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Often events can have the desired effects for all the wrong reasons, a bizarre twist can often bring about the expected conclusion even though the manner of its arrival is not to be. Such it was that caused the writing of this book. When the book "Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" was launched upon the world, a book that was controversial in suggesting that a bloodline began by the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene was still in existence today, one Roman Catholic scholar found that her belief was profoundly shaken. In an effort to refute their outrageous claims, Margaret Starbird began her own quest for the truth of the matter. Instead of finding the evidence that she sought to bury these claims, instead she found new and compelling evidence for a bride of Jesus, the woman who the Bible clearly says anointed him with precious oils- "the woman with the alabaster jar."

This book is now over ten years old but the time is right for it to be brought back into the limelight. But where as books in this field seem to want nothing short of the complete overturning of an entire belief system, here we find a re-evaluation of just one person, a person who needs to be allowed to re-take the important position in the Gospels that she once held, before being marginalized by the male dominated medieval church. But more than that Margaret Starbird explores the feminine aspects of the Christian story; a long suppressed and often emotionally opposed side. She holds the view that the orthodoxy of the modern held view of the new testament is only held as orthodox because it won a political battle for editorial control in the early years of the church and the results have been promoted by the winners, the Roman catholic church ever since. But just because it won, does not mean that it is the truth. Might is not the same as right, as we all know.

In this book the author takes us on a journey through the various disciplines of history, heraldry, symbolism, medieval art, mythology, psychology and especially the Bible itself in a quest for the lost feminine. And if restoring the balance of the Christian message is in itself no small task, Starbird promotes the idea that this restored gender balance is also what is needed to help heal the problems of the very planet on which we live. Along side these global themes that may be hard to grasp due to their ephemeral and vague spiritual nature we also find themes that are more familiar. The Holy Grail, an idea intertwined with the story of

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