The Changing Myth of Mary Magdalene

Abstract

Mary Magdalene is a dynamic expression of the divine feminine archetype. Her story has been changing and she has been transforming since the early years of Christianity. The discovery of the Gnostic Gospels and the subsequent study of those gospels, show a very different story regarding Magdalene than what the Orthodox teachings presumed. Magdalene was never a prostitute, but an important disciple and apostle to Jesus, along with being a teacher and leader to the rest of the apostles. Nevertheless, Magdalene’s story has followed the mythological pattern of becoming what the culture needed her to be.

This theoretical dissertation follows Magdalene’s journey and interprets it through a mythological and Jungian lens. It discusses the idea that Magdalene’s expression of the divine feminine archetype is a far more appropriate choice for expanding the Christian Trinity into a Quaternity, than Jung’s supposition of the Virgin Mary. Magdalene was the spiritual partner to Jesus in Sacred Marriage and the balance to his divine masculine expression.

Jung wrote that Job taught God about Himself. So has Magdalene taught God and she has become a new face of God, bringing a divine feminine expression that is sorely needed today. The divine feminine does not stop there, of course, but continues to expand exponentially, just as the divine masculine does. The metaphorical symbol of the trinity is also a dynamic one and where Christianity has formed its Trinity with gendered expressions—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—all male personas, there are many other expressions of the trinity that are not limited to gender. Trinitarian metaphysics do not necessarily work toward completeness and are not static, but can be seen as an energetic continuum, always moving forward.