Seeking Out Mary Magdalene

By Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

Mar. 29–Could Jesus and Mary Magdalene have been married? The idea brought to the masses in novelist Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” also turned into a movie, brought angry responses of heresy, academic counter arguments and renewed interest in the life of a woman mentioned in the New Testament and often confused with several women named Mary who appear in the Bible.

For author Margaret Starbird, Brown’s novel brought more recognition. The book references two of her works on the subject of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, including her 1993 book, “The Woman With the Alabaster Jar.” In it, Starbird describes how she went from a believe-everything-you’re-told Catholic to one who questioned the church’s teachings and came to her own conclusions about the role of Mary Magdalene. She’ll bring her PowerPoint presentation and perspective to the Triangle in April for visits at Raleigh bookstores and a Unitarian Universalist fellowship.

Much of Starbird’s research conclusions are based on her expertise in Medieval art and artifacts. In her workshops, she shows how those artists found ways to express the idea of Jesus and Mary Magdalene through their work. Starbird believes that Mary Magdalene carried Jesus’ child and that the bloodline continued in France. She cites Medieval artistic examples of images of the fleur-de-lis, letters MM and the Holy Grail.

“We can’t prove the heresy was true, but we can prove that many people believed it was true,” Starbird said in a phone interview with The Herald-Sun this week from her home outside Seattle. She studied literature, Medieval studies and German at the University of Maryland, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She also studied theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Tennessee. This won’t be her first time in Raleigh. From 1969 to 1970, she taught German at N.C. State University.

Back then, Starbird did not entertain the idea that the Catholic Church would not tell the truth about something. In 1983, a friend recommended she read “Holy Blood, Holy Grail,” another book referenced in “The Da Vinci Code,” which introduced the idea of a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Starbird was shocked by the idea and left the library without the book. But two years later she did read it, as well as a book about the Vatican bank scandal.

“A lot of Catholics believe the priests are good and holy men that tell the truth and only the truth. I never questioned it. When I read these alternative things, I was horrified at first. It was blasphemy. So I prayed about it,” she said. She also researched nonbiblical writings and myths and concluded that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and that the Church forced the subject underground. In 1986, Starbird launched her first workshop to explain the idea.

She starts “The Woman with the Alabaster Jar” with a fictional story about what happened to Mary Magdalene after Jesus’ death. “My theory is they protected her too well. She was pregnant and had a daughter in Gaul. People who knew kept her hidden,” Starbird said. Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” follows the same theory. Brown didn’t contact Starbird until a few weeks after his novel hit the best-seller list in May 2003. She has met with him multiple times and doesn’t mind that he referenced her work. Brown told her that he was on an airplane in 1988 and saw the person seated next to him reading “The Woman with the Alabaster Jar.” The recognition that Brown’s work brought Starbird has led to her higher profile, as well as her book being printed in 17 languages.

Starbird travels and gives presentations at Unitarian Universalist and Unity churches and, occasionally, Episcopal churches.

“The people who are not bound by thinking Scripture is the literal word of God, but rather revelation on a spiritual plane, are open to my interpretation,” she said. She looks at pagan myths and New Testament references as the basis of her theory.

Many religion scholars, like UNC’s Bart Ehrman, do not agree with Starbird.

“You can’t miss it if you’re looking at it from a spiritual view. But if you’re reading history, you don’t see it,” she said.

Starbird says she is not an enthusiastic Catholic and is upset with cover-ups within the church.

“A heretic teaches what the church doesn’t teach. A prophet teaches what the church does not teach yet. I teach what they taught in the beginning and have forgotten,” Starbird said. “I love Jesus and Mary Magdalene more than I ever did even. It’s just the Church I have a problem with.”

She thinks by discouraging reading of “The Da Vinci Code,” the Catholic Church showed a closed mind and lost credibility.

“I believe there’s truth behind the fiction in “The Da Vinci Code. If you don’t examine it, you’ll never know,” she said. Starbird is now working on a screenplay about Mary Magdalene.

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