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May/June 2005 Featured Stories
Mary Magdalene and The Holy Grail

by Neila Crocker

an Interview with Nazariah, High Priest of the Essene Church of Christ and a noted researcher on Mary Magdalene.

Q) The phenomenal success of The DaVinci Code has generated great interest in Mary Magdalene. As a long time researcher on the Magdalene, how do you feel about her sudden popularity?

A) I am thrilled! She was recently the cover story for Newsweek. A few months ago ABC news did a special report on her. And this summer the movie version of The DaVinci Code will hit the theatres. Clearly, her time has come! Actually, the ancient prophecies make clear that her time to be rediscovered – and truly understood – would come, and I believe we have entered that era.

Q) You have been a serious researcher of Mary Magdalene for nearly 30 years. What got you interested in her?

A) As a small child she appeared to me in dreams and visions. Although she was barely mentioned in the Bible, she was my favorite character! Then, when I was seventeen I met an elderly Essene teacher from Alexandria, Egypt. His name was Malachi. He had come to America to establish a branch of the ancient Essene Order that he represented. This Essene Order has a lineage that goes back to before the writing of the Bible. I helped Malachi establish an Essene monastic community in the mountains east of San Diego. I studied with him for seven years. Upon graduation from his Mystery School he gave me several assignments. One of those assignments was to research and publish lost information on Mary Magdalene.

Q) I understand that Malachi provided you with various Aramaic and Hebrew Essene scrolls that had not previously been published in English. You have been involved in the translation and publication of those scrolls. Do those scrolls include any previously unknown information on Mary Magdalene?

A) Absolutely! In fact, there is more information on the Magdalene in these scrolls than in the Bible. Best of all, there are hundreds of sayings of the Magdalene. In no other source – including the Bible – are there more than a few sayings of Mary Magdalene. One of the newly translated scrolls is titled, Proverbs of the Magdalene. That one scroll has around one hundred wise sayings of the Magdalene. Another scroll is titled, The Book of Sex, and is a collection of her teachings on Tantra. It is not at all X-rated! It consists of wise sayings on the philosophical aspects of Tantra Yoga. Most significantly, these scrolls describe the Magdalene as not simply a follower of Jesus, but as his eternal consort and co-Messiah.

Q) That sounds like heresy! Are you suggesting that Mary Magdalene was the equal of Jesus? What do you mean by the term ‘Co-Messiah’?

A) She was absolutely the equal of Jesus! In the newly translated scrolls, she is called The Lady Christ and Jesus is called The Lord Christ. They traveled together and she was co-teacher with Jesus. Of course, that did not sit well with most of the population back then, as the era was extremely patriarchal. In fact, in Israel at that time, women were not permitted to enter the priesthood. The only exception was the Essene Order, which did include women in the priesthood and affirmed both a God and Goddess.

Q) If the Essenes believed in a Goddess and had Priestesses, why is that not mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls?

A) That is because almost none of the published Dead Sea Scrolls were written by the Essenes. In fact, the word Essene does not appear in any of those scrolls. When those scrolls were first discovered in 1947, scholars thought they were the lost library of the Essenes. That theory was based solely on the fact that three ancient writers had described an Essene sect that lived on the western shore of the Dead Sea. So, when those scrolls were discovered in caves on the western shore of the Dead Sea, it was theorized that they may have been authored by the Essenes. But that has proven to not be the case. Not only do none of those scrolls ever mention the Essenes, but the location they were discovered is not even the region that the ancient writers linked to the Essenes. The ancient writers said the Essenes lived in cliffs above En Geddi on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The Qumran location where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found is not the cliffs above En Geddi. Several years ago the remains of a communal settlement was discovered in the cliffs above En Geddi. That was the Essene settlement at the Dead Sea, not Qumran. So, the patriarchal Dead Sea Scrolls are no longer believed to have been authored by the Essenes. Our church does not use the Dead Sea Scrolls. We use other scrolls that do in fact uphold worship of both God and Goddess, and do present the Essenes as having both Priests and Priestesses.

Q) History informs us that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. You assert that she was a feminine ‘co-Christ’ with Jesus and that she was his equal. How could a prostitute – even a reformed prostitute – be viewed as a feminine Christ?

