19 The Infancy Gospel of James — 2

19 The Infancy Gospel of James — 2

Last week we reviewed the nativity narrative in the Gospel of James up through Mary’s interview with the angel Gabriel. Today we will continue with the story of her pregnancy and the numerous complications surrounding it. In particular, the book develops the character of Joseph, and reveals many details of Jewish society, law, and ritual; these details give a reality to the scene that I never enjoyed before. As I proceed with the story, you may hear things so outrageously unlike our medieval picture of Mary, Joseph, and the Jews as stick figures in a frozen diorama, all bedecked in haloes, you may wonder why I don’t stop and say, “I’m not making this up!”:

“CHAPTER 12

(1) And she made the purple and the scarlet thread and carried it to the high priest. 

(2) And taking it, the high priest blessed her and said, "Mary, God has magnified your

name. You will be called blessed among all the generations of the earth."

(3) Then, Mary went gladly to her cousin Elizabeth. 

(4) And she knocked at the door and when Elizabeth heard, she threw down her scarlet thread and ran to the door and opened it for her. 

(5) And she blessed her and said, "Where have you come to me from? Why should the mother of my Lord come to me? See how the child in me leaps and blesses

you."

[Sidebar: The parallel passage in Luke is as follows:

Luke 1: 39-56

“39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

40 And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

54 He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;

55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

56 And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house.”

Back to James:]

“(6) But Mary had forgotten the mysteries which the angel Gabriel had told her. And looking into heaven she said, "Who am I, Lord, that all the generations of the earth will

bless me?"

[Sidebar: I love this remark, “But Mary had forgotten the mysteries which the angel Gabriel had told her.”! How do you forget the angel Gabriel? But when you think about it, that is the way many spiritual messages are received—vividly in the moment and then somehow HIDDEN from our conscious minds for a season, for who knows what reason—protection, insulation, timing? The whole idea of the unconscious is an illustration of the point that, in this life, we are aware of only pieces of the puzzle, and even that at sporadic time intervals.

In my favorite Christmas movie, The Bishop’s Wife, one of the key plot elements is that: after the angel has solved all the humans’ problems the humans will not remember that an angel has visited them. Certain realities are to remain hidden from us until our spiritual eyes are prepared. This is one of the ways people who believe in reincarnation explain why we can’t remember any of our past-lives during our current life: enough is enough.

Back to James:]

“(7) She spent three months with Elizabeth. 

(8) Day after day, her womb swelled and she

was afraid to go to her house and hid herself from the children of Israel. 

(9) Mary was sixteen years old when these mysterious things happened to her.

CHAPTER 13

(1) In the sixth month of her pregnancy, Joseph came from his house-building and went into the house to find her swelling.

[Sidebar: When I read that term “house-building” I stumbled for a minute then realized “house-builder” “carpenter”—duh. He must have had a thriving construction business!

This next section really gets into Joseph’s head as he struggles to deal with what at first seems like an horrific catastrophe.

Back to James:]

“(2) And he struck his face and threw himself on the

ground in sackcloth and wept bitterly, "How can I look to the Lord God? 

(3)What will I pray about her, for I took her as a virgin from the temple of the Lord and did not guard her? 

(4) Who has set this trap for me? Who did this evil in my house? Who stole the virgin from me and defiled her. 

(5) Has not the story of Adam been repeated with me?

For while Adam was glorifying God, the serpent came and found Eve alone and deceived her and defiled her - so it has also happened to me."

(6) And Joseph got up from his sackcloth and called her and said to her, "After having been cared for by God, what have you done? 

(7) Did you forget the Lord your God? You who were raised in the holy of holies, you who received from the hand of an angel, do you know how much you have humiliated yourself?"

(8) Then, she wept bitterly, saying, "I am pure and I did not know a man."

(9) And Joseph said to her, "Where did this thing in your womb come from then?"

(10) But she said, "As the Lord my God lives, I do not know where it came from."

[Sidebar: Remember at this point she has “forgotten” her conversation with the angel.]

