Mary Magdalen

and the

Masters of Mount Shasta

by Martha Brumbaugh, PhD

Emergent Studies Institute

Abstract:

This paper reflects on my initial foray into the world of Ascended Masters through Mount Shasta.  I have chosen to focus on Mary Magdalen because she speaks to my soul.   Magdalen is said to work with the Divine Feminine and love.

She has long been misunderstood, and is now in our awareness as never before.

I approach this paper with the assumption that she was, indeed, the wife of Jesus, and the foremost of the Apostles.

Using Organic Inquiry as an approach and framework, I am able to see what emerges as I delve into my own consciousness and my experience with Mary Magdalen and the Masters of Mount Shasta.

Keywords: Mary Magdalen, Ascended Masters, Divine Feminine, Mount Shasta, and Organic Inquiry,

 Mary Magdalen and the Masters of Mount Shasta

Introduction:

I invite you to join me in an Organic Inquiry to explore my ever-deepening awareness of Mary Magdalen as an Ascended Master.  This inquiry is rooted in my own experience with searching for truth, and authenticity.  With that in mind, I must admit that I’ve been studying, or researching if you will, the Magdalen, but that my knowledge of Ascended Masters is limited.  I am hopeful that this paper will expand my own understanding, and reach out to those of you who are also searching.

I chose Organic Inquiry (OI) (Clements, J., Ettling, D., Jennett, D., & Shields, L. 1998) because it is subjective and allows me to explore the depths of my own consciousness and to find deeper meaning in the topic.  It also falls into the paradigm of the sacred, and conducts the research, the indwelling, or reflection period, and the findings in a sacred way.  For me, that is creating a sacred space in which I can work, reflect and write.  For me, the research is a spiritual practice.

OI is about engaging the story that needs to be told.  My job is to tell that story, and I ask of you, the reader, to witness my journey.  It is also important to hold differences, as it is extremely difficult to quantify lived experience.  With that said, I begin this very brief story of my path to, and with Mary Magdalen.  It doesn’t encompass everything, but will give you a general sense of how it came about.

My Magdalen Story:

In 2003 I found myself at Chartres seated in front of the altar that is dedicated to the Black Madonna, also known as Mary Magdalen.  A series of books were brought to my attention in the mid 1990’s.  I have no idea what led me to them, but they sparked my interest and set me on a path that has been guiding me for twenty years.  I was not new to Mary Magdalen, and always believed that she was really not a prostitute.  I was merely interested in her, and the notion that perhaps she was married to Jesus Christ.  I had to know more.  When I was introduced to Holy Blood, Holy Grail (Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln 1982) and later The Woman with the Alabaster Jar (Margaret Starbird 1993) I was completely stunned and intrigued.

Could there actually have been a conspiracy by the Church to hide her identity, and change the Biblical texts to retain power, and control?

I went to Chartres Cathedral in France driven by a strong desire to visit the altar of the Black Madonna and an even stronger desire to visit the goddess site that lies underneath the church.  I poured over Jean Shinoda Bolen’s Crossing to Avalon (1995) to get all the information I could.  I read anything I could in tour guides, but Shinoda Bolen was the best guide that I found.  Her book prepared me for the possibility that the labyrinth would be hidden by chairs (as it was) and directly to the little book store on the plaza that sold tickets and led tours into the grotto below where one of the oldest images of the Black Madonna survives.

It was there, in France, that I knew that my journey with Magdalen was just beginning.  She spoke to me, not with words, but with an overwhelming sense of peace and love.  It seemed to me that her truth, the true story of her relationship to Jesus needed to be revealed.

I followed a path, and have landed in this place and time where I continue my search for truth, and can now see that this is only beginning the journey.  Now I am encountering Magdalen as an Ascended Master, and finding myself intrigued by the stories in the less academic texts.  None-the-less, I believe everything I read has significance.

My Experience with Masters and Teachers:

Although several sources report encounters with Mary Magdalen as an Ascended Master, I find that the book by Tom Kenyon and Judi Scion, The Magdalen Manuscript (2014) beautifully brings the possibility of encounters with Magdalen to life.  Magdalen appears to them to tell her story of both joy and despair.  Her teaching is both evocative and provocative as she explains her relationship with Jesus as both spiritual and sexual, for the reality is that they are one.

Magdalen encourages her students to explore the deeper meanings of the teachings of Christ.  Those stories that have not been erased take on new meaning.  I believe that we must be open to the possibility that Mary Magdalen is in our consciousness to teach us about love and the true word of Goddess and God.  Are the Ascended Masters real?  Do they speak or appear to humans?  I think that Christian Jambert (Jambert in LeLoup, J. 2002, p. 16) states very clearly that the willingness to be open is key to understanding Magdalen and in searching for truth.

