painting by John Collier

The tendency on the spiritual path is to personify divine principles, and to a certain extent that’s okay. But the discipline is to never forget who the person is and which principle is being represented. In the case of Mary, the mother of Jesus, this is especially true because, well, she’s the mother of Jesus, you know? And if you’ve already personified the Christ in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, then Jesus is God, which makes Mary the Mother of God. And I am quite sure that there is no one in the universe who would object to that appellation more than Mary herself.

The reason divine principles are personified in the first place is that in order for a teaching to persist over time, it must be turned into a myth. This doesn’t make it a lie, which is the way most people interpret the word “myth.” Instead, it turns it into an immortal story. And because divine principles don’t change over time, all of the world’s great myths closely resemble each other. It does not mean, as some mythologists think, that one story gets emulated over and over, thus building up a mystique around it. The stories are similar because the principles they describe are eternal.

Some believe that the Feminine Principle has to do with the mystery of childbirth, which it does, but to say that that’s the only thing it does misses the boat entirely. Childbirth, while miraculous, is still of the body. Even if you raise it to the mental level and call it the creative principle, it’s still only a mental phenomenon. No, the real meaning of the Feminine Principle has to be ontological in scope. It has to be about being itself. This is the realm of the divine – not body, not mind.

For this reason, the Feminine Principle cannot be about Mary alone, nor can it be about the female gender alone. Gender is body. And it doesn’t help us very much either to try to expand it into a cosmic perspective and say that it is about polarity, though it is about that, too. But to think that Mary represents the negative charge of an electron would be reductionist in the extreme.

There is a reason that people are used as icons, that God is pictured as a person, that animals and other living things are used to describe divine principles. And it has to do with the very nature of the universe itself, namely that it is alive and not merely an aggregation of rocks and ice pushed and pulled by nuclear reaction and gravitational force.

When we talk about the Feminine Principle, we are talking about consciousness. And even deeper than that, we are talking about Being and the way Being expresses itself outwardly into manifestation – the act of creation.

The act of creation requires four things:

• an idea of the thing you want to create – a plan
• the will to put your plan into action
• the daring to commit the action, sometimes in the face of seemingly insurmountable resistance
• and the ability to let go of your action so that your plan can manifest (on the seventh day, God rested)

The Feminine Principle is the spiritual universe’s response to these four elements of the act of creation. “Let it be done……….unto me!” That which is put into motion by mind must have an energy that receives the action and brings it into manifested form.

Now, this all sounds so cosmological, so metaphysical – even occult. And it would be all that if the universe were not conscious and alive. Rocks, trees, plants, and animals are not enough to contain this Life. We are not talking about nature worship. What we normally perceive as “nature” is but the effect of a larger Life, our own physical body being no exception. It is the Solar System itself that constitutes the vehicle of this larger Life – a living cell in the greater body of the Cosmos. We have to understand the body in which we live before we can understand the greater body.

The Feminine Principle is so vast and so powerful that the mind cannot comprehend it. Consider the analogy of sperm and egg. The tiny sperm cell carries the initiative, the spark; the brooding ovum carries the power to act on that initiative. The sperm cell carries the plan, which is procreation. It is the extension of will. And it is committed to the action. But once it has achieved its goal, it disappears. And all of the latent potential of the ovum is unleashed in mathematical precision to the fulfillment of the Divine Will.

The universe functions through adaptation. It takes the infinite number of available possibilities and decides which of them will be acted upon. The ancient symbol for decision is the sword. (Note that the word “decide” has the same root as the word “homicide.”) The ovum culls the herd of sperm cells, choosing only one. The rest die.

The Divine Feminine yearns to fulfill the Divine Will. Without the Divine Feminine’s yearning (and capability) there could be no Divine Will. Neither could exist without the other. A plan means nothing without the ability (and the mater-ial) with which to carry it out.

The vast productive power of the Divine Feminine belies its seemingly passive nature. Just as the ovum controls which sperm will be allowed to start the process of reproduction, so does the Divine Feminine adjudicate the endless ramifications of the mind. If the mind were the final arbiter of what would be created, this universe would be chaotic and unsustainable. It would implode under its own weight. Thus the Divine Feminine is the Preserver of the Cosmos.