“CHAPTER 14

(1) Then, Joseph was extremely frightened and kept quiet about her, pondering what he should do. 

(2) And Joseph said to himself, "If I hide her sin, I will be rebelling against the law of the Lord. 

(3) And if I expose her to the children of Israel . . . well, I am afraid that the child in her might be angelic and I will be betraying innocent blood to a judgment of death. 

(4) What then will I do about her? I will send her away from me secretly."

(5) And night overtook him. And suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Do not fear this child. For the child in her is from the Holy Spirit. 

(6) She will bear a son for you and you will call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins."

(7) And Joseph arose from his sleep and glorified the God of Israel who had given grace to him. 

(8) And he guarded the child.

CHAPTER 15

(1) Then, Annas the scribe came to him and said to him, "Joseph, why have you not appeared to our traveling group?"

(2) And he said to him, "Because I was worn out from the trip and rested my first day back."

Notice how even the saints can be little white liars!

“(3) And Annas turned and saw Mary pregnant.”

Oops!

“(4) And he ran off at top speed to the high priest and said to him, "Look at Joseph, the one you bear witness for. He has broken the law badly."

(5) And the high priest said, "What is this?"

(6) And he said, "The virgin which Joseph received from the temple of the Lord, he defiled her and has stolen her wedding festivities and has not revealed it to the children of Israel."

(7) And he said to him, "Has Joseph done these things?"

(8) And he said to him, "Send a servant and he will find the virgin pregnant."

(9) And the servants went and found her just as he said and they led her with Joseph to the law court.

(10) And the high priest said to her, "Mary, what is this? How have you humiliated yourself? 

(11) Did you forget the Lord your God, you who were raised in the holy of holies and received from the hand of an angel? 

(12) You who heard their songs and danced before them, what is this?"

(13) And she wept bitterly, saying, "As the Lord God lives, I am pure before him and I did not know a man."

(14) And the high priest said, "Joseph, what is this?"

(15) But Joseph said, "As the Lord lives, I am pure from her."

(16) And the high priest said, "Do not lie, but speak the truth. You stole your wedding festivities and did not reveal it to the children of Israel 

(17) and you did not bow your head before the mighty hand that it should bless your seed."

(18) And Joseph was silent.

CHAPTER 16

(1) And the high priest said, "Return the virgin which you took from the temple of the Lord."

(2) And Joseph became tearful […]”

This is where we get a picture of some superstitious rituals, that survived into the medieval period, for determining if a lie has been told. What follows is a train of rituals and examinations by the Jews to ascertain whether Mary has been defiled by Joseph. The legalities of it including a medical examination of Mary to see if she's a virgin, is again like other episodes in James, very human. It just goes to show how invested the people were in a supernatural power contained in physical vessels. 

“(3) And the high priest said, "I will give you the water of the Lord's wrath to drink and it will make your sin clear in your eyes." 

(4) And taking the water, the high priest gave it to

Joseph to drink and sent him out into the desert. And he returned unharmed.

(5) And he made the young girl drink also and sent her out into the desert. And she came back unharmed. 

(6) And all the people were astonished that their sins were not revealed.

(7) And the high priest said, "If the Lord God has not revealed your sins, I will not judge you either." And he released them. 

(8) And Joseph took Mary and went away to his house, rejoicing and praising the God of Israel.”

The story of the annunciation given in the gospel of James is quite charming because it includes some descriptions of daily household life and how angels can come to us while we're getting the water from the well. The parallel passage from Mathew is given below:

Matthew 1:18-25 

^"18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 

¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly." 

[Sidebar from Wikipedia: Cultural context:

"According to standard Jewish custom of the time of Jesus, girls were betrothed around the age of twelve or twelve and a half. During the betrothal period, which lasted about a year, the marriage was not consummated and the bride remained in her parents' house. Betrothal was formalized by a contract regulating such matters as the transfer of property and provision for the wife and children should the husband die. Voiding the contract required a divorce document freeing the girl to remarry."

