Jesus was an initiate and adept of the ancient Judaic mysteries who strove to reinstate the tradition of the bridechamber sacrament in his time • Shows that Jesus sought to establish equity of masculine and feminine in both spiritual practice and social traditions, particularly in the sacrament of marriage • Reinterprets Jesus’ key teachings in light of the ancient tradition of sacred consortship • Reveals what happened to the gnostic heart of Christianity that Jesus embodied Jesus was a high-initiate and master adept of the ancient Judaic mysteries who strove to free people from the dead hand of the ritualists. He was trained in a dissident Jewish brotherhood that arose in Egypt before he was born, which sought to bring back the ancient Judaic mysteries outlawed by the Jerusalem temple. At the heart of this movement was a yogic-based practice known in the apocrypha as the Gnosis of the Heart, which espoused the union of both sexes in a secret initiatic teaching. As a fearless social reformer, Jesus wanted to restore the authority of the feminine principle, including asserting the equality of man and woman in the social contract of marriage. He reinstated in his own life the tradition of sacred consortship--a rite known to early Church fathers as the bridechamber sacrament, whereby the marriage of the masculine and feminine energies was effected. This rite, Victoria LePage suggests, was the primary focus of Jesus’ teachings, the very heart of his exhortations to love thy neighbor, and the source of his healing power. Mysteries of the Bridechamber explains how, as a master adept of the Temple of Solomon, Jesus derived these teachings directly from ancient Judaic mystery traditions, revealing both a life story for Jesus that differs markedly from the version the Church has offered as well as a spiritual practice based on a mystical wisdom tradition of self-initiation and transformation.

Discover the spiritual depths of the Bridal Chamber, a realm in the heart that parallels the Jewish temple, and its connection to our intimate relationship with Jesus, our Bridegroom King. Learn about the three courts of the Bridal Chamber, their activities and meanings, including: The Balcony, The Inner Chamber, and The Innermost Chamber. Uncover the deeper meanings of: The Surrendered Heart, The Eternal Flame of Love, Love's Fragrance, The Seven-Fold Anointing of the Bride, The Transfigured Bride, and Divine Union. Unlock the mystery of Paul's words and their profound meaning in Ephesians 5:31-32 when he said, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

In Jesus the Bridegroom, Brant Pitre once again taps into the wells of Jewish Scripture and tradition, and unlocks the secrets of what is arguably the most well-known symbol of the Christian faith: the cross of Christ. In this thrilling exploration, Pitre shows how the suffering and death of Jesus was far more than a tragic Roman execution. Instead, the Passion of Christ was the fulfillment of ancient Jewish prophecies of a wedding, when the God of the universe would wed himself to humankind in an everlasting nuptial covenant. To be sure, most Christians are familiar with the apostle Paul's teaching that Christ is the 'Bridegroom' and the Church is the 'Bride'. But what does this really mean? And what would ever possess Paul to compare the death of Christ to the love of a husband for his wife? If you would have been at the Crucifixion, with Jesus hanging there dying, is that how you would have described it? How could a first-century Jew like Paul, who knew how brutal Roman crucifixions were, have ever compared the execution of Jesus to a wedding? And why does he refer to this as the "great mystery" (Ephesians 5:32)? As Pitre shows, the key to unlocking this mystery can be found by going back to Jewish Scripture and tradition and seeing the entire history of salvation, from Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary, as a divine love story between Creator and creature, between God and Israel, between Christ and his bride--a story that comes to its climax on the wood of a Roman cross. In the pages of Jesus the Bridegroom, dozens of familiar passages in the Bible--the Exodus, the Song of Songs, the Wedding at Cana, the Woman at the Well, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and even the Second Coming at the End of Time--are suddenly transformed before our eyes. Indeed, when seen in the light of Jewish Scripture and tradition, the life of Christ is nothing less than the greatest love story ever told.

Right from the very beginning in eternity past, God had planned history with His Son having a bride, a companion that would co-reign with Him and enjoy Him forever. That is the eternal purpose of God in creating a bride for His Son. If you read the Scripture from cover to cover, you would discover that God teaches us in a variety of different ways. Sometimes God uses powerful word pictures, sometimes He uses symbols, sometimes He uses examples of people both good and bad. Sometimes God uses a direct word, an authoritative word, sometimes He uses examples from nature, like a tree planted by the rivers of water that will not cease to bear fruit. This book highlights how God gave us an example of an ancient Jewish wedding ceremony that correlates with Christ, the Bridegroom, and His bride the church. From the father choosing a bride for his son, paying the bridal price, the bridegroom snatching his bride and bringing her to the bridal chamber, and then finally co-reigning with him in their household with him as the head. It is absolutely amazing the correlation between the two. What was a mystery to the Jews has been revealed. The mystery was that both Jew and Gentile called the church would be the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ is describing the kind of relationship we can have with Jesus. God is seeking willing lovers, who would voluntarily seek His heart, voluntarily surrender to Him, and voluntarily love Him with all their heart, soul and mind, and strength.

It is a well-known fact that in the late 6th century Pope Gregory shaped the image of the Goddess in the Gospels, Mary Magdalene, into a penitent adulteress and prostitute-labels more recently abandoned in favor of "devoted follower" and even "Apostle to the Apostles." Conversely, Jesus' image and character were refashioned into a divinely born hero archetype and the body of his Gnostic wisdom teachings redacted and corrupted to support the personification of a Messiah and world redeemer who would fulfill an ancient prophesy and proclaim himself "the way" to salvation. If not accurate, then what was Jesus and Mary Magdalene's true legacy? Ariadne Green offers up the image of Divine Complements who married, had children and whose lives and mission together spanned over sixty years. She traces their journey from Judea and Galilee to the Nile Delta in Egypt, after an aborted crucifixion, and then onto Gaul and Great Britain as the carriers of the Grail. The book reveals a secret identity for Jesus, one known by the Knights Templar and a group of Cistercian monks, who hid clues to a legacy of secrets in La Queste Del Saint Graal. We discover Jesus' authentic teachings survived and became the tenets of Valentinian Gnostics who disseminated them in secret and initiated disciples into a profound mystery-the mystery of the 'bridal chamber'.