SACRED UNION IN CHRISTIANITY

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UNICORNS

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The medieval unicorn is widely accepted as a symbol for Jesus Christ. In the
Hebrew Scriptures we find images of the “monoceros” ("one-horned
mammal") that are associated with power: “But my horn shalt thou exalt like
the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil,” sings the psalmist
David, blessing God for His continued support and blessings. The horn is the
New symbol for masculine power and virility, celebrated in ancient rites of
anointing of a lingham stone representing the Life Force. Anointing of the
“horn” is found also in Psalm 23: “Thou has anointed my head with oil; my cup
Neighbors overflows.” This assertion echoes ancient pagan rites of the “sacred marriage”
uniting the king with the princess/priestess who represented her land and
people. It was the role of the “Bride” to anoint the Sacred King and to be united
by Margaret Starbird with him in the bridal chamber, where the consummation of their marriage
brought blessings of life and fertility to the people, crops, and herds of the
realm.
a fiction story for children Various exotic legends are attached to the mythical unicorn. In the
ages 6-9 popular Physiologus, a bestiary compiled in the 3rd c. in Alexandria, we find
the ferocious unicorn, which can only be captured when he is lured to seek
refuge with his head in the lap of a maiden. The powder ground from the
unicorn’s horn was believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac and his horn was
New Neighbors further reputed to purify polluted or poisonous waters.

These interesting attributions are related to the image of the Unicorn as the
“Bridegroom King” of Israel, of the lineage of King David and heir to the
Hebrew Bible’s promises made by Yahweh that his descendants would rule
forever. The truth that Jesus was fully human, a virile husband and father, was
denied by the tradition of the medieval Roman Church that Jesus was the
celibate son of God, ruling with power and might from a throne in heaven. The
“waters of spirit and truth” which were to have flowed through the Christian
realm, nurturing the land and people, had been tragically distorted and
perverted. Only the “horn” of the Unicorn (the symbol for his virility) could
purify the polluted waters. This 15th c. illumination from a Medical journal
illustrated by Robin Tessart depicts the Unicorn, the “Maiden” and the
purification of the stream.

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"Maria Magdalena Y el
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"The Woman with the

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The roses above the head of the maiden and symbolic of the eternal
money order for $15 to: “Feminine.” The Maiden is wearing the red commonly worn by medieval
brides, while the lacing of the bodice is a style associated with pregnancy (since
Starbird Books, LLC it enables the gown to be adjusted).

PO Box 97043 The Church fathers, who recognized the Unicorn as a symbol for Jesus Christ
explain his head in the lap of the maiden by explaining that Jesus is trying to
Lakewood, WA 98497-0043 return to the womb of his mother. Clearly this is a stretch, an attempt by the
Church patriarchs to co-opt the popular symbol of the unicorn, but taking
away any sexual connotation of his horn. The representation of the “anointed
one” in the lap of the maiden comes straight out of the ancient rites of the
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hieros gamos in which the Bride chooses her consort and anoints him in a
ceremony foreshadowing the “anointing” that occurs in the Bridal Chamber
when the nuptials are consummated.

* * The famous unicorn tapestries “La Dame à la licorne” celebrate the Bride in the
garden awaiting this consummation of her nuptials in the final panel depicting

* the Bridal tent. Each panel represents one of the five senses, while the sixth
celebrates the “union” of the beloveds. In the first panel, “Sight,” the unicorn
has lifted the skirt of the Bride with his hooves and is gazing at his image in the
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tapestries is dressed in gold brocade, the wedding gown of the Bride of the
"The Tarot Trumps Messianic king described in Psalm 45 in the Hebrew Bible: “All glorious is
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the king’s daughter within; her clothing is wrought of gold; in embroidered
raiment she is brought into the king.” In numerous medieval paintings, Mary
Magdalene appears dressed in gold brocade, and the passage from Psalm 45
was, for centuries until 1969, part of the liturgy for her feast day, celebrated
on 22 July.

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BRIDE IN EXILE

In his book about the tapestries “La Dame à la licorne,” their long time curator
reports a suggestion that the tapestries represent tenets of the Cathar heresy.
We have the assertion of the 13th c. chronicler, Pier vaux de Chernay, that the
holocaust of the Cathars and their friends who sought sanctuary in the village
church at Beziers on her feast day in 1209 as “divine providence” punishing
them for their slanderous assertion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were
lovers. Apparently the belief was widely disseminated in that century, but
distorted and repudiated. The Vatican and the French king collaborated to
launch the Albigensian Crusade in 1209, reducing the beautiful towns of
Provence to rubble.

In the "Hunt" tapestries popular in the Middle Ages, the unicorn is hunted and
viciously attacked by dogs. Since the pure white unicorn is a symbol for the
virile "Bridegroom" Christ, it has been suggested that in the "Hunt of the
Unicorn" tapestries , the Unicorn represented the Cathar faith, hounded and
eventually destroyed by the Dominican "Domini canes" ("dogs of God"), the
order of Inquisitors designated by the Vatican in 1239.

Each of the early panels of the “Hunt of the Unicorn” tapestries displayed at
the “Cloisters” in New York City depicts a phase of the hunt culminating in the
extermination of the “Unicorn” (representing the “Bridegroom Christ” and the
tenet of the Cathars). But the final panel shows the unicorn in the garden of
delights, where each flower represents an aspect of love and fertility, and the
blood-red juice from the pomegranate tree above drips on his pure white coat.
The word “paradise” comes from the Persian word for garden, and in the Song
of Songs, the Bride is likened to a “garden enclosed.”

Among the watermarks found in the vernacular Bibles written on paper

manufactured in small paper mills throughout the “Languedoc,” unicorns are
the most popular of the images. Of approximately 13,000 watermarks collected
in the early 20th century from antique bibles and other medieval literary works
(notably the "Romance of the Rose" and "Song of Roland'), nearly 10% are
images of unicorns. My book, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar discusses
the faith of the Cathars as revealed in the symbols they hid in sheets of paper
after the faith was forced "underground" by the Inquisition and the
Albigensian Crusade (1209-1250). One charming unicorn is very suggestive of
the
“Bloodline heresy” of the “Sangraal” which asserts that Jesus and Mary
Magdalene were parents of a child whose descendants survived to become the
peers of European noble families. This unicorn watermark clearly depicts the
unicorn as associated by blood with the royal French “fleur de lis.”

Interestingly, this same distinctive flower appears to be growing in front of the

fence of the enclosed garden in the “Captured Unicorn” panel of the “Hunt”
tapestries. Both the watermark and the tapestries are dated c. 1500. It appears
that the “heresy” of the bloodline of Jesus was widespread at that period of
European history. Other watermarks depicting the “Lion of Judah” show a
similar theme as illustrated below:

Since both the Lion and the Unicorn are symbols for the legitimate King of Israel, it’s
easy to conclude that this fleur-de-lis in the heraldic animal's tail refers to the
bloodline of the heirs of Israel's King David.

There is no verifiable proof that Jesus, the “Bridegroom King” and his beloved Mary
Magdalene had a child and that heirs of this “sangraal” bloodline survived in Western
Europe. We have no marriage certificate for the royal couple, no birth certificate for
the Grail child. What can be proved is that this belief was widespread in the Middle
Ages, supported by art, artifact and legend in an underground stream of esoteric
wisdom, brutally suppressed by the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church.
COPYRIGHT 2009 MARGARET L. STARBIRD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.