Mary Magdalene stands as the hidden heart of Mystic Christianity, not merely as a witness to the Resurrection but as the co-equal bride and female Christ whose sacred union with Jesus reveals the path of transfiguration and restores the full power of the Divine Feminine to the Western spiritual tradition.
The Connection Between Mary Magdalene and Mystic Christianity
By Andrew Harvey
The whole of my work for 20 years has been dedicated to trying to tell and embody the full story, with all of its transformative implications, of Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Jesus. I would not have been ready before to attempt such a difficult and radical enterprise. As a gay man and a devotee of the Divine Feminine in all its facets and powers, I have been for much of my life enraged by the churches erected in Jesus’s name and their misogyny, homophobia, and exclusivism, as well as by the real crimes of the soul and heart these have indisputably led to. This rage, however, has never prevented me from continuing a passionate and reverent exploration of the Christ path and Christian mysticism.
I have come to discover for myself and in myself a more impersonal and balanced view of Christianity that can hold the great good that has persisted in it, while acknowledging the devastating betrayals of the authentic Christ that have characterized much of the Church’s practice. This balance has led to the hope that permeates this book, the hope that telling the new story as best I can will inspire you, whatever path you are on in the churches and theologies infused by the Christ, to go through a joyful revolution, one that can break through and birth a new truth, the truth of Christ consciousness.
In this search, I have been constantly steadied and exalted by Mary Magdalene herself. Recently, I was reading late at night the Gnostic Gospel of Mary. In it, Mary Magdalene presents a visionary teaching given her by Jesus only to be met by virulent skepticism and denial by the male disciples, especially Peter. On all the other occasions I had read this, I had been convulsed with anger, anger that her supreme realization and generosity had been met with such misogynistic violence. That night, however, something changed forever as I contemplated her reaction to this violence more deeply than I had ever done before. Mary Magdalene did not excoriate the male disciples. She did not humiliate them as a lesser adept might have done from the achieved heights of her own realization. She did not lambaste them as ignorant of the real Jesus, because she knew their love for him was as real as hers. Instead, she wept.
She wept, I saw clearly, for two interlinked reasons. She wept from cosmic anguish and disappointment that the men who so loved Jesus that they were prepared to give their lives for him could not hear a crucial transmission that came to them through a woman. And she wept, too, because she understood what that rejection would cost the men before her, how it would deform their understanding and the understanding of Jesus’s life and teaching they would promulgate, and the tragic limitations of the faith they would establish. She was not only weeping for herself, but she was also weeping for them and for all the men and women who would be deprived of the Jesus she knew and loved so completely.
As this realization expanded in me, I understood viscerally that the time had come to dry those prophetic tears that Mary Magdalene shed, so her face in its full, humble, and confident radiance could stream its wisdom to us now, and the pain of the men who could not acknowledge who she was could at last be healed and transfigured.
It is in Mary Magdalene’s great spirit of healing and transfiguration that is offered to all those who are open to its truth, to all those who know that the old story in all of its now obviously lethal ramifications is dying, and a new story with her and Jesus’s love at the radiating center will be born because it completes and activates the full range of Christ consciousness. We are in the time of the Second Coming.
The Second Coming will not be, as many churches proclaim in different ways, the return of some movie-style Jesus avatar. Rather, the Second Coming will be, and is already for those with the eyes to see and the hearts to receive, the rise of the golden yeast of embodied divine love consciousness in action, in millions of beings of all faiths coming together to renew and regenerate our world. This rise is impossible without a full reclamation of the Divine Feminine, of the Motherhood of God, and without the recognition of Mary Magdalene as the bride to Jesus’s bridegroom, a co-equal and female Christ in her own right. The two of them are a complete, embodied love consciousness that unifies heart, mind, soul, and body and offers humanity a path of divine human love, whose power can engender miracles of inner and outer transformation.
The secret of the Second Coming will be the reception of the bride—the restoration of the full power of the feminine in union with the full power of the masculine in the celebration of their sacred marriage. The time has come for this secret to be shared with everyone who can receive it.
The future of humanity hinges on our ability to grasp and embody a profound secret in both our inner and outer lives. This secret, crucial for peace, compassion, and justice, must be embraced in our personal spiritual practices and our external commitments to urgent, wise, and sacred actions for the well-being of all beings.
Over centuries, Mary Magdalene has emerged as more than just a witness to the Resurrection. Alongside Jesus, she is the co-parent of the Christian mystical tradition and its hidden treasure—the transfiguration process enabled by Jesus, his teachings, and his Resurrection. This transformative process, possibly initiated by Jesus and Mary in their sacred union, is the true Holy Grail, not a physical object. Mary Magdalene herself embodied this process after Jesus’s Ascension, anchoring it in humanity’s very essence.
These radical claims challenge established power structures, particularly patriarchy, as they herald the return of the female Christ in equal partnership with her beloved. This revolution reshapes our understanding of the Divine Feminine and redefines both male and female identities. It dismantles oppressive hierarchies and offers a path to authentic Christ consciousness, uniting mind, heart, body, and soul in sacred unity.
The relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, ineffable yet experiential, guides us beyond conventional boundaries. May this collective journey inspire each individual to cultivate a unique connection with them, opening doors to the profound transformation humanity is offered. Through their examples, teachings, and unwavering support, may we all find the courage and faith to embrace the divine potential within us.
In his book “The Magdalene Revolution,” Andrew Harvey presents a spiritually charged reimagining of Christianity, placing Mary Magdalene at the heart of the Christ narrative. This work calls for a spiritual revolution, the restoration of the Divine Feminine, and the awakening of embodied Christ consciousness in our contemporary era.
About the Author:
Andrew Harvey is a renowned author, teacher, and scholar of mysticism, renowned for bridging ancient spiritual wisdom with modern-day activism. With over 40 books to his name, including “The Way of Passion” and “Son of Man,” Harvey is the founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism, advocating for the integration of spirituality and compassionate service in a global context.
About the Book:
“The Magdalene Revolution: The Return of the Sacred Feminine and the Birth of Radical Equality” by Andrew Harvey, published by Hay House LLC, challenges conventional narratives and offers a new perspective on spirituality. This book invites readers to explore the transformative power of the Divine Feminine and the potential for radical equality in today’s world. Transform the following sentence in the past tense:
“I am going to the store to buy groceries.”
“I went to the store to buy groceries.”
