I recently re-read Dan Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, and could not help the sense that the story has implications relevant to our Faith. Briefly, for those who may not have read it, it is a mystery/thriller based on the legend of the Holy Grail. Although this relic is commonly thought to be the chalice from which Christ drank at the Last Supper, later used at the scene of the crucifixion to catch the Savior's blood, there is an ancient legend that describes this as a metaphor.According to this alternate version, the chalice represents Mary Magdalene, supposed to have been the bride of Jesus, who escaped to Europe following the crucifixion and bore His child, founding a bloodline that exists today. Without going into a lot of obscure detail, there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence down through the centuries that this may indeed be the truth. There is in fact ample evidence that Leonardo and others coded this information symbolically into many famous works of art, music and literature.
The broader picture concerns the campaign to devalue the sacred feminine principle, beginning with the early Church and continuing to this day. The insistence of traditional Western religion on the exaltation of the male and the belittling of the female is the root cause of many of the problems inherent in our society. Of course, this effort is not limited to the Christian church. There are no female clergy in the Jewish, Muslim or Catholic religions, and this tradition goes back for centuries. The way many of us struggle with the issue of equality today is an indicator of how complete our indoctrination has been.
That the suppression has been damaging to us culturally is obvious, and has never been secret. The romances of the troubadours, about the wounded king who could only be healed by reuniting with his mystical queen is a coded _expression_ of the goddess' underground life. The recovery of the missing balance is the theme of alchemy, the Tarot, and many other esoteric sciences. It is also a recurring theme of Gnosticism.
The Baha'i principle of the absolute equality of the sexes, the "two wings" principle, is thus a challenge to traditional religions which strikes at the very heart of the established church. I would be interested in any comments the list members may have.
Dave Lambert
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