Magdalen Rising: The Beginning

Am enjoying this novel immensely so far. It has been a refreshing novel to pick up and read after not reading anything for awhile. Am so glad I found this book. It has made me laugh and smile. Am only a quarter of the way through it, yet I highly recommend it if you like adventurous goddess type heroines and Celtic spiritual themes.

Recently, in Janet Boyer's ` The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present ,' I came across author Elizabeth Cunningham's illustration of how a character and his/her exploits in a book could be symbolized by the cards of the Tarot. The character in Cunningham's example was her own creation, Maeve Rhuad, the star of three of her novels (with a fourth entitled Blacked-Robed Priestess in the making) that together comprise the "The Maeve Chronicles ( The Passion of Mary Magdalen: A Novel (The Maeve Chronicles) , Bright Dark Madonna: A Novel (The Maeve Chronicles) )." With major arcana cards like "The High Priestess," "The Tower," "The Devil," "Death," "The Hanged One," and "The Star" introducing the outspoken fictional Maeve, I could not help but be compelled to give this series a try. And I am so delighted that I did. "Magdelen Rising: The Beginning," the first in the series chronologically, presents the story of so-called `disciple' Mary Magdelen's tumultuous relationship with Jesus of Nazareth from a new and fiery perspective that cannot fail to entertain those who want to go beyond the mystery of  The Da Vinci Code  and understand the myth and earthiness of the civilizations that lived before Christianity changed the known world.Grant you; this depiction may offend those who strictly adhere to the written word of the Bible, although the story told in these pages deals with the time in Christ's life before his thirtieth year. Many theories exist as to what Jesus of Nazareth did between the ages of twelve and thirty. Legends of Great Britain include that of the magical island of Avalon, King Arthur and the Holy Grail in which Joseph of Arimathea (the owner of the tomb in which Christ lay after his crucifixion) plays a large, if not mythic role. In "Magdalen Rising: The Beginning," Cunningham embellishes the link between Christ and the British Isles by weaving a magical tale that begins on one of the Shining Isles. Tir Na mBan is a legendary place of the Celts populated by beautiful women who function similarly to Circe and the Sirens of Greek Mythology in that they had the power to entice men to their island home and keep them sated with music, good food and of course, sex to the point that they had no desire to leave.As a daughter of Tir Na mBan, Cunningham's Maeve epitomizes the strong Celtic woman. Voluptuous, redheaded, athletic, brazen and clever, she tells her story on a multi-dimensional level that transcends time. Foregoing the use of metaphor and language of the era of Roman expansion into the British Isles, Cunningham opts for the vernacular of today's world so that today's reader understands on today's terms emotional, mental, physical and spiritual underpinnings that are universal to the human cosmology rather than just to a particular age. The reader gets the sense that Maeve has been sent to instruct and guide rather than to just tell her tale. In a pantheon of gods and goddesses, she stakes her claim. In `Magdalen Rising: The Beginning,' Maeve relates her childhood of discovering the ancient mysteries on the shining isle of her birth and her life as a bard student at the Druidic College on the Isle of Mona, sacred to the druids and priestesses and the site of much destruction by the Romans in 60 AD.With a masterful hand reminiscent of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon series ( The Mists of Avalon , Lady of Avalon , The Forest House (Avalon, Book 2) ), Cunningham threads together the Celtic legends of Bran and his sojourn with the women of Tir na mBan, the sea diety, Manannán mac Lir, and the Banshee (bean sídhe) with the historical facts of Mona's destruction as related by the Roman Tacitus ( Complete Works of Tacitus ), the ensuing rise of the Iceni tribeswoman Boudica and archeological facts gleaned from the discovery of Lovernios, the Lindow man, an assumed willing sacrificial victim found preserved after two thousand years in a Manchester bog in 1984 ( Life and Death of a Druid Prince .) In addition, with the familiar Judaeo-Christian Bible stories featuring Jesus arguing with the rabbis or being heralded by the dove, or confused by his future mission, she calls to mind the eventual sacrifice that runs like a literary theme throughout all of humanity's cultures from the Greek Dionysus to the Egyptian Osiris and the pain it brings to those closest to it.This idea of sacrifice entwined with duty comes up often--Cunningham's Lovernios character like that of Ross and Robins' Bog Man, fears the encroaching power of Rome. Intrigued by the advent of the foreign teenage Jesus called Esus by the druids of the college after one of a trio of gods later invoked to aid the Celts in their struggle with Roman intervention, Lovernios decides that Jesus will make a fitting sacrifice. Cunningham authentically and expertly includes the real practice of the Druids where in order to insure a good harvest or good tidings a willing sacrificial victim was selected for a ritual death at Beltaine or Maytime by the use of a lottery where a burned barley griddle cake was torn into fragments, and placed in a sack. Each candidate for sacrifice would withdraw a piece where the burnt piece marked the loser.But no reader of this stirring story told with Maeve's no-holes-barred exuberance could ever be a loser. The intermingling of different cultural myths sings the need for a savior and Cunningham delivers the goods, in not one package, but two. I look forward to reading the rest of this most interesting take on the Jesus/Mary Magadelen relationship told from such a fresh perspective. Brava, Ms. Cunningham.Bottom line: In Magdalen Rising: The Beginning, Elizabeth Cunningham does a fine job of creating a heroine worthy of being the focus of a bard's tale. Feisty and irrepressible, Maeve, or Mary Magdalen struggles with her identity like any burgeoning adult while she rises out of the realm of myth to become a viable flesh and blood woman that walks at the side of Christ. This the first of a four-part series tells of Maeve's birth, childhood and meeting with Jesus at the Druid's College on the sacred Ynys Mon. Told from the perspective of a Mary Magdalen that speaks in a modern voice, the novel depicts many thoroughly researched aspects of Celtic life and gives a universal voice to ideas of love, freedom and sacrifice. Highly recommended although with the caveat for those who are not open-minded to fictions depicting Jesus in any other venue than that detailed in the Gospels.Diana Faillace Von Behren"reneofc

