What if Mary Magdalen had been a fiery Celtic lass, raised by eight warrior witches on a magical Isle of Women, who met Jesus at Druid School during his supposed “lost” years? What if she was passionate, shameless, and unrepentant, Jesus’s lover, wife, and equal rather than his disciple–an embodiment of the Divine Feminine with the fire of healing running through her veins? In this marvelous book by novelist Elizabeth Cunningham, that’s just what she is–and more.

If your interest in Mary M. was whetted by The Da Vinci Code, you’ll love the freshness of this Mary Magdalen’s feisty wisdom. Read a sample here:

Maybe you are relieved to know that I was forced into prostitution. Sold. No choice. Some people insist there is no evidence that I was a whore at all; they are eager to save my reputation–which implies that they think there is something wrong with being a whore. It is true that his official chroniclers never called me a whore, just a crazy bitch or in polite language “a woman infested with seven demons.” (We’ll get to that part later.) Everyone seems to agree that I was saved, cleansed by his healing (asexual) touch, and that I went on to become an important, if unacknowledged disciple.

There is more to the story or I wouldn’t be telling it. And I hope you will discover, if you don’t already know, the difference between a stereotype and an archetype. Stereotypes are flat, one dimensional, like the donkey you blindly pin the tail on. Archetypes are rich, lush, juicy. Sometimes they go underground, submerge in must and myth, like the Loch Ness Monster. But I am here to tell you:

You can’t keep a good archetype down.