (Sacred Marriage)in Christianity is found in the Gospels themselves. The numbers coded by gematria in her name indicate that Mary Magdalene was the "Goddess" among early Christians. They understood the "numbers theology" of the Hellenistic world, numbers coded in the New Testament that were based on the ancient canon of sacred geometry derived by the Pythagoreans centuries before.

The Greek epithet "h Magdalhnh" bears the number 153, a profoundly important value used among mathematicians to designate the Vesica Piscis--the ()-shape identified with the "sacred Feminine' in the ancient world. This symbol, the "vulva," has obvious attributes of feminine regeneration and the "doorway" or "portal" of life--the "sacred cauldron of creativity." It was a very ancient ancient, even archetypal symbol for the Goddess. It was called the "holy of holies" and the "inner sanctum." Almonds were sacred to Venus. The symbol abounds in cave art of ancient peoples discovered in shrines where the fertility of the earth and the female was honored. It was no accident that the epithet of Mary Magdalene bore the number that to the educated of the time identified her as the "Goddess in the Gospels."

Excerpted from:  Mary Magdalene and Sarah

     17- FISH

THE BLACK MADONNA

Previously in Europe women were priestesses and oracles. Later many Catholic women secretly worshipped ancient deities, feeling they at least would understand their problems.

Notre Dame, the great Parisian cathedral was built on the foundations of a temple to Isis.

Even Londinium, depicted here circa 200 AD, had its temple to Isis, amongst those dedicated to various foreign cults. 

Temple to Isis in Pompeii. It was here that Jean-Francois Champollion, the man who deciphered hieroglyphics, meditated and made ‘libations’ to Isis.

Moon goddess depicted on a Theban sacramental vase, 700 B.C.

A Black Madonna.

Yet when the men of the Church came to adapt and marginalize the feminine aspects of Christianity - having discovered that nothing they could do or threaten would prevent the ordinary people from loving a goddess figure - they rejected utterly the obvious ‘Christian Isis’, Mary Magdalene. She was too subversive, too obviously sexual and too powerful. Either she had to be abandoned completely or, because she was too well known and loved to be excised from the story altogether, turned into something pitiable, totally powerless. Instead, Jesus’s mother, towards whom he evinces little respect, is given not only the style, but also the titles of the goddess Isis. Whereas the Roman world was used to statues representing Isis with her holy child Horus in her arms or on her lap, gradually the first-millennial Church began to present Mary the Mother in exactly the same mould, quite deliberately. And, like Isis, she was called ‘Queen of Heaven’ and ‘Star of the Sea’ (stella maris), and represented with stars around her head and a crescent Moon at her feet. But unlike Isis, she was exclusively, and for ever, a Virgin, despite the fact that this is not only highly unlikely for a real woman, but impossible - for Jesus, says the New Testament, had siblings. ‘James, the Brother of Jesus’ even went on to become the first Bishop of Jerusalem. Yet even today, Catholic writers denounce such an interpretation of Holy Writ: theologian Karl Barth speaks for many millions when he declares that ‘It is essential to the true Christian faith to accept the doctrine of the virgin birth’. 

Isis was regarded as a real goddess, but even so, surely few thought of her as an historical character: Mary, as mother of Jesus, was put in an uncomfortable position by the Church fathers. He was real, so she was real, but she was also half-divine because he was the son of God. So she could not do anything degrading, such as having sex or even dying (like her son, she is believed to have ascended bodily into heaven). But in creating this hybrid woman and goddess, the irony is that the mythical goddess who never walked the earth comes over as more real than the woman who had. 

There was no feminine role model for real women, which is why many ‘good Catholic women’ secretly worshipped the ancient deities, feeling that they, at least, would understand their problems - and so they turned to the Black Madonnas, the dark faces of hope, the ebony features of the Moon goddesses, especially Isis.