I really think the main character, Maeve, came through the author, Elizabeth Cunningham, to write this.

To start with-yes this book "Daughter of the shining isles" and you shouldn't waste your money if you already own that book. But by the time I heard of that novel, it was out of print and expensive to obtain. So I went with the newly published, changed title version.And I loved it. Really, really loved it. As a pagan, a woman and a lover of literature and history.So lets say that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were cosmic twins of a sort-both born under that shining star-only Jesus was born in Bethlehem (but in a cave not a stable) and Mary (Maeve) on a semi-mythical island of women on Britain's western shore. That they meet in visions and dreams and finally at druid school on the Isle of Mona. Who knows-maybe it could have happened. Lots of people think Jesus might have been in England at some point.I was raised without any influence from the Christian faith (except that which is gained through osmosis simple from living in America) so I can't speak to the Christian implications and inside jokes and hidden meaning in the book. But I can say that if you can accept it without feeling obliged to yell out "Blasphemy!" then you will find some kind of statement of faith inside these pages you can relate to.In addition to the faith element of this novel there is a huge humor strain-even about the heaviest of subjects (and there is a great deal of heavy subjects. If you can't stand sorrow, fear, and sacrifice-don't read this.) Maeve's narration is at times laugh out funny, at times a little gross with potty jokes and a few too many references to functions of the female body. But it all evens out leaving you hopeless entwined with her story by page five. And the sense that are you reading about more than just a girl who got caught up in history by a quirk of fate. Maeve was meant for such things. Fated to be....a god? Goddess? Or just Maeve....Maeve the brave....Five stars.

This series is so lushly feminine and hilarious and ridiculous and sexy and soulful and clever and biblical and blasphemous and ... sigh, a re-read. A many times over re-read. Don't expect this to be vanilla Christian cookie cutter fiction spew. And neither is it another woman-insulting Magdalene worship/DaVinci Code wannabe/ conspiracy theory/Harlequin Romance masquerading as Historical Fiction. Its in its own category. Its as if someone found the bible without the parts where women were little more than slaves, weak damsels to be rescued, or harlots on trial for having sex and being pretty and having wanton thoughts, etc.. The author has created the best Mary Magdalene I've yet read in a novel. A beautiful, lusty, strong willed, mystical, Jesus loving, God Fearing, No-one fearing, mouthy no nonsense woman that I wish I could know. Heck-I wish I could BE. The author's writing style is gorgeous too-expect to be truly swept away on her words. No its not fluff-don't mistake that for fluff. This series has ass. (And tits lol) And moments of such innocent love and wonder and pain and joy.. Plus the author isn't afraid to fully acknowledge there's magic in bible stories, and then expound upon that. You had better bring your most open mind to this read - I could see some Christians getting uncomfortable with some of the content. please don't let that keep you from this though-its in the best of spirit, and its good good fun. I just adore these! (can't you tell?) ;)

To read

I was drawn in from beginning to end! A story of strength, a bringing together of different cultures seen from a woman's perspective when history books seem to divide and separate them all . This is just the beginning of the story so off to read the next book now

Love Elizabeth Cunningham too

Layered, spiralling - a good old Celtic knot, beautifully wrought and cunning. Fun, wise, inclusive, intelligent, Wild and daring. Thanks x

Beautiful, intelligent writing that holds you captive from story opening to the last page. Elizabeth Cunningham knows where she's coming from and how to get her take on the Magdalen/Jesus union across to the reader. Brilliant.