Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet Hardcover – July 9, 2019

I am fascinated by Mary Magdalene, the woman whom Jesus was said to have loved above all others, according to several of the Gnostic gospels. Vilified for centuries as a prostitute and mentally disturbed woman, she shared intimate knowledge of Christ in her own lost gospel, the Gospel of Mary. Three copies of this have been found—two written in Greek and one in Coptic—and all three are missing the same six pages in the beginning and four pages in the middle. Someone successfully silenced Mary Magdalene. Fascinating, right?This is not the book I was hoping it to be. I wanted it to be a book about Mary Magdalene, a book that would unravel some of the mysteries, explore who she was and what she did. But this book is about the author, Meggan Watterson, a devoted follower of Mary Magdalene who possesses an extraordinary amount of knowledge about her. Watterson not only has a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard, but also a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University. While she does share in this book many of the mysteries of Mary Magdalene—and it is wonderful and fascinating when she does—most of it is about Watterson's own faith journey. Interesting, but not what I wanted.Here are some of the things you will learn about Mary Magdalene in this book, although getting to it can feel like searching for that proverbial needle in the haystack:• Her gospel tells how to liberate the soul, not through death, but in this lifetime.• The fascinating story of how the Gospel of Mary Magdalene was found and lost and found and lost and found again.• Mary identifies seven powers that are precursors to Christianity's seven deadly sins. Could these be the "seven demons" that Luke claims Christ expelled from her?• Find out the most important and truly liberating message of Mary Magdalene's gospel.• How did Mary become the "penitent prostitute" and how was her reputation finally cleared?• What does it mean that the resurrected Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene?The online description of this book says Watterson "leads us verse by verse through Mary's gospel to illuminate the powerful teachings it contains." It does not. There are short citations from Mary's gospel at the beginning of many (but not all) chapters, but it's hardly the entire document. There is a lot of good information about Mary Magdalene in this book, but you must wade through the author's faith journey to get to it.

I enjoyed reading this compilation of essays but the title is misleading. Each of the essays is written by a different author who references the gospels but only as a starting point to put forth their particular agenda narrative. Each essay is worth reading, but the focus on the actual gospels is often minimal. I had bought the book with the intent to learn more about what the gospels actually said and implied. Perhaps another book will be more to the point.

I read this book as part of a book club and I am so grateful that I did. From the first time I heard the alternative backstory for Mary Magdalene (not the standard Christian backstory), it has resonated deeply in my heart. The timing of this book for me was perfect as I'd just started learning about Mary's gospel and was fascinated by those passages. What this book did for me is provide some rich context so many of those verses and create a more realistic picture of the deeply personal relanship between Mary and Yeshua and how they gave each other the greatest gift of being both fully human and fully divine. This book offers illumination of the meaning behind the words and the heart at the center of all accounts of Christ. I loved it so much that I can't wait to read it again.

I actually liked the book. But I'm giving it 2 stars not 5 because the title is incredibly misleading. The book is not about Mary Magdalene. The book is about the girl who wrote the book.Meggan (the author) is fascinated with Mary Magdalene. She had traveled to the sites where history/legends/Bible say Mary Magdalene lived and/or where she is worshiped. And through all these travels, Meggan writes about her own spiritual awakening, discovery, and growth. As I was reading this book, I became genuinely excited and happy for Meggan, and she truly inspired me with her interpretation of Jesus' teaching through Mary Magdalene. Through my own spiritual voyage I have arrived at very similar conclusions (and I felt like I couldn't share it with anyone because it was so much out there that most main stream Christians would reject/condemn me at worst and laugh at me at best). Reading a book by a woman who actually feels similarly about Christianity and quotes some lesser known facts about the role of Mary Magdalene and women overall in early Christianity was such a gift. It was empowering. It made me feel validated. It helped me connect with my spirituality even more, and it was an engaging and an interesting read.The reason why I'm frustrated with this book is that the cover, the title, and even the red color of the book all imply that this book is about Mary Magdalene, and Mary Magdalene really plays a side kick in this book to the main character (Meggan). You will not learn much about Mary Magdalene from this book. I also think that calling it some sort of feminist manifesto is taking the focus away from what Mary Magdalene and Jesus mean to me. Their teachings are not about being feminist or masculinist. They are about love, and soul, and about removing divisions and artificial constraints for the soul (such as labeling people as feminist or masculinist). It's about looking within and perceiving from within. I feel that calling Mary Magdalene's gospel "feminist" is a really great disservice to her gospel, and it alienates the population who would benefit incredibly from adopting the teachings in her gospel (people who are anti-feminist and feel that only the masculine energy is "god-like").I appreciate and share Meggan Watterson's admiration for Mary Magdalene and her teachings, but I still feel cheated by how misleading that title is. I haven't learned a whole lot about Mary Magdalene and her gospel from this book. To me it was an equivalent to using a catchy, well known personality to get people's attention, and then using all that attention to talk about oneself.And just to give you an idea of what the book is about, here are some quotes from the book that are representative of the content and author's writing style:"I think that what makes a place sacred, is simply the fact that we've been called to it." p.59"The most sacred voice we can ever hear doesn't have a voice at all. An angel, the voice of god, the presence of love, the voice of the soul, this is the sound of silence. And this truth has been hidden from us, that we contain this chorus. Every one of us." p.89"I think this is how we pray, how we meditate, like Mary Magdalene. We return to love within us, within the heart, quietly, discreetly, and we don't ask for any reward or external affirmation in exchange for doing the work. The return to love is the treasure itself." p.94"The ultimate objective is to restore the bond between masculine and feminine, between all those "opposites" that create this illusion of separateness. The ultimate objective is union." p. 119"We forget that feminine is a part of us. That the feminine is an essential half of what it means to be human and what it means to know god." p. 197And finally:"This is how, for me at least, I can "announce the Good news," as a voice in service of love.The good news that god is, simply Good, that god is not male or female, or removed from us, high above and beyond our comprehension. God is simply the good, which exists within, and between, each one of us.The good news that there is no such thing as sin. We have nothing to be ashamed of in being human, in having a body, in feeling all that this body knows, which is lost to the intellect and beyond reason." p.215

