Part III, Holy Land

Cana and Magdala on the Sea of Galilee

May 24, 2022

Hello Dear Friends,

Today is a beautiful day and much to be thankful for. I am very excited to be sharing these spiritual experiences with you.

This week’s letter will take us first to Cana and then to the Sea of Galilee. 

After the Church of the Annunciation, where I left off last week, we headed to Cana. I know this sounds odd, but in the days prior to coming to Israel, I had been so busy I had not studied the itinerary in detail. I knew the general path but had been too busy with moving and preparing for the trip to really look deeply at what we would be doing. However, this was not completely unintentional because I knew from experience that pilgrimages are different than a “trip” in that on a pilgrimage you follow your path in faith and so everything that happens on the pilgrimage becomes part of the spiritual experience. I find it is actually helpful not to know details or where I am going because then everything is in the Father’s hands and not my own. Yes, this was a “planned” pilgrimage that 206 tours put together, but as the pilgrim, I was letting myself be led. In this way, the path becomes a journey that takes on a life of its own. 

At the time, though, when I was at Cana, I wished I had looked over the details of the itinerary prior to arriving. However, now I know, looking back, it was necessary for me to have the experience I did there, blindly, and as painful as it was. It was necessary to the process of moving spiritually forward, the impact forceful enough to clear the way.

Cana, as you probably know, was where Jesus joined his mother at a wedding and He turned water into wine. It was where He performed His first miracle at the intercession of His mother, Mother Mary. As we were driving to the place where many believe this wedding took place (there are four disputed sites), our guide, Yousseff, walked down the aisle of the bus handing out white veils to the ladies. He began handing one to me, so I reached for it and said, “Thank you”. Then with a dawned look on his face, he pulled the veil away and said, “Oh, I am sorry, these are only for the married ladies”. 

A sudden stab went through me. If, perchance, you are a widow, you might know this feeling. Especially if you had been married several years. Ron and I would have been married 40 years had he been on this pilgrimage with me. ‘Only for the married ladies.’ I sat there, trying to get a grip on myself. Never, in the seven years since Ron had passed away, had I felt such a sudden stab of grief. Yes, there had been grief, but it was more of a stunned-locked feeling. This was sharp, driving up through layers. I am not an openly emotional person, though, and so I swallowed hard and tried to focus out the window, my mind drowning as I tried to come up for air. 

At this time, at the beginning of the pilgrimage, no one knew I was a widow. There had been no reason to tell them. So, it was in a daze that I found myself in a modern Catholic Church, with Father John explaining to us how the renewal of vows would take place. I had no idea prior to being on the bus that this was what our group was going to do here at Cana. There were five couples and Helen and I were the only solo pilgrims.  Father John asked that chairs be brought up in a semi-circle in front of the Altar and that the couples sit there so he could renew their vows altogether. Helen, who was in her early twenties, announced she would be the “reader” for the Mass. I was not sure what to do, so I sat alone in the pews.  

That was not an easy Mass to get through. During the ceremony, I struggled with feelings of grief, mixed with knowing I should be glad for the couples. Which I was, but I was having a hard time focusing on this and not how I was personally feeling. I chided myself for feeling so unhappy at a ceremony that was supposed to be joyous, but at the same time, it dawned on me how much Ron’s transition still affected me. I spent the Mass and the next hour on the bus trying to balance this and put myself back on track. This was the state of mind I was in when we reached our hotel early in the evening on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. 

It was a beautiful hotel, built by the Vatican for pilgrims, at a place called, “Magdala”, a place that sits alone in an area fairly rural. It is part of an abbey of nuns on one side with a modern chapel overlooking the water. On the other side were the ruins of Magdala. At the time of our arrival, though, I did not know these ruins were there or that it was Magdala, a place that is connected with Mary Magdalene.  

My first reaction to the place was that I was glad to be there after a long day- then I was taken in by the clarity of light and how happy the energy felt. I immediately liked the place, the feelings of grief and confusion dropping away. At this time, I did not even know the hotel was built next to ruins, let alone, the ruins of Magdala. I had somehow missed this information on the bus as we were driving to the hotel, so wrapped up with myself for feeling upset about the renewal of vows at Cana. Yet, knowing that the reaction came because I had not been prepared. 

So, when I walked to my room and saw that right in front of my door, just across the public hallway, was a wall of glass, with ruins outside, I was very surprised and intrigued. If the window had not been there, I could almost touch them. I remember thinking, ‘That’s cool! Ruins! Never stayed in a place practically on top of ruins before. Are they from bible times?’

