305. Alternative READ: Invoking Mary Magdalene ~ Siobhan Houston ~ Sounds True

Title: Invoking Mary Magdalene: Accessing the Wisdom of the Divine Feminine
Author: Siobhan Houston
Website of Author: www.siobhanhouston.com
Publisher: Sounds True
Website of Publisher: www.soundstrue.com
Genre: Spirituality / Christianity / Inspirational
Publication date: April 2006
ISBN: 1-59179-422-6
Length: 105 pages
Format: Hardcover / CD



Invoking Mary Magdalene: Accessing the Wisdom of the Divine Feminine ~ Siobhan Houston ~ SoundsTrue.com ~ Inspirational / Spiritual / Christianity

A remarkable, profound look into accessing the wisdom of the Divine Feminine, which Mary Magdalene represents.

With this book, religious scholar Siobhan Houston aims to guide you through the process of accessing the wisdom of the Divine Feminine, Mary Magdalene; a much-loved, and popular luminary.

Known as the 'Dark Mother', the healed, healer, and since the 6th century wrongly perceived as a "woman of the night", Mary is one of the most beleaguered and sometimes misrepresented women in history. Even after the death of Jesus, the dominating male society of the Church portrayed her in a less favourable light in an effort to quell her feminine powers.

Ms. Siobhan Houston invites you to take the Mary Magdalene Path, a non-hierarchal, grassroots movement inspired by a growing body of scholarship, literature, arts and spirituality. After an introduction from the author, she covers how to create a sacred space for an altar. She suggests ways to establish and deepen a devotional relationship with Mary, with the use of prayer shawls, beads, meditation, reflection and contemplation. Ms Houston also mentions the honouring of the shrine and meditation space with the natural world of plants and flowers. This I found interesting since many Christian customs, holidays, and worship sites overlaid and co-opted pre-existing pagan conventions, so it's not surprising that a number of these botanicals were held sacred to many pagan divinities, too.

The Divine Feminine can be accessed by anyone regardless of ethnicity or religious background and tradition. Historically she has been inspiring people from Christian biblical times; although, those devoted to the Goddess and the more esoteric systems like the Kabbalah and Gnosticism also honour her. Mary also figures prominently in numerous mysteries, the Jesus mythos and the Grail legends. She's even re-emerged in 'The DaVinci Code' by Dan Brown.

The exercises in this hardback book, which has a beautiful image of Mary Magdalene on the front cover, serve to explore novenas, rituals and daily devotional practices of prayers, meditations and visualisations from around the world. By connecting to the Dark Goddess aspect you can unleash your own energies to transform fear and illusion into healing and renewal.
About halfway through the book the author centres on the 'Guided Visualisation Techniques', where we read the book and listen to the accompanying hour-long CD at various stages within the text. These CD sessions include 5 areas-
1. Guided Visualisation to the Cave of Baume
2. The Holy Gnostic Rosary
3. Union with the Holy Bride
4. Magdalene as Grail Guardian and Queen of Shadows Meditation
5. Prayer of Archangelic Protection

I found this to be well presented in both book and CD format, and an ideal way to experience the blessings of Mary Magdalene. It's a compelling book; one you can easily pick up where you left off. I particularly enjoyed the sections containing Magdalene's history, and the exercises that accompanied the recordings on the CD. I should imagine, over time, the CD sessions will be easily remembered the more one practices. To assist you on the continuing Magdalene Path, Ms Houston offers notes on every chapter, and a list of additional resources, which include a bibliography, and related websites and organisations to research. All of these can be found at the back of the book along with the author's bio.

This is a fresh, exciting look at an independent and inspirational woman, and where possible, it dispels some of the myths and legends surrounding her. These teachings could revolutionise the future of Christianity and Western culture if one follows the rituals and visualisations supplied.

Look out for the book excerpt, coming tomorrow!


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