The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine

by Margaret Starbird

In an era that has reclaimed many aspects of the feminine, Margaret Starbird’s The Woman with the Alabaster Jar stands out as a courageous exploration of the scorned feminine in the Western religious tradition. But espousing the marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene created a personal crisis for this Catholic scholar. In The Goddess in the Gospels the author tells how she was guided in her ever-deepening study of the New Testament and the gematria--number coding of the Greek alphabet--by an incredible series of synchronicities that mirror the inner and outer worlds and which reveal the Sacred Marriage of male and female--the hieros gamous--leading to her own personal redemption.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Feminism, Spirituality, Christianity, Womens, Theology

181 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pretty interested in this book because a) I like to read books along these lines and b) this lady used to live in Nashville, like me. But... I quickly came to realize that, while this woman is apparently very educated (her c.v. says so, and she uses big words sometimes), she has no clue how to write a book. She uses esoteric words, symbols, references, and footnotes that lead nowhere, at least in the context of her book. I'm used to flipping to end-notes, following the research trail, and the like, but her editor should have caught this: her endnotes often lead to NO explanations, and she lacks references where they're due, quite often, leaving me wondering where she got her information, or whether she just had a dream about it one day and thought it was the truth from Godde. Also, I cannot get over how! many! exclamation! points! she! uses! Good lord. I started counting them. Sometimes on one page, I could count 10. I get that she's emotional, writing an emotional book about the sacred feminine, so she needs to be all crazy new-age and intuitive and she doesn't need to rely on masculine things like research and data and facts, but it got tiring... and left me wondering if she shouldn't have stayed in her terry bath robe that pissed her off so much in Nashville.

[Monty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually the first half of the book was a three star read. I have a keen interest in Mary Magdalene, and it makes sense to me that she married Jesus, and they had at least one child. This book describes the process the author went through for her to write The Woman With the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail. The author was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and was a devout Catholic. When she started reading information about how the RC Church kept the feminine out of the Church she felt ambivalent about this new information and how it contradicted all her years of worshipping prior to that time. She experienced much guilt, anger and more. She even went through a mental breakdown as her belief system was shattered and she rebuilt herself, similar to a Phoenix experience. I was raised Jewish and grew up in a RC community. Much of the RC and Christian beliefs don't work for me. However, if the masculine and feminine aspects of religion can be balanced, I am much more open to this kind of egalitarian belief system, though I still think that Jesus was a man, not the son of God unless we are all considered children of God.

[tosca · Rating 5 out of 5]

lo q más me deja claro es que es importante el cuestionamiento de la feminidad en una religión tan importante cómo lo es la cristiandad en el mundo, aplaudo a la autora, que aún con su experiencia sumida por el sesgo católico se dejó llevar por su instinto y puso en palabras perfectas la importancia del reconocimiento de la mujer, la diosa, en la experiencia de un ser humano.

[Lisa Litberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book proposes the same possibility of The DaVinci Code: that Jesus and Mary Magdelene were once wed. This book, however, is non-fiction, and really more of a journey through the author's life as she grappled with this possibility. After a series of coincidences (and reading Holy Blood Holy Grail, upon which The DaVinci Code was based), Starbird was forced to confront her faith and the beliefs with which she was raised.

I won't spend any time arguing whether her premise is possible. I will say, however, that I had a hard time getting through this book. Though the author's style is conversational, it didn't grab me the way, say, Stephen King's memoir-type book did. And though I find the subject matter interesting, I wasn't convinced that the coincidences Starbird writes of were more than just coincidence.

I do really like Starbird's take on the future of Catholicism (and the world as a whole). She believes that restoring Christ's lost bridegroom will restore a balance to the world and equality between the sexes. In my mind, that is a nice ideal, whether Jesus and the Magdalene were wed or not.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I honestly thought this book would be an academic exploration of Christianity's tendency to downplay (at best) and demonize (more likely) the role of the feminine. It's not. It's a nice-sounding middle aged lady talking about her own spirituality, and how she wants to be a good Christian but can't always because Christianity subjugates her. She talks about her own interpretaiton of the Gospels - one interesting passage is where she realizes that the statement "women will be bound to men in heaven as on Earth" pretty much means she's her husband's property in both life and afterlife - but aside from finding like-minded Christian wives and forming a coffee clutch, she doesn't really do anything about it. Or at least, she didn't for the first half of the book. By that time I was bored to ears by her pilgrimmage to various churches where she pauses in front of every rendition of the Virgin and weeps that I stopped reading. For a watered-dwn expose of Christianity's history of demonizing women, I'd have been better off reading The DaVinci Code.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, I couldn't wait to get right to Margaret Starbird's memoir of how she came to write that book. I found her honest search for truth and commitment to her findings, in spite of great personal sacrifice to be deeply moving and inspiring.

I appreciate her explanation of how we have arrived at a male centric church and society and how Jesus' true message was deliberately obscured by those in power.

Starbird gives offers not just a feminist treatise on how women have been oppressed for 2000 years, but she gives a well grounded solution for healing what ails us, personally and culturally, in the balanced and divine union of sacred masculine and sacred feminine.

Margaret Starbird and her passion, commitment, faith, intellect and courage are a gift to the world. I am grateful to have found her work!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book about the sacred feminine. It's not the most in-depth book, but it covers most of it in at least overview fashion.
Most of it is written in the context of her personal spiritual journey and insights in relation to the Magdalene, but I found that to be a great thing whereas other might be turned off by it.
I have not read her first book, which she references a few times, but you still know what's going on, at least well enough to continue with the book. Definitely readable for just about anybody, and pretty fun. I read it all in a day and I didn't want to put it down.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not as good as the Woman With the Alabaster Jar (WWAJ). This book is the story behind her research in WWAJ and gets more into gematria and how that's calculated. But that's it.

