The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, pt. 2
and how to interact with this work
Today we’re going to explore Chapter 5 of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Before we get into the text, I want to take a moment here to acknowledge some basic guidelines in understanding how I interact with and present it as a Priestess. What I write and share here is not prescriptive. You may choose to interact with this text, my musings on it, and any other spiritual or philosophical text however you wish. My intention is simply to explore it, present whatever it presents to me, and invite you into your own exploration.
First, the Gospel of Mary was not written down by Mary Magdalene. I thought that was common sense, but the comment section of my Instagram video proved otherwise. Like the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Christian New Testament, the Gospel of Mary was recorded by a student of her lineage.
To quote my friend, teacher, and historian of Hellenic religion Bria Melitta,
“As an historian… was the Gospel of Mary written by Mary Magdalene? No. And neither were the other Gospels - they were written in the descended tradition of an evangelist (Luke, Matthew, etc). In other words, a student of their lineage eventually sat and wrote things down. Some of that was historical, and some of it was undoubtedly mythological, rhetorical, or theologically/philosophically creative. Mary’s Gospel is not just a “Gnostic forgery” - it is a text which was crafted like any other, reflective of spiritual movements and interests in that time period. That is how ancient texts evolved from oral teachings in the first place. Just like Mark or John. This is also not controversial… it is New Testament 101.”
It was written down sometime in the second century, only a couple of decades after those four aforementioned books. Now, these couple of decades seem to be very important to certain Christians and Biblical scholars. It is essential here to think critically and contextually about why the Gospel of Mary might have come later. Historically speaking, the Church destroys feminine wisdom as it is written down. This is not an opinion. Pick a saint, any saint, who happened to be a woman. While they were alive, most them were put on trial and had their shit burned. This is the world we live in. In fact, it is why only fragments of this gospel remain. We must consider that the Priestess cults of the ancient Mediterranean claimed Mary Magdalene as one of their own (and still do), and we recognize the emphasis on oral tradition as a means to protect the wisdom as it is being passed down so that it might survive various patriarchal cultural footholds. Of course they waited. Of course it was received as “apocryphal.” It was going to be destroyed anyway. The students of Magdalene knew this then, and we know it now.
The final straw-man argument to defile and relegate this text to the cutting room floor of history is that it is not “inspired by the Holy Spirit.” This is something Christian extremists say when they know, on some level, they don’t have a leg to stand on. Who decided which texts were inspired by the Holy Spirit, especially at the councils of Nicaea, Rome, Hippo, Carthage, Florence, and Trent, where the Biblical cannon was created and affirmed? Men. Men in positions of power within religious hierarchies that all had political agendas one way or another.
If I read this text - or, if I watch a particularly poignant film, or hear a pop song, for that matter - and I feel God moving within me, around me, above me, and below me, why the fuck should I care whether or not men in the year 325 AD believe that the media I’m encountering is “inspired by the Holy Spirit” or not? What if I’m inspired by the Holy Spirit in certain moments, and whatever I encounter therefore presents the Divine to me then? What if I see god everywhere? I’m not special in living this way, all my favorite people see reflections of Love everywhere they look. Even in the rubble. Respectfully, darling, this criticism doesn’t make any damn sense, and feels a lot like a fear-based, misogynistic control tactic to separate us from our own inherent understanding of Divinity. Because it is. It is profitable to make you believe you are separate from “God.” You are not.
Personally, my spiritual life does not involve allegiance or blind faith in any one book, ideology, or system of thought. Biologically and culturally, I am the latest in a long line of Mystery-workers. We interact with the Mysteries of the Divine, the Universe, and humanity, from many different angles. Spiritual, philosophical, academic, scientific, artistic, mythological, mystical, and on and on. We explore. We learn. We tend to and protect. We share and guide others in their own engagement of that same process when they come to us and ask. We protect the Mysteries by both accepting various undeniable, universal truths as they present and prove themselves over and over again, while refusing to assume the position of “expert.” The smartest I will ever be is recognizing that I know, relative to all there is, a very small fraction of nothing.
Mystery work often ruffles the feathers of anyone who has married their relationship to faith with any specific religious structure because it is inherently UNCERTAIN. The rules and regulations presented by the religious industrial complex offer and depend on the acceptance of a rickety little crutch for the masses, which is why I find so many Christian people specifically are quick to react and attempt to impose their understanding of truth as THE truth. They NEED a voice outside of themselves to assure them that their faith will save them from the Unknown. The Unknown is the human condition, so it can never go away. In fact, it is the context that gives faith any significance and function at all. There is an argument to be made here that the more you need rules and structure in your spiritual life, the less faith you have. I’m not making this argument, as I’m not sure I agree with such a generalization. I’m just saying the ingredients are there.
