Table of Contents
Meggan Watterson joins a Ziva Meditation podcast to treat Mary Magdalene as a teacher of inner sight, not a side figure a later church could shrink. A phrase repeated in Mary’s gospel means, she says, fully human and fully divine at once, and the soul’s life depends on having a body. The practice is noticing when a small self takes the wheel, without floating above feeling. She links anointing and an older Isis tale to Mary, while admitting study stories set in Egypt or India cannot be proved on paper. A recovered line, that one must wake inside this flesh because everything is already there, belongs to a Christian telling that lost, not a separate club. Those writings were hidden, she says, after a fourth century order to destroy them. An outward quest needs inward healing of emotion. Later church life turned resistance to empire into control of women and of sexuality. Christ and feminism are not opposites for her. A newer book follows Thecla, who baptizes herself, and sobriety becomes a plea to love the parts called unlovable.
Key points
- She reads a repeated phrase in Mary’s gospel as a claim that a person is fully human and fully divine at once.
- The practice she stresses is noticing ego without leaving the body or skipping feeling.
- She connects anointing and an older Isis story to Mary, and she says those historical ties cannot be proved on paper.
- Recovered writings are, for her, a Christian telling that lost, buried after a fourth century order to destroy them.
- She treats an inward healing path as the needed partner to an outward heroic quest.
- Devotion to Christ and feminism fit together in her view, and later church life is what narrowed both.
Short quotes
The practice that's really illuminated in the Gospel of Mary is this practice of becoming conscious aware when we are overidentifying with the ego.
Meggan Watterson, Meggan Watterson on Mary Magdalene
She says Mary’s gospel trains a person to notice when a small self has taken over, without leaving the body. Watch at 9:23
You must awaken while in this body because everything exists in it.
Meggan Watterson, Meggan Watterson on Mary Magdalene
She cites a recovered writing to say waking up happens in the flesh, not after escaping it. Watch at 20:25
This was evidence of a story about Christ that didn't win out, right?
Meggan Watterson, Meggan Watterson on Mary Magdalene
She treats these recovered texts as a Christian telling that lost a contest, not as a separate religion. Watch at 25:24
It had been buried when these scriptures were ordered to be destroyed in the 4th century.
Meggan Watterson, Meggan Watterson on Mary Magdalene
She dates the hiding of these writings to a fourth century command that they be destroyed. Watch at 37:25
To have a thing for Christ and to be a feminist.
Meggan Watterson, Meggan Watterson on Mary Magdalene
She refuses the idea that love of Christ and feminism cancel each other. Watch at 57:46
Video by Ziva Meditation. Watch on YouTube.