While many Thelemites celebrate the image of Mary Magdalene as Scarlet Woman, rarely is this honor given to Mary, mother of Jesus. Mary seems most easily understood as an object of ridicule and scorn to Crowley himself, as in his infamous set of devotional poems to Mary, often referenced as his great “practical joke” with its Epilogue containing an encoded obscene reference to the virgin. Yet, as fellow ZeroEqualsTwo blogger Richard Kaczynski points out, Crowley’s obscenity is really an “overlay on an otherwise sincere poetic effort” and for many Thelemites the Virgin Mary, in her various forms, holds a significant place in their pantheon of spiritual powers.
In this spirit, Rebecka Eggers over at Rebelle Society provides us with a meditation on Mary as Scarlet Woman for Catholic Holy Week.
Come with me then. Let us be flies upon her wall.
Can’t you see her looking up at Him in the moments just before? Don’t you see her beautiful maiden eyes open wide and brimming with equal parts fear and desire?
Look at how her thumb and forefinger are crumpled against her lips as she wrestles with what is in front of her.
Listen to her thoughts as she goes through a quick rundown in her mind of what this would mean: My family will be mad as hell. I will lose all my friends. The town will be mortified. The rabbis will look at me with shame in their eyes. Joseph will probably (okay, who I am kidding, definitely) break off the engagement. I could wind up excluded, alone, even murdered.
Mary knew what He was asking and she was smart enough to fear it. But scarlet was Mary’s nature.
I stumbled upon this quite by accident. Thank you for getting it! I know this was posted months ago. But you made my 2015 year-end.