It was still early enough in the evening that I had time to walk around the ruins and the little garden in front of the modern chapel before dinner. As I walked, I noticed a symbol carved in one of the stones that looked familiar. It was a medallion of some sort made of sacred geometry and the words “square center” came into my mind. This was not a Christian symbol. Rather, it was sacred geometry. 

Here, I need to tell you what was happening in my thoughts and about my past experiences with this symbol and the words, “square center”. “Square center” was part of the first message the Father gave me just prior to my awakening on February 3, 2000. The words were given to me during a trip in December 1999. I wrote about this experience in the “Letter to Share” post. The words were given to me in a dream while on an ancestral pilgrimage to England and the words were very clear and direct. “Go to the Square Center. I have shown you before. Find it and go there.” I did not know what the words meant at that time but later I would learn that the square center is a mathematical term that in essence is the place of location before conception. Spiritually it can be equated to our center within God. In sacred geometry, it can be found in Metatron’s cube, a sacred symbol of geometry that can be found in all geometric shapes in nature. 

The fact that the Father gave these words to me at the beginning of my awareness of Him is amazing because I had no idea what the square center was and I definitely had no interest in geometry or math. Throughout my school years, including college, I received terrible grades in all levels of math and my interest was such that I read romance novels in class.

Now as I studied this geometric symbol in front of me, besides the words ‘square center’ coming to mind, I was also reminded of a symbol I had seen before. Six petals, surrounded by six petals. Where had I seen that before? In front of this symbol, which was carved into a stone that was part of the ruins of a building, was a plaque explaining the archeological site and the symbol.  It was while I was reading the plaque that I realized I was at the ruins of Magdala and the symbol was called the “Magdala Rosette”. 

I read on and found out that archeologists are not certain exactly what the village of Magdala was. They knew it was a Jewish settlement, yes, because of the synagogue. You can still see the ruins of the synagogue, which were the ruins I was looking at. However, what intrigues the archeologist the most are the carvings of the Magdala Rosette, especially the very significant one inside what would have been the synagogue. They can’t figure out why it is there. My understanding from reading these plaques is that this is the only place they know of in the world where this symbol is found.

I stood there trying to comprehend what I was seeing, knowing it was of huge importance, the memory of the pattern of the symbol emerging from what seemed a long time ago. Then I realized the symbol reminded me of the geometric patterns that the Father had led me to draw back in 2008. I still had the drawings of course with all the writings that the Father had written through me over the years. I wished fervently, as these memories were dawning, that I had the writings and drawings with me on the pilgrimage. The only item I did have with me in Israel, from those years prior to becoming Catholic and Ron’s passing, was the book, God’s Daughter. I had had a strong feeling I needed to bring the book so that I could leave it somewhere on the pilgrimage, at a place of the Father’s choosing. This was something I generally did on trips and now the book was all over the world. 

However, now I am home, and I have had a chance to look at the drawings. What I have discovered is that the drawings are of the Magdala Rosette! These drawings are of a six-petaled flower and back in 2008, the Father had been teaching me about DNA and the missing Factor VIII in hemophilia. This had come about after I was given a ring of my dad’s, after he passed away, that I had never seen before. My sister and I had been going through his belongings at our grandma’s house, what few items there were, and dividing everything up. I chose the ring with the six-petaled flower on it because I was very drawn to it. This was fine with my sister because she took the garnet ring; which was the one she remembered him wearing. After putting it on I had been rocked physically with energy pouring through me and that night I had a very vivid vision. I had woken in a scream, not a scream of fear, but like a cry for justice, and directly above me was a heart- not a valentine love heart, but a huge human heart. I had no idea at the time what this vision meant but, in the morning, I had this need to draw the symbol of the six-pointed flower. From here the Father had taken over in a series of sketches and He had begun by dissecting the symbol of the flower to unravel symbols of DNA and the missing Factor VIII. The reason hemophilia was used was because this rare disorder is hereditary and it runs in my mom’s side of the family. There are different types of hemophilia but ours is what is called, “The Royal Blood Disease” because it also runs in the royal families of Europe. 

All of this about the drawings and the vision of the heart is recorded in my memoir, “Grandma’s House”, written in 2008, and in another memoir written in 2009, called “Family Happenings”. I have copies of them as well as having sent them out to those I trust, and they too have a copy that I know they have saved. I am so glad now I wrote everything down over those years from 2000-2014!

I know this is a lot to take in- it was several years in the making for me, but the Father began these lessons with the drawings by reminding me of words that had been written in the Messages to the People back in 2001. One of the first sentences out of the Messages is, “I pass through the Cross of David and am strong…”. This was the daughter speaking. And then He had reminded me of what he had told me back in August of 2001. I had been at Panama City Beach with my friend Alice, but alone one morning on the beach. It was there he had told me, “You were born beneath the Star of David…”. 

