THE QUEST FOR THE MAGDALENE LIGHT
By Leslina Fanelli
Saint Mary Magdalene’s cavern sits on a smooth chalky mountain-face one hour from the bustling Provencal city of Marseille. The craggy limestone bar of the Sainte Baume range extends for 12 kilometers, rising to around 1,000 meters. From the village of Nan les Pins below, I discern the shape of a relief-carved monastery molded into the rock-face. I lament my open shoes−surely not my intended destination.
My pilgrimage seeks a connection with the energy and legend of the enigmatic saint − mystic, healer, and manifestation of the Divine Feminine−a tradition centred on the qualities of receptivity, intuitive perception, visionary experience and wise-woman lore.
Since the 5th Century, evidence reveals religious pilgrimage to this site – the Compostello pilgrims from the Alps and Italy and medieval travelers astride donkeys. Most kings of France, Catherine de Medici, and her sons, ten popes and many holy saints traversed this route.
Primeval emerald woodlands shepherd me right up to the grotto. This forest overflows with oaks, beeches, and furtive hollow yew trees, which sigh and whisper as I weave my way to the summit. Yews − with their evergreen leaves and thousand- year lifespan or more were sacred to early Christians and Celts. They symbolize immortality, transformation, and rebirth. Antiquity claims that Christ was crucified on a yew tree. Oaks – oracle trees, embody strength, while beeches connect with ancient knowledge and endurance.
Air sweet as nectar fills my lungs and I feel deliciously cool where brawny branches embrace each other. An ethereal contrast of light and shade creates shadowy chinks in the grandiose canopies. On the ground, velvety mosses, lichens, and pale limestone boulders abound. The climb takes roughly an hour as I tread dreamily upwards, rapt in the exhilaration of a road touched by the blessed and the pious.
Mary Magdalene, spiritual leader of the Sisterhood of the Rose, retreated underground after the crucifixion of Christ and later traveled to Provence with her brother Lazarus and her sister Martha. Myths suggest she may have brought the Holy Grail to France. In southern precincts this anecdote recounts her initiation into the cavern complex of Sainte Baume. A divine clairvoyance permitted her to navigate and dwell in the chambers without torches- transforming her into a dark goddess of the inner sanctum.
The depth of the fissure, over 10 meters, seems infinite once inside. The high altar − simple yet inspiring − stands before what is called the Rock of Penitence. Various statues of the Magdalene, most of them created in the 19th or 20th centuries, embellish particular clefts and crevices on multi-level floors. A powerful silence pervades and about a dozen visitors sit quietly in prayer.
Here at the cave of Sainte Baume, which translates as “holy balm”, the saint spent the last thirty years of her life. Stories allege she took neither food nor drink, but at each hour the angels descended from heaven and raised her into the air in meditation.
Several modern stained-glass windows provide splashes of filtered light. Each vividly depicts an aspect of the “penitent’s” life, for so long mistakenly famous for her sins as a woman of fallen virtue and then celebrated for her rebirth as a devout woman and intimate companion of Christ.
The foundation of this grotto is filled with glowing candles and the soothing melody of seeping water. Peace and inspiration reign and reflection transpires effortlessly. Visitors appear subdued −an elderly woman, in tears, prays before a sad-looking statue portraying Mary’s grief and solitude. A group of schoolchildren wait solemnly outside while a brown-cassocked friar unlocks a door to a tiny gift-shop.
The Dominican Order has been custodian of the Sainte Baume sanctuary since 1859 and the 150 stone steps connecting to the cave correspond to the rosary. Dedicated crowds apparently perform the ascent on a snowy path for a midnight mass every Christmas Day. Special festivities take place on 22nd July, the feast day of Mary Magdalene.
Descending slowly, I pause to drink at the spring of Nans. I contemplate the generations past who also took refreshment from this pristine water. The return journey is swift and safely back in Nans les Pins I recharge with a delicious picnic lunch and a glass of mellow red wine.
I feel uplifted −bathed in the afterglow of spiritual union with my mystical mentor. I decide to complete my mission to Magdalene at the basilica of St Maximin, some 20 minutes away.