For the creative imagination is not so named with some metaphorical intent, nor in a spirit of fiction but in the full sense of the term:  The imagination creates and is universal creation itself.  Every reality is imaginal, because it is able to present itself as a reality.  To speak of the metaphorical world is nothing less than to contemplate a metaphysics of Being where subject and object are born together in the same creative act as transcendental imagination.

The Ascended Masters, as I have come to understand, are teachers and healers.  My most profound experiences with what I understand to be Masters began in October of 1987 as a single ball of light flitting about my Mount Shasta campsite.  I was sitting outside at Panther Meadows with a fellow traveler.  We both watched the light, and understood that this was an introduction.  There was no voice, but a feeling of welcome, a sense of peace, mixed with the excitement of things to come.  The tennis ball sized light stayed with us well past midnight.  It was the first and last encounter that I had for more than twenty years.  The mountain is known to be the home of Ascended Masters from the lost continent of Lemuria.  Strange things happen to people on the mountain, and not just those who are questing. The Masters are only one of many who make their presence known.  The experiences are recorded through stories, artwork, and music. My own collage work has become more and more reflective of the presence of the Masters of Mount Shasta.

Several years ago, I reconnected with the mountain after a long and rather desolate period in my life.  On the first night, glowing orbs of brilliantly colored light appeared in my darkened room.  They were welcoming, and I was overjoyed at their appearance.  I was wrestling with soon turning sixty, and still feeling a lack of accomplishment in my life.  The next day, I was able to spend time creating a collage for the New Year.  What emerged was a collage that pulled together the threads of my life and helped me remember that spirit is an integral part of my life.  Although the images were rather dark, the overall impact for me was that perhaps my journey was just beginning, and my life would begin to unfold.

Through the process of collage, I was able to recognize the fragments of my life that I had tried to ignore.  The Masters of Mount Shasta showed me a new way to be in the world, and reminded me that I needed to love myself for who I am, not who I thought I should be.  They reached out and soothed me.  They embedded a short mantra in my soul that for the next few years remained with me.  “I am NOT who you think I am!”

January 29, 2012

Although Mary Magdalen is not Lemurian, she has a strong presence there.  I can connect with her spirit of love and compassion easily when I am on or near the mountain.  She has reminded me that I had not been true to myself, and that in itself had resulted in pain, anger, and exhaustion.  At the Summer

Solstice of 2012 Magdalen tested my strength, and together we started the path that would take three years and lead me to this point in time.  Having been gifted some alone time at the Solstice, the next collage came forward.

June 21, 2012

By the Fall Equinox of 2014, I was fervently working on letting go of all the things that were binding me to my old job and the façade that I had created.  Again, I was presented with challenges on the trip, and again I was given the alone time to create this piece.

September 21, 2014

These three collages, to me, represent the presence of Mary Magdalen as Mother, Maiden, and Crone.  They speak to me of compassion and love.  Her messages are seldom verbal, but nearly always

through my artwork.  My art, as is this written piece, very organic and from the heart.  I trust that you will be inspired to explore the possibility that the Masters are with us, and that Mary Magdalen can bring comfort and peace to those in need, and teach us about joy.

May the blessings of the Cosmic Mother follow you upon your journey to yourself. 

May the path between the sun and moon be revealed.  – Mary Magdalen

(Kenyon and Sion, 2014, p. 74)

Blessings on your way,

Martha

References:

Ascended Master MARY MAGADLENE. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 29, 2015, fromhttp://www.alphaimaging. co.nz

Last Name, F. M. (Year). Article Title. Journal Title, Pages From – To.

Biagent, M., Leigh, R and Lincoln, H. (2004). Holy Blood, Holy Grail. New York. Bantam Dell.

Clements, J., Ettling, D., Jennett, D., & Shields, L. (1998) Organic Inquiry; If Research Were Sacred. Palo Alto, CA: Serpentina.

Kenyon, T and Scion, J. (2014) The Magdalen Manuscript. Orcas, WA, ORB Communications.

LeLoup, J.Y. (2002). The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Rochester, VT, Inner Traditions International.

Starbird, M. (1993) The Woman with the Alabaster Jar. Santa Fe, NM. Bear & Company.

Shinoda Bolen, J (1995) Crossing to Avalon. San Francisco, HarperCollins.