The Divine Feminine manifests itself in both men and women. It is not exclusive to the female gender. In fact, it has nothing to do with gender at all. Women manifest outwardly as feminine, but inwardly, which is to say spiritually, they are fiercely masculine. This is why they are the chief proponents of the world’s spiritual movements. Men, on the other hand, are spiritually feminine, which means that they are willing to receive instruction. But those who have achieved the balance of male and female within themselves are capable of being both proponents and adherents. They can both give and receive. They have the ability to create within themselves. This is the Sacred Marriage spoken of by the ancients. It is the inner meaning of the Virgin Birth. Mary was one who had attained the Sacred Marriage, and was thus able to give birth to the Sun.

borrowed from Common Ground

You can’t even bring up the word Faith without automatically putting yourself on the opposite side of the fence as logic. And the society we live in worships logic. Being a person of faith means that you believe in the illogical, the irrational, the mysterious, the flighty – the make-believe. If something is not touchable, seeable, and provable, you are not allowed to talk about it, not in intelligent company. The only approach to matters of faith, most people believe, is through speculation and/or wishful thinking and is therefore useless, unless you’re dying, and then only as an opiate to soften the blow.

But in reality, what does all this mean? Whence the malice toward faith? Skipping over the part, for now, where millions of people use it as an excuse to slaughter each other, what do the rationalists really have against it? Oh, and we have to mention the other part about keeping the masses huddled in fear, the fear of going to hell if they disagree with the Holy Fathers, the mullahs, or whoever else claims to have a direct line to God. And this is where it really began (and where it continues today) – the turf war between rationalists and intuitives – the battle between those who think that truth is a done deal and those who want to explore the options.

What you are allowed to think

Nothing is more reprehensible than a dictator father-type who wants to run your life. Since conserving the status quo is his chief preoccupation, the dictator father-type sees intellectual curiosity or independent soul-searching as a direct threat to his authority. He may not even know the truth himself. He only needs to convince others that he does. And when someone else stands up and claims to have had a vision, the hammer comes down hard, because the “vision” has already been had – why do we need another one? In fact, “vision” has been replaced with a book – it has been written. The cruel irony is that the book can be a textbook as easily as holy scripture. There are dictator father-types everywhere. Anyone can wear a white robe: popes, gurus, mullahs, doctors, scientists, university professors. It is easy to see that authority is less about knowing the truth than it is about being right.

Truth vs. fact 

For the gnostic, truth is a beacon; for the realist, truth is a prop. The realist says, “This is all there is.” The gnostic says, “This is only the appearance of things.” The one affirms the ego; the other acknowledges something greater than itself.

Gnosis uses inner knowing and the mystical experience. Gnosis begins with truth, not the known truth but the unknown truth. Gnosis has had a face-to-face experience of God and yet cannot describe what it has seen. Life then becomes a search for that experience and the hope for its return. Gnosis has “felt the naked body of its dream” but cannot as yet realize its discovery.

The mystical experience is the substance and the evidence of our knowing. For the mystical experience is not so much in knowing as it is in being known. This is what we sense, this is what we have felt, this is what draws us.

Faith is real. It is based upon inner experience. How can we say that spiritual experience is subjective when so many have had the same one? The mind is as powerful a scientific instrument as any in the laboratory, even more so. We have to trust it, and at the same time admit that it is only a tool, not the author. We did not invent the truth. We can only open up to it. Therefor, it is not for anyone to say, “Lo, here is God. For all have known God, from the least to the greatest.”

We can own our knowing without imposing it on others.

3, a powerful number, right? The Holy Trinity of numbers. The triumvirate – the word “triumph” begins with 3. I’m writing it as a noun instead of as a modifier (as in three somethings), but as a word, you can never fully isolate it as either. It is always 3 and three. There is something in its nature that causes change, like fire.

I used to think that the Trinity, in terms of physics, meant that every vibration was bordered by that which is above it in frequency and that which is below, the same way that green is bordered by blue and yellow. No matter where you are on the spectrum of life, there are those above you and those below you, those from whom you receive and those to whom you give. Jacob’s Ladder. But as a simple theory of placement, or as a sequence of events, as in cause/medium/effect, as that master of the Law, Earnest Holmes, puts it, leaves 3 lacking in some vital quality. What is that quality?

