She also talks about the meaning and role of Saint Sophia and the goddess Nike, who assist us on our path to ‘victory’ over the darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”TEKST” _builder_version=”4.27.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”3%|3%|3%|3%” z_index_tablet=”500″ box_shadow_horizontal_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_vertical_tablet=”0px” box_shadow_blur_tablet=”40px” box_shadow_spread_tablet=”0px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zelfkennis.nu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/maria-magdalena-rood-ei-kl-202x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>Interview with Mary Magdalene<\/span><\/h2>\n.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\nDear Mary Magdalene, Apostola Apostolorum! I am very honored to speak with you.<\/em><\/p>\nWell, you’re welcome, and just call me Mary. It\u2019s been quite a while since anyone interviewed me. Or rather, I can\u2019t remember ever being interviewed.<\/span><\/p>\nWow, that\u2019s strange\u2026 but then again, in your time it wasn\u2019t customary to give interviews, and podcasts certainly didn\u2019t exist yet.<\/em><\/p>\nTrue, and in my time people were not very interested in what I had to say either. After all, I was an apostle\u2026 and a woman. That wasn\u2019t something people valued much when it came to higher matters. My gospel was only discovered much later in Egypt, in 1896. It was a version translated from Greek into Coptic\u2026 Who wrote it? I have no idea, because in my time knowledge was passed on purely orally.<\/span> And even after its discovery, it took a long time before it was published, only in 1955…<\/span><\/p>\nReally! Just a year before I was born\u2026 why was that? It seems your person was not taken very seriously.<\/em><\/p>\nWell, I focused on gnostic inner liberation\u2014esoteric in nature\u2014where mystical experiences are of great importance, rather than on church orthodoxy\u2026 so people quickly dropped out, because inner work demands a lot from a person.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd yet you came to be called Apostola Apostolorum, which means \u201cApostle of the Apostles,\u201d right?<\/em><\/p>\nYes, I come from the village of Magdala on the Sea of \u200b\u200bGalilee. A beautiful spot! Hence the addition of Magdalena. And yes, I was the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus. I arrived at the tomb early in the morning and saw that the stone had been rolled away. I thought that Jesus had been taken out of the tomb\u2026 that shocked me tremendously! But a moment later I suddenly saw Jesus, but did not recognize Him. Only when He spoke my name did a huge sense of relief wash over me! It turned out to be Jesus! He explicitly told me to inform the others: \u201cGo to your brothers and tell them that I have risen\u2026\u201d<\/span>
But please understand the meaning of this: I awoke to consciousness again after the blow of grief I received\u2014I was completely devastated\u2014and was given the task of sharing the truth about this ‘resurrection’. This was not just an event, but a major spiritual breakthrough that I therefore had to tell my fellow apostles about.<\/span><\/p>\nAh, clear. Still, in our time there is much confusion about you. When I ask people what they know about you, they can hardly tell me anything, even if they were raised with the Bible. I keep hearing something about a woman who was rather loose with sexuality\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nWell, in my time I became quite an influential leader. In gnostic texts\u2014such as the Gospel attributed to me, written down somewhere in the first century\u2014I am even described as the disciple who understood Jesus best. But yes, that was denied for a long time. Especially when, in the sixth century, a certain Pope Gregory the Great merged me with other women of my time. There was Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, who was devoted to Jesus and listened to Him for hours and anointed Him. And then there was the sinful woman who anointed Jesus\u2019 feet before his arrest, but who remained anonymous, as her name is never mentioned. It was mainly this woman who was identified with me. Thus three women were turned into one person. Convenient, isn\u2019t it? That is why my icon often shows me holding an ointment jar. But I myself did not anoint Jesus during His lifetime…<\/span><\/p>\nSo that icon of you is actually a bit \u2018false\u2019…<\/em><\/p>\nMy icon often shows that ointment jar. I wanted<\/em> to anoint Him, in His tomb, but discovered that He had risen. Because I intended to do so, I have no problem with the icon depicting it. For me, that jar is a symbol of my devotion. I came with this balm to give His body a final honor, my last act of love I could offer Him. But I never had to use it! He was no longer there! Death had been overcome! So this jar is now an \u2018empty\u2019 symbol. It reminds us that my care was no longer needed for a \u2018dead\u2019 one, because I became the first witness of the Living One. A sign of my presence at the most important moment in history.<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, I can understand that… but still… that ointment jar actually also represents that wrong view of your person.<\/em><\/p>\nIn the Orthodox tradition I am also depicted with a red egg. This tells a very different story\u2014one of my confrontation with the rulers of my time. After Jesus\u2019 resurrection, I traveled to Rome to confront Emperor Tiberius with the injustice done to Him by Pilate. A crude political scandal. I handed the emperor a simple white egg, a symbol of new life, and declared, \u201cChrist is risen!\u201d But Tiberius laughed at me and said, \u201cA man can no more rise from the dead than this egg in your hand can turn red.\u201d Well\u2026 at that very moment, the egg in my hand turned deep red! That certainly made him pause, haha! So this symbol is far more powerful and shows me as a woman who was not afraid to stand before the most powerful man in the world to proclaim truth. In Greek and Russian Orthodoxy, dyeing eggs red at Easter is still a direct reference to my courageous act. Quite wonderful! I feel honored. This is the true Easter egg: the symbol of victory over death and of my voice that could not be silenced.<\/span><\/p>\nWow! That suddenly explains a lot. I never really understood painting Easter eggs. We did that at home too, but with all kinds of cheerful colors. What do those eggs have to do with the Festival of Light, I used to wonder as a boy… Yes, okay\u2026 as a symbol of spring and new life, but that\u2019s quite different from what you are describing here.
