Book Review:

Mary Magdalene Beckons: Join the River of Love by Mercedes Kirkel

Review written by Dr. Karen Wyatt 

When I was first asked by the author to review this book a number of months ago I was intrigued by the subject matter, but not sure what to expect. To my knowledge I had never before read a book that was channeled by an author from a being in the spirit realm. But I am open-minded and also very interested in the life and experiences of Mary Magdalene so I eagerly agreed to write a review. To my surprise, a powerful lesson eventually unfolded for me through the process of reading and digesting the book, but I’ll get to that story a little later.

Right from the start of the book I resonated with Kirkel’s approach to the subject matter: she begins each chapter with a channeled message from Mary Magdalene and follows it with her own interpretation of the message, including stories from her life experience. Mary Magdalene’s words are fairly brief and to-the-point and they are easy for any reader to grasp. But more importantly, these messages emanate love and support that is touching and profound. Kirkel then reiterates and expands each message in the remainder of the chapter and in so doing brings its heavenly wisdom down to an earthly, practical level.

Through this format Magdalene and Kirkel address important spiritual issues such as the Divine Feminine, intimacy and spirituality, the nature of reality and birthing the Divine Self. However, I found myself attracted most strongly to Mary Magdalene’s words about pain, the dark night of the soul, love, forgiveness and death, in part because they echo some of the spiritual lessons that I myself have been motivated to write about and explore. Regarding pain Mary Magdalene says,

“Your pain is given to you to help you grow. … It is a difficult medicine. … You think that the pain is proof that God has deserted you. In fact, God is calling to you through the pain. God loves you and wants to help you, and pain is one avenue.”

And she ends the message with this comforting thought:

“You are not alone. You are never alone. … We are here with you always. Just call upon us, and we are here. We are powerful and we are for your highest good.”

That simple and powerful assurance sums up the ultimate message of this book: Mary Magdalene spoke through Mercedes Kirkel in order to bring the feminine power of love to us at this time when it is desperately needed. That alone is a good enough reason to highly recommend this book. But I had a personal experience that revealed to me the potential of this message to transform and heal our woundedness:

After I received my copy of the book I began reading it right away and got more than half-way through. But then I became extremely busy with travel and lots of writing and put the book away. When Mercedes wrote to ask about my progress on the book, I remembered my commitment to her and added some time slots on my schedule for finishing the book and writing this review. However, for some reason, every time I started to return to the book, something came up to interrupt me and two more months went by without me completing my task.

Finally Mercedes wrote once again to ask how I was doing with the review and I was overcome with guilt. What was wrong with me? How could I be so negligent and not fulfill my commitment? I immediately sat down to finish reading the book and opened it to the page where I had left my bookmark, which was Chapter 20: Releasing Guilt and False Responsibility. In Mary Magdalene’s message I read,

“Do not have guilt if you have not been open to us for a time. Guilt is a contrivance of your own mind.”

I instantly felt released from all blame for taking such a long time with this review. For whatever reason I was meant to experience this delay. A bit later, as I read the last words of that chapter, which also discussed pain and how to be with someone else who is in pain, I received a phone call from my daughter. She had just been through a deeply humiliating experience and was devastated with emotional pain. I knew exactly how to respond because I had just read Mary Magdalene’s teaching a few moments before. I was able to remind her that “pain is inherent to the spiritual path in this realm” and to “stay true to light and love.”

In that moment I saw the perfection of it all: I needed to wait to read that chapter so that it would be fresh in my mind when my daughter needed to hear its wisdom. The timing had been exactly right and there truly was no reason to feel guilt or blame. Mary Magdalene’s words came alive to me in that moment and I fully understood how this book could potentially bring transformation to its readers.

If you feel drawn to the subject of this book at all, please read it, because it likely contains wisdom that you will need on your own spiritual journey. I, for one, will return to the words of Mary Magdalene over and over again when I forget that I am constantly being held within the embrace of Divine love. That’s a message we all need to hear, now more than ever. Thank you Mercedes Kirkel and Mary Magdalene for the gift of these beautiful words in Mary Magdalene Beckons: Join the River of Love.