A) Actually, history does not inform us that the Magdalene was a prostitute. That is simply a Catholic legend that has been discredited. Nowhere in the New Testament does it ever say that Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute. An early Catholic pope confused Mary Magdalene with another New Testament woman who was a reformed prostitute, and that became Catholic belief. But you will not find it in the New Testament. In fact, Catholic scholars now admit that this Pope made an error. The New Testament does say that Jesus cast seven demons out of her. But our scrolls say Jesus cast seven demons off Mary Magdalene, not out of her. That one word makes a big difference! In our Essene New Testament, seven demon-possessed men had jumped Mary Magdalene, with the intention of raping her. Jesus came to her defense, throwing the men off her. It is also important to note that the Hebrew word by which the Essenes designated their Priestesses was Kedushah, which literally means feminine holiness, or holy woman. While the Essene Jews permitted women in the Priesthood, mainstream Judaism did not and condemned the Essenes for this practice. Thus, in mainstream Judaism, the term Kedushah became a negative slur, meaning harlot, the idea being that any woman who entered the priesthood was a no good harlot. In Strong’s Concordance to the Bible, both meanings are given for the Hebrew word Kedushah: 1) Holy Female Devotee; 2) Harlot. Thus, we see where the confusion in regard to Mary Magdalene came from. Her title as an Essene Priestess – Kedushah – became a negative slur meaning harlot, simply because mainstream Judaism thought it was terrible for women to enter the Priesthood. Simply put, Mary Magdalene was never a prostitute!

Q) Your Essene scrolls portray Mary Magdalene as a feminine co-Christ with Jesus, and indicate that she was the victim of the patriarchal, anti-feminine bias of that era. Besides your Essene scrolls, can you document from other sources that Mary Magdalene was an exalted feminine guru who was persecuted by patriarchal men?

A) Yes, absolutely! By no means do I limit myself to Essene scrolls to support my assertions. There are many ancient manuscripts that support my theories. I will give some examples. In the Gnostic Gospel of Philip, we read: "As for Sophia [Greek for ‘Holy Wisdom’/’Holy Spirit’], she is the Mother of the Angels and the Consort of the Lord, Mary Magdalene. The Lord loved her more than all the others and used to kiss her often on her lips." The same text then reports that someone asked Jesus about his relationship with the Magdalene. Jesus replied: "Great is the Mystery of Marriage; for without it the world would not exist." The Greek word that is translated into English as Consort implies a romantic partnership and is often translated as Wife. In regard to my assertion that the Magdalene was persecuted by patriarchal males, consider the following excerpt from the Gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene, only a couple of pages of which has survived. The setting for this excerpt is as follows. It is shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus, and the Magdalene, his true successor, has just delivered a mystical discourse to the assembled disciples. Then Peter, speaking on behalf of the majority of male disciples, declares: "Are we to believe that she knows more about spiritual things than we do? Are we to believe that the Lord commissioned a woman to take forth his mysteries unto the world? Are we now to turn to her and listen to her as we did the Lord? Did he really prefer her for that role over us?" I could give many other examples that illustrate the fact that various ancient manuscripts support the theory that the Magdalene was a feminine Christ-figure, and that she was persecuted by patriarchal males.

Q) The DaVinci Code portrays Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus. Do you agree with that? If so, where do you part company with The DaVinci Code? Or do you agree with all of it?

A) Yes, Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. In the Essene scrolls, Jesus and Mary Magdalene are the couple that was wedded at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. In his book, Boodline of the Holy Grail, Laurence Gardner provides convincing evidence that the Catholic Church later deleted all references to Jesus’ marriage to the Magdalene. One of the points he makes is that it was the Hebrew custom in Bible times that the Groom provide the wine for the wedding. He correctly points out that in the New Testament story about the wedding at Cana, the people expected Jesus to provide the abundance of wine, which demonstrates that he was the Groom. When the Bible was edited to delete all references to the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, they missed that little detail. That is the ‘smoking gun’. So, we do agree with The DaVinci Code portrayal of Jesus and the Magdalene as being married. However, we don’t agree with everything in the book. For example, in its effort to rediscover the historical Jesus, the book attempts to strip him of his divinity, not just in the fundamentalist sense but even in the New Age sense. There we part company with The DaVinci Code. We believe that both Jesus and Mary Magdalene were Avatars or Divine Incarnations.

