Sunstone

For the last few weeks I have been listening to one or more graduate-level seminars in Mormon studies per day at the Sunstone Symposium, via the miracle of cyberspace!

Sunstone Symposium decided that the theme for this years conference was to be the Divine Feminine!

In 2004, they asked Maxine Hanks, the editor of Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism if she could help them find a keynote speaker for the plenary session.

They said they wanted someone was familiar with the Divine Feminine; had published research; was well versed in Mary Magdalene; someone who was known/had books, a popular speaker with accessible ideas, oh, and if there was some kind of connection to the Da Vinci Code that would great, and not just a scholar but some one spiritual as well....

Maxine just couldn’t stop thinking: you're describing Margaret starbird!!!

Opening the session, Maxine expressed that she has noticed increasing interest in the Divine Feminine coming from men, even BYU professors!
i.e. Dan Peterson’s paper on the Asherah:
http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=jbms&id=223

Maxine talks about her excommunication as the typical pattern of the exiled feminine.

Maxine says that Starbird's books contain close scholarly work into the scritptures but Maxine also realized that she was "reading the words of a mystic." Dan Brown and starbird share a common thesis:

There is a hidden concept of sacred marriage or the balance of opposites symbolized by Jesus and Magdalene and it’s the central mystery, or the underlying pattern of Christianity and western culture.

After the time was turned over to Margaret she began to illustrate how the Song of Songs, aka the Song of Solomon, is at the very heart of the Christian story.

Margaret reported the story of how she came across the Book Holy Blood Holy Grail and sought out to discredit the book. She then discusses the mystical, synchronistic experiences that led her to do a 180 and come to her current thesis.

Click on the link below to go to the Sunstone MP3 store. Many of the sessions are free. For the more recent sessions they are asking for a $4 donation.

Select the 2004 Salt Lake Symposium below:
SL04091
RECLAIMING MAGDALENE: THE LOST BRIDE IN CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGY
http://www.sunstoneonline.com/symposium/symp-mp3s.asp

JUST IN!
Margaret Starbird's appearance at the 2005 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium. Check the link above for the latest symposium.