Mary Magdalene Story – The Apostle They Tried to Silence

Today we’re diving into the real Mary Magdalene story. Not the repentant sinner you heard about in Sunday school, but Mary the priestess, the apostle, the mystic, and spiritual teacher who some early Christians, aka Gnostics, saw as Jesus’s equal partner in transmitting sacred wisdom.

A Divine Tale

This is a tale about divine feminine energy, suppressed teachings, and why understanding Mary’s true role might change how you see spiritual authority altogether.

So buckle up, because we’re about to uncover one of history’s greatest cover-ups.

I’ve been fascinated with the Mary Magdelene story for decades. When I first got wind of the idea that she was far more than a prostitute, I was completely hooked to learn more of her story.

Over 20 years ago I read the book The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird and absolutely loved it. She traced evidence about Mary Magdelene through history, in particular relying on art. While this may sound boring, it was actually super intriguing for me.

Years later in 2003, Dan Brown’s book The DaVinci Code was published. If you read the book or saw the movie, you know the story line is about how Jesus and Mary Magdelene had a child which is all about the blood line. Mary escaped to southern France, which I’ll talk more about in a few minutes.

The Official Mary Magdalene

Here’s what we know from the heavily edited and multiple-times translated biblical texts that made it into the official canon or what they call the Bible today:

• Mary Magdalene shows up in all four gospels.
• She’s there at the crucifixion when most of the male disciples had fled.
• She’s there at the burial.
• She’s the very first person to witness Jesus after the resurrection.

In a culture where women’s testimony wasn’t valid in court, Jesus chose a woman to be the first witness to the most important event in Christian history. The others didn’t believe her, yet the early church called her Apostola Apostolorum—the Apostle to the Apostles.

So how did she go from this central role to being remembered as a “fallen” woman?

The Great Silencing

In 591 CE, Pope Gregory the Great gave a sermon declaring that Mary Magdalene, the unnamed sinful woman who anointed Jesus’s feet, and Mary of Bethany were all the same person. That one statement recast the Apostle to the Apostles as a repentant prostitute—a label that lasted more than 1,400 years.

Modern scholarship shows these were three different women. In 1969, the Catholic Church quietly corrected the record in its revised liturgical calendar, but that’s not something you’ll often hear in a Sunday sermon.

Why merge these women into one “lowly” figure? In building a male-dominated church, stories of Jesus’s trusted female apostle—someone who received private teachings and comforted the disciples—posed a challenge to the idea that women should be silent in church.

The Lost Gospels

In 1945, the Nag Hammadi scrolls were discovered in Egypt. These ancient Christian (Gnostic) writings told a very different story about Jesus, this teachings, and hte role of Mary among other things..

The Gospel of Mary portrays her as a visionary leader. When the disciples are frozen in fear after Jesus’s death, she comforts them and reminds them of his teachings.

In this gospel, she also shares private teachings Jesus gave her alone, which infuriated Peter and made him question why Jesus would give his deepest wisdom to a woman.

The Gospel of Philip (also from Nag Hamadi) calls Mary Jesus’s “koinônos”, which is ancient Greek for “partner” or “companion,” and says he, “loved her more than all the disciples.”  While this could represent the transmission of spiritual wisdom, the intimacy described is clearly special.

Some theories, like those in Margaret Starbird’s The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, suggest Mary Magdalene could have been Jesus’s wife, and represent the symbolic Holy Grail.

Starbird notes that the anointing ritual Mary did for Jesus used costly herbs and was also used as a marriage ritual at the time. So, its unlikely a poor woman would have done this.

The French Connection

Legend says that after Jesus’s death, Mary fled to southern France. In the caves of Sainte-Baume, she is said to have spent her final years in contemplation and teaching—a site still visited by pilgrims today.

Across the region, mysterious Black Madonna statues can still be found today. While officially representing the Virgin Mary, some scholars believe these statues allowed women to continue honoring Mary Magdalene in secret.

The Black Madonna embodies the sacred feminine, earth wisdom, and embodied divinity—elements the official church tried to suppress.

Mary’s Teachings

Mary’s recorded teachings focus on the soul’s journey beyond death, overcoming powers like desire, ignorance, wrath, and attachment. She wasn’t about rejecting life, but finding balance and avoiding being ruled by these forces.

She emphasized inner spiritual authority over external hierarchy. In her vision, the soul says: “I recognized myself and I gathered myself from everywhere.” Her path is about reclaiming the scattered pieces of yourself that may have been lost to relationships, jobs, expectations, or trauma. Then  reintegrating these parts brings you into wholeness.

Mary also taught that the divine is not far away but within us, here and now. That’s why she could hold steady when others were afraid, because she knew fear wasn’t their deepest truth.

The Divine Feminine

Mary Magdalene represents the divine feminine, which is a way of being and not about gender. Her qualities include:

• Intuitive wisdom over rigid dogma
• Compassion in action over passive belief
• Healing through presence, not just words
• Courage to speak truth even when unwelcome
• Seeing the sacred in what society rejects
• She shows us how to stand in our knowing and sanctify the human experience instead of escaping it.

Why Mary Matters Now

Today, many are reclaiming spiritual authority, questioning hierarchies, and seeking direct connection to the sacred. Mary’s message is to be fully human, fully embodied, and fully alive—and to let that be your path to the divine.

She also models how to navigate spiritual communities where jealousy or doubt arise. When Peter questioned her teachings, she didn’t shrink or apologize. She spoke what she knew and let others decide for themselves.

Walking the Magdalene Path

If you feel drawn to Mary Magdalene’s energy, try:

Rose Meditation: Hold a rose or use rose oil on your heart, breathing in the scent as you imagine calling back all scattered parts of yourself.

Anointing Ritual: With olive or essential oil, anoint your hands, heart, throat, and feet to honor your work, love, truth, and path.

Inner Authority Check-In: Before seeking advice, ask yourself, “What does my deepest knowing say?”

Sacred Pilgrimage: Visit places like Sainte-Baume or local sites with strong feminine energy.

Reclaiming What Was Hidden

Mary Magdalene’s story is alive every time you speak truth despite dismissal, trust your knowing over authority, or see sacredness where others do not.

The church never erased her completely. Her beloved presence lived on through art, mystics, healers, and secret traditions. Today, she’s emerging again as the powerful, deeply loving spiritual force she always was.

Here’s something to consider – what part of your spiritual authority are you ready to reclaim? What truth is calling you to speak? This is the time for such things!

Mary’s story proves that no decree, no doctrine, no power on earth can bury the truth forever. Let’s take a page out of Mary Magdalene’s story. If her truth could survive centuries of silencing, and remain alive through whispers, legends, and hidden texts to burst into the light 2,000 years later, then yours can ripple out starting now.

Every time you speak from your heart, act from your knowing, and shine your light, you’re adding your own verse to the power of the divine feminine. This is your moment to let the world finally see who you are—because your story, like Mary’s, was never meant to be hidden.

So shine brightly, and let your light ripple across the web of life, sparking optimism, energy, and connection wherever it touches.

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