223 | Mary Magdalene and the Stories We Were Never Told with Olivia Magdalena
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For many women raised within Christianity, Mary Magdalene exists somewhere in the background of the story: present at the tomb, vaguely associated with sexual sin, but rarely treated as a central figure in Jesus’s ministry. Then you encounter a different version of her… and suddenly, pieces of your own spiritual story begin falling into place.
In this episode of Wild & Waking, I’m joined by Magdalene priestess and somatic practitioner Olivia Magdalena for a conversation about the woman hidden in plain sight and the full-body rage, recognition, and remembrance that can come with rediscovering her. Olivia shares how reading Mary Magdalene Revealed altered the course of her life and helped her understand something she had felt, but could not yet name.
At the heart of our conversation is a tension many women carry: the institution no longer feels true, but our hunger for the divine hasn’t disappeared. We talk about deconstructing patriarchal religion without dismissing every spiritual experience we’ve ever had, finding our way back to the parts of Jesus and ritual that still feel meaningful, and learning to trust ourselves after being taught that spiritual authority belonged to someone else.
This is a conversation about more than recovering Mary Magdalene’s story. It is about recognizing what her erasure reveals about our own, and what becomes possible when women return to their bodies, their inner knowing, and a spirituality that does not require them to disappear.
Meet Olivia
Olivia Magdalena (she/they), is a threshold bearer, wisdom keeper, magdalene priestess, and somatic practitioner of over a decade. Her work supports rebellious mystics and sovereign spiritualists ready to courageously integrate their shadows and honor their unique gnosis — the knowing that lives within.
Olivia helps vibrant witches and scholars of the heart develop deep irreverence for dogmatic systems of oppression, embody resilient devotion, and tend to the call of their wild sacred hearts. She guides the meeting of all parts — ego, soul, soma — with a radical love that collapses time and transforms lineages.
When she’s offline, Olivia can be found dancing her heart out or crying at the movies. She’s the oldest of four siblings, a voracious reader, a passionate friend, and devoted plant parent.
In this episode, Mary Magdalene and the Stories We Were Never Told with Olivia Magdalena, we cover:
The historical misrepresentation of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute or repentant sinner
Mary Magdalene’s role as the “apostle to the apostles” and her importance within Jesus’ ministry
How the Roman Empire, patriarchal power, and the formation of biblical canon shaped institutional Christianity
The lost Gospel of Mary and its teachings on inner knowing, human divinity, and spiritual authority
The Madonna-whore binary created through the stories of Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene
The connections between purity culture, religious trauma, and women’s disconnection from their bodies
Somatic healing practices for rebuilding intuition and self-trust after religious deconstruction
How to begin discerning between intuition, anxiety, trauma responses, and inherited conditioning
Why reclaiming spirituality can bring women closer to the mystic Jesus rather than further away
The relationship between spirituality, feminism, decolonization, activism, and political power
Olivia’s Mary Magdalene pilgrimages to Provence and the sacred caves of Southern France
The role of nature, ritual, and embodied experience in reconnecting with the divine feminine
If this conversation sparked something for you, share it with a friend who might need it too.
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Wild & Waking is more than a podcast—it’s a sacred return to who you’ve always been.
This space is for the woman standing at the edge of everything she’s outgrown. The one who’s checked all the boxes, followed all the rules, and still feels the quiet ache for something more honest. More alive. More hers.
She’s begun the unraveling—of roles, expectations, identities that no longer fit. She’s remembering the voice beneath the noise, the rhythm beneath the hustle, the truth beneath the performance. She’s reclaiming her joy, her intuition, her fire. And she’s rising—not as a version of who she was told to be, but as the truest expression of who she already is.
Hosted by soul expansion coach Emily Reuschel, Wild & Waking is for the spiritual entrepreneurs, coaches, rural changemakers, and conscious leaders dismantling old paradigms and creating new ways of living, leading, and becoming. Through raw conversations, deep reflections, and embodied wisdom, we explore what it means to awaken a life of abundance, authenticity, and purpose.
This is for the woman who holds both sacred rage and radical joy. Who moves with reverence for the seasons of her life. Who isn’t afraid to break cycles, speak truth, and dismantle what no longer serves—not to destroy, but to create. To rebuild a world rooted in the celebration of difference, the beauty of nuance, and the power of sovereign, embodied leadership.
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