I have seen demonstrations of power wherein there is a dynamic interplay of two opposing forces. They are all around us, actually. Electricity is a good example – positive and negative. That’s a relatively easy one to grasp, in a superficial, chalkboard kind of way – a plus and a minus separated by empty space. You know intuitively that there exists a tension of opposites that somehow produces energy, although no one really knows how it’s done, not even physicists. Perhaps the most visceral demonstration I have seen is on the sparring floor of a martial arts studio. In some mysterious way, a punch is more powerful if the forward motion of the hand that punches is counteracted by the opposite movement of the other hand. The right hand thrusts forward, and the left hand retracts. Perhaps this is why balance is so important.

Another example I can think of is the human lung. Here there are two things, opposite in type as well as direction, like the punch. On the one hand, the blood coursing through the lungs takes on oxygen, the most urgent requirement of life, while at the same time giving up carbon dioxide, the exhaust, so to speak, of the body. One flows in, and the other flows out. But the two actions, though seemingly separate in the inhale and exhale, actually take place together at the level of the red blood cell. Oxygen and CO2 pass each other like ships in the night, or like delivery boys in a revolving door. Again there is balance, but it is a dynamic balance. And it is that word “dynamic” that seems the all-important factor whenever we speak of Life.

Sushumna, Ida, Pingala

So, rather than a noun or a modifier, 3 is the name we give to that one essential activity that is always burning at the center of the very large and the very small, the above and the below, the macrocosm and the microcosm – Life. And, of course, we are not talking of life as it is usually meant, namely as a set of circumstances (I think we are well past that now) but life as an energy. But to be rigorous in our use of the term “energy,” we must include the other two members of the Triumvirate, power and force. Because, as every student at Stanford knows, energy is power in action, and force is energy applied. You can’t have one without the other two. Every equation must be balanced.

Isis, Horus, Osiris

That trite saying, God is a verb, tries to get at this, the idea that Spirit is alive and not just a thing. And saying that God is consciousness or Nature are further attempts at describing the indescribable. But perhaps the reason why the concept is so hard to grasp is due more to the level we approach it on and not the fault of the concept itself. Maybe it requires a different kind of thinking. Science is only now beginning to discover that the fundamental laws that govern the universe have been described for millennia in the sacred scriptures of the world. Well…maybe they haven’t discovered that yet, but they are bound to eventually. The new way of thinking that I’m talking about is going to have to be a synthesis of the two, a balance. Two things interacting within a third.

Everywhere in nature we see the forces of expansion and contraction, attraction and repulsion, adhesion and cohesion. Esoterically, they are known as Sun and Moon, Yin and Yang, Rod and Staff. One force innervates, the other provides a restrictive or defining form. Jupiter and Saturn. Male and Female. Chokma and Binah. Pingala and Ida. One speeds up, the other slows down. The object is to find these forces within ourselves, to experience them and use them, consciously. This is why we contemplate the nature of things, the super-nature of things. We must move beyond appearances and and into the world of abstract thought. Unless we do, the underlying principles of Cosmos will be hidden to us, and we will be stuck in the world of effect. “But be of good cheer,” as Jesus said, “for I have overcome the world.” So must we.

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Can marketers really get inside a consumer’s head to influence the choice they will make? For market researcher, Clotaire Rapaille, the answer is yes. He believes all purchasing decisions really lie beyond conscious thinking and emotion and reside at a primal core in human beings. As chairman of Archetype Discoveries Worldwide, he helps Fortune 500 companies discover the unconscious associations for their products — the simple “code” — that will help them sell to consumers: “When you learn a word, whatever it is, ‘coffee,’ ‘love,’ ‘mother,’ there is always a first time. There’s a first time to learn everything. The first time you understand, you imprint the meaning of this word; you create a mental connection that you’re going to keep using the rest of your life. … So actually every word has a mental highway. I call that a code, an unconscious code in the brain.” This interview was conducted on December 15, 2003.    - Frontline interview

It’s important that we see ourselves the way others see us – not with the eyes, but with an inner sense.

What do I mean by that?

What we see with our eyes is limited. Even facial expressions and actions of the body are easily misinterpreted. What looks like a frown directed at us could simply be an absent-minded stare; disrespectful body language might be the reflection of someone’s inner attitude toward himself, not you at all. We simply cannot trust our eyes.

“Half of what you see, none of what you hear.”

The energy we carry with us, the feeling others get when we enter the room, our presence – this is what the inner senses pick up. It is our transmission, our broadcast, our “vibe.” And it tells everything about us. It is what children pick up on, what animals detect instantly, and what everyone knows, if only subconsciously.

