Messages 2002

The devils in Mary Magdalene.

March 12th, 2002

Received by H.

Cuenca, Ecuador.

[H.: Dear Judas, I would like to ask a question concerning what you told me yesterday. It is about Mary Magdalene. The Bible tells that Jesus cast out devils from her.

Mark 16:9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

Luke 8:2 And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils…

Am I right in assuming that this is a picturesque formulation, that Jesus had succeeded in cutting the rapport between her and the dark spirits who surrounded her?]

Yes, you are right. This is exactly what it is about. There is a message received by Mr. Padgett right on this subject. I want you to reproduce the pertinent part here.

“I know that the Bible in many places speaks of my casting devils out of men, and of men being possessed of devils, and of the apostles casting out devils, and of their not being able to cast out some of these devils, but I tell you now that the Bible is all wrong in this regard, and the writers and translators of the Bible never understood what the word devil, as used in these various instances, meant or was intended to mean. As I have told you, there was never any devil or devils in the sense mentioned and taught by the churches, and consequently, they never could have possessed mortals nor have been cast out of them. It is true, that by the workings of the law of attraction, and the susceptibility of mortals to the influence of spirit powers, mortals may become obsessed by the spirits of evil - that is evil spirits of men who once lived on earth - and this obsession may become so complete and powerful that the living mortal may lose all power to resist this influence of the evil spirits, and may be compelled to do things that the mortal will not desire to do, and to show all the evidence of a distorted mind, and present appearances of a lost will power, as well as of the ability to exercise the ordinary powers given him by his natural creation. And in these instances referred to of casting out devils, wherever they occurred, and they did occur in some of the instances mentioned, the only devils that existed were the evil spirits who had possessed these mortals.

And this obsession obtains to-day just as it did then, for the same laws are in operation now as were in existence then, and many a man is in a condition of evil life and disturbed mind from the obsession of these evil spirits; and if there were any men of today in that condition of soul development and belief that my disciples were in, they could cast out these so called devils just as the disciples cast them out in the Bible days. ”

I want to reiterate that all revelations are the products of a given time and of people’s mentality that live in that time. Some people take the Torah, the Law, that is to say, the five Books of Moses, as God’s selfsame word. And then they make every effort in their intellectual acrobatics to explain why God gave regulations on the treatment of slaves. Doesn’t this mean that He approves of slavery? And in a similar way, there are many more atrocities in the Bible, all of them the products of HUMAN conception of justice.

However, we should not waste our time repeating these things that are already common knowledge.

The story of the Magdalene has much deeper implications. We should review the group of disciples, as it was in those days. Andrew and Simon Kefa, two fishermen, people of the lower social class. John, James, Philip and Simon the Zealot, ardent fanatics. Jesus never asked them if they had murdered people, because that is what the zealots used to do. Matthew, the scum of society, a corrupt leech, who fixed taxes and who did not care to take away the last goat from a poor peasant if he could not pay what Matthew had fixed for him. I, Judas, a dreaming youth without life experience. Nathanael, a rich and honest man. James and Judas, the Master’s brothers, respected artisans. Thaddaeus, another respectable person in society’s eyes. It was an odd mixture, from despicable to socially acceptable people. And now, Mary, a harlot, joined us. And Jesus, did he care what people had done in their past? No! What he saw in all of them was their quality as humans, as souls. What he cared about was the present, what they did now, what they represented now, their will for changing their ways, for improving.

Did Jesus judge? Sometimes he did, for example in those last days in the Temple of Jerusalem, where he exposed the corruption and hypocrisy of the ruling class. But he never judged people according to their past. He always saw them as they were at that moment, he always saw their potential for improving. And that attitude would create problems for him.

“Holy men” traditionally did not mingle with people of dubious background. Half of his disciples were not “clean” people in the social sense. But he did not care. He had understood one thing quite clearly: The Law of Compensation treats us according to what we are, and not according to what we once were.

But returning to our story, we have almost come to the end of the Master’s first teaching journey. It was a very successful trip, of course, where he had won several disciples who would continue with him permanently, and he had firm foundations for his reputation as a great sage and healer.

We continued north to Kpar Nahum, where our group separated. Some, as Thaddaeus and Jesus’ brothers, returned to their respective homes, with the promise of returning within two weeks, and the others, we stayed, continuing in our work as usual, and trying to follow the teachings that Jesus gave us continually.

Next time, I would like to talk about some very important events in that year 26.

See you soon

Your Celestial brother,

Judas