Theeo Thoughts № 021 | Prostitution

Subscribe to Future Theeo Thoughts
Theeo Thoughts № 021 Playlist

She wasn't a whore.

(Stick with me. It's storytime.)

A few weeks ago, I picked up Larry to visit Monticello — a place I’d never been but had said a few years back I wanted to see. Sean understandably asked why, and honestly, I didn’t know until Sally Hemings started calling to me.

During the multi-hour drive, I heard myself say for the first time, "She wasn't a whore." I wasn't talking about Sally Hemings though. I was referencing Mary Magdalene.

What paradigms, what structures have you been unbinding yourself from? Your psyche, your body – in a deep way? Structures entirely built from a conditioned understanding of what we're supposed to be. What we're supposed to believe.

This is the snapshot of the 20-year journey of deconstruction and reconstruction. Individually, Systemically, Societally.

The Camargue

To back up, Mary Magdalene has been tracking me for a few years now.

In 2019, during a summer holiday, I visited a place in the very south of France called the Camargue. Matt (French) asked me, "Why would you go there? Nobody goes there." I couldn't answer then, still went, and greatly enjoyed my stay in the Camargue, complete with wild horses, a Tablet Hotel, few tourists, and a cute waterfront beach bar. Came to find out last month, while reading, that Magdalene lived the later years of her life (1st c.), in hiding, protected by the Celts, in this exact area of France.

I don’t know how this all works. Somehow, the characters along my path connect. The knowings make sense. The lessons get clear. And the ideas I’m given to write about – messy as they may be – you’ll see what I mean.

The Bumper Sticker

I chose a few Magdalene-focused books to get lost in, stay off social media, and keep my sanity during the Middle-earth NYC freeze of January and February.

One was historical fiction told through a first-century Jewish female lens. Another, an introduction to the Gospel of Mary Magdalene – the "feminist gospel" – courageously explained by a female theologian author, referencing other Magdalene scholars who gave me a refreshed, modern, and more logical narrative to muse about.

Upon finishing and reflecting, I had been given a new thesis statement. A first bumper sticker – "She wasn't a whore."

So simple. So massive. A main character, a female figure, of the life after death period (unusual too when you consider it) recast in her truth, not their distortion. Not their fear.

Larry and I discussed the sticker layout on our drive through Virginia. We agreed–

• Keep it simple
• Clean lines
• Easy to read
• Leave it open – Who? What? How? Why? When?
• Maybe with a tiny URL, but still undecided on that part of the design brief.

The point being, the narrative must change. And a bumper sticker might be the trick.

Simple, amidst the complexity.

Magdalene, the Girl

As Magdalene is now not a whore, let's establish what and who she was for posterity.

She was a Jewish woman from a wealthy family. The beloved and spiritual partner of one of history's most potent storytellers and spiritual awakeners. No disputing.

She, too, was a master teacher. Educated alongside male students (again, 1st c.) by her Rabbi father. Women, in Roman-occupied Judea, were not allowed to learn to read, let alone be a student of the scrolls. Her father quietly broke the rules. He loved her intellect and hated the Roman occupation. He saw systems for their cruelty and greed, and knew her rebellious spirit couldn’t be boxed in.

Magdalene was a mystic. Her visions began early, and her "gift" was a burden to all. Protecting her and the family's "station" from harm, in first-century Judea, was a real concern.

To review –
Likely his wife and certainly his beloved. Not his property. Not a whore.

A mystic. A teacher in her own right. A direct conduit.

Eventually, a refugee from persecution, to a cave in the Camargue, protected by Celts.

A co-equal part of a whole system, designing itself in real time, in 1st-century Judea.

A few preemptive answers to the questions you may have –

• Yes, an actual Gospel of Mary Magdalene exists.
• Yes, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene has been validated and verified.
• Yes, plenty of skepticism continues. Deflection is a coping mechanism, and truth can be blinding.
• The existence of a female gospel and the female who was intentionally curated into a penitent whore by power-hungry, fearful men – and the women who obliged – begs many questions about what is true, what is real, and how power, control, and abuse actually work.
• Pope Francis, 2013-2025, elevated Magdalene's Gospel to liturgical status in 2016 and named Magdalene "the Apostle to the Apostles" in the record. Good of him.
• Earlier, in 1969, Pope Paul VI did some gracious work to elevate Magdalene out of the conflation of whoredom and situate her as a "follower." Ridiculous in its limitation, but progress nonetheless.
• Another buried Gospel of Philip directly acknowledges the companionship of the two and explicitly names her position as an Apostle. "Off with that version of history," said Peter and his new collaborators — the Romans. Yes, those Romans.
• For the record: barbarians. Not good humans. Not a leadership framework.
• Any teachings after the short-but-impactful life of this man named Yeshua – Aramaic, not Anglicised – that were not aligned with the constructing political, apostolic, church-building narrative for a power-over system design were edited.

Peter, Spreading the Word

Peter, positioning for power, control, and religious consolidation, did plenty of the forming and structuring that Christ directed him to do.

It's important to parse that Christ's directive to "spread the gospel" began with Peter's immediate undermining of Magdalene's role and relationship to it. The erasure and debasement initiative followed, for centuries. The girl boss part of this story wasn't going to serve Peter's political and power-over pursuits.

He spread the good word according to his – not the truth's – highly reconfigured storyline. Setting in motion 2,000+ years of distortion.

Until his own martyrdom. Upside down.

Magdalene, the Keeper of the System

The only person who bore witness to the crucifixion, the burial, the tomb, and most importantly, the resurrection was Magdalene. The resurrection is the crucial nugget of gold within this novella. Only she knew. Christ knew only she knew. Which means they had a secret between them. Peter was butt-hurt about this.