The weather lags the seasons – the coldest months occur after the longest nights; the hottest days come as much as two months after Summer Solstice. Similarly, our energy signature lags our current disposition – we cannot change by merely putting on a happy face. It takes time, perhaps lifetimes, for Power to come.

Bad news? Not really. You are what you are. You can be comfortable with that – more secure, less doubtful. Accept what is, and with the self-confidence that comes with that, you can take command of your vessel and steer it toward the light.

This takes great humility.

photo by M3R

Ann Torrence Photography

Three million miles is a lot. That’s how much closer we are to the sun at this otherwise “darkest” time of the year. Is it any wonder that our inner lights are amped up, shining brighter than in any other season?

We are used to making energy do what we want it to do. Etch a silicon wafer with an electronic circuit, string high-tension wires across the landscape, wrap copper around an iron core and spin it inside a magnetic field – mastering energy has changed the way we live. But have we learned to let energy master us?

Right now, our inner circuits are humming. Our powers of intuition and empathy are at their peak. The intelligence inherent in sunlight is in-forming the way we conduct our spiritual business – what we give and what we receive. This wave of altruism is landing on the roof of our skull and whooshing down the chimney of our spinal cord, bearing the gifts of the Spirit and lighting our inner world. What we do with our increased capacity will determine much of how our spiritual journey will unfold in the coming year.

The more we become aware of the Christ force within ourselves, the more we see it in others. More than religion, nationality, or ideology, this is what connects us. The light in you is the same as the light in me. And in this oneness lies the opportunity to give and receive love.

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"–which means, "God with us."

Rather than make Jesus look good and the rest of us bad, the Virgin Birth points up our inherent divinity—all of us, not just Jesus. We can no longer say that we are only human and use that as an excuse to ignore the higher part of our nature. By insisting that the Virgin Birth is strictly an external event, we hold the experience at arm’s length, and thereby avoid having to surrender to the Indwelling Spirit’s urge to open our eyes to the world of God.

Mary’s acquiescence to Gabriel’s proclamation is our own willingness to receive the Word—not the written word of the Bible (or any other sacred text) but the divine impulse, that which fuels our spiritual/physical evolution—”the force that through the green fuse drives the flower…” of Dylan Thomas. If we look at it in this way, the Virgin Birth story tells us emphatically that the Life Force is anything but blind, that life is imbued with intelligence and motivated by love.

Whether parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction) is possible in humans is a scientific question, even if we approach it spiritually. We can ask if one can cause pregnancy by speaking the Word, or if a female initiate of high degree, as Mary is reported to have been, can self-induce pregnancy. The theological assertion that God Himself through miraculous means fathered Jesus implies that the natural world is different and separate from the Causal Plane, which is scientifically implausible.

Philosophically, we could say that the story of Jesus’ birth reinforces the idea that our physical bodies are vehicles for our soul, that our origin is divine, and that who we are is not a mere product of biochemistry. But all of these notions are themselves meaningless, unless we can actually have the experience that they point to. They are all interpretations of an event that must take place in us, if we are to know God. Our physical body is the “world” into which the savior is born; the Cave of the Nativity is the center of our being.

Mary surrendered to God. All she wanted to do was to live long enough to see the Messiah. Material possessions meant nothing to her, because all of her desire was focused on seeing God. She was the empty chalice into which the Blood of Christ would be poured. Who is she? She is us, both men and women, in our desire nature. When we empty ourselves of materiality and focus our heart and mind on the coming of the Light, Christ will be born in us.

It’s hard not to want things. There are lots of nice things to want. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting nice things, as long as you don’t let them come between you and God. There has to be a place within you, a sanctuary, where the things of the world do not go. This is what it means to be virginal - untouched.

You have to have that place where you leave your shoes at the door, your worldly desires, a place where only God exists. Mary symbolizes that place within us. Why? Because the energy that permeates and sustains that inner sanctuary is her energy. It is her energy, because she devoted her life to allowing the energy of her own inner sanctuary to radiate outward into everything she did. She became that energy, and that energy became her.

Because Mary was able to do this in her own life, it is now possible for everyone. This is a distinct aspect, the feminine aspect. And you don’t have to be a woman to experience it in yourself.

Virginity is of the mind. You are a virgin every time you leave the world and enter into your inner sanctuary. You are the Temple Virgin, just like Mary was and like her mother before her. God comes first - in all things. This is what it means to be a virgin.

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