The Exalted Mother
It was suggested I might consider attending an online "event" called "The Lost Mysteries of Mother Mary" put on by the Shift Network. The description is:
My own work with the Marys of canonical scripture was part of what drew me — and part of what troubled me once I looked closer.
What troubles me after witnessing the event is that both traditional elevation and modern esoteric reinterpretation can honor Mary in ways that unintentionally distance her from ordinary human life.
My translation of the event’s message: By turning Mary into an elite, hyper-trained "super-priestess" who possesses rare, esoteric, magical powers to manifest a pregnancy, they accidentally recreate the exact same problem they claim to be fixing. They take her out of the realm of ordinary human experience and place her on a pedestal that often feels out of reach for regular women and mothers.
It subtly implies that ordinary womanhood, ordinary biology, and the gritty, daily reality of motherhood aren't sacred enough on their own—that they require a special "attunement," an elite pedigree, or a "mystery school" certification to be considered divine based on apocryphal writings of people wanting to fill the in the gaps of the biblical Mary. I suggest we need not do so.
The silence of canonical scripture around Mary's early life is itself profound — and I would argue it elevates her far more than anything written nearly two centuries later by authors with imagination.
The author of this event draws largely on non-canonical and Gnostic apocrypha, such as the Gospels of James and Philip. The presentation focuses heavily on the Protoevangelium of James (as they claim literally, 'The First Gospel'). While the term Protoevangelium historically refers to the foundational promise in Genesis 3:15, modern New Age interpretation offers that the title of this 2nd-century text to reframe it as a spiritual 'prequel'—a gospel before the Gospels that validates secret, esoteric training over ordinary biblical works.
Protoevangelium’s portrayal of Temple priests and Temple life feels idealized enough that it may reflect a later theological writer—very likely outside firsthand Judean experience—rather than someone close to the historical events or understanding of Jewish tradition.
If the Protoevangelium of James were true, it would mean that the very Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus had actually spent twelve years tenderly raising his mother inside their most sacred place, feeding her with angels, and hand-selecting her husband. They wanted so desperately to prove Mary’s ritual purity that they completely forgot who the "bad guys" were in the story of Jesus. They needed a hyper-pure location, so they picked the Temple, completely ignoring the fact that the actual historical Temple was run by the same organization who orchestrated the Crucifixion.
But here is the truth that cannot be disputed
There is something perfectly sacred about women and mothers by default which cuts straight to the heart of what makes the historical or canonical Mary so compelling to millions of people—me included.When we strip away both traditional Catholic and modern New Age channeling the core story of Mary is already amazing and empowering: She isn't a royal priestess in a gilded palace; she is a young girl from a dirt-poor, working-class village in Galilee—a place of no social status.
She goes through a terrifying, socially scandalous pregnancy, gives birth in a makeshift shelter, and experiences the deep, terrifying vulnerability of trying to protect an extraordinary child in a brutal, occupied world. She watches her child grow, worries about him, and ultimately suffers the worst pain a mother can endure—standing at the foot of a cross her beloved Son died upon.
In that framework, Mary is a mirror for all women and mothers because her holiness is found right in the middle of the mess, the fear, the devotion, and the fierce love of ordinary life. Every mother who has stayed up all night with a sick child, worried about their future, or quietly carried the weight of her family’s survival is participating in that exact same sacred space.
Having prayed this very week for a mother, a family, experiencing the same concerns for the sacred life of a child and mother, I am at deep odds with this teaching. The mother and child I prayed for are perfect and they are going through the same fear Mary and Joseph experienced. There is no time for a Temple anointing, we’re right in the middle of it. I can only know that for them, their outcome will have deep meaning and set a foundation for profound transformation. And yet, as I pray, I still I may not fully understand it all, nor do I need to.
So why must modern humans continue to put Mary on a pedestal that wasn’t in the original scripture? Both the traditional church structures and the New Age movement share a common habit: they struggle to sit with the idea that the ordinary can be holy.
