Miryam there is “a great tree of knowledge within you”. In the book, The Gospel of the Beloved Companion, Jehanne de Quillan claims it is an expanded Gospel set out in 44 chapters with verses. De Quillan’s book talks about the text being translated from the original Alexandrian Greek. It is a manuscript reputedly brought from Alexandria to the Languedoc in the early to middle part of the first century. The text was translated into Occitan in the early 12th century and has been preserved within a spiritual community since that time. The more common Gospel of Mary from Nag Hammadi has a great many pages missing, but has been carbon-dated to a time after the death of Jesus.
The manuscript mentioned above has not been made publicly available for scholarly review. But as mystical literature and symbolism add to one’s inner awakening, it is hard to ignore new perspectives and insights that only the heart and mind can verify. In the controversial text attributed to Mary Magdalene’s teaching tradition, Yeshua shows Miryam a vision of a great tree within her.
Mary Magdalene’s love of Christ
In the metaphorical passage, Yeshua tells Miryam there is “a great tree within you” that does not change, whose leaves do not fall, and whoever ascends to its crown will know the truth of eternal life. He then shows her the tree and says its roots are in the earth, which is her body, while the trunk rises upward through the regions of humanity to the crown, which is the kingdom of spirit. She has known the tree of knowledge and now reaches towards Christ for the new life in him He promises. We can say she is the tree of life because of her relationship with Christ consciousness. Let’s face it, we all experience mysterious, unscientific, and undeniably real intuitions in our bodies at times.
Two thousand years of feminine blame because of the Tree of knowledge
Women were taught that Eve reached for the fruit, and humanity fell. Was the fruit the problem? Was the way God created women the problem? Was the desire for knowledge the problem? Or to be like God, a problem? Eve was curious, hungry, and willful, saying ‘Yes’. Had she said no to the serpent and been obedient to God, where would humanity be now?
If the fruit was evil, why does it appear as the very thing that grants eternal life? Maybe the fruit was never the sin. Maybe the sin was forgetfulness. Maybe the fall was not caused by a woman wanting wisdom. Maybe the fall was what happened when humanity reached for wisdom before it had the inner structure to hold it.
There is an undeniable difference between Eve and Mary. Eve does not fully know what she wants. She is a baby in the presence of awakened knowledge. In Eden, her eyes open, and shame enters. Eve does not simply walk up to a tree and grab whatever fruit looks delicious because, let’s be honest, if there is glowing fruit in a mystical vision, some of us are absolutely going to need supervision.
Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, knows exactly what she desires. She wants more Jesus as her teacher, master, and Lord. In Mary’s vision, she knows her place, her eyes open, and her soul becomes a voice that proclaims with authority, “he is risen.”He is here among us. Mary Magdalene is not merely weeping outside a tomb. She is standing at the symbolic threshold of the restored garden. She is the feminine returned to the place where the feminine was first blamed. She is not cast out. She is not silenced. She is not cursed. She is called by name.
How was Mary changed by meeting the Tree of Knowledge?
Before she can eat the fruit of love and compassion, she must be free of judgment and wrath. Before she can receive wisdom and understanding, she must be free of ignorance and intolerance. Before she can receive honor and humility, she must move beyond duplicity and arrogance. Before she can receive strength and courage, she must confront the illusion of fear. Before she can receive clarity and truth, she must reject the deceiver and become silent to the voice of the world. Only then can she receive power and healing, light and goodness, and finally the grace and beauty of the Holy Spirit in Christ.
The New Adam and New Eve stand in the resurrection garden and reveal that the path has changed. The fruit can be received now, but not through grasping, not through ignorance, not through ego, not through supremacy, not through bypassing the work. It is received through ascent, through purification, through the clearing of the inner powers that bind the soul to fear, shame, control, false identity, and forgetfulness.
Tell people they are born broken, and they will seek permission to become whole. Tell women they are dangerous, and they will distrust their own power. Tell the body it is sinful, and it will stop speaking in a language of health and wellness. Tell the soul it must reach God through an institution, and the inner kingdom goes quiet.
Once humanity forgets enough, control becomes easy.
The old story taught us that humanity fell because Eve reached for knowledge. But Mary Magdalene, outside the tomb with Christ, whispers something else. The true wound/sin in the garden was human forgetfulness. Forgetting they have a soul. Forgetting the body as holy. Forgetting the feminine is sacred regardless of gender. Forgetting the earth as alive. Forgetting that wisdom must be embodied, not controlled. Forgetting that the kingdom was never somewhere else, it is within, and God has given everything to us in fullness.
Every woman has always known something was wrong with the story, even when they could not yet explain why. The snake tempting, the unique tree of knowledge, the roots of the translation, the female walking alone in the garden. Mary returns because she carries the memory of the path that was hidden, she seeks the unanswered questions. We were told Eve’s reaching brought death, and now Mary’s reaching brings life. The Tree of Knowledge is not the symbol of humanity’s sin, but the unfinished map of humanity’s awakening.