Margaret Starbird has outlined her conviction that "Christianity at its inception included the celebration of the Hieros gamos ("holy wedding") of opposites, a model incarnate in the archetypal bridegroom and his bride – Jesus the Christ and the woman called "the Magdalen".
This model of unity, tragically lost in the cradle of Christianity, is patterned on the fundamental blueprint for life on our planet, and manifested in the leadership role played by certain women in the community of Jesus' first followers."
[7] This marriage honored "the cosmic dance of masculine and feminine energies and the eternal cycles manifested by the Life Force", with Mary Magdalene designated the "Queen of Heaven".
[10][3] Margaret Starbird's father was Army Major General Charles Leonard, who won a Silver Medal in the modern pentathlon at the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany.
The paragraph concerned describes Mary Magdalene as "barren" and being "the mother of the angels"; one scholar observed that the Gospel of Philip goes so far as to say "that marital relations defile a woman.".