Link for Earthcup

[Azure]

Thought this might make your day, my friend. Aphrodite being one of your patronesses and all:

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,3955207%255E401,00.html

Enjoy.

[Myst]

Cool. Tho just wanted to ask if you know you can PM (private message) people here, you just click PM below a post they make, or you can on the main page of MW go down to private messages, or click profile on any page at the top left, and go over to private messages on the horizontal menu, and compose one.

This is assuming you have PMs turned on. If you don't, you can go to profile, edit options, and find the button to "enable private messaging".

Not that I'm complaining about seeing that neat link, just wanted to make sure you knew about some of the cool stuff you can do at MW :)

[Azure]

Yeah, Myst, thanks, I do actually, I just thought this might be worthy of a browse by a few others as well - I addressed it to Earthcup because it's special to her. . . :)

[Myst]

It's pretty interesting! :)

[Azure]

I'm pretty much an archaeology addict, so I post lots of cool links like that. . .

[Danustouch]

OOOO..OOOOO ...OOOOO Azure...I claim thee for History Forum then! LOL. Archaeology Links are perfect fodder for that forum. Feel free to post away in there :) Pweeeeeese? If I ask nicely?

[Azure]

I've been exploring the history forum today. It's very cool. I'll be happy to post cool things as I find them ;)

[Earthcup]

ooohhh! How cool! lol

It's a shame that while Athen's history makes it the perfect site for the Olympics, it's history is also causing problems preparing for the Olympics!

Now if we only had such a temple in the US.... worship with a massage.... *sighs*

Thanks Azure!

[Azure]

Perhaps we need to start one.

[Earthcup]

But "full service" temples are illegal! *whine* :D

[Azure]

Only if they know about them *grins*

I'm thinking I know a certain young man who follows Athena who needs a good introduction to the rites of Aphrodite.

[Earthcup]

lol following a virgin goddess in all aspects had a nasty ending for a young man once upon a time!

I've actually read articles about women who practice prostitution part time as a service in a way. They were all over 45 and enjoyed teaching the art of sex to young men. Somehow I think they would have made excellent priestesses once upon a time...

In fact young men used to learn about sex from prostitutes, some fathers even sent them to one to teach them about the "facts of life". Unfortunately daughters were not as well schooled in such matters. I believe the second Anne to marry Henry VIII believed she would become pregnant becaused he kissed her once a day!

[Azure]

Anne of Cleves? Well, she had any number of problems - no wonder he divorced her. Course, he deserved what he got.

Have you read the novel "The Moon Under Her Feet" by any chance?

[Earthcup]

Nope but I'm pretty sure I've seen it around. Isn't that a novel portraying the Magdalene as a "sacred whore" and priestess at a Pagan temple? :huh:

[Azure]

That's the one. And the "Virgin" Mary as well. It's a great book, I really enjoyed it.
SRW makes the mistake of quoting it as history in one of her books (oops), but it's fiction. (Although the inspiration was some pieces of Gnostic gospel that name the Magdalene as Jesus' wife, the story and perspective bear no resemblance to those books).

[Earthcup]

I'll have to read it one day. arrgghh! So many books and so little money! :lol:

I love the books by Margaret Starbird about the Magdalene. She makes an interesting case for her being Jesus' wife and spiritual partner in her books but I guess we'll never really know...

Personally, I doubt she was a Pagan priestess.

[kblackthorne]

But "full service" temples are illegal! *whine*

Nah, we'd just have to put it in Nevada. (And fill out lots of paperwork.) :P

I've seen the idea of Magedeline ad Jesus's wife put forward before.

It's nearly certain he was married -- a Jewish man of his age was expected to be, and HAD to be to speak in the temple -- which we know he did. (The Jews considered the first commandment of God to his people to be, "Go forth and multiply, and fill the face of the Earth.") Notably, altough he was criticized for a myriad transgressions of the law, he was never criticized for his failure to obey t his command. And when Paul spoke about chastity & the single life, he makes very clear Jesus had nothing to say and that he's presenting his own ideas. If Jesus had been single, wouldn't he have mentioned that as an example?

So, if we take that Jesus was married, and look for women in scripture who seem as if they might have filled that role, Magedeline springs to the fore.

I also know one person who is CONVINCED that the wedding at Cana was his own! :)

[Earthcup]

That makes sense, then his mother would have been chatising him for not being a good host. I always wondered why she was so upset over someone else's wine....

Yeah I'm pretty sure he was married as well. I've even toyed with the idea that John is really Mary Magdalene, the one he loved and entrusted his mother to at the cross. Plus didn't he appear to the Magdalene first?

So we could set up a temple to Aphrodite next to Ceasar's Palace?;)

[Azure]

There's a lot of argument in favor of John, the "beloved disciple' actually being the Magdalene. I've been thinking about this issue a lot lately - at my Grandmother's funeral, I was looking up at the wall behind the altar in the local Methodist church, and it had a giant mural of Jesus and Mary engaged in deep conversation while Martha looked on. Looked romantic to me.

There are, in the Nag Hamadi gospels, quite a bit about this issue. But it's all been left out of the modern versions of the Bible - and no one seems to want to touch the issue with a ten foot pole.

[Earthcup]

There are some articles and sites online about it. Magdalene.org comes to mind.

I think it's possible she may have written John. In the gospel of Thomas? she is treated just like a disciple and better. Then there's the Merovignian(sp?) line that claims descent from Saint Sarah, daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene..

If you ever get a chance to check out The Goddess in the Gospels it has an interesting theory that the tarot was used as a catechism for the married Jesus heresy. Shows the heresy's influence in art as well.

[Azure]

I will. Oddly enough, I've been having some of this same discussion with my crush lately. . .

There are several books out there I want to get hold of on the subject. I will have to make a serious effort when I get back from Colorado.