Back to Matthew:]

^"20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 

²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

²³ “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 

²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 

²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus."

We close this sermon by quoting the complete account of the Joseph’s trip to Bethlehem and the surreal episode of the shepherds, wherein time stood still. The shepherd’s scene is very much like a song, and captures some of the mythical quality of the event not always so vividly conveyed in the Synoptic Gospels:

“CHAPTER 17

(1) Then, there was an order from the Emperor Augustus to register how many people were in Bethlehem of Judea. 

(2) And Joseph said, "I will register my sons. But this child?

What will I do about him? How will I register him? 

(3) And my wife? Oh, I am ashamed. Should I register her as my daughter? The children of Israel know that she is not my daughter.”

A difficult decision is made here:

“(4) This day, I will do as the Lord wants."

(5) And he saddled his donkey and sat her on it and his son led and Samuel followed. 

(6)And they arrived at the third mile and Joseph turned and saw that she was sad. 

(7) And he said to himself, "Perhaps the child within her is troubling her." 

(8) And again Joseph turned around and saw her laughing and said to her, "Mary, what is with you? First your face appears happy and then sad?"

(9) And she said, "Joseph, it is because I see two people with my eyes, one crying and being afflicted, one rejoicing and being extremely happy."

(10) When they came to the middle of the journey, Mary said to him, "Joseph, take me off the donkey, the child is pushing from within me to let him come out."

(11) So he took her off the donkey and said to her, "Where will I take you and shelter you in your awkwardness? This area is a desert."

CHAPTER 18

(1) And he found a cave and led her there and stationed his sons to watch her, 

(2) while he went to a find a Hebrew midwife in the land of Bethlehem.

(3) Then, Joseph wandered, but he did not wander. 

(4) And I looked up to the peak of the sky and saw it standing still and I looked up into the air. With utter astonishment I saw

it, even the birds of the sky were not moving. 

(5) And I looked at the ground and saw a bowl lying there and workers reclining. And their hands were in the bowl. 

(6) And chewing, they were not chewing. And picking food up, they were not picking it up. And putting food in their mouths, they were not putting it in their mouths. 

(7) Rather, all their faces were looking up.

(8) And I saw sheep being driven, but the sheep were standing still. 

(9) And the shepherd lifted up his hand to strike them, but his hand remained above them. 

(10) And I saw the rushing current of the river and I saw goats and their mouths resting in the water, but they were not drinking. 

(11) And suddenly everything was replaced by the ordinary course of events.”

I admit it, I come from The Twilight Zone generation, but I almost find this spooky version of the shepherds on the hillside even more mysterious than a sky full of angels. I love the legal entanglements these jews will work through, even at the moment when a pregnant woman is giving birth. The story of Mary’s gynocological examination climaxes with another miracle, not unlike the miracles  in Thomas:

“CHAPTER 19

(1) And I saw a woman coming down from the mountain and she said to me, "Man, where are you going?"

(2) And I said, "I am seeking a Hebrew midwife."

(3) Replying, she said to me, "Are you from Israel?"

(4) And I said to her, "Yes."

(5) Then, she said, "And who is giving birth in the cave?"

(6) And I said, "The one who has pledged to be married to me."

(7) And she said to me, "She is not your wife?"

(8) And I said to her, "She is Mary, the one who was raised in the temple. I won her by lot to be my wife. 

(9) She is not yet my wife, but has a fetus from the Holy Spirit."

(10) And the midwife said, "Really?"

Oh REALLY??

“(11) And Joseph said to her, "Come and see."

(12) So the midwife went with him. 

(13) And they stood near the cave and a dark cloud

was hovering over the cave. 

(14) And the midwife said, "My soul glorifies this day, for today my eyes have seen a miracle: salvation has come to Israel."

(15) And immediately, the cloud withdrew from the cave and a great light appeared in the cave so that their eyes could not bear it. 

(16) And a little while later the same light withdrew until an infant appeared. And he came and took the breast of his mother, Mary.

(17) And the midwife cried out and said, "How great this day is for me, for I have seen this new miracle."

