Mary Magdalene didn’t just believe—she saw. This post explores how the Gospel of Mary (through Karen King’s lens) reveals the nous, the inner faculty of spiritual vision, and offers a practice to help you steady your own gaze when the divine appears.
Your writing makes me think I would appreciate reading Karen King's book. I will look for it. I'm learning a lot from these Magdalene posts you've been sharing. I appreciate everything you're sharing!
Dawn, the irony is delicious: it was your own reading list that led me straight back to Magdalene. You helped me remember her—not as a theory, but as a presence. Sometimes Sophia enters through the front door, sometimes she slips in through the footnotes. Either way, thank you.
And for anyone ready to meet the Magdalene beyond the myths, the smoke, and the mirrors:
📘 The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle by Karen L. King
So I was having a conversation with my mom the other day about sin and how the only sin is to not be true to yourself. She then asked me about murder…I didn’t know how to respond to that!
Anyone committing murder isn’t following their “true self”—they’re severed from it. Jesus said to follow the Child of Humanity within, not the wounded animal dragging its rage around like it’s sacred.
Mary Magdalene knew the difference. That’s why her path wasn’t “just be yourself”—it was “name the powers that distort you and send them packing.” You don’t hug a demon and call it healing.
This isn’t just commentary—it includes the actual Gospel of Mary. Karen L. King is a Harvard scholar who translated and analyzed the original manuscript fragments. If you're serious about understanding Mary Magdalene’s role beyond church-filtered myths, start here:
Another wonderful journey, made possible by dropping monkey-mind’s loud, cacophonic story provided to distract us each & every moment … so we may behold, & participate in, Creation with the eye of the heart!
Lovely! Maggie Ross writes quite a bit about that word, 'Behold!' In her approach, it is the essential place where we encounter the Divine. Much as you suggest about the place where the Magdalene encounters - knows - Christ.
Absolutely—Maggie Ross’s “behold” isn’t passive observation; it’s soul-rupturing recognition. That moment in John 20 isn’t about Mary identifying Jesus—it’s about her being reconstituted by divine seeing. She becomes the eye of the heart in motion. And honestly? Peter could’ve used a little more beholding and a little less interrupting.
So, quite a few times in the Bible, angels, messengers of Heaven, have to tell people who see them: "Fear not!" (Often, according to some artists and others, that's because real angels don't necessarily look like lovely folks with feathered wings, they look more like gyroscopes covered with eyeballs blazing with inner light, or multi-headed humanoids.)
But is the proper response to such a suggestion, even coming from one of the more odd-looking messengers, more like, "Okay. :)"
"For where the mind is, there is the treasure.” These words are a solution to many of my woes. The sweet spot.
Your writing makes me think I would appreciate reading Karen King's book. I will look for it. I'm learning a lot from these Magdalene posts you've been sharing. I appreciate everything you're sharing!
Dawn, the irony is delicious: it was your own reading list that led me straight back to Magdalene. You helped me remember her—not as a theory, but as a presence. Sometimes Sophia enters through the front door, sometimes she slips in through the footnotes. Either way, thank you.
And for anyone ready to meet the Magdalene beyond the myths, the smoke, and the mirrors:
📘 The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle by Karen L. King
https://gnosis.study/library/%D0%93%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B8%D1%81/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F/ENG/King%20K.L.%20-%20The%20Gospel%20of%20Mary%20of%20Magdala.%20Jesus%20and%20the%20first%20woman%20apostle
Thank you!
Thank you 🥰❤️🇨🇦
Thank you.
🙏
So I was having a conversation with my mom the other day about sin and how the only sin is to not be true to yourself. She then asked me about murder…I didn’t know how to respond to that!
Anyone committing murder isn’t following their “true self”—they’re severed from it. Jesus said to follow the Child of Humanity within, not the wounded animal dragging its rage around like it’s sacred.
Mary Magdalene knew the difference. That’s why her path wasn’t “just be yourself”—it was “name the powers that distort you and send them packing.” You don’t hug a demon and call it healing.
Thank you! 😊
The Way of Mary Magdalene… I can’t see any other way… to simply preach the Gospels every week without her ‘misses the mark’ every time…
Which book was this from? I’d like to look it up😊
This isn’t just commentary—it includes the actual Gospel of Mary. Karen L. King is a Harvard scholar who translated and analyzed the original manuscript fragments. If you're serious about understanding Mary Magdalene’s role beyond church-filtered myths, start here:
https://gnosis.study/library/%D0%93%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B8%D1%81/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F/ENG/King%20K.L.%20-%20The%20Gospel%20of%20Mary%20of%20Magdala.%20Jesus%20and%20the%20first%20woman%20apostle
No Da Vinci Code fluff. Just the gospel text, the historical context, and what the early church tried to suppress.
Oh thank you! I was planning on ordering this one but I thought there was another one as well. Thank you😊
Several scholars have translated and published the Gospel of Mary. Karen has the best commentary in my opinion.
Another wonderful journey, made possible by dropping monkey-mind’s loud, cacophonic story provided to distract us each & every moment … so we may behold, & participate in, Creation with the eye of the heart!
Lovely! Maggie Ross writes quite a bit about that word, 'Behold!' In her approach, it is the essential place where we encounter the Divine. Much as you suggest about the place where the Magdalene encounters - knows - Christ.
Absolutely—Maggie Ross’s “behold” isn’t passive observation; it’s soul-rupturing recognition. That moment in John 20 isn’t about Mary identifying Jesus—it’s about her being reconstituted by divine seeing. She becomes the eye of the heart in motion. And honestly? Peter could’ve used a little more beholding and a little less interrupting.
Indeed!! ;-)
Amen! ;)
So, quite a few times in the Bible, angels, messengers of Heaven, have to tell people who see them: "Fear not!" (Often, according to some artists and others, that's because real angels don't necessarily look like lovely folks with feathered wings, they look more like gyroscopes covered with eyeballs blazing with inner light, or multi-headed humanoids.)
But is the proper response to such a suggestion, even coming from one of the more odd-looking messengers, more like, "Okay. :)"