Meggan Watterson has spent years researching Mary Magdalene and the legend that surrounds her. Why has she been so hidden in history? What was so dangerous about her life and teachings that caused an order that her book be destroyed? What was so powerful in her book that caused monks at that time to disobey the order and bury copies of her book in various places around Egypt? Three copies of the Gospel of Mary have been found, but interestingly enough, the first six pages are missing in every copy.
“The commonality between all of these early Christian sacred texts found buried in Egypt is that they spoke of this hidden, more human, and feminine side of Christ, of Mary Magdalene’s importance, and of salvation as an inward act of personal transformation (Watterson 3). So in essence, we have the power to perceive the divine within us, and that was a very dangerous thing in early Christianity and for many years after.
Mary’s gospel speaks of seven powers of the ego that must be overcome to achieve salvation. The seven powers are darkness, craving, ignorance, craving for death, enslavement to the physical body, the false peace of the flesh, and the compulsion of rage. Watterson likens these to the seven deadly sins of Christianity. She also believes that these are the demons that were cast out by Christ - mentioned in Luke 8:2.
In this book, we follow Watterson to the south of France to learn what she can about Mary Magdalene and her life and teachings. She finds much about Mary there, but she also finds herself. ‘And this is how you rise; further up is farther in. And the darkness is where the light has always been. here in the heart is the treasure. And you remember again and again, I am here (Watterson 221).
I learned a great deal from this book. First of all, I had no idea that Mary’s gospel even existed. Watterson is good to give us her sources, and these are readily available online or in many local libraries, but to not know this book and several others even existed was mind-boggling. I also learned about the red thread - the threadAriadne gave to Theseus to help with find his way out of the maze after he killed the Minotaur (I always had sympathy for the Minotaur though), and the Japanese thought that the thread has to do with our fate. Did the Fates use a red thread when they decided how long a human would live immediately after birth?
I find that I am now wearing a red thread on my left wrist. I was inspired by Watterson and Mary. The thread symbolizes the feminine, but more importantly, it symbolizes Mary Magdalene and the journey I am on to find the truths in her message.
