Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

BIRTH OF JESUS

Symbolic of the bringing forth of the Christ in the souls of humanity during the present cycle,—that of evolution.

"And she (Mary) brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." - LUKE ii. 7.

“Mary the virgin" signifies the purified lower nature of the soul, which has become fit to give birth to the incarnate Christ. The "enwrapping clothes " typify the virtues which surround and shield the new-born Christ-soul; while the "manger” is a symbol of simplicity of heart in which the spirit of Christ is received. It is in the lowly stable" of humility, and not in the "inn " of pride and luxury, that the higher emotions surrounding the Christ-soul are developed.

"The Spiritual Life is the gift of the Living Spirit. The spiritual man is no mere development of the natural man. He is a New Creation born from Above.' - H. DRUMMOND, Natural Law, etc., p. 65.

"For Jesus himself was (Basilides says) mentally preconceived at the time of the generation of the stars, and of the complete return to their starting-point of the seasons in the vast conglomeration of all germs. This is, according to these (Basilidians), he who has been conceived as the inner spiritual man in what is natural [now this is the Sonship which left there the soul, not that it might be mortal, but that it might abide here according to nature, just as the first Sonship left above in its proper locality the Holy Spirit, that is, the spirit which is conterminous]-this, I say, is he who has been conceived as the inner spiritual man, and has then been arrayed in his own peculiar soul." - HIPPOLYTUS, Refutation, etc., Bk. VII. 15.

For the Christ-soul (Jesus) was potentially present in the higher mind, at the time of the forthgoing of the spiritual egos (stars), and of the completion of the process of involution (conglomeration of germs), when the cycles (seasons) having, as it were, returned to latency, were ready to start anew in the process of evolution.

The Christ-soul has been conceived in the mind as the inner spiritual Self within the natural man, that is, as the Son of mind (man) to bring immortality to the soul while abiding in it according to its natural development. Similarly Christ (first Sonship) was born Son of Buddhi (Holy Spirit) on the buddhic plane which is common in the soul to all human beings, and not differentiated to the particular egos. This Christ-soul, then, is he who indwells mentally as the inner Spiritual Self,-the central Ideal arrayed in all the higher qualities and faculties of the evolving soul.

"It is well known that whereas in the Gospels Jesus is said to have been born in an inn stable, early Christian writers, as Justin Martyr and Origen, explicitly say he was born in a cave. Now, in the Mithra myth, Mithra is both rock-born and born in a cave, and the monuments show the new-born babe adored by shepherds who offer first-fruits." - J. M. ROBERTSON, Pagan Christs, p. 338.

"Mithra " is here a symbol of the Incarnate Self, the same as Jesus."

“Christ cannot be conceived save of a soul immaculate and virgin as to matter, and meet to become the spouse of the Divine Spirit. Therefore, as the soul as Eve gives consent to the annunciation of the Serpent, so, as Mary, become virgin, she gives consent to the annunciation of the Angel, and understands the mystery of the Motherhood of the Man regenerate. She has no acts of her own, all the acts of her Son are hers also participates in his nativity, in his manifestation, in his passion, in his resurrection, in his ascension, in his penticostal gift. He himself is her gift to the world. But it is always he who operates; she who asks, acquiesces, consents, responds. Through her he outflows into the mind and external man, and so into life and conduct. As Augustine says, 'all graces pass to us through the hands of Mary.' For the purified soul is the mediatrix, as she is the genetrix, of the Divine presence." - The Perfect Way, p. 242.

“It-the Very Truth of Heaven-comes to be wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in a manger, and to thoughtful minds its seeming humiliation will be the very sign of its Divinity.' - H. P. LIDDON, University Sermons, p. 207.

"Macarius, following Methodius, teaches that the very idea of the Incarnation includes the union of the Logos with pious souls, in whom He is well-pleased. In each of them a Christ is born. Thus besides the ideas of Ransom and Sacrifice of Christ for us, these theologians placed the ideas of sanctification and inner transformation of Christ in us, and they considered the latter as real and as integral a part of our redemption as the former. But the doctrine of Divine immanence in the human heart never became quite the central truth of theology till the time of the medieval mystics. It is Eckhart who says: 'The Father speaks the Word into the soul, and when the Son is born, every soul becomes Mary.'" - W. R. INGE, Paddock Lectures, p. 66.

See Also

AMENI
ANGELS
ASSUMPTION
BETHLEHEM
BIRTH OF KRISHNA
CAVE
CONCEPTION
DEMIURGE
DIONYSUS
GOLD (frank.)
JESUS (son of man)
JOB
KING (great)
MAGI
MANGER
MITHRAS ROCK
VEIL OF ISIS
VIRGIN
VIRGINITY
VIRGIN MARY