JC wasn't a dumb dumb. Ahead of his time, but not a dumb dumb.

He clearly understood and despised hugely the level of bullshit of the entrenched politics, manipulation, sexism, mental models, and ironies of the first-century social order. He designed for those constraints.

• Peter was purposefully assigned to break through exterior systems and install a new system design – a new "church system." (A very sensible strategic plan if you saw Peter for who he was and what his manipulative, hungry capabilities were.)
• Magdalene had developed the keys to the interior system. Hard-earned learnings through her own life's progression, gifts, and spiritual rigor. Her becoming the first to experience his resurrection. She was given the system design for "the way in."

Peter was assigned the system design outward. Magdalene, the system design inward. How could it be possible, though, that she – a woman – receive these keys, and not the one who perceived himself above all the others? Peter wailed. Because knuckleheads whose egos blind them to the truth in service of material ambitions and need for control do not get all the keys.

JC was strategic. He understood the ways of men. She was the keeper of the system. Peter was usable.

Yes, karma.

The Feminine

The whore depiction was a calculated story, worsened over centuries – Gregory, my nemesis, amplifying further edicts in the 6th. The depiction aimed to erase the female’s power, influence, and cosmic wisdom from Judeo-Christian consciousness, losing a pretty key thread of what was original to the methodology.

We know these:

• The feminine polarity, archetype, and essence.
• The feminine rage and grace.
• The feminine constitutional makeup.
• The feminine spiritual authority, power, and love.
• And the feminine beauty.

The necessity of the feminine to propagate, bring balance, and nurture life – literally and metaphorically. Co-equal in design, the feminine and masculine, for creating and for structuring, for flowing and for grounding.

The power-over, consumptive, extractive, violent, and imbalanced alternative? Again, karma.

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is so threatening that Peter and all those who followed needed it to be converted to this story of a penitent whore.

Why?

Fear.

Fear of freedom.

Fear of accountability.

Fear of internal power.

Fear of external dimensionality.

Fear of difference.

Fear of personal authority.

Fear of equality.

Fear of growth.

Fear of the very signatures of healthy, organic – not man-made – systems.

Feminine Consciousness Arising

Take a moment.

We are talking about history, but we are also talking about consciousness. Confronting and unraveling the programming of history and consciousness need spaciousness.

Why?

So your own fear-based monkey mind doesn't use its auto-override, reptilian button to shut down what is attempting to come into your awareness.

This is how you become free.

Domain Consolidation

How do fearful, power-hungry men consolidate a domain?

One way is to spin up a story that reduces the value and virtue of women – half the population, then and now – to a tidy and completely illogical binary: virginal purity or obscene whoring. A belief program. A system design distortion. An influencer campaign.

Either one contrasting idea or the other. No depth. No complexity. No feelings. No natural order. No nuance. No honor. No grace. No realness. No sovereignty. No autonomy. Nothing in between. Just a binary.

So tell me. Without the feminine, what becomes of the masculine? The system is a whole, not parts. Only so much "external building" (or warring, abusing, controlling) can happen before you hit the end of the road.

Without balance, it collapses.

We're there, in case it isn't apparent.

Co-Equal Design

Magdalene lived autonomy and sovereignty as a co-equal to Christ, a person, and as a female – as her Gospel teaches. Not as a competition. As a perfect design.

Autonomy and sovereignty can only derive from within. From a love so sturdy and found inside so that it can then be reflected and constructed outwardly as grace, compassion, and kindness. They are not top-down principles. Not governmental handouts. Not granted. The opposite, in fact. They lie dormant within you.

Magdalene's teachings are these. Likely protected until the time was right – alongside the improbable ways her buried gospel survived and resurfaced.

Sovereignty and autonomy are the signatures of your embodiment. To be realised, nurtured, and protected as a willful, loving, and fortified human being.

The Peter-inspired design is broken.

And the feminine included one is arising.

The myth constructed by power-seeking, desperate, and yes, real-time oppressed men – who made highly conscious choices to push one fear-inspired and manipulated version of the human storyline – was meant with a conscious intent to annihilate all evidence of the spiritual aspect and embodiment of the feminine. Of you. Of peace. Of love. Of joy. Of balance. Of wholeness. Of worth.

Cycles keep us moving. We're in a new one.

Wholeness

She wasn't a whore.

It seems almost ridiculous once you see it.

She was the living embodiment of an integrated whole human within an alternatively imagined system design, connecting the true material and spiritual. Not fragmented or distorted into cut-off parts.

Masculine and feminine. External and internal. Strength and love. Darkness and light. Words and emotion. Mind and heart. Rich and poor.

Realised and lived. Here and now. Earned and owned.

Through the Looking Glass

Sally Hemings will come later – I have work to do there.

I could say the same for Isis, Persephone, Kali, Kuan Yin, Lilith, and the others, but Magdalene showed up this time. I believe the moment to re-meet her is right. The collective is ready for this true, far more beautiful story.

Happy belated International Women’s Day. Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day – a co-opt from St. Brigid (gratitude to the same 1st-6th century system designing.) Happy Equinox.

Peace Prayer (Druidic Tradition, Ireland)

Deep within the still centre of my being, may I find peace.
In the silence of the grove, may I share peace.
In the greater circle of humankind, may I radiate peace.

Happy Passover, Easter, Ramadan, Holi, and all celebrations of arising, hope, and life.
May all beings feel peace, happiness, freedom, and joy.
She was this.
Not a whore.
Tell the kids.

You've got this. x

Kathryn
Theeo Creator

email: kathryn@theeo.co