MARÍA

The documentary MARÍA presents a feminist reinterpretation of the figure of the Virgin Mary, challenging her passive role and reclaiming her power and autonomy. Directed by María Llopis, artist and writer, the series explores history, mythology, ancestral and contemporary rituals, art, and feminism to rediscover the Virgin Mary from an innovative and revolutionary perspective.

Based on the theories of American academic Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso, Ph.D., the series explores the idea that the Virgin Mary conceived Christ through parthenogenesis, that is, without having relations with a man, and that she belonged to a lineage of mystical women with extraordinary powers.

It will feature the participation of artists and activists whose work is imbued with mysticism. Through these encounters, the series will reveal the lives of the "Parthenos," women initiated in temple-schools who sought to achieve inner sovereignty through meditation, purifying diets, tantric dances, and all kinds of spiritual practices.

The series will highlight the relevance of these practices in contemporary society, as demonstrated by the growing interest in spirituality and feminine mysticism in the contemporary cultural landscape.

In short, MARÍA proposes a feminist reinterpretation of the Virgin Mary, challenging traditional gender roles and promoting the holistic and empowering development of women. Through a revolutionary approach, the series seeks to break with patriarchal foundations and open up new narrative possibilities.

LETTER FROM MARÍA

"My name is María. My father, who was a priest, gave me my name. He was fifty years old when he had an affair with my mother, who was his student and eighteen years old. He taught her English at the convent school. I never met him. I was sent to a secular school.

Everything related to the Catholic religion always filled me with a strong aversion, particularly the figure of the Virgin Mary. In my mind, she represented an archetype of a disempowered woman, one upon whom motherhood had been imposed, who had been denied the enjoyment of her sexuality. A woman who had not been able to be a woman in her entirety.

Like my mother.

My mother began receiving psychiatric medication at the age of twelve, when her father died of a heart attack in front of her. She spent her entire life on medication. She was like a child her whole life, until she died of another sudden heart attack at the age of forty-seven. I am fifty and I'm still alive.

When I was little, all of this made me angry. It made me angry that my mother was erased as a person. It made me angry that the Virgin Mary was a symbol of a good woman when she was denied everything. I didn't want to be like them. I wanted to choose. I wanted to be. To decide. To be the master of my life, my body, my sexuality, my own destiny.

And that's what I did: I rebelled against my mother, against the Virgin Mary, against religion, against the repression of sexuality that my mother experienced in the 70s. So, like an entire generation, we went from experiencing a stifled sexuality to the current absolute trivialization of the sexual experience.

I lived in that place of trivialization for a long time. Until my body and soul said enough. Until I couldn't take it anymore and I surrendered. That's what this story is about. That surrender.

It all started in a London club called The Boys Club, which was for women only. The lecture I heard there forever changed my understanding of who the Virgin Mary was and, consequently, who I was.

The speaker was an American academic with long, curly, snow-white hair named Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso. She was presenting her doctoral thesis on Virgin Mother Goddesses and spoke about priestesses, vestal virgins, Parthenos, Demeter and Persephone… and she also spoke about the Virgin Mary. She explained that Mary and all the women in her lineage were women of great spiritual power, capable of bearing children through “parthenogenesis,” that is, of conceiving without male intervention. I didn't even know what parthenogenesis was. I learned that it's a scientific term and that many animal species do it. It's not a miracle.

But what shook me to my core was understanding that virginity had nothing to do with chastity or the repression of sexual energy. The Parthenos, another name for virgins, were women trained in temples to perform these divine conceptions. How little we know about the ancient power of women, and how little we know about Mary. How little we know about ourselves.

The scant information we have about her life is found in the Protoevangelium of James, one of the apocryphal gospels discovered in the Dead Sea in 1954. For example, during her first three years of life, Mary never touched the ground, and at the age of three, she entered a temple to undergo spiritual initiations through meditations, dances, and advanced tantric sexual practices. Teachings that would shatter our 21st-century minds.

Within me, the Virgin Mary has transformed from a passive, victimized woman into a woman in control of herself. In fact, the etymological origin of the word Virgin is “one in herself.” Not belonging to any man. That is what it means to be a Virgin, and not to have an intact hymen.

I have healed my relationship with the figure of my biological father, I heal. I have also been able to heal my sexuality, transforming it into an ecstatic meditation instead of a release pastime.

Everything in my life is shifting: my relationship with myself, with others, with my son; but above all, my way of experiencing spirituality—always remaining outside of any religion.

I am “one in myself” and I do not belong to any man.

María

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENTARY?

After two thousand years of obscuring the figure of the Virgin Mary with a cloying image, this documentary seeks to disseminate the discoveries made in recent years about the true identity of the mother of Christ.

We now know that Mary belonged to a lineage of high priestesses in Tantric tradition, capable of conceiving without men, by their own choice and after extensive training: these are the so-called Parthenos. A powerful spiritual figure, possibly the most powerful in the history of humankind. Persecuted, neutralized, and subverted by patriarchy to this day.

This documentary can only, and must, be made through the unity of all those who feel that the truth must come to light. We are going through a period of profound global transformations, with significant geopolitical instability, accelerated technological change, and a reconfiguration of social relations. Historical and political events hidden or classified for decades have begun to be made public.

Let brighter realities emerge as well. Because to change the course of history, we must give women back their rightful place.

That's why this Verkami campaign exists.

“So that I may restore women's dignity”

María

NOTES ON THE WORD VIRGIN

Ancient priestesses were called virgins. “Virgin” did not mean a woman who had never had relations with a man.

The Latin word “virgin” comes from the root “vis,” which means strength, power, unto herself. It was applied to women who were powerful on a spiritual level and who were called virgins not for their purity, but for their strength and independence.

Many women, such as Mary, Anne (Mary’s mother), Isis, her cousin Elizabeth, Ishtar, Athena, Diana, or Astarte, were called virgins, but this was not a reference to the limitations of their bodies. Virginity was understood as spiritual autonomy and inner sovereignty.

All the great cultural heroes of the past, mythical or historical, were born to virgin mothers: Osiris, Marduk, Gilgamesh, Buddha, Dionysus, Pythagoras, Jesus, etc. But society tells the story differently and in a distorted way.

Society couldn't conceive of the Virgin Mary as a woman independent of men, so the idea of ​​"conceiving without sin" was invented to denigrate sexuality and, especially, those women who didn't submit to patriarchy.

PLANNING

Total project duration: 12 months

• Pre-production: June, July, and August 2026

• Filming: September, October, and November 2026

• Post-production: December 2026, January, and February 2027

• Premiere and promotion: March, April, and May 2027

FUNDING APPROACH

Basic target (minimum viable) €14,000 — The documentary is possible FOR DIY, GUERRILA LOW COST project!

Extended goal €24,000 — The documentary transforms into a DOCUMENTARY SERIES, this my dream!

Alongside the creation of the documentary, the Parthenos School will be launched, a research group focused on art and feminist spirituality. This group aims to create a space for sharing the documentary's creative process and a place for creatively exploring new imaginaries surrounding spirituality and feminism. You can find more information here: https://www.mariallopis.com/cursos/escuela-de-parthenos/.

Welcome.