Magdalene Reflections

One Year of Writing About Mary Magdalene & Her Theology

I don’t often pause for meta moments here on the blog. But this month marks one year since the inception of Meeting Magdalene on Substack, and it seems like an appropriate moment to reflect on the last year of writing about Magdalene theology.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to do any major navel-gazing or reminiscing or post any highlight reels, because I know that’s not what we’re here to do. But rather, I’d like to take a moment to observe what we’ve learned, note how Mary Magdalene and her theology feel increasingly relevant, and share what I see as most important moving forward.

I believe that now, more than ever, we need Mary Magdalene’s wisdom to carry us into the challenges ahead.

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I rarely talk about my personal or esoteric experiences here, but this blog started due to exactly that: a deeply personal and strangely esoteric experience.

In June of 2024, I sustained a moderate concussion in a pole dancing class. For two weeks, aside from working a few hours a day, I was largely on bed rest with limited screen time to give my brain a chance to heal. So my days were incredibly quiet with lots of time to think. During that time, all I could think about was Mary Magdalene. I’d felt a connection to her for years and already had a tattoo in her honor on my back. But in my healing process, I became fixated on her. Because I couldn’t read for very long, I sought out as many podcasts and devoured every feminist and subversive takes on her story as I could.

A week and a half after my injury, I returned from spending a few hours with family and felt Mary Magdalene’s presence overwhelmingly in my home. It was as if she was standing in my living room, waiting for me to arrive. I heard her voice in my head, saying very clearly, “Tell my story. Teach them about me.” The moment brought me to my knees. And frankly, it scared me a little, as I worried that I was experiencing a hallucination related to my concussion. In the coming days, my symptoms faded, but the message did not. I was certain Mary Magdalene was calling me to teach about her, her gospel, and her theology.

And so, this space was created, with great clarity of intention but very little to go on as far as execution. Figuring out what to teach and how to teach it has been a work in progress, drawing on my theological education, old-fashioned intuition, and faith in the wisdom of the Magdalene herself.

In the last year, we’ve explored topics such as the theology of Mary’s gospel, the roles of women in the early church, and mistellings of the story of Eve and the original sin. Last week, we wrapped up a series on sacred sexuality, which felt especially timely and resonant. Through it all, I have tried to keep one foot grounded in the wisdom of ancient peoples and texts and one foot planted thoroughly in the present day, attempting to pull spiritual truth into our modern reality.

And in the last year, much has changed, and much has evolved. The United States has seen the installation of a true fascist regime, and a genocide in Gaza has reached new levels of devastation. Resistance movements around the world have gained traction, and Catholic papal power has transferred to a pope who is signaling subtle subversion to the powers of oppression. And on social media, there seems to be a growing zeitgeist around expressions of divine feminine energy.

And in all of this, I believe Mary Magdalene’s story and energy are increasingly relevant. She, too, lived in a time of great political oppression, witnessing the person she loved fall victim to a political assassination. She was forced to flee her country as a political refugee, taken in as an immigrant on foreign shores. She observed the early days of oppression of the Divine Feminine by an empire, as the slow march toward patriarchal monotheism began. And through it all, she grieved, healed, taught, and persevered.

Her energy is deeply empathetic to our own grief, here in our own time.

And I believe that this is why she is coming into the awareness of more and more spiritual seekers, and why I think she speaks to us so deeply. In many ways, she is one of us. We see ourselves reflected in her story and find hope in her teachings.

And what are the teachings of her gospel? That there is no such thing as sin. That it is important to reveal the ancient wisdom that has been hidden. That true spiritual liberation is found in the journey within. That our humanity is deeply holy. And that ultimately we must be prepared for these liberative spiritual truths to be doubted and dismissed by those unready to hear them.

Thanks be to the brave and loving Magdalene who holds these truths for us, who has always held them, and who continues to light our way into the future.

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The plan here is to continue to do what she told me to do in the first place: to tell her story. And by telling Mary Magdalene’s story, we tell so many other stories. We tell the story of the suppression of the Divine Feminine. We tell the story of the oppression of women, justified by Christian doctrine. We tell the story of the vilification of women such as Eve, who was only ever on a quest for knowledge, wisdom, and agency. And we tell our own stories, as people who have felt harmed by the hiding of sacred, holy truths.

One year after meeting Mary Magdalene in my living room and receiving her commission to tell her story, I am more committed than ever to revealing her truths. And I’m so grateful that you’re here, reading and commenting along with me.

May what has been hidden continue to be revealed. May the Divine Feminine continue to rise. And may the story of the Magdalene be told over and over and over again.

Whether you are a new reader or have been with us from the beginning, thank you for supporting Meeting Magdalene in our first year and beyond. Next week, we’ll start our June series—Men in the Early Church—with one of my hottest theological takes: how to read the writings of the apostle Paul. See you then!