The Patriarchal Church historically built the pedestal to distance Mary from regular women's bodies, emphasizing her as "immaculate" or "ever-virgin" because it was uncomfortable with the messy reality of female biology and sexuality (their view, not mine).
Some later church traditions elevated Mary in ways that, intentionally or not, made her feel increasingly distant from ordinary womanhood. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a believer in the virgin birth of Jesus but not at the expense of elevating Mary to some deity herself, just another goddess among many.
The New Age Movement builds a different kind of pedestal. It replaces the church's theological dogmas with metaphysical ones, turning her into a "divine feminine oracle" practicing "womb-heart attunements." But the result is identical: Mary is once again removed from the village, removed from regular humanity, and turned into an elite archetype that you have to pay a multi-week course fee to fully access. Perhaps a little too late for some.
The people drawn to this movement genuinely love Mary — that love is real and I don't question it. But in their effort to restore her dignity, they have repeated the very move they set out to undo: lifting her out of ordinary human life and placing her somewhere the rest of us cannot follow without a guide or an initiation.
There are three types of Mary:
1. The Canonical Mary, sourced by witnesses that moved along the same roads of Judea that Christ walked.
2. The Traditional Elevated Mary, sourced by a patriarchal movement trying to reconcile the sins of the past and preserve Christ's holiness.
3. The Esoteric Mary of the Protoevangelium of James, sourced entirely on imagination and a hope for answers that may not appear obvious.
Each movement tries to honor Mary. But the farther she moves from Luke’s humble servant, the harder she becomes to recognize or have a relationship with especially when the hardships of life enter into our orbit.
Perhaps this sounds like a criticism, it is not at all criticism. It is a recognition of the Grace of Mother Mary that I feel and see every day. A Grace that is often obscured by a forced elevation by those that seek a deeper relationship. It is understandable but it misses the mark.
I remain in awe of Mary, especially for all the Heart she brought to a curious future world that condemns her to a status she herself would not have assumed on her own. Your curiosity of the Mother is already defined in her willingness to bring forth perfect Grace into this world as a humble participant in Life itself.
Mary said it herself, likely directly to Luke in the Magnificat— “My Spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.”
Mary’s greatness in Scripture is not mystical inflation, but holy humility.
So, think of it—Mary did not consider herself by any direct evidence as being spiritually elite. Instead, she said, “I was lowly, and God saw me and exalts the ordinary.”
In all the testimony throughout the ages, God chooses the ordinary—in David, in Gideon, in Hannah, Ruth, Esther. You find it in Amos, Peter and John, the woman at the well. Leah the unloved wife in Genesis. The stuttering exile, Moses.
In each case, favor falls on the believer, before the believer has accumulated power or been elevated to it. Each example becomes ordained in domestic or the everyday worship of life within chaos. They develop a truth, and a purpose around them and create the foundation of God’s plan through time. Precisely as Mary did in the middle of uncertainty.
God did not choose a palace, the temple elite, a priestly dynasty or imperial power. He chose a simple woman from Nazareth.
You have to ask why Mary. It is so obvious that we often assume it is too easy an explanation. The humble are thoughtful, they do not challenge. Those that simply love calculates with a different worldview.
It’s protection, it’s justice embedded in a woman that knows she is ordained to simply love and take care of something extraordinary—a Life conceived by God in a world that needs to experience Christ and remember the Source of all life and all creation. A sense of awe weaved into a world of confusion and misunderstanding.
Holiness enters this world then, as it does today, through humility, trust, and the ordinary embodied life of His followers as clearly demonstrated in all of Christ’s apostles.
Mary’s story asks only a few things of us in her Song of Praise: to Magnify the Lord, to embody mercy, seek justice, walk humbly, and love unconditionally.
I prefer to honor the fact that the miracle of life, the fierce protection of a child, and the quiet devotion of a mother are already fully sacred, right out of the box. I don't need a mystery school to validate them.
I can simply look to my own mother and the mother of my children.