It might be thought that an Egyptian goddess would have had little effect on the pagan cult centers of France, but it is surprising how far her religion spread, especially during the years of Roman dominance. Martin Bernal, in the first volume of his formidably scholarly work Black Athena (1991) describes the spread of the cult of Isis in the ancient world:

‘The Egyptian mother goddess Isis... had been worshipped in Athens since the 5th century, not merely by resident Egyptians but by native Athenians. By the 2nd century BC there was a temple of Isis near the Akropolis and Athens was officially encouraging its dependencies to take up Egyptian cults. Even on Delos, especially sanctified to Apollo, cults of Isis and Anubis [her companion, the jackal-headed god] were made official in a move that was in no way connected to the Ptolemaic kingdom which had lost control of the island by that time. Indeed, by the 2nd century AD Pausanias, who made no mention of other Oriental cults, reported Egyptian temples or shrines in Athens, Corinth, Thebes and many places in the Argolid, Messenia, Achaia and Phokis.’

However, as Bernal puts it: ‘Greece had experienced only part of a wave that had spread throughout the Roman Empire. For instance, the most important shrines discovered at Pompeii from 79 AD - when it was overwhelmed by the eruption of Vesuvius - were “Egyptian”. ... [the] later emperors... were passionately devoted to the Egyptian gods.’

In fact, there was a Roman temple to Isis as far north as what is now the City of London, and Paris - the city of love - was dedicated to her, the original ‘Notre Dame’. Indeed, the great Parisian cathedral was built on the foundations of her temple, thus making bricks and mortar reality of the metaphorical use by the Church of the old goddess religion. And, of course, there were scattered throughout France - but mainly in the south - an extraordinary number of Black Madonnas, each with its own intimate connection with a ‘dark’ goddess, especially Isis. Yet there is another layer to be investigated: the Isis/Black Madonnas were also linked to Mary Magdalene: Ean Begg discovered that no fewer that 50 centers dedicated to her also contain shrines to a Black Madonna. In The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince noted:

‘For example, the famous black statue of St Sarah the Egyptian is found at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer - the very place where the Magdalene is said to have disembarked after her journey from Palestine. And in Marseilles there are no fewer than three Black Madonnas, one in the crypt of the basilica of St Victor, immediately outside the underground chapel that is dedicated to Mary Magdalene. There is another in “her” church in Aix-en-Provence (close to the place where she is believed to have been buried) and yet another in that town’s main church of St Saveur.’

Ean Begg’s investigations revealed an astonishing concentration of Black Madonnas in the area of Lyons/Vichy/Clermont/Ferrand, focused on the hills known as the Monts de la Madeleine (the Magdalene’s Hills). And all around the eastern Pyrenees and Provence, where there are enduring legends that she came to live out her long life, there are also high concentrations of statues of Black-faced Virgins and their children. Clearly, the French have long believed - or perhaps even known - something to connect the Magdalene with pagan goddesses and with blackness. It is also an uncomfortable fact that these statues are of a mother and child, not a woman alone, as might be expected in representations of the Magdalene, almost certainly a visual confirmation of the heretical belief that she was a mother, and her children were also those of Jesus himself - the embodiment of the sacred bloodline. 

FROM: 
Mind and Spirit - Mary Magdalene - The Black Madonna Connection ...
... Sea’ (stella maris), and represented with stars around her ... the famous black statue of St Sarah the Egyptian ... himself - the embodiment of the sacred bloodline. ...
http://www.pharo.com/mind_and_spirit/mary_magdalene/articles/spmm_03b_the_black_madonna_connection.asp

Tantalus
by James Hunter

Tantalus was the son of Zeus and was the king of Sipylos. He was uniquely favored among mortals since he was invited to share the food of the gods. However, he abused the guest-host relationship and was punished by being "tantalized" with hunger and thirst in Tartarus: he was immersed up to his neck in water, but when he bent to drink, it all drained away; luscious fruit hung on trees above him, but when he reached for it the winds blew the branches beyond his reach.

There are differing stories about what Tantalus' crime was. One account says that he tried to share the divine ambrosia with other mortals, and thus aroused the ire of the gods. A more famous account says that he invited the gods to a banquet and served them the dismembered body of his own son, Pelops; when the gods discovered the trick, they punished Tantalus and restored Pelops to life, replacing with ivory a part of the shoulder which had been eaten by Demeter.

