whoweare

SEVEN - AND THE TWO BECOME ONE
by Sr.Maria (Deacon), July 2006

Dualistic concepts are common knowledge. There is night and day, dark and light, good and evil. There is love and hate, black and white, joy and sorrow. So to argue for a dualism in the world - or at least in man's perception and thought - is quite easy. The funny thing is that you can do it with other numbers as well. Take trinity for example: there are body, mind and soul (or body, soul and spirit). There are heaven, earth and hell (or Olymp, Greece and Hades or Asgard, Midgard and Hel or ...). There are father, son and holy spirit. And still another trinity derives from combining the two poles of a duality: when two things unite, they form a new one - a third one. Having said this you certainly get an idea of this essay's subtitle (the two become one): A duality becoming a unity and thereby completing a trinity. Now there arise two questions: firstly, which are the two (and what do they become)? Secondly, how does "seven" fit in?
The answer to both questions is to be found in the Gospel according to Mark:

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons. [Mark 16:9]

It has to be mentioned that this phrase belongs to the "second ending" of the Gospel of Mark, usually added in parentheses and extensively disputed among scholars, clerics and every one interested (e.g. just type "ending gospel Mark" into a search engine). Wether or not it belongs to the original Gospel, it is an old passage (at least it can be dated to the second century A.D.) and it bears a highly gnostic (and esoteric) meaning. Hopefully, this will unfold in relating Mark 16:9 to the questions stated above.

Seven
You have certainly been able to identify the words to which the second question (how seven fits in) refers: "out of whom he had cast seven demons". Interestingly, this is one of the few things we know about Mary Magdalene (taking only into account the scriptures combined in the Bible). To everyone who has still not come across it yet: there is not the slightest evidence in the New Testament that the Magdalene is to be equated with the woman taken in adultery or the female who wipes the Lord's feet with her hair. (This equation, that finally lead to the well-known image of Mary Magdalene as a whore, was first suggested by the 6th-century Pope Gregory the Great.)The fact that Jesus had cast seven "demons" (btw: in the greek text daimones - which could also be translated by divine entities) out of her is said in Luke 8:2 as well:

... and with him were the twelve, And certain women who had been made free from evil spirits and diseases, Mary named Magdalene, from whom seven demons have gone out, ...

Although Mary is not the only woman "who had been made free from evil spirits", she is the only one whose name is given in such a relation and additionally the number of spirits (or demons) is stated. This number certainly rings a bell in every one acquainted the least with ancient cosmology and western esotericism. It is the number of "planets" as seen/known in earlier times(the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.).Not only were those planetary forces viewed as influencing the human personality (as taught by astrology), but "the spiritual forces of these planets were portrayed by ancient esoteric traditions, including Gnosticism, as malign gatekeepers of the heavenly realms who sought to keep man bound to earth." (Smoley, R. Forbidden Faith.).
As described in Poimandres (among other texts), man/the soul has to ascent through all these planetary spheres, reaching the ogdoad and liberating itself thereby. There is a similar passage to be found in the Nag Hammadi Library's Gospel of Mary:

When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, (which) took seven forms. The first form is darkness, the second desire. the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven [powers] of wrath. They ask the soul, 'Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?' The soul answered and said, 'What binds me has been slain, and what surrounds me has been overcome, and my desire has been ended, and ignorance has died. ... [Mary 16:1-21]

One could read those passages as referring to the afterlife - the journey the soul takes after the body's death. Yet, contrary to salvation, gnosis is not sought to be reached after this life but in it. The body's death (the dying of matter and ignorance) has to take place during one's life, i n s i d e oneself - leading to the soul's liberation from the seven planetary powers: spiritual rebirth. That is what is said in Mark 16:9 and Luke 8:2. Mary Magdalene became free from s e v e n demons. So her soul was liberated from the influences of the seven planetary spheres/powers - during her lifetime!
This fits perfectly with "gnostic" texts. There, Mary is not only described as accompanying the Savior and his disciples but as being one of his students, even receiving secret teachings (compare Gospel of Mary 10:4-6). Moreover, in the Dialogue of the Savior it is said that Mary "uttered this as a woman who had understood completely." [53/139:12-13]
And in the Pistis Sophia Jesus tells her, "Thou art she whose heart is more directed to the Kingdom of Heaven than all thy brothers."

Two become one
An interpretative reading of the second part of Mark 16:9 brought an answer to the second question stated in the beginning of this essay - showing that to become free of seven demons could also be seen as a far more meaningful liberation of the soul. This liberation of the psyche (the regaining of her former nature) is also described as "stripping of this world" or the external turning inward (see for ex.: Authoritative Teaching, 32:2-8).It is the soul's baptism (compare: Exegesis on the Soul 131:19) and it is followed by meeting her bridegroom in the bridal chamber:

She cleansed herself in the bridal chamber; she filled it with perfume; she sat in it waiting for the true bridegroom. ... she continued to wait for him - (saying) "When will he come?" - and to fear him, for she did not know what he looked like: she no longer remembers since the time she fell from her father's house. ... And she dreamed of him like a woman in love with a man.
But then the bridegroom, according to the father's will, came down to her into the bridal chamber, which was prepared. [Exegesis on the Soul, 132:13-26]

As the text relates further on, this "marriage" will lead to a new unity because "once they unite with one another, they will become a single life" - "the soul has been joined to her true love, her real master".
Here is the point to come back to Mark 16:9. Since an interpretation of the number seven brought us to regard Mary Magdalene as possessing a liberated soul, the question arises wether the first part of the verse could not be interpreted as well - on the background of the soul's marriage. -- CONTINUE

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