Q) If Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, did they have children?

A) Jesus and Mary Magdalene had one child together, a son. And just after the crucifixion, the Magdalene adopted a seven year old girl whose parents were killed at the crucifixion. In regard to the son, the Essene scrolls even tell us when he was conceived. Do you remember the New Testament story about the last night in the garden at Gethsemane? That was the last night before Jesus’ arrest and subsequent trial. We are told that none of the disciples were able to stay awake with him that night, all being to sleepy. But in the Essene version, there was one who did stay awake with him that night: His wife and co-Messiah, Mary Magdalene. And that is when they conceived their child. They did so in the full knowledge that Jesus was about to be arrested and put to death. They wanted to preserve his seed. And that child of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is known today as The Holy Grail.

Q) You have just dropped quite a bombshell! Was not the Holy Grail supposed to be a goblet? Can you elaborate?

A) We have all heard of The Holy Grail. Most think of it as a goblet that held the blood of Christ shed upon the cross. This goblet was said to hold the presence of Christ and have mystical powers. But consider the following: would not a child of Jesus and the Magdalene be a vessel filled, quite literally, with the blood of Christ? The most ancient stories of the Grail call it by the name, Sangreal, which means Royal Blood. And all the early Grail legends refer to "the Grail Family". In an ancient text called the Perlesvaus, the Grail consists of a changing sequence of images, the first being a crowned king crucified, and the second being a child. The Essene scrolls even give us the name of the child of Jesus and Mary Magdalene; his name was Gebiya. And guess what Gebiya means in Hebrew? Goblet!

Q) We know Jesus was crucified, but what became of the rest of the ‘Grail Family’? Where did Mary Magdalene take the Grail Child and her adopted daughter?

A) After giving birth to her son, Gebiya, the Magdalene took him and her adopted daughter to France. There is a lot of evidence to support the assertion that the Magdalene went to France with the Grail Child.

Q) In Christianity, they talk about having a living relationship with Jesus. By that they mean that he is not just an historical figure, but a living Being who can be experienced. Do you feel that way about Mary Magdalene?

A) I believe that both the Lord Christ and the Lady Christ are very real and can be experienced Here and Now. In regard to the Magdalene, her time has come. The great awakening of interest in her will profoundly affect our culture. That will be profoundly true once the long suppressed sayings of Mary Magdalene are in the hands of the public.

Q How long until the publication of her sayings? In what format will that be?

A) The team translating The Holy Megillah: The Nasarean Bible of the Essene Way, is about one year from completing the project. This will be the first time that the entire Essene Bible has ever been available in English. Only small portions have previously been published. Much of the text is about Mary Magdalene and it includes more direct sayings from her lips than all other sources combined. And they are powerful sayings!

Although the publication of the entire manuscripts is a year away, we will publicly share some of the most profound sayings of the Magdalene at two events to be held in May- a Mary Magdalene Birthday Celebration on May 8^th, which will also include detailed information on her son, The Holy Grail, including the work he currently performs for the uplift of this planet, and a three day event on the Essene teachings of Mary Magdalene to be held at May 13-15^th at the Essene Garden of Peace near Triangle Lake, Oregon.

Q) You said the second Magdalene event will be held at Essene Garden of Peace, near Triangle Lake. Where is Triangle Lake in relation to Portland, and what is Essene Garden of Peace?

A) Essene Garden of Peace is an Essene Monastery that features an Organic Farm, Wellness Center, and Retreat Center. The staff are all members of Monastic Order of Magdalenes (M.O.M.) and live together as an intentional community. We are modern day devotees of the Magdalene. Though we are a legal ‘Monastery’, celibacy is not required and we have both men and women living here, even a family with children. Essene Garden of Peace is located on 35 beautiful acres in the mountains near Triangle Lake, about three hours from Portland.

Tickets for the May 8^th event are free and the 3-day event is by free will donation for the lodging, and a small fee for the meals. Call the Essene Garden of Peace at: 541-927-3017 for information and reservations.
Essene services are held monthly in Portland and often speak about the Magdalene. Books and videos available and, interested persons should call the Essene Garden of Peace at: 541-927-3017.