Tantalus' family was an ill-fated one. His daughter, Niobe, lost all her children and was turned to stone. His son, Pelops, was murdered, cooked, and restored to life. His grandsons, Atreus and Thyestes, struggled for power, and Atreus committed a variation of Tantalus' cannabilistic trick with Thyestes' children. His great-grandson, Agamemnon, was murdered by another great-grandson, Aegisthus, who was in turn killed by a great-great-grandson, Orestes. 

Atreus

(´trs) (KEY) , in Greek mythology, the son of Pelops and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. He vied with his brother Thyestes for the throne of Mycenae. When Thyestes seduced Atreus’ wife, Aerope, in order to attain the golden ram whose possession signified kingship, Atreus, in retaliation, murdered the sons of Thyestes and served them to him at a feast. Thyestes thereupon laid a curse upon the house of Atreus. Thyestes’ son Aegisthus, who was not involved in the mass murder, killed Atreus and restored the kingdom to Thyestes.

by Joe Mason

In late 1995, a young man, named Brad, told me a story.  He's a very handsome 19-year old, who was working with my son on a construction job.  He was undergoing a stressful break up with the girlfriend he was living with.  He said the name "Agamemnon" kept coming into his mind over and over one day at work.  He picked up a large rock and crashed it down on a frog, then felt bad about it.  He didn't know why he did it.

I seemed to remember the name, but I couldn't recall anything about it.  He couldn't either, but was sure he had learned about it in high school.  I thought it might be related to "Armageddon," and was surprised to learn that Agamemnon was the leader of the Greeks in the battle of Troy.

Some weeks after this, I found a book in one of my storage places called Mythology, Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, by Edith Hamilton.  As I read it over a period of weeks, some of the stories seemed to connect with various dreams and ideas, especially stories about the twins, Apollo and Artemis.

A few things related to the battle of Troy.  The Greek fleet was delayed in its voyage to Troy because of the blowing of the north wind.  The gods spoke to the soothsayer, Calchas, saying that Artemis was angry because a hare and her young had been slain by the Greeks.  The only way to appease her and calm the wind was by sacrificing a royal maiden, Iphigenia, the eldest daughter of the Commander in Chief, Agamemnon.

I thought of Brad's weird experience, and wondered about the symbolism.

I found the story called "The House of Atreus" significant.

It became an ill-fated house because of the misdeeds of an ancestor, Tantalus.

I tend to "read" such stories with the possibility in mind that it carries clues about the cycle of time and the change.
This one fit pretty well.

Tragedy after tragedy plagued the progeny of Tantalus, including King Atreus.  Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, offended the gods, because she wanted to be worshiped in place of Leto.

Apollo and Artemis, the twins of Leto and Zeus, punished the arrogant Niobe by killing her seven daughters and seven sons with their arrows.  Niobe sank down on her knees, her tears flowing without end.  Her heart turned to stone, and then she was changed into a stone that was forever wet with tears.

The original misdeed of Tantalus involved cannibalism, as did the misdeed of Atreus.  Some clues to the meaning of this symbolism came to me in 1990.  It was related to the Dali paintings, "Cannibalism in Autum," and "Six Apparitions of Lenin on the Piano."  After noticing the ants on the sheet of music on the piano, I knew that the cannibalism painting should also have them.  I looked at the cannibalism painting again, and saw that the ants were around the mouth of the female figure.  Her mouth looks like honey.  The strange painting seemed to be saying something about our way of thinking and believing.  The human-like figures of the man and woman look like wood, and are consuming each other.  The woman's head is in the mouth of the man, and is supported by a crutch that goes down to a wooden chest of drawers.  The man holds a spoon that is dipped into the breast of the woman.  In other Dali paintings, humans are shown with drawers as part of their bodies.

The idea I got from this is similar to the way I interpret the Garden of Eden story.  Drawers within the body are conditioned beliefs.  Ants symbolize the "hive mind" of existing negative and rigid beliefs being maintained over time.  Wood is associated with the Tree of Knowledge.  The woman in the cannibalism painting corresponds to Eve, the small feminine attribute in humans.  The man corresponds to Adam, who takes the fruit from Eve.  The crutch supporting the woman's head shows the unconscious effect of the existing, or older belief system.  The crutch is supported by the chest of drawers, the dead wood creating the structure.
So, the symbolic idea of cannibalism shows how we get stuck with old beliefs, as we feed them back and forth, constantly maintaining them, even though they may be rigid, outmoded, and negative.

