Is Mary Magdalene the Mother of God? Russian News Source reports: POD OF DOLPHINS BRINGS ICON OF The mother of god to shore in Sochi

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/104337.htm

This incredible event happened on May 17^th 2017. Surely this is a miracle equal to the big catch witnessed by Peter and the disciples gathered by the shore after Easter.

The 12 dolphins brought a mud encrusted icon of the Mother of God to shore. The disciples brought a fish numbering 153, a number long regarded by mathematicians as the icon of the Vesica Piscis.

For centuries before John wrote the Gospel story of the big catch, mathematicians and people using gematria equated the number 153 with the Vesica Piscis and Mary Magdalene.  The Vesica Piscis, the bladder of the fish, is the shape of the space between the intersection of two circles with identical radii.

The ratio of this space between the two intersecting circles is 265/153.

Since the average gestation period for the human fetus is 265 days after the night or day of conception, it has been suggested that the Vesica Piscis is the Womb of Life, the yoni of the goddess https://www.britannica.com/topic/yoni.

So, one would think that 265 rather than 153 would have become the abbreviated number for the ratio of the Vesica Piscis. Yet 153 is the divisor and the multiplier and perhaps that is why it gained more significance.

Margaret Starbird and many people down through the ages have suggested that the Fish caught in Peter’s net with the number 153 is the Vesica Piscis, the long-lost Bride of Christ.

According to the Neoplatonist Iamblichus writing in the 3rd century CE, Pythagoras told a story very similar to John’s story of the miraculous catch to his students in the 3^rd century BCE because the Vesica Piscis is a foundational concept for geometry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_catch_of_fishhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_catch_of_fish

So, this mathematical evidence suggests that John may have used this story for a similar purpose—to reinforce the authority of the Mother of God and all women.

Mathematics is said to be a universal language. It may be the common ground that can unite believers and non-believers with a shared conviction that the Vesica Piscis and all women are created in the image and likeness of the very womb of creation. In the Christian context, Mary and other women are absolutely necessary for the bodily resurrection of the risen Christ, the next generation of Christians.

Unless women and men have sexual desire or some inclination to have intercourse with the opposite sex, they will not beget any children. Without sons and daughters in their networks, humanity won’t have the abundant, eternal life that Jesus promises. Granted, not all people have to be heterosexual or sexual. However, according to John’s Gospel, Jesus is.  Jesus is the Bridegroom of John’s Resurrection Story, the very one who belongs with the Bride (John 3:29).

The number 153 like the Trinity, is a triangular number.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/153_(number). The addition of the first seventeen numbers 1+ 2 + 3 + 4+ 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 = 153.

According to Margaret Starbird, the number 153 is the sum of the Greek letters in the title η μαγδαληνη, the Magdalene—in gematria. Gematria is the Greek and Hebrew literary technique that assigns a numerical value to each letter of the alphabet to reinforce the meaning of the text (Magdalene’s Lost Legacy: Symbolic Numbers and the Sacred Union in Christianity, 41;139).

Margaret Starbird and others are sure that Mary and Magdalene and Jesus were married. Yet, many scholars like Darrell L. Bock say that Mary better serves her community as a disciple, not a wife and as such makes a better witness to the risen Jesus (Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answering the Questions Everybody’s Asking, 167).

As a feminist, one might think it would be better that Mary be remembered as a serious scholar or disciple rather than a bride or wife who is subservient to a groom or husband, especially if she was a notorious sinner in need of repentance. However, in my view, a serious mature Christian and feminist can celebrate the Magdalene as the Cross of Jesus and the Mother of God, the feminine body of Jesus, the Fish emblazoned with the number 153.

One may ask, how can any serious Christian or Magdalene devotee celebrate the Magdalene as the Cross that caused Jesus to suffer and to die?  One simple way is to think about the Cross as a person, as a female, as the Magdalene.

Think of the Woman who brazenly anointed the Teacher in front of Simon an esteemed elder of the faith. Simon and the Teacher in that story both say the Woman is a sinner. The Teacher and Simon both know she has sinned. However, by anointing the Teacher in front of Simon, the Woman is asking Simon and those who love her to forgive her, get behind her and lift her up as a forgiven sinner and an example of the kind of love that brings peace and the assurance of eternal life. At the conclusion of the anointing story, the Woman goes in peace.

As history bears out, many disciples simply dismiss the Anointing Woman as a sinner and a loose woman and fail to hear her voice in the stories of Jesus.

Many people see Jesus as the perfect, obedient Teacher whose teaching caused such controversy that the government of the day had him crucified…silenced with Mary Magdalene clinging and weeping at his feet.

Movie makers, artists, song writers and story tellers have exploited this story to depict the suffering of an almost naked male as if he was actually nailed to a wooden cross.

This image of the suffering Christ makes it nearly impossible for anyone suggesting the crucifixion is a meta-metaphor, an icon par excellence. Yet, I believe the Cross is the icon of the Mother of God who presented herself as the “fallen woman” to teach people the resurrecting miracle of love and faith that can bring people back to life—even after 2 millennia.

Paul says, I died with Christ, the anointed one when he accepted the Cross (Galatians 2:20). According to Paul, Christ accepted the Cross and died to the Law and came alive again as the Law of Love took root in his heart and soul (Romans 6: 5-11). In other words, Paul and Christ’s followers died to their former sinful ways that failed to love and honour both our Mother and our Father and our neighbour as ourselves (Romans 6: 5-11).

Paul, Cephas and Apollos realize that the crucifixion can divide believers and separate the mature Christians from the infants (1 Corinthians 1:11-13). Like Paul and the first Christians, the Cross causes believers to quarrel, suffer and work patiently to free people enslaved by old prejudices and religious values that fail to openly recognize the Father of Alexander and Rufus as the one shouldering and lifting up the Cross!

The Father of Alexander and Rufus is a key verse (Mark 15:21). His name is Simon and he opens and closes the door with his body and permits only those Christians who love to see Jesus face to face. Another important fact that the mature Christian needs to know is that Alexander was long regarded as the incarnation of the Greek God Apollo.

These two keys, point to a third. Rufus is the Latin word for red-haired one. The Woman recognized down through history as Mary Magdalene who brazenly anointed the Teacher in front of Simon was depicted as being the red-haired one, the one having red hair (Mark 15:21; Luke 7:36-50).

The Cross is an easy mystery or code to crack for intelligent beings. She is the Icon of all icons and she has been muddied and tossed into the abyss. Mature Christians seeking to free people enslaved by old prejudices and religious values can easily and patiently remove the mud without damaging the Iconic Cross and see the Glory of God for themselves.

So, stop doubting and believe. It was no accident or coincidence that a pod of dolphins swam into shore on May 17^th 2017 and spit out a muddied icon of the Mother of God. Dolphins are intelligent mammals.