Meeting Mary Magdalene

Having been raised Catholic growing up, my parents made sure that my three siblings and I attended mass every Sunday. It was a weekly tradition — one I personally never really enjoyed. As I got older and actually began to understand the priest's teachings, I sensed the underlying fear instillment and realized that most of the stories didn’t resonate with me.

As a very young girl, at the age of 5, I remember feeling this intense inner calling to become a nun. I felt like I was supposed to be a nun, but I didn’t want to be.  I always felt uncomfortable in church, and even at that tender age, I understood the limitations placed on nuns and people working for the church. I knew that I wanted to grow up and one day fall in love and have a family of my own. So this inner obligation confused me and made me very emotional. I remember crying to my mother and my childhood friend about it. I eventually decided to ignore this inner calling and to move on with my life.

My best friend and I moved away from home after high school. I studied acting in Toronto and began writing poetry. It was a very difficult time in my life as I became overly aware, even more empathetic, and began to develop depression among other health issues. During this time, however, my focus was primarily on developing my acting abilities, and on the odd modelling jobs I got to help pay my rent.

Though I decided to leave the Catholic faith and was busy focusing on other areas of my life, I still continued to pray. I didn’t believe in the judgemental fear-based Catholic God I was raised to worship. But I chose to pray to an all-loving Creator I knew must have existed, and to Jesus and Mother Mary. Their stories were basically the only thing that stuck with me. Praying to them helped me get through some very dark nights. 

While I was living in Toronto in 2011, I lost my father to a sudden heart attack. Shortly after this devastating experience, I was visited by my father’s spirit in the middle of the night. I saw him, he spoke to me and held me. I cried tears of joy and deep sadness in his arms. This therapeutic event was both remarkable and eye-opening. Because of this, I knew for sure that there was way more to this world and the spiritual realm than I had been taught. So my curiosity and studies with the paranormal and spiritual began.

I started learning more about magic, witches, spirit and the earth. I learned of the internal power that all beings possess. I read many books on the topics. I realized that I was indeed a witch, in the sense that witches were women or men who believed in spirit, magic, in our connection to the earth, the elements and the cycles of nature; in our abilities to manifest, manipulate matter by will, and in the Divine Character of the Natural world. 

While studying witches, I had several past life memories come forward for me. One in which I was an earth medicine woman living in an isolated cabin by the woods. I collected flowers and herbs for medicinal purposes, and carefully shared these remedies with others. I distinctly remember the anxiety I had at that time about being caught and murdered for my craft, as this was a practice that was not accepted for women back then. (This actually ties into my work with plant spirit medicine in this current lifetime.) 

I was hooked. I loved remembering and learning more and inevitably, this area of study led me to the topic of Goddess culture. 

I came across Greek Goddesses at first, in particular, Aphrodite and Athena —the Goddesses of love, beauty, and wisdom. I was shown that when you want to start working with Goddesses that one should ask a Goddess to come forward for her. And so this is what I did. I wanted to discover more. So I asked whatever Goddess wanted to work with me to come forward. I prayed on this for a while, setting a powerful intention. 

That same night I had a vivid dream. A dream that felt very real. In the dream, I was in my bedroom. On my dresser by the bed stood a small statue that looked like a statue of Mother Mary I had in my youth. But as I stepped closer to the statue I could see that this one was different and had writing at the bottom which read “Mary Magdalene.” In the dream, I distinctly heard the words “I am Mary Magdalene and I wrote the Book of Mary.” I picked up the statue and raised it above my head chanting in celebration, “Mary Magdalene. It was Mary Magdalene who wrote the Book of Mary!”

When I awoke from that dream I immediately grabbed my laptop and looked up Mary Magdalene and The Book Of Mary. To my sincere shock and amazement, I found that my dream was indeed true. 

Now growing up Catholic, the only mention of Mary Magdalene that I could recall was that she was a prostitute who Jesus cleansed of seven demons. That is all I had known of her. So to find out that she had written a whole book that was altogether removed from the bible was completely mind-blowing to me. For many months all I did was research everything Mary Magdalene. I bought several books and watched all of the movies and documentaries I could find. I created an altar for her and prayed to her daily. I knew Mary Magdalene was the Goddess I was to work with, and that she came to me because she wanted me to find this information. 

I learned that the monks had been demanded to destroy all copies of The Book of Mary in the 4th Century. There were some very wise and rebellious monks who instead, however, decided to bury several of these manuscripts underground in the Egyptian desert. Thank Goddess for them! Because of their brave acts, most of Mary’s teachings were discovered again in 1896. It took many years for the book to be translated and published but eventually, it was printed in 1955. 

In studying The Book of Mary, I discovered that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, but in fact the partner of Jesus Christ — many believe the wife of Christ. (Nothing against prostitutes, but this just wasn't the case for Mary Magdalene.) I learned that she was the feminine to the masculine of Jesus and that she had a leadership role alongside him. She had been his comrade, helping him with his teachings and in healing people along the way. They had a powerful bond. She understood him on a deep level, that many others, including many of his disciples, never could. The fact that Jesus was the son of Christ, and his counterpart, Mary Magdalene, was a woman, was very intimidating to many men in power at that time and for very long after (arguably still to this day.) 