(18) And the midwife departed from the cave and met Salome and said to her, "Salome, Salome, I have to describe this new miracle for you. A virgin has given birth, although her body does not allow it."

(19) And Salome said, "As the Lord my God lives, unless I insert my finger and investigate her, I will not believe that a virgin has given birth."

CHAPTER 20

(1) And the midwife went in and said, "Mary, position yourself, for not a small test concerning you is about to take place."

(2) When Mary heard these things, she positioned herself. And Salome inserted her finger into her body. 

(3) And Salome cried out and said, "Woe for my lawlessness and the unbelief that made me test the living God. Look, my hand is falling away from me and being consumed in fire."

(5) And Salome dropped to her knees before the Lord, saying, "God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, 

(6) do not expose me to the children of Israel, but give me back to the poor. 

(7) For you know, Lord, that I have performed service and received my wage from you."

(8) Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared, saying to her, "Salome, Salome, the Lord of all has heard your entreaty. 

(9) Stretch out your hand to the child and lift him up and he will be salvation and joy for you."

(10) And Salome went to the child and lifted him up, saying, "I worship him because he has been born a king to Israel." 

(11) And at once Salome was healed and left the cave

justified.

(12) Suddenly, there was a voice saying, "Salome, Salome, do not proclaim what a miracle you have seen until the child comes to Jerusalem."

I love it how this version mixes the type of narrative style, equivalent to the synoptic gospels’ style, with overtly gnostic tales of miracles. 

I will close with a reiteration of the “Angel Scene” which is so different from the version in Luke, but which is a transporting vision of spiritual reality and physical reality merging into one synthetic consciousness state:

“(4) And I looked up to the peak of the sky and saw it standing still and I looked up into the air. With utter astonishment I saw it, even the birds of the sky were not moving. 

(5) And I looked at the ground and saw a bowl lying there and workers reclining. And their hands were in the bowl. 

(6) And chewing, they were not chewing. And picking food up, they were not picking it up. And putting food in their mouths, they were not putting it in their mouths. 

(7) Rather, all their faces were looking up.

(8) And I saw sheep being driven, but the sheep were standing still. 

(9) And the shepherd lifted up his hand to strike them, but his hand remained above them. 

(10) And I saw the rushing current of the river and I saw goats and their mouths resting in the water, but they were not drinking. 

(11) And suddenly everything was replaced by the ordinary course of events.”

How actually VULGAR it is to paint a sky filled with angels when it was probably more an inner vision—time standing still totally works for me. 

BUT we must end our Advent review with the angels from Luke, as an archetypal symbol of the inner experience of angels:

Luke 2:8-14:

“8. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 

9. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 

10. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 

11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 

12. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 

13. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 

14. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Let us pray: Jesus take our prayers as a sign of love and faith. Life is so hard sometimes, we surrender our hopes to frenzied despair—then the old tales draw us back, ground us in the soil of our long and deep history, and we are comforted. Thanks again for that. Amen.

18 The Infancy Gospel of James - 1

18 The Infancy Gospel of James - 1

Today we return to our long-abandoned series on the Gnostic Gospels with this Christmastime review of The  Infancy Gospel of James. This is a very interesting book from many perspectives. It vividly shows the ancient Biblical figures in all their human frailty, and nobility, as they negotiate the difficulties the Jews had accepting the miracle of the virgin birth. There are hints about the secret spiritual society of the Essenes, as well a complexly interwoven portrait of belief, tradition, mysticism and pragmatism.

To be clear at the outset, the book of James is not primarily concerned with the nativity of Jesus, but, rather with the nativity of Mary. I intend to read long passages from the book as a way of substituting the traditional Christmas stories with these somewhat fresh accounts, which include many details not included in the Synoptic Gospels. There will also be comparisons with the stories in James with the stories in Luke. For now, I think I’ll just jump in with some opening scenes:  

CHAPTER 1 begins with the man Joachim, a righteous man, but childless. On a special feast day he is denied entrance to the synagogue because he has not given children to Israel.