But\u2026 I\u2019d like to return to that merging of the three women, including you\u2026 that should never have happened! A pope falsifying history!<\/em><\/p>\nHistorical falsification indeed. It created the image of me as a repentant prostitute. This remained official doctrine in your Roman Catholic Church until 1969. This \u2018transformation\u2019 of my person\u2014from a direct witness of wisdom into a symbol of repentance\u2014is one of the most fascinating errors in religious history. Eventually my role as an evangelist was restored and the stigma of \u2018sinner\u2019 was removed. But yes, only after centuries of misinformation that apparently suited the male church leaders quite well. That framing still exists in certain circles and is hard to eradicate.<\/span><\/p>\nThat must have been terrible for you\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nOh, I\u2019ve moved beyond that, haha. My rehabilitation is actually not very significant from a church perspective. It is only truly understood when women are seen not only as bearers of \u2018birth\u2019, but also as carriers and proclaimers of \u2018revelation\u2019. There is still much to gain in that regard.<\/span><\/p>\nWell, your mission\u2026 that\u2019s what I\u2019m most interested in…Also how history treated you, of course, but what you revealed back then\u2014that is far too little known. Your knowledge and experience still seem overshadowed by what the canonical evangelists had to say.<\/em><\/p>\nIndeed, you are right. Jesus\u2019 followers, including those evangelists, were not all pleased with me. In my time, as a woman, you had to be very strong to stand your ground. Women simply did not matter\u2014and that is putting it mildly.<\/span><\/p>\nOh??? Please explain.<\/em><\/p>\nWell, an influential French writer once said in the previous century: \u201cWhat is so irritating about women is their claim to intelligence\u201d\u2026 Do you feel it\u2026? That could just as well have been a statement from my time! Women with spiritual insight who could express themselves well were truly looked down upon.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd yet people eventually did start listening to you, as Apostola Apostolorum\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nMm-hm\u2026 eventually. After Jesus\u2019 crucifixion, the male followers were very afraid. Angry as well. In fact, they forgot almost instantly what Jesus had taught them. They fell back into the sleep of ignorance. I had to comfort them\u2026 reassure them\u2026 call them back to order\u2026 and to truly reach them, I shared a great secret: a vision that Jesus had revealed only to me, explaining the Ultimate Reality of Everything<\/em>. Tell me\u2026 you interviewed Arjuna, didn\u2019t you?<\/span><\/p>\nIndeed.<\/em><\/p>\nWell, Arjuna also received such an immense vision from Krishna, and that was centuries before my time. Arjuna struggled greatly with it, as you know\u2026 as a man\u2026 as a warrior. But we, of course, were not aware of that story back then. That was long before our time, somewhere one to three thousand years before the birth of Jesus\u2026 opinions differ on that. But the vision I shared with Jesus\u2019 followers\u2014they found it very difficult to accept.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat kind of vision was it, and why did they struggle with it?<\/em><\/p>\nThat vision showed how we could escape our prison\u2014our small humanity, all the illusions that sustain fear and loss. I spoke of the path the soul travels along seven \u2018powers\u2019 to find liberation from matter, from the world of duality, from the world of opposites. These are powers such as fear, desire, and ignorance. My vision revealed how<\/em> the soul could move past these \u2018powers of darkness\u2019. A kind of spiritual navigation to overcome inner blockages, for the reunification of the human soul with the divine. This process is often symbolically referred to as the Mystical Marriage.<\/span><\/p>\nThat must have been comforting for them, surely?<\/em><\/p>\nNo, it was not received that way\u2026 A heated discussion even arose, mainly stirred up by Peter. He openly questioned why Jesus would have shared these secrets with a woman<\/em> and not with one of them\u2014the men. A clear illustration of how he truly viewed women who stood beside Jesus. It became a clash between two forms of authority: that of theoretical knowledge<\/em> and that of inner lived knowledge<\/em>. Peter even demanded that I leave\u2014he became that agitated\u2026 Of course, I stayed.<\/span><\/p>\nWow\u2026 that is quite shocking. You wouldn\u2019t expect such hostility from Jesus\u2019 followers after all the teachings they had received.<\/em><\/p>\nIn the end, I did manage to engage them in deep, meaningful conversations. Philip even referred to me in his gospel as the companion<\/em> of Jesus, because he knew that Jesus loved me more than any of the other apostles.