Rust-red roofs and tired tawny cobblestones guide me to the basilica of St Maximin. Charles D’Anjou I – Count of Provence and King of Naples began work on the structure in 1295 to preserve Mary’s rediscovered remains. Her disciples had interred the body about four centuries before to conceal it from Saracen raiders. Charles II, son of the former -a religious man closely allied with the papacy continued the project, which was carried on by his successors until completion in 1532.
A carved medieval door flanks the front entrance. Brooding gargoyles hover menacingly around the sides of the building, their sly whispers inaudible in the soothing glow of a rose-gold afternoon.
A dark, arcane, and shadowy world awaits me within. I revel in its gothic glory –ribbed arches and vaulted ceilings. Miniature turrets shroud stairways adjoining the seven-sided apse. I creep furtively around, gazing at chapels dedicated to various saints and versions of the Madonna. Paintings and sculptures portray the Magdalene in many guises.
Three nuns murmur tender prayers beside the mottled-marble main altar. A priest exits a confessional, tenderly greeting a parishioner at a side altar. Two women carry tarnished brass vases of blooms, which they place in adjacent shrines.
Snapping shots, I grapple with the sheer magnitude of the basilica, hidden away in this unpretentious hamlet far from the madding crowd. Who would have thought?
Father Lacordaire, biographer of the saint, described St Maximin in 1859 as the “third most important tomb” in the world after Christ’s burial place in Jerusalem and St Peter’s in Rome.
Somehow in this dim, haunting twilight I stumble on the staircase leading to the crypt. The sarcophagus of Mary Magdalene awaits: rare, silky- cream marble in its entire splendor. A crystal cylinder, set in a gold receptacle behind bars, cradles a shred of flesh and bone tissue from the frontal bone of Mary’s forehead where Christ had lovingly placed his fingers on the morning of his Resurrection.
Magdalene was not only mentioned in all four gospels, but evidence suggests she had her own text now lost or repressed. French medieval religious literature mentions tales of her miraculous healings, her aid in fertility and childbearing and her ability to raise the dead. She also performed baptismal rites and blended her renowned herbal ointments.
Sharron Rose’s engaging 2007 article, “Mary Magdalene, apostle of apostles”, discusses the “surge of spiritual awareness, code of ethics and respect for feminine values,” which wove itself into the fabric of the psychic landscape in France.
Mary was a member of Christ’s inner circle−present at his crucifixion with his mother and other devotees. The“Sisterhood of the Rose”− twelve groups of a dozen women −keepers of consecrated and secret information. After the crucifixion, these holy females recoiled underground, afraid of persecution. Some, like Magdalene, traveled to distant shores, practising curative powers while safeguarding their origins. Their emblem was the rose − manifestation of truth and salvation and that associated with Magdalene is the blood-red variety− emblematic of the blood of Christ −martyrdom, charity, the passion, and resurrection.
The Sisterhood of the Rose is a custodian of lost mystical wisdom, its purpose is to release sacred knowledge of the Divine Feminine to initiates for the purpose of healing and empowerment of humankind and planet earth.
Female adepts practiced a form of healing known as “Seichim“, an ancient mystery system of profound insight, rooted in Ancient Egypt. Light workers trained in this subtle therapy continue to disseminate this powerful technique today.
In more recent times, Sisters of the Rose have received downloads of rose codes of light opening up to conscious perceptions and awarenesses of incarnations spent as devotees of the Rose Sisters Mystery School. These high frequency transmissions are inspiring women all over the world to come forward as healers, lightworkers and empaths, uplifting those who cross their pathways.
So, this profoundly spiritual connection can be called the Magdalene light – the tradition of gnosis, of “inner knowing,” and the related teachings of beauty, nature, clairvoyance, and the Divine Feminine − teachings that were suppressed for so long. It appears that while the church blackened Magdalene’s reputation, the French venerated her − preserving her story in primordial Provence.
The expedition through the forest of Sainte Baume symbolised my inner soul journey to the Sacred Rose.The path hypnotized my being, the cavern embraced me and St Maximin’s basilica confirmed my destiny as a Sister of the Rose.
May the inspiration of the Divine Feminine Energy be with you.
Rose Blessings Leslina and Vivienne xoxo
January 2022
References
- Father Henri Dominique Lacordaire (1859) “The Life and Death of Mary Magdalene”
- Sharron Rose (2007) “Mary Magdalene, Apostle of Apostles” https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/mary-magdalene-apostle-of-the-apostles