[Sebastián Hernández · Rating 2 out of 5]

Empezaré diciendo que es no es lectura sencilla de seguir. Desde el inicio del libro sabes el final del mismo por lo que realmente la lectura es solo un camino para que te vayan dando pruebas de la conclusión final. En mi opinión es un libro donde la autora relata su camino y da una serie de pruebas que no están conectadas entre ellas, solo una seria de casualidades que le han pasado en su vida y que ella interpreta de la forma como mejor se acomoda. A mi modo de ver la redacción no es nada buena y los capítulos no están nada conectados entre ellos. No le pongo una estrella porque rescato que la autora se ha basado en literatura y ha puesto bibliografía para dar mas credibilidad a su libro. Pero realmente no recomiendo leerlo.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book recounts Starbird's on faith story. Relying much on gematria, a number of artistic traditions, and the concept of prophesy in general, Starbird finds that the feminine aspects of faith have been lost or, at times, hidden. The overall theme and the use of gematria in general are unique aspects to this work, and while certainly controversial, interesting. Starbird's work has found its way into popular fiction through authors such as Dan Brown, among others.

See my other reviews here!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would read this before Starbird's other books.

I would have better forgiven the author for the first chapter in her first book. Understanding now that she came from mystical practice of Roman Catholicism helps to frame mystical interpretations, when it was the thread of the historical I was gathering.

I lean agnostic when contemplating a "God" or Starbird's much improved "Godde," as I explore my own relationship with what is divine & unifying.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat bizarre, but an interesting data point in my research on the Feminine Divine. The appendices were among the best bits, and so I think I would have benefited more from her original book, The Woman With the Alabaster Jar. Maybe I'll read that one at some point.

[Graisi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to like this, but as other reviewers have mentioned, it's mostly a bunch of coincidences made to look like evidence, as a woman questions her belief system. I only made it about halfway through.

[katherinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Brum Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally bonkers yet absolutely fascinating. If only we could truly rebuild the world without the patriarchal monotheologies!

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read Woman With The Alabaster Jar, I think I was expecting something more from Gospels. There was very little about the actual Gospels, let alone any Goddess. I understand, the Magdalene is an enigma, there is very little written about her specifically, even in the Gospel of MM. However, because Starbird had such amazing examples of the feminine in Jar, my expectations were set high.

This turned out to be a memoir of Starbird's journey to the Magdalene and the heresy. There isn't anything wrong with that premise, if it were consistent. I would have interested in reading her detailed account of finding information, maybe some pictures of the items that she felt were the strongest. Instead, we're being told of her family and her discovery while trying to be convinced that she's right. Using the Exclamation Point often and repeatedly kind of right. Look, I get it, this got you excited. But this felt like it was reaching...very far reaching; into prophetic revelations and signs from God? We're talking about psychics (sort of) and listening to our inner voice now?

In the end, it felt weak. Not even any new, albeit circumstantial evidence was presented. From chapter to chapter, page to page, it felt like I was reading the same lines repeatedly.

[Allysmom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was going to be educational on some level---- Boy was I wrong! Major disappointment!
The first half of the book is about the author having a mid-life crisis with regard to her religious belief. She seriously over-analyzes events, whether they be natural disasters or premeditated, into something that is destined to happen. Which we all know is really not the case here. If Mount Saint Helens wants to erupt, it will! It's all part of the planet's evolution--- Anyways...
It's not till you get half way through the book that she starts making any kind of sense about what the actual title of the book is suppose to entail. And even that wasn't worth the trouble of reading it! Like I said, major disappointment! It took a lot of effort to finish it because I got sick of reading about someone else's life changing religious event!

[Valency · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a little swept up in the premise of this book and the funny coincidences that happened to me while I was reading about the coincidences that were the hallmark of the author's winding spiritual journey in search of the sacred feminine. The most memorable thing that I took away from this book is the awareness of the vesica pisces, and how that shape represents the goddess, and seems to appear everywhere. In the end, I disagreed with her premise that the "three marys" of the gospels were one in the same.

[Aj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an autobiography of a woman coming to terms with information that her orthodox Christian background tells her is blasphemous. In the context of the culture, it isn't shocking that Jesus was married. It is more shocking that the idea is considered blasphemous and is denied. The style of writing is very much like a Greek meander moving forwards and back. I would have preferred things kept in a chronological order instead. I found the few comparisons of Isis and Mary Magdalene rather interesting.

[The Overflowing Inkwell]

Well I really liked this one. I can understand why some may not find this their cup of tea, but I really did enjoy reading this: it was what I hoped for when I read Path of a Christian Witch just recently. I want to read every book in the Bibliography now! If this kind of Christianity is possible, then I wouldn't feel too bad about signing on - Jesus and Mary Magdalene as divine partners? Let's do this.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book is terrible, truly. The second half, however, is far batter. Starbird urges readers to reclaim the divine feminine, and that is a valuable pursuit. I wish this had been a more consistent read.

[Amber Ziegler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't remember a whole lot about this book, but the topic, the sacred feminine, is fascinating.

[Uber Chic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book about Mary Magdalene. I thought Margaret Starbird did alot of great research into this book. All women need to discover the sacred feminine. Thank you, Margeret!

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Autobiography of how Margaret Starbird came to believe how she does. Interesting story, and information.

[Justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read, well researched book about the sacred feminine & the sacred union

[Cicely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reclaim the sacred feminine!

[Cynda welcomes prayers for health. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind opening. Life changing.
Glad to know the Being I call The Man God also has a Feminine Aspect.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very valuable, despite being rather tangential. Enjoyable.