“(9) Then, Joachim was extremely frustrated and did not appear to his wife, but gave himself to the desert and pitched his tent there. 

(10) He fasted forty days and forty nights. 

(11) All the while, Joachim was saying to himself, "I will not go down for food or

drink until the Lord my God visits me; prayer will be my food and drink."

CHAPTER 2

(1) Then, his wife Anna mourned and lamented greatly for two reasons, saying, "I lament that I am a widow and I lament that I am childless.”. . .

(7) So Anna also became extremely frustrated and removed her mourning garment,

washed her head and clothed herself with her wedding dress. 

(8) Around the ninth hour, she went down to her garden to walk around. She saw a laurel tree and sat down under it. 

(9) And after a rest, she petitioned the Lord, saying, "God of my ancestors, bless me and hear my prayer, just as you blessed our mother Sarah and gave her son Isaac to her."

CHAPTER 3

(1) And Anna looked up to the heavens and saw a nest of sparrows in the laurel tree.”

[Sidebar: I love this image, “nest of sparrows in the laurel tree”. Is that archetypal or what?

Back to James:]

“(2)Immediately, Anna cried out mournfully, saying to herself,

"Oh me, who gave birth to me? What womb caused me to grow? 

(3) For I was born cursed in front of the children of Israel. I am reviled and they treat me with contempt and cast me out of the temple of the Lord my God.

(4) "Oh me, what am I like? I am not like the birds of the sky, for the birds of the sky are fruitful before you, Lord.

(5) "Oh me, what am I like? I am not like the domestic animals, for the domestic animals are fruitful before you, Lord.

(6) "Oh me, what am I like? I am not like the wild animals of the earth, for the wild

animals of the earth are fruitful before you, Lord.

(7) "Oh me, what am I like? I am not like these waters, for these waters are fruitful before you, Lord.

(8) "Oh me, what am I like? I am not like this earth, for the earth produces its fruit in season and blesses you, Lord."

CHAPTER 4

(1) Suddenly, an angel of the Lord stood in front of her, saying, "Anna, Anna, the Lord God has heard your prayer. You will conceive and give birth and your child will be spoken of everywhere people live."

(2) And Anna said, "As the Lord God lives, whether I give birth to either a male or a

female child, I will bring it as an offering to the Lord my God and it will be a servant to him all the days of its life."

Notice how identical this angelic interview is to the familiar interview between Gabriel and Mary found in Luke:

Luke 1:26-38

“26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 

27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 

28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 

30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 

33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 

37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.”

Back to James:

CHAPTER 5

“(1) The next day, when he was presenting his offerings, he said to himself, "If the Lord God will be reconciled to me, he will make it clear to me with the priest's metal disc." 

(2) And Joachim presented his offerings and paid attention to the priest's metal disc until he went up to the altar of the Lord. And he saw no sin in it. (3) Joachim said, "Now, I know that the Lord God has been reconciled to me and has sent all my great sins away for me."

(4) And having been justified, he departed from the temple and went to his house.

(5) And his wife's pregnancy came to term. After nine months, Anna gave birth (6) and she said to the midwife, "What is it?"

(7) The midwife said, "A girl."

(8) Anna said, "My soul exalts this day." And she put her baby to bed.

(9) After her days were completed, Anna cleansed her menstrual flow 

(10) and gave her breast to the child and gave her the name Mary.

CHAPTER 6

(1) Day by day, the child grew stronger. 

(2) When she was six months old, her mother set her on the ground to test whether she could stand. And after walking seven steps, she came to her mother's breast. 

(3) And her mother picked her up, saying, "As the Lord my God lives, you will not walk on this earth again until I take you to the temple of the Lord."

(4) And she made a sanctuary in her bedroom and would not permit anything common or impure to pass through it. 

(5) And she called the pure daughters of the Hebrews and they played with her.

(6) When the child's first birthday came, Joachim held a great celebration. He invited the high priests and the priests and the Sanhedrin and the whole nation of Israel. 

