Mary Magdalene and the mystery of the Inner Wedding

Not outside, but within

Have you ever noticed how Mary Magdalene is often depicted with a skull in old paintings and images? Artists intentionally placed this symbol near her because her domain is within the head. Not as a memento mori (Latin for “remember you must die”), but as a reminder to you, the viewer, of your own process of transformation. In the brain, Magdalena goes by the name amygdala, an almond-shaped center where the senses and emotions (like fear and anger) come together. It helps trigger quick responses to danger and stores emotional memories to better assess future situations. Your fears wander through the amygdala, but it’s also where liberation begins.

Also in your brain is the thalamus, the inner sanctuary where perception and awareness come together. The hippocampus stores memory, the past. The fornix forms the arch — the passage between the two pillars (Jachin and Boaz?). It is within this inner temple that the Sacred Marriage takes place: the union of mind and body. Golgotha, literally the “Place of the Skull,” is not a distant hill outside Jerusalem, but a place within your own head — your consciousness — where the old self (Jesus) dies and the new self (the Christ) is born. This rebirth happens alongside your inner bride — the feminine principle that appears in many prophetic images, such as the Wedding of the Lamb in Revelation 19:6 10. Even in Mary Magdalene’s name, the mystery resonates: the English Mary and the verb to marry.

The meaning behind words

And her name offers even more clues. Magdala means “tower, height.” Delene points to “valley, low place.” Magdalene embodies the alchemy of opposites: the lifting up of the lower, and the descent of the higher. She is the magnetic force connecting Heaven and Earth, thought and feeling. Just as the Hermetic axiom says: As Above, So Below. According to ancient texts, she came from Magdala, a village by the Sea of Galilee. Galilee means “circle,” “ring,” or even “gateway.” In esoteric traditions, the sea symbolizes the subconscious, or the cerebrospinal fluid — the silent inner ocean that flows through the ventricles (chambers) of the brain. Jesus walking on this water represents divine consciousness rising above emotion. The sea is the gateway between body and spirit — and that’s precisely where Magdalene comes from.

Mary Magdalene is not a sinner on the sidelines. Not a historical side note, not a hidden lover. She is not Jesus’s secret — or the secret of the Templars or the Cathars. She is your secret. She lives at the center of your mind, in the almond-shaped core where fear can be transformed into love. The true Magdalene is not a person, but an experience. An archetype of connection — the bridge between Heaven and Earth, between your heart and mind, between your light and shadow sides.

The astrology and numerology of July 22

Even her feast day, July 22, carries symbolic weight. Astrologically, it marks the meeting point of Cancer and Leo — where the feminine, watery principle of the Moon meets the masculine, fiery principle of the Sun. But there’s also a numerological layer. If you divide 22 by 7, you get a close approximation of π (pi). This infinite number is deeply connected to the circle, in which beginning and end merge. Pi, combined with the radius, represents the unity of masculine and feminine, of linear thinking and flowing emotion. Mag-dalene is the key that mag-netically draws these polarities together, until everything becomes one in the center. And the circle’s ray (r) is not just a line — it is the divine ray of consciousness (Jesus), the light of the divine that shines within us. The complete formula for the circumference of a circle (2 × π × r) now takes on a deeper meaning. Because inside your brain are not one, but two amygdalae — two Mary Magdalenes, joined by the (light) ray. In other words: 2 × Mary Magdalene × Jesus = the circle is complete.