Mary MagdelenE
FULLY human. divine. radical love
MARY MAGDELENE, 1st Century CE, Lebanon/Israel
This image invites viewers to imagine how the evolution of humanity would have unfolded if women’s spiritual authority had been honoured instead of being systematically and intentionally demeaned, diminished and destroyed. In it a young woman sits in a frenetic space completely at peace emanating love and light. This love and light is not exclusive to the ordained or most holy. And you don’t need to access it through penance or hierarchy. It is available to everyone. As Mary Magdalene taught, it comes from within ourselves and it comes to set us free from fear, self-doubt, anger, and whatever else ails our hearts and minds: “ the light in the heart’s heart is a love that liberates”
This piece is taken from Meggan Watterson’s Mary Magdalene Oracle and is called “Remembering” as it calls us to remember our fully divine and fully human self in all moments. The Mary Magdalene Oracle is about a “vision of radical love that formed long before Christianity became a formal religion in the 4th century, long before Mary’s gospel was excluded, destroyed, and buried. It offers a vision of humanity as a beloved community that risked their lives to recognize each other as equals – innately worthy of love, no matter their status within the Roman Empire.”
Within the Roman power structure, women, slaves, and foreigners had very little personal or political rights. A direct challenge to this was women like Mary Magdalene who wrote scriptures about spiritual transformation and the transformative power of love and equality. Christianity, structured much like the Roman empire, violently spread around the world and with it spread rumours that Mary Magdalene was nothing more than a prostitute. Emperor Constantine had all scriptures that provided proof of women’s spiritual authority in Christianity destroyed. In the sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great brought Mary firmly back into the picture - not the way she was, but as the church wanted her to be; a simple sinner - healed and forgiven by Jesus - the one who wiped away Eve’s original sin. Until the discovery of her gospel in the late 1800s little was known of her. In 1969 the Church formally apologized for their fabrication of her story and more recently she was named the “apostle to the apostles”. Mary Magdalene continues to resurface and capture the popular imagination. Why? Because of what Mary knew by heart: “love has already won.”
Artwork by Moonjube for Meggan Watterson’s Mary Magdelene Oracle Cards
