STARTING 4/6/26 MARY MAGDALENE AND THE MAGIC OF ASCENT
Online Event
Date: Mondays April 6th, 13th, 20th 2026 7:00pm EST - 8:15pm EST
This three-part class series with Eliza Swann explores magical and thaumaturgical practices of Mary Magdalene. Part One is on 4/6, Part Two is on 4/13, and Part Three is on 4/20. All sessions will be recorded and available for asynchronous viewing for a month.
Monday, April 6th:
Part One: Hairy Mary - the shifting image of Mary Magdalene - 1 hour, 15 minutes
Monday, April 13th:
Part Two: The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene - 1 hour, 15 minutes
Monday, April 13th:
Part Three: The Magic of Ascent - 1 hour, 15 minutes
Mary Magdalene is a figure onto whom centuries of fantasy and projection have been layered. Across eras, her image has been repeatedly reinvented—sex worker, sibyl, repentant sinner, hairy ascetic, feminist icon—as the Christian Church and popular culture have used her story to work through shifting ideas about materiality, divinity, authority, and sexuality. These accretions often obscure the historical Mary Magdalene’s participation in vibrant spiritual lineages active in the eastern Mediterranean during the first centuries of the Common Era.
This three-session class traces the mystery schools contemporary with Mary Magdalene and situates the Gospel According to Mary—a Gnostic text written down in the 3rd century CE and rediscovered in 1896—within the tradition of ascension magic: teachings and practices concerned with the soul’s movement through psychic, ethical, and cosmic realms toward intimacy with the divine. Published only in 1955, the text allows us to hear Mary Magdalene speak in her own voice and suggests that she was not only Jesus’ closest disciple, but a primary transmitter of esoteric knowledge.
Session one offers a historical overview of the mystery schools active in Mary Magdalene’s world, including early Christian, Gnostic, Platonic, and Hermetic currents, with particular attention to shared languages of ascent, vision, and transformation.
Session two is a close reading of the Gospel of Mary, focusing on its account of the soul’s ascent, its affirmation of the world as intrinsically worthy, and its challenge to emerging structures of spiritual authority.
Session three culminates in a guided, collective practice of ascension magic, adapted from these traditions and undertaken together as a group—an embodied way of engaging Mary Magdalene’s teaching not only as history or text, but as living practice.
Eliza Swann, aka Emerald, is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and scholar based in New York. They are the author of The Anatomy of the Aura (St. Martin’s, 2020), Green Mary (Cosmic Dog House Press, 2024), and The Alchemical Imagination (Weiser/Red Wheel, 2026.) Their writing has appeared in many places, including BOMB, Arthur, Contemporary Art Review LA, and Momus. Eliza received a BA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from Central St. Martins in London. Eliza is also the founder of Golden Dome and now Emerald School of Alchemical Arts, mystery schools that explore the mystical dimensions of art. Emerald School produces exhibitions, performances, classes, and publications throughout the year.
