Mary Magdalene was a priestess, not a prostitute.

Part three: Mary Magdalene

Even though they tried to hide the truth…

Even though they burned the temples…

Even though they buried the gospels…

Even though they rewrote the story…

Mary Magdalene’s name has never disappeared, and the truth of who she was is flooding our world at a time when we, maybe, need her the most. 

I (Sarah) will never forget the time I learned — Mary Magdalene was not a whore, not even a disciple, but the Feminine Christ.

It gave me the curiosity and the courage to question everything – religion, history, and my beliefs about myself, God, and women.

I wondered, if something so sacred could be so twisted and used as a tool of deception, what else was I being lied to about?

But most importantly, I stood up straighter, believed in myself, and felt a stronger connection to the divine. 

The stories we are told impact us emotionally, genetically and chemically.

And until we know the real story, we cannot heal from the ways we have been complicit or done harm, or become the person we need to be to build a new world.

To know her, is to truly know yourself.

To know her, is to truly know power.

To know her, is to understand and embody equality, balance and justice. So…

Who was Mary Magdalene? 

She was not a prostitute. She was not fallen. She was not saved by a man.

She was a priestess. A teacher. A beloved. A woman who knew the divine as intimately as she knew her own breath.

She walked with Jesus—not behind him.

She anointed him—not as an act of servitude, but to bestow the light of God onto him, an act that was once only held by Priestesses. 

She was the Feminine Christ – the other half of the story. The strong, sacred, embodied, feminine face of Source.

She stood on her own.

And for that, she was erased.

Because if she was remembered as she truly was, the world would look different today.

What They Didn’t Want Us to Know

The Gospel of Mary, buried for almost 2000 years resurfacing in 1896 at an antique market in Cairo, tells us that Mary Magdalene was either Jesus’ closest disciple or partner in Sacred Union, depending on how you translate it.

She was the first to witness the resurrection (which technically makes her the first Pope).

After Jesus’s death, the gnostic gospels share that he visited her more than any of the disciples, sharing with her the most sacred teaching of Christ Consciousness.

Many believe her and Jesus had children together.

Many believe that they performed sacred sex rituals as the highest form of love and as a tool to pull divine energy into their bodies, and onto the planet.

These are not small omissions.

This was a deliberate erasure.

The early Church chose to not allow the world to know that Jesus walked in divine partnership.

That Christ was not a man alone, but a union.

That he was not here to rule, but to restore balance.

That his teachings were not about hierarchy, but about sovereignty.

So they stripped the Feminine Christ from the story.

They took the priestess and turned her into a whore.

Because if women knew that God was never meant to be male alone…

If women knew that their wisdom was once central to spiritual leadership…

If women knew that they had the same divine spark within them…

The Church would never have been able to control them.

And neither would the men who seek to overpower women from boardrooms to bedrooms and the highest offices of power today.

How This Became the Foundation of Evangelical America

It’s our perspective that the erasure of Mary Magdalene was not just a theological shift—it was a reordering of the world.

Think about this…

Can you see how by severing Christ from the Sacred Feminine, the Church created a system that could justify male-only leadership, the policing of women’s bodies, and the submission of women in marriage? 

Can you see how if Christ’s closest female disciple was unworthy, how hard it became for any woman to claim authority?

Can you see how if purity was a woman’s only virtue, then controlling her became a moral duty?

Can you see how if men were closest to God, then they could justify that a woman’s role was to obey? 

And, this is not ancient history.

This doctrine, that the religious right claims is Biblical, but is actually fabricated lies based on the omission of half the story, is what is fueling the most oppressive acts against women, people of color and the LGBTQIA+ community today.

We see it in the ideology that overturned Roe v. Wade.

We see it in the rhetoric that tells women their place is (only) in the home, that their bodies do not belong to them, that their voices are not to be trusted.

We see it in why white Christian nationalism is rising.

We see it in why Trump—twice accused of rape, found guilty of sexual assault, recorded bragging about grabbing women without consent—is still the evangelical movement’s chosen leader.

And the hard truth, the one that is most important for us to look at in this moment:

The Church did not just erase Mary Magdalene.

They taught us to erase ourselves.

The Psychological Impact of Erasing the Feminine Christ

When Mary Magdalene was cast out of the story, something was cast out of us, too. 

We learned to doubt our own knowing. If even Christ’s beloved was dismissed, how could we ever trust our intuition?

We learned to fear our own voices. If a woman speaking truth could be silenced by the men around her, what would happen to us if we spoke?

We learned to stay small. If leadership was reserved for men, where did that leave us?

And so, we made ourselves smaller. We softened our edges. We bit our tongues.

We did what we had to do to survive.

But we are not here to survive. We are here to remember.

What Mary Magdalene Would Say to Us Now

She would say:

You were never meant to shrink.

You were never meant to ask for permission. You were never meant to look outside yourself for validation of what your soul already knows.

You were never meant to be silent while men wield scripture as a weapon against your body.

You were never meant to watch in quiet agony as your sisters are stripped of their rights, their dignity, their humanity.

You were meant to rise.

You were meant to stand in the fullness of your knowing.

You were meant to remember that the divine has always lived within you—not outside of you, not above you, not in the hands of men who believe they alone hold the truth.

Reclaiming the Magdalene Mysteries

This is not just about Mary Magdalene.

This is about every woman who has ever been erased.

And this time, we tell the story differently.

Let’s start here:

Where have you been conditioned to believe that you need a mediator between you and the divine?

How often have you sought external validation for what your soul already knows?

If no institution, no doctrine, no man could dictate your relationship to the sacred—how would you experience the divine?

What if God is not only male? What if the divine is both masculine and feminine? What if it is neither?

What spiritual traditions honored the Sacred Feminine before patriarchal religions erased them?

How can you begin to honor both the masculine and feminine within yourself?

Where have you been taught to shrink, to submit, to be “humble” in ways that only apply to women?

Where do you hold unconscious biases about women in leadership? Have you ever questioned a female leader’s authority in ways you wouldn’t question a man’s?

If you no longer feared judgment, how would you step into your own power differently?

We Were Never Meant to Be Silent

The erasure of Mary Magdalene was not just about her.

It was about all of us.

Every woman who was ever told to quiet down.

Every woman who was ever told her voice carried less weight.

Every woman who was ever told she could not lead, could not know, could not decide for herself.

But we know now.

And knowing is power.

Knowing is sacred.

And this time, we will not be erased.

What Comes Next

What Comes Next

The erasure of Mary Magdalene was not the only way the Sacred Feminine was removed from power.

Next, we will explore how colonialism reinforced patriarchy on a global scale—how Indigenous matriarchal societies were dismantled, how governance that once honored the wisdom of women was replaced with hierarchical rule, and how this colonial mindset still shapes our world today.

Because the erasure of the Sacred Feminine was never just spiritual—it was political. And its impact is still unfolding.

With love and fire,

Sarah & Kelly

How to Join Us in Ceremony

Our upcoming full-day Ceremony, REMEMBER, at Old South Church in Boston is happening April 28. A gathering of 800 women, reclaiming what was lost. Join us.

ICYMI:

Introduction: An Invitation to Remember
Part one: When God became a man — the first erasure
Part two: The witch hunts — the weaponization of fear