This kind of fear masked as certainty keeps itself just under the surface, rumbling and ready to be expressed at the drop of a hairpin. I would like to offer here that I do know some modern day Christians who truly walk in the real teachings of Yeshua, not the cult of confusion and fear that the Church has become, and thus are not so insecure in their own faith that they have to perform it as truth at me or others whose understanding might be challenging or expansive for them to encounter. Yeshua himself was a Mystery worker, after all. His keenest students walk in this.
The Mysteries arrive again and again when our human need for the illusion of safety imposes hubris. The Mysteries humble us back into remembering just how small we truly are, and just how BIG the entirety of creation is. I get why it scares so many people. It’s daunting to stand fearlessly on the edge of the void when you’re invited to. But here I am, dancing my way through it. It’s not always that deep. It becomes a lot more fun once you just begin.
And now onto Chapter 5…
Chapter 5
1) But they were grieved. They wept greatly, saying, How shall we go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man? If they did not spare Him, how will they spare us?
2) Then Mary stood up, greeted them all, and said to her brethren, Do not weep and do not grieve nor be irresolute, for His grace will be entirely with you and will protect you.
3) But rather, let us praise His greatness, for He has prepared us and made us into Men.
4) When Mary said this, she turned their hearts to the Good, and they began to discuss the words of the Savior.
5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.
6) Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.
7) Mary answered and said, What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.
8) And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision. He answered and said to me,
9) Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me. For where the mind is there is the treasure.
10) I said to Him, Lord, how does he who sees the vision see it, through the soul or through the spirit?
11) The Savior answered and said, He does not see through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind that is between the two that is what sees the vision and it is [...]
(pages 11 - 14 are missing from the manuscript)
Here we encounter Mary and the apostles in what we can assume are the days or hours after the crucifixion and/or resurrection of Yeshua. We witness their grief, their questioning, and their doubt in what he instructed them to do.
I love the beginning of this chapter so much because we see Mary holding everything together. She grounds the space in the faith and Love she feels moving between she and Yeshua. She throws the cold water on them, says, “Buck up, we’re all Men here,” and they lock back into the Good. Only after she roots them back into it.
It is well-known amongst the Mystery workers of many lineages how close Mary and Yeshua were. Even in the bastardized and common understanding of their relationship, there is recognition that they shared a rare intimacy not experienced by the other apostles. Peter acknowledges this, but with an agenda: spill sister! What did he say to you that he didn’t share with us? Here is where things get interesting, and directly point to the wisdom of ancient alchemical practices from the temples and Lady Isis Cults of the ancient Mediterranean, who practiced within the container of the Heiros Gamos, or sacred marriage.
Mary shares that she had a psychic vision of Yeshua in verses 8 and 9, and he does not dispute this in her account of their conversation about it. In fact, he praises her for her ability to see in this way at all. She then asks how this works, on a mechanical level. How like a studied woman, a keeper of the Mysteries herself, to not just bow down in awe, but recognize the power he is reflecting back to her through this affirmation. She does not simply shut down and fawn over him the way so many are said to have reacted to Yeshua’s gifts. On the contrary, she pulls the thread. A recognized equal in the dance, which is what the basis of Yeshua’s overall mission and message is.
And, of course, the text is lost just as Yeshua begins to explain his understanding of this psychic sight.
I feel inclined to share that we might shake our fists at the sky and grieve for the loss of this wisdom, but that would be in bad faith. This wisdom is not, in fact, lost. It was carried through oral tradition and has since been written down in other texts. It is also worth mentioning that it is not exclusive to certain people or cultures - whether well documented or preserved orally, we find instances of this particular wisdom throughout the history of humanity. This is because it is a Truth. So we can recognize that, when living a soul-led life, we all know exactly what we need to know when we need to know it. No wisdom is withheld, and when it is, perhaps it’s for the best. The Celtic/Druid blend lineage I come from is famous for never writing anything down. This is because the ancestors understood the power of certain wisdom. Terrible things can happen when a true Mystery worker is not tending to and protecting the wisdom as it’s being taught. We must carefully impart this wisdom onto those who come to us and exhibit the signs, a solid foundation for the intricacies to land, and pure intention. This is not to “gate keep,” per se, but what happens when you try to teach calculus to a third grader? No one understands each other and everyone ends up crying. Just look at the Money & Death Cult that self-proclaimed “followers of Christ” are blinded by while they quote and thump the Bible.
There are certain aspects of this work that are revealed to those who are meant to actually get in the weeds with it. It doesn’t make anyone better or worse, more or less valuable or enlightened than another. There are just different paths in this shared experience, and not every aspect of all that has come to be understood about working with the Divine will land in a helpful way for everyone.
Sometimes, it’ll rock your shit.
Sometimes, certain wisdom is not written down so that it can, in fact, be kept.
For those who have ears to hear, remember?
Next week, we’ll explore the next surviving chapter of Mary’s gospel. It is nutrient-dense, and drops us right in the nitty gritty of a conversation between the soul and the seven powers of wrath. It’s kickass, and I can’t wait to share what it’s given me with you.
Thanks for being here!
xx Meg