In 2008 when He had been teaching me through these sketches, He continued by adding back to the flower sketches to make the X and Y chromosomes across the petals, and then again, He used the figure 8 to form the eternity symbol 8, which is also a symbol of DNA. He then showed me the missing Factor VIII and how this carried on. I understood by this time He was not only teaching me about the missing Factor VIII in hemophilia, He was overall teaching me about the genetic line of David; which begins at the square center, as does all life. 

The above paragraph is very general and only an overview of everything these drawings contain. There are several pages of these drawings with explanations and a whole book could be written on it, but for now, this is enough for this letter. I have added some pictures of the beginning process of these drawings for you to see.

All in all, this process led to a genealogy project that the Father named, “Project Jeanne”, after Saint Jeanne D’Arc, whose name is pronounced like “Gene” and for “genealogy”. This project was begun back in 2010, but I will write more about this as time goes on. 

You can see how I was suddenly aware at Magdala, but it was way too much to take in all at once. Not after all those years and all that was between. Now, however, I am reawakening to everything that the Father had taught me and with the help of the early writings and sketching, everything is becoming even more clear. 

At Magdala, however, I was also struggling to remember all He had taught me about Mary Magdalene. He had written through me about her and Jesus and then later had given the go-ahead for me to research her through books. He does this so that I do not have any preconceived ideas before He teaches me. Only after do I research and compare. The writings and research about Mary Magdalene were between the years 2002-2004. However, I did not know about the Magdala Rosette on the stone at Magdala because it was not discovered until 2009. One year after the drawings in 2008 were made.

So, after I had read the information on the plaque in front of the Magdala Rosette I decided to walk over to the little garden in front of the modern church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. In front of the church, I saw a beautiful statue of a pregnant woman in clothes from biblical times. My immediate impression was Mary Magdalene and wondered why the Catholic church had this statue of her pregnant. I understood that she had been Jesus’s “companion”; which in the Christian view is seen as a disciple. However, I knew this word was translated from an Aramaic word that had more than one meaning, being a general word, that could be translated as “spouse”, or even “business partner”, as well. I forget now where I had read about this translation back in 2002-2004, but through the writings from the Father, I already knew she and Jesus had had a daughter together before I read about this translation, and this child would have carried on the line of David. 

Now at home, I have found the information again about Mary Magdalene being more than a “companion” of Jesus in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, by Jean-Yves Leloup and forwarded by Jacob Needleman. In this book, it is mentioned that in the Book of Philip, Mary Magdalene was kissed on the lips by Jesus. The Book of Philip, is one of the Gnostic books that was written by one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus that was not allowed into the bible we see today. Therefore, this view of Jesus having a physical relationship with Mary Magdalene is not in the mainstream Christian view.  I know that the Catholics do not believe in this relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene and this was one of those areas I struggled with as a Catholic these last years.

Therefore, seeing the statue of the pregnant woman in front of the church dedicated to Mary Magdalene brought surprise and in the flow of the statue’s figure, I saw a young woman, heavily pregnant with a look of happy contentment on her face. Like she was holding a happy secret. Then walking along the path, I saw two more statues, one of Jesus and the other of Mary Magdalene. They were looking at each other with love. Again, I was surprised.

Filled with information and impressions, I walked back into the hotel lobby where Father John was standing up at the bar ordering a drink. He asked me if I wanted a glass of wine or anything and then asked me to join him. As we sat there, I asked if this was where Mary Magdalene was believed to have come from. 

He nodded yes, looking at me questioningly, as though this was common knowledge. 

However, I had asked this question carefully because with pieces of information coming back to me, I knew that the church thought this was where Mary Magdalene came from because of the name of the village being, “Magdala”. They thought this because of the similarity of the name- however, I wanted the priest to confirm this because I remembered something else from the past, information that was vague. I would have to wait until I arrived back home and looked at my notes again to confirm it. This information that I was remembering was that the name “Magdalene” was a title rather than a place. That in Aramaic it can be translated to “The Tower”, which was a term that is thought to mean a high-ranking spiritual leader. Since I have been back home, I have not found this information yet in my past notes, but I did find a recent research paper by Elizabeth Schrader and Joan E. Taylor that suggests this as well. In this paper, they give evidence about the name, “Magdalene” possibly meaning “The Tower” in Aramaic. They relate this title in reference to her possibly being a spiritual leader in a Jewish sect. This paper was published by The Society of Biblical Literature in 2021.

So, after asking Father John about Magdala and Mary Magdalene I dived in and asked why the Catholic church had a statue of a pregnant Mary Magdalene. He jolted and said, “That’s Mother Mary.”

“In front of the church dedicated to Mary Magdalene?” I asked at his expression of incredibility. 