When all of this corruption began, starting in the 4th century, Jesus slowly became more godly and less human, he was depicted as chaste, and pure. And Mary Magdalene became more human and even more sinful. 

Through his own interpretations of passages in the bible, Pope Gregory preached in the 6th century that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. His interpretation somehow connected the seven demons that she was cleansed of to her sexuality. I believe that by saying Mary Magdalene was a prostitute the pope and priests were able to strategically fill two needs with one deed. Because not only were they able to belittle the importance of the feminine, remove their authority in the church and begin repression of the feminine altogether, they were also able to deem women’s innate sacred sexuality a sin. I believe that sexuality and the feminine to this day are still very misunderstood.

Though in 1969, the church officially corrected Pope Gregory’s mistake by saying that she was not a prostitute but a disciple to christ, this story of her still continues to be preached, and the repression of women in the church and on the planet continues.

Because Mary Magdalene’s book and teachings were completely taken out of the bible, and that she was almost erased entirely from the story of Jesus Christ is proof those in authority wanted to manipulate the teachings and instil control in the masses. After all, if they removed an entire book and all traces of women in leadership roles, what other teachings were removed or changed in order to support the people in powers’ personal agendas? 

Discovering all this information, and finding out what it meant about the Catholic faith I was raised into — about the patriarchal society we all live in, led me to weeks of heartbreak. I couldn’t believe that we had all been told blatant lies about this story and of this Goddess and that this had been accepted for so long. I felt the injustice for her and all women — and the deep conditioning in our religions and government systems that most people and I had been completely ignorant to. No wonder I had felt so uncomfortable in church as a child.

To me, this story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and stories like it, show us in an obvious way that there has been a great imbalance here for a very long time. Mary Magdalene’s Book of Mary being quite literally hidden and buried underground is a perfect symbol of the repression of the Divine Feminine and the Goddess. I believe this is why Mary Magdalene is coming forward for so many of us at this time. The rediscovery of this book and the resurgence of Mary’s presence in the world today shows us what is now possible! 

Mary Magdalene’s essence has always been here, waiting for humanity to wake up and remember their own divinity.  She teaches us that we are not sinful and that we are not supposed to feel ashamed of being human. That we are both human and divine. Mary Magdalene’s sacred texts speak of the salvation as going inward for personal transformation as opposed to giving our power away or seeking this through an external God presence. Her narrative describes a path that we can navigate to free the soul, not in death, but here and now in this very lifetime. Her teachings describe going inward to do the spiritual healing work so that our souls can merge with divine love and become free from our egos and the 7 stages that exist within us as a part of being human so that we can embody our sovereign and holy selves. These 7 stages are actually the 7 demons Mary Magdalene was cleansed of and where the 7 deadly sins originated from. 

Mary Magdalene’s story shows us a more human side of Jesus and shows us the importance of the feminine and of the balance between the masculine and feminine energies on this planet.  It is evident that men and women were always supposed to be harmoniously working side by side together. It is through this balance and sacred connection that miracles happen. I believe through her original teachings, many questions of humanity can be answered. Thankfully her teachings can now be found more easily by those who are simply willing to look.

Through Mary Magdalene, I was lead to working with the Divine Goddess, to deepening in my own self-healing journey, and to communicating more actively with Spirit, with my Guides, my father, and my spiritual team. Through Mary Magdalene, I was led to three of my teachers, and many different books and teachings that have immensely changed my life. 

To this day I honour Mary Magdalene and feel the utmost gratitude for her always. Because she came forward for me, I now understand the genuine inner calling I had as a young girl. I never wanted to be a nun. That was simply the only example of a female Priestess I had growing up in the Catholic faith. What I really wanted was to live as an embodiment of divine love, in service to others. 

Thanks to Mary Magdalene I am now humbly walking this Healer, Oracle Priestess and Witch Earth Medicine Woman path. This sacred path of commitment to my own healing and spiritual journey, and to my holy mission to become a channel of devotional love — living in service to help in raising the consciousness of humanity and doing my part in this lifetime to create this Utopia of Heaven on Earth. Though I’ll admit, it’s not always easy, I am actively trying to do my best to live by Mary Magdalene’s teachings of becoming truly heart centred, in finding our own inner balance of the masculine and feminine energies, in honouring our sacredness, our creativity, and our sexuality. I am finally living a life that I feel resonates with my soul.

I have always believed in magic, I have always believed that there was so much more to life. And now, through discovering the Divine teachings of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, I am completely convinced that this was and will always be the case for humanity. We are spiritual beings having a human experience- we are both human and divine. It is up to us to fully step into this truth. 

We have the privilege of being alive at this time of immense awakening, remembering, and deep change. I feel so grateful to be working with Mary Magdalene and to continue sharing her story and messages with others. 

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“Hello Beloveds,

This story is true. But I knew it had to be this way. Please don’t be sad for me. This is a time of great healing and remembering. I want you to know that you are never alone. There are many beings of Light here watching over you. You can call on them or on me whenever you need help. But your heart knows the way. Listen to your heart always. It will guide you back home.

Love, Mary Magdalene.”

Blessings to you all,

Breelyn Johnston 

Artist Unknown