<\/span><\/p>\nAm I speaking here with the beloved of Jesus???<\/em><\/p>\nWell, I do not wish to boast, but he often kissed me on the mouth\u2026 yes indeed! But\u2026 you must also understand that in ancient writings, kissing on the mouth<\/em> symbolized the direct transmission of wisdom<\/em>, rather than romantic affection\u2026 In mysticism, the connection between Jesus and me is seen as the symbol of the Hieros Gamos<\/em>: the sacred marriage between the masculine and the feminine within ourselves, dissolving duality. This is not the same as the Mystical Marriage I mentioned earlier. The sacred marriage\u2014the Hieros Gamos\u2014is a necessary condition to arrive at the ultimate Mystical Marriage. A stage, therefore.
<\/span>But of course\u2026 Jesus was also a man, and I was quite a beautiful woman, so we cannot exclude any human dimension to his affection, haha! We were very fond of one another, and how far that went\u2026 I prefer to keep that to myself, if you don\u2019t mind.<\/span><\/p>\nUnderstandable. No need to reveal everything!<\/em><\/p>\nJesus praised me repeatedly because my heart was \u201cmore directed toward the kingdom of heaven than all others\u201d<\/em>\u2014self-realization, in other words\u2014and he saw me as a human embodiment of Sophia<\/em>, which stands for divine Wisdom. When the church began to institutionalize in the fourth century, there was no longer any place for Sophia. Her role as the personification of the highest form of knowledge and insight was too abstract for church leaders and gave too much power to individual mystical experience. The church replaced her influence in three clever ways.<\/span><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zelfkennis.nu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/maria-magdalena-rood-ei-gr.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>Interview with Mary Magdalene<\/span><\/h2>\nDear Mary Magdalene, Apostola Apostolorum! I am very honored to speak with you.<\/em><\/p>\n Well, you’re welcome, and just call me Mary. It\u2019s been quite a while since anyone interviewed me. Or rather, I can\u2019t remember ever being interviewed.<\/span><\/p>\n Wow, that\u2019s strange\u2026 but then again, in your time it wasn\u2019t customary to give interviews, and podcasts certainly didn\u2019t exist yet.<\/em><\/p>\n True, and in my time people were not very interested in what I had to say either. After all, I was an apostle\u2026 and a woman. That wasn\u2019t something people valued much when it came to higher matters. My gospel was only discovered much later in Egypt, in 1896. It was a version translated from Greek into Coptic\u2026 Who wrote it? I have no idea, because in my time knowledge was passed on purely orally.<\/span> And even after its discovery, it took a long time before it was published, only in 1955…<\/span><\/p>\n Really! Just a year before I was born\u2026 why was that? It seems your person was not taken very seriously.<\/em><\/p>\n Well, I focused on gnostic inner liberation\u2014esoteric in nature\u2014where mystical experiences are of great importance, rather than on church orthodoxy\u2026 so people quickly dropped out, because inner work demands a lot from a person.<\/span><\/p>\n And yet you came to be called Apostola Apostolorum, which means \u201cApostle of the Apostles,\u201d right?<\/em><\/p>\n Yes, I come from the village of Magdala on the Sea of \u200b\u200bGalilee. A beautiful spot! Hence the addition of Magdalena. And yes, I was the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus. I arrived at the tomb early in the morning and saw that the stone had been rolled away. I thought that Jesus had been taken out of the tomb\u2026 that shocked me tremendously! But a moment later I suddenly saw Jesus, but did not recognize Him. Only when He spoke my name did a huge sense of relief wash over me! It turned out to be Jesus! He explicitly told me to inform the others: \u201cGo to your brothers and tell them that I have risen\u2026\u201d<\/span> Ah, clear. Still, in our time there is much confusion about you. When I ask people what they know about you, they can hardly tell me anything, even if they were raised with the Bible. I keep hearing something about a woman who was rather loose with sexuality\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Well, in my time I became quite an influential leader. In gnostic texts\u2014such as the Gospel attributed to me, written down somewhere in the first century\u2014I am even described as the disciple who understood Jesus best. But yes, that was denied for a long time. Especially when, in the sixth century, a certain Pope Gregory the Great merged me with other women of my time. There was Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, who was