Women in the Church

The role of the woman in the Church has always been one of the most controversial points of Christianity, since no one provides convincing reasons as to why a woman cannot hold important positions in the ecclesiastic institution or even participate in an equalitarian relation with man in the liturgical duties. As the V.M. Samael says, a religion without goddesses is halfway to being atheism, since the Hebrew word ELOHIM, used in the Bible in relation with the creative divinity means Gods and Goddesses. Obviously, if the creation is sustained by the eternal masculine as the impulsive force, and the eternal feminine as the receptive force, both are necessary to make any creation. And, what is a ritual, if not a creation through the union of certain forces in a concrete space, with the intention of capturing a superior energy that increases the conscious field? Then man and woman, both in equal importance, are indispensable, each one in its role.

Priestesses existed in Egypt, as well as in Greece, Babylon, India and in all the pre-American cultures. It is at least strange, that in the history of Christianity the importance of the woman’s role in the way it is reflected in the texts found in Nag Hammadi, that is to say, at the same level of man, has been erased.

It is obvious that Christianity in the beginning emerges from Judaism, but it is not exclusively developed for Judaism. In opposition with the monotheistic masculine God, which gives grounds to the individual to mold the supremacy of the male in the physical world, a new cult that provides the possibility for women to share as an equal with the masculine element emerges based on the fact that Jesus never discriminated between man and woman.

Let us remember that the Gospel of Philip says:

“There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister and his mother and his companion were each a Mary.”

The references to God-Mother in the primitive Gnostic texts, as well as to the importance of the feminine disciples in the par excellence gnostic text, the Pistis Sophia, are plentiful. However, toward the end of the second century any active reference to the woman playing important roles within Christianity disappears from any official text. The figure of Jesus’ companion, as well as that of his mother, and even that of those of his most important female disciples among his approximately 60 direct disciples are eclipsed, overshadowed and even missing from the official texts. Those twelve symbolic apostles, which make reference to the domain of the twelve constellations that accompany the Intimate Christ, and that symbolize different parts of the Being, become a dogma of faith that “demonstrates in an irrefutable form” the absence of feminine disciples. And above all, any possible reference to Mary Magdalene as the companion of Jesus disappears.

“… and the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. But Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it.

…They said to him: Why do you love her more than all of us? The Savior answered and said to them: Why do I not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness.”

Gospel of Philip

Let us not forget that according to the Canonical Gospels, after his resurrection, the Christ appears first to Mary Magdalene; although the majority of his apostles do not believe her. This makes her the trustee of a special knowledge that speaks to us of the importance of the eternal feminine in the process of the culmination of the Great Work.

Christianity, like all the teachings of the great masters of humanity, began without distinction of sex or race, and shared all its goods in a community fashion. In it, women found their ancestral role in an equality of conditions with the male; and in this way the new cult expanded. Little by little, the Hebrew tradition was recuperating terrain in the new movement until the Christian institution emerged. Then, all the texts that exalted the woman’s figure and those that insinuated or declared openly that Jesus had a companion disappeared. Including those that gave special importance to God-Mother, like the Gospel of Peace, whose original is found in the Vatican and it is one of the most ancient and beautiful texts about the life and sayings of Jesus that begins talking of the Creation from the point of view of God-Mother.

When towards the end of the II century there was a sufficiently strong control of the institutional church, and with women having been relegated to a secondary plane, in the middle of this political-religious operation that was so cunning; the bases that no woman could play an importan decision-making role in church are established. The corresponding additions to the Pauline letters are done with the purpose of justifying “a posteriori” the institutional decisions. This gives origin to what the erudite denominate “pseudo-Pauline letters,” due to their evident differences of style and significance. As an example, the following paragraph from the first letter to the Corinthians:

“Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak; but must be in submission… as the law says. It is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”

Also during this time, the heretical groups are set apart due to the fact that in their meetings women participate in an active form, they speak, they work in an equalitarian level with men, they participate in the liturgical duties, etc. The single fact that a congregation functions in terms of equality means that we are before a “heretical” group.
This is the orthodox mentality, never that of Gnosticism. So, we see the following recommendation in Tertullian:

“It is not permitted for a woman to speak in the church, nor is it permitted for her to teach, nor to baptize, nor to offer the Eucharist, nor to claim for herself a share in any masculine function – not to mention any priestly office.”

According to these theories, the tradition of Jesus and the apostles indicates that they were all men, and therefore, the woman should always remain in a secondary role, although Jesus had never manifested anything to this respect.

It is a very simple method: first manipulate history as it suits and later be shielded by it to promulgate laws and important decisions. Eliminate from the texts all the material that can endanger the “institutional” ideas and later declare them heretical; this way it can be affirmed that the ideas that the Orthodoxy sustains are in accord with the essential truth. A tenebrous game that finally gave its fruits.

Once the woman was controlled and subdued, a significant change of direction is produced, the strengthening of the Marian cults in their eagerness to universalize the church. It is obvious that any religion of that time that wanted to spread through the Mediterranean could not forget that the cultures of that area have adored in its entirety the eternal feminine in her different forms. Isis, Demeter, Proserpina, Insoberta, Diana, Cibeles, Venus, Aphrodite, Ceres, Ishtar, etc. form part of the collective unconscious of those people. Thus, the Church attempts to syncretize the spiritual yearnings, of the people of that area, in relation with this eternal principle of creation, in a feminine figure. Finally, the Church achieved it by strengthening the figure of Mary, the mother of Jesus—that great Hebrew initiate—granting her the characteristics of these goddesses of the feminine cults; and even, placing Marian sanctuaries where primitive cults to this great cosmic principle previously existed. In this manner we understand how in a religion in which the figure of Mary is so important, we do not find any woman in important institutional positions; and furthermore women are prohibited to practice as priestesses of the Christian cult. Obviously, this did not occur in the Gnostic circles, and that was another reason for their persecution and disappearance.

For that reason, the cult to Mary is a belated cult in relation to other religious archetypes of Christianity; since to strengthen that image too soon would have meant not only a justification to give preponderance to the woman inside the institution, but also the possibility of confusing the rising religion with the ancient cult mysteries. Hence, first Christianity is expanded (for which the woman is indispensable), later women are subdued; and finally the Marian cult strengthens to assimilate the rest of the dispersed cults of the Mediterranean coast. This strategy gave its fruits to the point that even the names and attributes of those ancient deities were assimilated to a certain virgin of the many that Christianity has. A complete analysis of this exceeds the characteristics of this study, but many wise authors have already talked about it.

In this manner, the Marian cult spread with great force until becoming, in a transcendental way, part of Catholicism. To ignore the importance of this cult, as many sects that emerged from the root of the Reformation do, demonstrates a profound ignorance of the process of creation of the internal and external Universe in relation with the eternal feminine and its powers and attributes, which is indispensable for any religious postulate of a solar and serpentine type.

As the Gospel of Mary Magdalene in a masterful manner shows us, the root of all things lies in the seed, and it is always gestated in the bosom of Mother Nature. There the Savior reveals one of the biggest mysteries of human nature; one that due to the intolerance of the Roman Church has been taken away from its parishioners and substituted with dogmas and external cults.

“All natures, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots. For the nature of matter is resolved into the roots of its nature alone. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Marvelous is the mystery of all the Marys; hardly intuited by a religion that has fragmented, diluted and manipulated the cult to the eternal feminine.

~ Wise Person