Are The Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene The Same Woman?

The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci created circa 1472–1475. Currently housed in the Uffizi gallery of Florence, Italy.

Double Identities Or Split Personalities 

Are Mary the Virgin and Mary Magdalene the same woman?

This is an inspiration request from a performance artist in Brisbane Australia seeking decodings of Mary Magdalene as Mary the Virgin in classical art. For me it is interesting to revisit my old research with my new research to discover what I see now. And a new chapter for my latest book of revisiting my research and new discoveries. Being able to read the paintings like history reference books is getting better. Each year of research disrobes more veils. 

Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she will birth a King of Kings. The name Gabriel comes from Gibril, an Egyptian Arabic variant of Gabriel. Gibril is the Egyptian equivalent of the traditional Arabic transliteration Jibri.

The study of art history is often not complete. Not without the study of why an artwork gets created and why it might get destroyed. Tracing that, we find a large amount of history not in history books. Or not interpreted or interconnected the same way as the actual history of the artwork. Or the era the artwork depicts. Art history is the same as archeology. Cross referencing design and what we know of a culture in the time they created and used the design. Archeology regularly myth-busts modern versions of history books.

The study of heraldry is also art history and helps with tracing history. Heraldry are symbols that identify royals. They can include objects, architecture, plants and colors. For example, the colors of the Monarchs of France are yellow and blue. As we can see in Leonardo Da Vinciʼs painting, Mary the Virgin is wearing yellow and blue. In heraldry this indicates that Mary the Virgin is the ancestor of the Monarchs of France. And their descendants. Who, as we know in the twenty first century, are not Hebrew. Not even in their DNA.

Mary Magdalene's popular known symbols are her jar and the colors green and red. Da Vinci depicts

Mary the Virgin wearing pink, which is a paler shade of red. Archangel Gabriel is also wearing green and red. In heraldry tradition this means that Mary Magdalene and Gabriel are related. Angel Gabriel is also wearing an armband with a half bow and tendrils, a Greek Symbol.

According to tradition, Saint Mary Magdalene was an educated wealthy woman. She was important and well connected enough to get an audience with Emperor Tiberius. In Rome after Christʼs Resurrection. Denouncing Pilate for the way he conducted himself at Christʼs trial. Mary Magdalene told the Emperor Tiberius about Christ and his resurrection from the Dead. Holding out an egg to him, she proclaimed “Christ is Risen!” Emperor Tiberius tells Mary Magdalene of his bemusement. Stating that there is as much chance of a man being returning to life from the dead, as the egg in her hand turning red. The egg in Mary Magdaleneʼs hand immediately turned red at that moment!

Mary the Virgin sits at a desk reading a book. Jewish women were not educated and not allowed to write. It is doubtful that Mary the Virgin was even able to read. Itʼs doubtful that any women received any education in Israel during that era. There are no texts in existence authored by Jesusʼ mother, Mary the Virgin, none. 

Nobody wrote about nobodies or prostitutes back then. Paper was too expensive for most people until after the printing of the King James Bible. The literacy rate in Israel at the time of Jesus was estimated at less than 15%. We can assume the Hebrew literate of this time were males. This leaves Jewish women out of the picture altogether. Claims of Mary the Virgin as a well educated woman do not sync with Hebrew cultural norms of that era.

Looking again at the Virgin Mary's hand, it is on a Bible with a red cover. The veil is draped around the book. Is Mary reading a Gospel we don't know about?

The recorded tradition is that Mary Magdalene was a very well educated and wealthy woman. There is an Apocryphal Gospel authored by Mary Magdalene herself. The Gospel of Mary is a non-canonical text. Discovered in 1896 in a 5th-century papyrus codex. Written in Sahidic Coptic, which is an Egyptian language. Two other fragments of the Gospel of Mary were discovered since then, both written in Greek. Again I was surprise that the evidence and traces are not Hebrew.

The main part of the desk is decorated with chrysanthemum leaves and shells. Chrysanthemums are symbols of Greek royalty. Stating that Mary Magdalene and Mary the Virgin were of Greek heritage, not Hebrew. In classical art we see them both depicted as blonde and or caucasian with no Hebrew symbology in sight. The shells are also symbols of Mary Magdalene, relating to the Greek Goddess Venus.

The fingers of Mary Virginʼs hand rest on the desk with the thumb lifting the pages and pointing downwards. Underneath the scroll holder is a half veiled pedestal. A veil in symbolic art denotes that the information is under the veil. Waiting for unveiling by the viewer. We can see under the veil that the pedestal is in the shape of an ornate jar.

In all four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, a woman anoints Jesus with ointment of pure spikenard from an alabaster container. In Biblical lore Mary Magdalene anoints Jesus in an emotionally charged scene. The infamous jar of nard, spikenard, was one of the most expensive luxury items of its day.

The recorded evidences say that Mary Magdalene indeed was affluent and important. Not the prostitute that modern Christian folklore depicts. In the Book of John, Judas Iscariot complains of the waste of so much money. Understandably so. The ointment is too expensive for anybody but the very wealthy, even today.

Christian folklore recounts that the jar of expensive oil was a gift to Mary the Virgin. From a visiting king at the birth of Jesus. At that time spikenard oil was used only by high- ranking royals. And only for marriages, coronations and burials. Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus in an ancient marriage ritual. Bathing and oiling her husbandʼs feet and head with perfumed oil.

The Catholic Black Nobility are not a not so secret society as conspiracy theorists theorize. They are an ancient line of Catholic royals and historians. Modern Catholicism seems to keep them in the background. One of their family was one of my research mentors. In a conversation she said that “Mary Magdalene anointed Jesusʼ head in a coronation ceremony of a King, which only a priestess and imperial royal can do. She benedicted him.”

In the background of Da Vinciʼs painting of the Annunciation we see a harbor with towers on the shoreline. Mary Magdalene in modern tradition comes from a town called Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. Magdala in Aramaic means tower, which is a classical symbol for Mary Magdalene.

In modern tradition Mary Magdalene was a poor nobody Jewish prostitute. No association to the Jesus family. But Leonardo Da Vinciʼs painting and other artistsʼ works say otherwise, in their use of symbols and colors. Hollywood movies tell us that the Bible was Hebrew and the people in it Jewish. But there is no evidence in non-Jewish history, nor in the archeological record.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are art forgeries. After a battery of testing by several museums. Including a large collection in the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. Nor is there any evidence in classical art of a Hebrew origin of Christianity. No Jewish symbols anywhere, not even on ancient churches. Not even on Rosslyn Chapel. Not even on the Church of Mary Magdalene in Rennes le Château. 

So who are they really? That is what I am exploring and discovering in my next book and I promise to use a grammar app:)

I am Christian, I believe in God. I research art history and the history of Christianity. What I found is that Hollywoodʼs winged beings with superpowers and science fiction Bible miracles are coverups. They hide how amazing real people really are. How amazing we can be.

Deborah

Sunday June 27, 2021

San Francisco

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