Other Hidden
Truths
Secret
Teachings
Jung
Gnostic Gospels
Gospel of
Mary
Magdalene
Origins of
Satan
Ancient
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Adam, Eve
& the Serpent
Teachings of
Christian Mystics
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The Da Vinci Code, Gnosticism and Inner Knowledge
MDS WebMaster Gerard
April 14, 2005 {Edited Feb. 8, 2006}
Today as I read my usual morning newspapers on-line I came across another article about the controversial Da Vinci Code written by Dan Brown. The article was an update to NBC's Dateline presentation of 'The Secrets to the Code' and supplements their fictional presentation of 'Revelations' presented on Wednesday night. What struck me about this article was the important role it gave to the Gnostic Gospels and how the Gospels played into the scenario of the whole idea behind Brown's book. It also took me back to my early spiritual re-education {I am a recovering Church of Christ} and of the role the Gnostic Gospels had in forming my present day philosophy on spirituality. And although nothing was said in this particular article  about Elaine Pagels, the similarities in Brown's book and the much older books by Pagels are inevitable. Brown's fictional conclusions in the Da Vinci Code are in line with the factual conclusions presented by Pagels in her book. Both the fictual version of Brown's book and the factual works of Pagels address what is basically Jung's idea to the spiritual aspect of the psyche. Brown's thriller is an exhaustively researched page-turner about secret religious societies and ancient coverups. Pagel's Gnostic Jesus is the secret inner spiritual wisdom that matches Jung's spiritual aspect. The Da Vinci Code's ancient cover-up corresponds to the cover-up by the unconscious mind as prescribed by Jung's model of the psyche.
In the Da Vinci Code the Holy Grail isn't a cup, but a code for the lineage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Maurice Timothy Reidy's Breaking the code says this:
Magdalene, it turns out, wasn't a prostitute, but a close companion of Jesus. Her real identity was concealed by early church leaders who feared the truth would undermine church teaching on celibacy (which, of course, hasn't been questioned since). "The church, in order to defend itself against the Magdalene's power, perpetuated her image as a whore and buried evidence of Christ's marriage to her," one character explains breathlessly, "thereby defusing any potential claims that Christ had a surviving bloodline and was a mortal prophet."
Pagel's argument is that the church intentionally portrays Mary Magdalene in a bad light because of it's desire to promote patriarchy as the dominate force in Christian theology. And for Jungians such as myself the intent is not only patriachy but also the defamation of the feminine psyche, which in Jungian thinking is superior to the masculine. To admit that the feminine is equal {as did the Greeks with their Gods & Goddesses}, would tear at the foundations for which patriarchy are built on. It is as much an attack on the feminine psyche as it is women in general. Thus Mary Magdalene is portrayed as a prostitute when in all probability she was a disciple, even Jesus' most trusted.
Few Christians are aware of the Gnostic sect that lived in the first and second centuries after Christ. The Da Vinci Code, although fictional, provides insights to perhaps the true historical Christ, truer to truth than the that portrayed in the Bible. Whereas the Bible, and Jesus, were edited many times over through the centuries, the Gnostic Gospels are unedited from their original words, buried for 2,000 years, and original. For the Gnostics Jesus is seen as real but more as a mystical, spiritual being, which in the patriarchial, orthodox Chrisian faith is heretical. The Gospel of Mary Magalene, a Gnostic Gospel, describes Mary as the most trusted of Jeus' disciples {remember, these gospels have been bury since the 3rd. century AD, untouched, not contaminated by man} and the others were jealous of her.
Holy Blood, Holy Grail**
I first read Holy Blood, Holy Grail some years ago and it was natural that Dan's Brown's DaVinci Code struck a cord. Several of the claims used as key plot elements in the Book, and movie, are first noted in Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are suing Dan Brown's publisher Random House for plagiarism on the grounds that his book makes extensive use of their research and that one of the characters is named Leigh, has a surname (Teabing) which is an anagram of Baigent, and has a physical description strongly resembling Henry Lincoln. In the book Brown also mentions 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' as an acclaimed international bestseller (chapter 60), and claims it as the major contributor to his hypothesis.
Update on lawsuite The London court found for Dan Brown, the suite was dismissed....
Update on Lawsuit from MSNBC { April 7, 2006}
But withstanding that, the hypothesis is compelling. For a Jungian such I it makes all the sense in the world. In both Dan's Brown's DaVinci Code and Michael Baigent/Richard Leigh's Holy Blood, Holy Grail we are introduced to the Gnostic Jesus, and the feminine principle which was given so much consideration from Jung in his psychology of the psyche. Why would the church, Catholicism, object so streneously if these publications/movie did not present a threat to the dogma it has preached since the 3rd century? Take a close look at Leonardo Da Vinci's most famous painting, The Last Supper. The aspostle seated to his right. Is that Mary Magdalene**, the first Apostle?
The Lost Gospel of Judas**
'Gospel' Offers Radical New Perspective on Judas
Another recent gnostic gospel, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot, has been widely reported on by the national press and news media {MSNBC Article**}. This is an ancient manuscript rediscovered after 1,700 years that takes a "contrarian" view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, the disciple who handed him over for crucifixion.
Instead of portraying Judas Iscariot as a traitor, as the canonical gospels of the New Testament do, this document — the Gospel of Judas — indicates that he acted at the request of Jesus to help him shed his earthly body. The newly translated document’s text begins: “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot.” This gospel presents a mystical aspect of Jesus which is denied in orthodox teachings. Because of the Gnostics believed in a personal relationship with Jesus, a mystical relationship, the church conedmed them as heretics and their supposidly secret knowledge direct from Jesus as blasphemy. Of course this is exactly what Jung instructs to look for when seeking the "Individuated Self"**.
Link: From the Gnostic Gospels, The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/d50.html
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=19330
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/pagels.html
Holy Blood, Holy Grail
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0440136482/104-0747973-7423939?v=glance
http://www.equip.org/free/DG040-1.htm GNOSTICISM AND THE GNOSTIC JESUS
Melbourne, Fla. Dreams & Metaphysics
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