“Well…Yes.”

I was startled. It had not occurred to me that it would be Mother Mary- except for the biblical-style dress, to me, the statue did not look like Her, or like any statue or painting I had seen of Her. This statue was carefree. Mother Mary always seems serious, often with a look of compassion and motherly love, but this statue looked to me of someone in love. Also, thinking about it, I had seldom seen statues or paintings of Mother Mary pregnant. A few maybe, for example, Mother Mary on the donkey going to Bethlehem, but not quite like the statue portrayed. 

At least the church had finally dropped its terrible teachings of Mary Magdalene being a “prostitute”. They finally acknowledged some years ago that this was entirely wrong. However, not before a lot of damage to Mary Magdalene’s name had been done. Some still think of her in this way.

This slander had been done by Pope Gregory I in the early 7^th A.D. In a homily, he said, “She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary for whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark.” This gave rise to the belief she was a prostitute.  At least the church acknowledged this injustice and admitted the teaching was wrong.

It is still believed, however, that Mary Magdalene must have been very sinful because “seven demons” had been cast out of her by Jesus. However, I would like to mention a different view of this now that I am home and I am able to relocate information. In many spiritual teachings, including in early Hebrew teachings, it is taught that the physical body is connected to the astral body through energy centers called chakras. These energy centers spin like wheels and connect to corresponding parts of the physical body enabling the physical body to align with the astral body and the Higher Self. In order for the body and the spirit to align perfectly, these energy centers must spin freely. If these chakras are clogged or stuck, which happens often due to struggles in life and all the mental anguish and emotions that go with it, then we have a hard time connecting with our Higher Self; which is our center in God. If these chakras are not clear, we can’t “see” clearly. 

Chakras that are not spinning properly can also cause physical illness and all other physical and mental difficulties such as lack of sleep and panic attacks. I am going to refer back again to the book, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, by Jean-Yves Leloup and forwarded by Jacob Needleman, published in 2002. In this book, the author asks, could it be that Jesus cleared/healed Mary Magdalene’s seven chakras? Could the clearing of these chakras be the reference to the “seven demons”? The author goes on to explain, that Jesus healing these seven chakras would not mean that Mary Magdalene was a “sinful” woman, as it has been taught in Christian texts. Rather this would be a clearing of everyday emotional junk, like all of us have, so that these energy centers would be able to align perfectly and allow Mary Magdalene to experience a deep and open connection within her own being with God. As a great teacher, as well as the Son of God, I believe Jesus would have used this technique the same as so many great spiritual teachers have in the past. In this way, Mary Magdalene would have been clear and open to receive Jesus’s teachings fully, unlike the other disciples, except for maybe John the Beloved. It was she who first saw Jesus after He had risen and was sent back to tell the others. After research, I believe that this is because she had been brought into alignment, and she would have been ready and able to absorb and understand the Mystery of the Resurrection and be able to carry this teaching onwards. 

I find it interesting that the books not allowed in the bible, such as the Gospel of Mary, The Infancy Gospel, and the Book of Philip, did not make the cut at the Council of Hippo in 393 A.D. These books are the ones that talk about the human side of Jesus. Also, the Book of Thomas, another book that was not allowed in the bible, written by one of the 12 original disciples, lists the secret sayings and teachings of Jesus. Mysteries about the Sacred Union with God and how to achieve this through one’s own Being. 

I don’t know about you, but I feel cheated not having a more rounded picture of what Jesus was here to tell us and a clearer view of who He was; which these books would have given us. Some people may think that the church leaders knew what they were doing in 393, by not allowing these books in the bible, but I don’t agree. I think their decisions were based on twisting the future of the church to meet their own needs. This included removing Mary Magdalene from the height that Jesus had placed her as His special companion, the one He chose to carry the message of the Resurrection. 

Yes, the Father was waking me up. The fog over the last few years is clearing. There is so much to remember and so much that is making sense, including why the drawings of the six-petaled flower had come through me and why the Father had brought me to Magdala in Israel. It explains as well why He had me working on the project, “Project Jeanne” for so many years and why He brought to my attention the words, “I pass through the cross of David”. This genetic line of the House of King David, the House the Holy Family belonged to, is a line that many of us in the world are descendants from. That night at Magdala I knew this, but all the written information and research notes from the past were located back home. So, in the meantime, I was going to have to follow the Father’s lead; which at this point in my journey was what I was supposed to do. 

There is so much more to tell you! Next week I will write to you about the journey around the Sea of Galilee including the Church of the Primacy of Saint Peter where Jesus forgave Peter for denying Him three times and a boat trip on the Sea of Galilee. Until next week. God Bless- Jody