Product Description

In Invoking Mary Magdalene, Siobhán Houston shares the compelling story of Jesus’ preeminent female disciple to help us rediscover the long-eclipsed feminine heart of Christianity. With her, readers will learn a wide-ranging program of prayers and practices inspired by the Magdalene, including: • Gnostic, Kabbalistic, and Grail meditations for opening to divine wisdom • Accessing your personal power by connecting to Mary Magdalene in her Dark Goddess aspect • Consecrating your sacred space—ideas for altar design, prayer beads and shawls, and a devotional garden • Practices to enhance healing and compassion • A guided visualization into the Cave of Saint Baume, said to be Magdalene’s final home in France, and much more. With this integrated book-and-CD tool, now readers can join the growing number of people from diverse spiritual traditions who have come to share Mary Magdalene’s gnosis—her indwelling knowledge of the sacred and divine—and gain the riches of her timeless wisdom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #275517 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-30
• Released on: 2006-03-01
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 100 pages

About the Author
Siobhán Houston is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a doctoral candidate in the study of religion at the University of Exeter (UK). She is a longtime student of the Western mysteries and has written widely on contemporary religious issues for several national magazines, including GNOSIS: A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions, Parabola, and Intuition Magazine, among others. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she teaches at Naropa University.

Customer Reviews

A practical guide to approaching the Magdalene
Siobhan Houston has made a unique contribution to the growing literature on Mary Magdalene. While many books are focused on history, theological reflection, or alternative spiritual perspectives, Houston offers a practice-centered volume. The pratices range from rituals to a rosary to making a garden, and are flexibly constructed so as to be useful to seekers with many different approaches to the Magdalene (as Goddess, Christian saint, Jewish woman, female manifestation of the Christ, etc). Definitely a must for those who want to pursue a relationship with Mary Magdalene.

"Liturgy for the Magdalene"
As a co-leader of a Magdalene Circle, I found this book a wonderfully helpful guide to developing ways to publicly honor Mary Magdalene as Sacred Complement and Divine Partner. Siobhan Houston has given us the next step to take after immersing ourselves in study about early Christianity and Mary Magdalene, when we find ourselves wanting to express devotion to Her. Suggested prayers, a nine day devotional practice,and a July 22 Magdalene Feast Day ritual all serve to bring the devotee into an experience of gnosis of the Divine Feminine Wisdom. The book satisfies both a thirst for knowledge about Mary Magdalene the women and a thirst for experiencing the dimension of consciousness where She is available to us all. Accessing this dimension is facilitated by the book's wonderful CD of guided meditations.
Thank you, Siobhan Houston, for creating a bridge upon which deeply intuitive/feeling women can walk again into Christianity.

I loved this book, but...
This book contains some very solid, practical ways of starting up a spiritual practice devoted to the Magdalene. Unfortunately I could not get past the whole "let's throw Kali, Sekhmet, Hecate, and the Magdalene into a blender!" concept that she tries to sell. None of these goddesses have a thing in common with the Magdalene except maybe their gender. I would've loved to have seen some genuine cross comparisons and rituals between her and very similar goddesses who are equally as popular, and would've made far more sense to include: Isis, Astarte, Aphrodite, Ishtar, and Inanna are just a few I can rattle off the top of my head. I think that she is trying to market this book for the type of person who would be much happier picking up a book on Teen Wicca. Nonetheless, this book has a lot of excellent ideas in it and I found that the information included was just what I was looking for--when I ignored all of the "dark godddess" nonsense, that is.