devoted to Jesus and listened to Him for hours and anointed Him. And then there was the sinful woman who anointed Jesus\u2019 feet before his arrest, but who remained anonymous, as her name is never mentioned. It was mainly this woman who was identified with me. Thus three women were turned into one person. Convenient, isn\u2019t it? That is why my icon often shows me holding an ointment jar. But I myself did not anoint Jesus during His lifetime…<\/span><\/p>\n So that icon of you is actually a bit \u2018false\u2019…<\/em><\/p>\n My icon often shows that ointment jar. I wanted<\/em> to anoint Him, in His tomb, but discovered that He had risen. Because I intended to do so, I have no problem with the icon depicting it. For me, that jar is a symbol of my devotion. I came with this balm to give His body a final honor, my last act of love I could offer Him. But I never had to use it! He was no longer there! Death had been overcome! So this jar is now an \u2018empty\u2019 symbol. It reminds us that my care was no longer needed for a \u2018dead\u2019 one, because I became the first witness of the Living One. A sign of my presence at the most important moment in history.<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, I can understand that… but still… that ointment jar actually also represents that wrong view of your person.<\/em><\/p>\n In the Orthodox tradition I am also depicted with a red egg. This tells a very different story\u2014one of my confrontation with the rulers of my time. After Jesus\u2019 resurrection, I traveled to Rome to confront Emperor Tiberius with the injustice done to Him by Pilate. A crude political scandal. I handed the emperor a simple white egg, a symbol of new life, and declared, \u201cChrist is risen!\u201d But Tiberius laughed at me and said, \u201cA man can no more rise from the dead than this egg in your hand can turn red.\u201d Well\u2026 at that very moment, the egg in my hand turned deep red! That certainly made him pause, haha! So this symbol is far more powerful and shows me as a woman who was not afraid to stand before the most powerful man in the world to proclaim truth. In Greek and Russian Orthodoxy, dyeing eggs red at Easter is still a direct reference to my courageous act. Quite wonderful! I feel honored. This is the true Easter egg: the symbol of victory over death and of my voice that could not be silenced.<\/span><\/p>\n Wow! That suddenly explains a lot. I never really understood painting Easter eggs. We did that at home too, but with all kinds of cheerful colors. What do those eggs have to do with the Festival of Light, I used to wonder as a boy… Yes, okay\u2026 as a symbol of spring and new life, but that\u2019s quite different from what you are describing here. Historical falsification indeed. It created the image of me as a repentant prostitute. This remained official doctrine in your Roman Catholic Church until 1969. This \u2018transformation\u2019 of my person\u2014from a direct witness of wisdom into a symbol of repentance\u2014is one of the most fascinating errors in religious history. Eventually my role as an evangelist was restored and the stigma of \u2018sinner\u2019 was removed. But yes, only after centuries of misinformation that apparently suited the male church leaders quite well. That framing still exists in certain circles and is hard to eradicate.<\/span><\/p>\n That must have been terrible for you\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Oh, I\u2019ve moved beyond that, haha. My rehabilitation is actually not very significant from a church perspective. It is only truly understood when women are seen not only as bearers of \u2018birth\u2019, but also as carriers and proclaimers of \u2018revelation\u2019. There is still much to gain in that regard.<\/span><\/p>\n Well, your mission\u2026 that\u2019s what I\u2019m most interested in…Also how history treated you, of course, but what you revealed back then\u2014that is far too little known. Your knowledge and experience still seem overshadowed by what the canonical evangelists had to say.<\/em><\/p>\n Indeed, you are right. Jesus\u2019 followers, including those evangelists, were not all pleased with me. In my time, as a woman, you had to be very strong to stand your ground. Women simply did not matter\u2014and that is putting it mildly.<\/span><\/p>\n Oh??? Please explain.<\/em><\/p>\n Well, an influential French writer once said in the previous century: \u201cWhat is so irritating about women is their claim to intelligence\u201d\u2026 Do you feel it\u2026? That could just as well have been a statement from my time! Women with spiritual insight who could express themselves well were truly looked down upon.