Mary Magdalene and the End of Spiritual Childhood

Mary Magdalene and the End of Spiritual Childhood

From back from the borderline by mollie adler

July 7, 2026 · 51 min

About this episode

This episode explores spiritual maturity through the lens of Mary Magdalene and the challenges of adulthood in a spiritual context.

This week, I was doing an I Ching reading, and one line stood out to me: “To find what you seek, leave the child and follow the adult.” This episode was inspired by that line. I use it to think through spiritual maturity, especially in a culture where adulthood often feels empty, exhausted, and totally cut off from wonder. We talk about the younger self that still wants someone to come save us, hand us answers, or make the pain finally mean something. We also look at the way strong feelings can trick us into thinking something must be true, and how spirituality can become another way to avoid ordinary honesty, responsibility, and hard choices. Then I connect that to Mary Magdalene, especially an early Christian text called the Gospel of Mary, where Mary says Jesus taught her things the other disciples didn’t hear, and the men have to decide whether they can accept that a woman may have received something they didn’t. We also talk about courtly love, the medieval idea that a knight had to learn patience and devotion through his love for the Lady, and the Cathars, a Christian group in southern France that was condemned by the Church and allowed women to carry spiritual authority…

People in this episode

Host: Mollie Adler

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cathars

Books & works: Gospel of Mary

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