I’m still savouring the book (I had to get all three editions so I can listen, highlight on kindle and have a pristine hard copy) but didn’t want to wait to write my review. If you are considering reading it, I’ll cut to the chase - if you are hesitant about buying it, don’t be.For me, it’s a book that changes everything. I’ve held a deep aversion to formal religion all of my life, it just felt so wrong to me, yet a part of me knew there was something beyond it that was true. Reading these pages I discovered what it is. Radical love. THAT is what Christ taught. Equality. Being human while also being divine. These are the teachings that I have been waiting to remember and longing to hear. Love / God isn’t out there, it’s within.I am so grateful for Meggan Watterson bringing this work into the world, with her unique and yet completely relatable style. Amazing words that touch the heart.

I thought I was purchasing a book that would reveal more about Mary Magdalene: but this book did not do that. Instead the reader is taken on a journey of self-revelation from Watterson. This is fine and would make for an interesting read in other contexts, but the insistence that this experience is the only way to understand life becomes tedious. For instance, in 'A ship without sails', Watterson outlines seven pieces of advice from her personal experience. Unlike Watterson, I like sea voyages, frequently travel alone, and never remember any dreams on waking, so I cannot truthfully share in this or many other of her personal reminiscences. I would agree that there is much in this gospel that could be interpreted with a feminist reading, but I saw little evidence of this in Watterson's account. Furthermore, as an exegete, Watterson manages to conflate Mary Magdalene with Mary at Bethany (see pp200-201), which is a fairly fundamental error. Finally, the constant use of American colloquialisms do not survive the trans-atlantic journey and are distracting to an English reader.All in all, this was a disappointing book.

A great read! Yet another book hidden and edited by men who have controlled and conditioned people for political and egotistical power! Meggan’s book was not what I expected it was far better. I read every day for several hours ‘non fiction' which was what I presumed this book would be, but it was not ... it was far more. Meggan identifies her own lifetimes experiences very openly with each of the esoteric messages as a heading. I have worked as a therapist helping people for many years, and Meggan’s openness regarding her own life initiated an empathy and congruence which made me feel as if she was sitting facing me; such honesty could be fatal when interpreting scriptures which so many people seem to feel they ‘own' and in the first few pages I must admit, I felt on unfamiliar ground with an apprehension that the way she was interpreting the scriptures could be a disaster. After a few pages I found it easy to understand how Meggan identifies and interprets the given scriptures, but most of all from my own years of studying I found myself learning from Meggan's interpretations in a unique way. I think it is important that we understand the initial contamination of the human race, and our religious history which has/is contaminated with evil to the extent of genocide where millions of people have been murdered, executed, tortured and ostracized and is still existing today through evil; as Meggan reminds us ‘we will be judged as we judge others’.Thank you Meggan, for a book written from your heart.Colin Demét B.Sc

The back cover has a lot of promise. It says that 'with searing clarity, Watterson explains how and why Mary Magdalene came to be portrayed as a penitent prostitute and relates a more historically and theologically accurate description of who Mary was within the early Christ movement'.One wonders if anyone from Hay House actually read the book. You would think by the binding, the title and the way in it is presented that this is the book we have been waiting for. That finally someone with an academic background has pieced together the lost gospels including the Gospel of Mary Magdalene to give us a new Mary - the one that was there all along but uncovered and seen from a modern perspective.The hope is that through this book, Mary Magdalene will finally be placed alongside Christ as a teacher in her own right. The book even says that it is a Feminist Gospel.I am sorry to say that this book is not what we have been promised. There are moments of illumination here and I think for a certain sector of the public it will still be revolutionary and helpful and I will explain who they are later.But most of this book is not about Mary but about Meggan: her story, her travels, her inner life - with a bit about Mary Magdalene and Watterson's new relationship with Christianity thrown in.It is so much of a travelogue that in one beautifully highlighted section in grey, Watterson gives you her tips for how to survive a cruise ship journey which include taking a torch and that you WILL develop a crush on the Captain. Yes, this is for real!For anyone who is at all versed in Magdalene literature both from academic and spiritual sources: books by authors such as Margaret Starbird, Lynn Picknett, Bart Ehrman, Cynthia Bourgeault, Lars Muhl and even Tom Kenyon, this will be a big disappointment.It is more like 'Eat, Pray Love' from a spiritual seeker and trauma recovery victim with bits of genuine academic knowledge thrown in. If you are looking for the otherworldly events that peppered Lars Muhl's books, they are not here in the same way either. This is not a mature book.I feel it will be of genuine help to those who have suffered all their lives from the legacy of a patriarchal view of Christianity and want to break free. Those people should embrace this book as Watterson gives many insights into her own journey as to how she encompassed the feminine aspect of the religion.For all the true Magdalene fans, give this a miss or read it and marvel at the sinking standards of Hay House publishing.

This book is all about love. The love that was hidden from us as Christians. The love that is in all of our hearts, the love that we receive from ourselves and others, the love that we give to others. All this is in explained via the tool of Mary Magdalene’s gospel.The author gives her own life experience of how these gospels changed her and showed her love that she had not experienced before. This makes the love very real in a human way that I could understand.As a Catholic who found the church materialistic and hypocritical in a way that did not support my beliefs of Christ and His love this book as given me a dimension of the Christ’s love which is refreshing, resonant and feels true.A great book for anyone searching for the the meaning of love in their lives.