<\/span><\/p>\n And yet people eventually did start listening to you, as Apostola Apostolorum\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Mm-hm\u2026 eventually. After Jesus\u2019 crucifixion, the male followers were very afraid. Angry as well. In fact, they forgot almost instantly what Jesus had taught them. They fell back into the sleep of ignorance. I had to comfort them\u2026 reassure them\u2026 call them back to order\u2026 and to truly reach them, I shared a great secret: a vision that Jesus had revealed only to me, explaining the Ultimate Reality of Everything<\/em>. Tell me\u2026 you interviewed Arjuna, didn\u2019t you?<\/span><\/p>\n Indeed.<\/em><\/p>\n Well, Arjuna also received such an immense vision from Krishna, and that was centuries before my time. Arjuna struggled greatly with it, as you know\u2026 as a man\u2026 as a warrior. But we, of course, were not aware of that story back then. That was long before our time, somewhere one to three thousand years before the birth of Jesus\u2026 opinions differ on that. But the vision I shared with Jesus\u2019 followers\u2014they found it very difficult to accept.<\/span><\/p>\n What kind of vision was it, and why did they struggle with it?<\/em><\/p>\n That vision showed how we could escape our prison\u2014our small humanity, all the illusions that sustain fear and loss. I spoke of the path the soul travels along seven \u2018powers\u2019 to find liberation from matter, from the world of duality, from the world of opposites. These are powers such as fear, desire, and ignorance. My vision revealed how<\/em> the soul could move past these \u2018powers of darkness\u2019. A kind of spiritual navigation to overcome inner blockages, for the reunification of the human soul with the divine. This process is often symbolically referred to as the Mystical Marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n That must have been comforting for them, surely?<\/em><\/p>\n No, it was not received that way\u2026 A heated discussion even arose, mainly stirred up by Peter. He openly questioned why Jesus would have shared these secrets with a woman<\/em> and not with one of them\u2014the men. A clear illustration of how he truly viewed women who stood beside Jesus. It became a clash between two forms of authority: that of theoretical knowledge<\/em> and that of inner lived knowledge<\/em>. Peter even demanded that I leave\u2014he became that agitated\u2026 Of course, I stayed.<\/span><\/p>\n Wow\u2026 that is quite shocking. You wouldn\u2019t expect such hostility from Jesus\u2019 followers after all the teachings they had received.<\/em><\/p>\n In the end, I did manage to engage them in deep, meaningful conversations. Philip even referred to me in his gospel as the companion<\/em> of Jesus, because he knew that Jesus loved me more than any of the other apostles.<\/span><\/p>\n Am I speaking here with the beloved of Jesus???<\/em><\/p>\n Well, I do not wish to boast, but he often kissed me on the mouth\u2026 yes indeed! But\u2026 you must also understand that in ancient writings, kissing on the mouth<\/em> symbolized the direct transmission of wisdom<\/em>, rather than romantic affection\u2026 In mysticism, the connection between Jesus and me is seen as the symbol of the Hieros Gamos<\/em>: the sacred marriage between the masculine and the feminine within ourselves, dissolving duality. This is not the same as the Mystical Marriage I mentioned earlier. The sacred marriage\u2014the Hieros Gamos\u2014is a necessary condition to arrive at the ultimate Mystical Marriage. A stage, therefore. Understandable. No need to reveal everything!<\/em><\/p>\n Jesus praised me repeatedly because my heart was \u201cmore directed toward the kingdom of heaven than all others\u201d<\/em>\u2014self-realization, in other words\u2014and he saw me as a human embodiment of Sophia<\/em>, which stands for divine Wisdom. When the church began to institutionalize in the fourth century, there was no longer any place for Sophia. Her role as the personification of the highest form of knowledge and insight was too abstract for church leaders and gave too much power to individual mystical experience. The church replaced her influence in three clever ways.<\/span><\/p>\n
But please understand the meaning of this: I awoke to consciousness again after the blow of grief I received\u2014I was completely devastated\u2014and was given the task of sharing the truth about this ‘resurrection’. This was not just an event, but a major spiritual breakthrough that I therefore had to tell my fellow apostles about.<\/span><\/p>\n
But\u2026 I\u2019d like to return to that merging of the three women, including you\u2026 that should never have happened! A pope falsifying history!<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/span>But of course\u2026 Jesus was also a man, and I was quite a beautiful woman, so we cannot exclude any human dimension to his affection, haha! We were very fond of one another, and how far that went\u2026 I prefer to keep that to myself, if you don\u2019t mind.<\/span><\/p>\n