Agamemnon was the son of Atrius, along with his brother, Menelaus, the husband of Helen.  Menelause recovered Helen after the Troy battle, and lived happily, but Agamemnon was not so fortunate.  Not only did he have to sacrifice his daughter to go to Troy, but he was killed in revenge by his wife, Clytemhestra, immediately on his return home.  In the Odyssey Odysseus encountered ghosts in his descent into Hades.  The most pitiful of all was Agamemnon.

The end of the cycle of the doomed House of Atrius was with Agamemnon's son, Orestes.  He was supported by his sister, Electra.  (the sacrificed Iphigenia was their sister)  Orestes was caught in a "no-win" situation.  His noble duty was to avenge the murder of his father, but killing his own mother was also a misdeed of the highest order.

In his agony of doubt, he traveled to Delphi to seek advice from the oracle.  Apollo spoke to him, advising to atone death by death.  So, he killed his mother and her lover.

Afterwards, Orestes suffered terribly, and was constantly surrounded by the Furies in his wanderings.  They appeared only to him as black women with snake-hair, eyes dripping blood.But something happened within him that had not happened before among the cursed house.  He realized that he had also been taught by his misery, and that there was no crime beyond atonement.  Even he could be made clean again.

Apollo sent him to Athens to plead his case before Athena.

Those who desire to be purified cannot be refused.  Apollo appeared beside him and admitted responsibility, because of his advise at Delphi.  The Erinyes, the Furies, had plagued Orestes with their demands for vengeance, yet he reacted calmly.Orestes admitted his own responsibility, but also declared that he had been cleansed of his guilt.  These were the words that had never been spoken before by any in the line of Atreus.  They had never suffered from guilt and sought to be made clean.
Athena accepted his plea, and persuaded the avenging goddesses to also accept it.  A "new law of mercy" was established, and the Furies themselves changed.  Instead of the frightful aspects, they became the Benignant Ones, the Eumenides, the protectors of the suppliant.

With the acquittal of Orestes, the spirit of evil that had haunted the House of Atreus was ended, and he left the tribunal a free man.  Never again would a person of that House be driven into evil by the irresistible power of the past.

This story fit so very well into my dream/coincidence experiences, I can hardly begin to explain it.  I can only give a few things here, and attempt to show how some dreams seem to support some of the ideas.

The cycle of time involves Karma or judgment.  Kali and the Harlot both have this meaning.  The dream reality is attempting to show a new interpretation of this.  It is not really a punishment/reward system based on deeds, but a creative learning experience through adversities for an important purpose.

One key verse in the Bible is James 2:13, telling how judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy, yet mercy triumphs over judgment.  Another way of saying this is that karma will be relentless to one who has not reached the heart chakra and understands the wisdom of compassion.  It is compassion that triumphs over judgment.  A Sufi mystic also put it this way - that compassion will win a victory over karma.This, simply put, is basically what the big change is all about as we go from the lower chakras to the upper.  In Revelation, the beast represents the karmic function, like "the swallower" in the Egyptian judgment scenes.  It is an eighth but it belongs to the seven (chakras) and it goes to perdition.  (Rev.  17:11)  Being "swallowed" represents being reborn back on the earth plane, as a result of not reaching the forth/heart chakra.

Another important verse about this is in Isaiah 4:4, where the filth is cleansed from the daughters of Zion by a spirit of judgment and burning.  This seems to suggest that it is not "God up there" judging and punishing, but rather a process that purifies.
The House of Atreus story could be a metaphor about this in the context of a single family line.  A key insight about the story is that we must believe that we are not guilty, or that we have atoned for the quilts of our misdeeds, and/or that the power to do this is in the present, regardless of the past.By extension, it may be that it is critical for us to also believe that humanity, en masse, can make such a transition.