(7) And Joachim brought the child to the priests and they blessed her, saying, "God of our ancestors, bless this child and give her name eternal fame among all generations."

(8) And all the people said, "Let it happen, amen."

(9) And he brought the child to the high priests and they blessed her, saying, "Exalted God, look upon this child and give her a final blessing which will not be succeeded."

(10) And her mother took her up to the bedroom-sanctuary and gave her breast to the child. 

(11) And Anna composed a song for the Lord God, saying, "I will sing a holy song

to the Lord my God because he has examined me and removed my horrible disgrace from me. 

(12) And the Lord God gave me the fruit of his righteousness, of one nature, but

manifold before him. 

(13) Who will proclaim to the sons of Reubel that Anna nurses a child? Do you hear? Hear this, twelve tribes of Israel: Anna nurses a child!"

What a wonderful song, so full of deep mystical images like, “the fruit of his righteousness, of one nature, but manifold before him”. And what do you think is meant by “my horrible disgrace”? Can this possibly refer to the original sin passed down through the generations by Adam?

“CHAPTER 8

(1) And her parents went down, marveling at and praising and glorifying the Lord God because the child had not turned back to look at them. (2) While Mary was in the temple of the Lord, she was fed like a dove and received food from the hand of an angel.”

The dove motif is continued in the opening of Chapter 9:

“(1) Throwing down his ax, Joseph went out to meet them. 

(2) And after they had gathered together with their rods, they went to the high priest. (3) After receiving everyone's rod, the high priest went into the temple and prayed. (4) When he was finished with the prayer, he took the rods and went out and gave them to each man, 

(5) but there was no sign among them. Finally, Joseph took his rod. 

(6) Suddenly, a dove came out of the rod and stood on Joseph's head. 

(7) And the high priest said, "Joseph! Joseph! You have been

chosen by lot to take the virgin into your own keeping."

[Sidebar: When I read this I was a little confused by this mention of the “rod”, so I looked it up and found this paragraph concerning the Jewish rods, and the prophecy concerning the Messiah and His  “rod”:

“AARON'S ROD. By: J. Frederic McCurdy, Louis Ginzberg

A rod which, in the hands of Aaron, the high priest, was endowed with miraculous power during the several plagues that preceded the Exodus. In this function the rod of Moses was equally potent. Upon two occasions, however, the singular virtue of spontaneous power, when not in the grasp of its possessor, was exhibited by Aaron's Rod. At one time it swallowed the rods of the Egyptian magicians, and at another it blossomed and bore fruit in the Tabernacle, as an evidence of the exclusive right to the priesthood of the tribe of Levi. In commemoration of this decision it was commanded that the rod be put again "before the testimony" (Num. xvii. 10). A later tradition asserts (Heb. ix. 4) that the rod was kept in the Ark of the Covenant. The main fact, however, is thus confirmed, that a rod was preserved in the Tabernacle as a relic of the institution of the Aaronic priesthood.

The Bible ascribes similar miraculous powers to the Rod of Aaron and to the staff of Moses (compare, for example, Ex. iv. 2 et seq. and vii. 9). The Haggadah goes a step further, and entirely identifies the Rod of Aaron with that of Moses. Thus the Midrash Yelamdenu (Yalḳ. on Ps. ex. § 869) states that "the staff with which Jacob crossed the Jordan is identical with that which Judah gave to his daughter-in-law, Tamar (Gen. xxxii. 10, xxxviii. 18). It is likewise the holy rod with which Moses worked (Ex. iv. 20, 21), with which Aaron performed wonders before Pharaoh (Ex. vii. 10), and with which, finally, David slew the giant Goliath (I Sam. xvii. 40). David left it to his descendants, and the Davidic kings used it as a scepter until the destruction of the Temple, when it miraculously disappeared. When the Messiah comes it will be given to him for a scepter in token of his authority over the heathen."

Several miracles populate the account of Mary’s formative years as a chosen favorite in the synagogue, but the plot thickens when Mary, at age sixteen, is visited by an angel herself. Again, I want to emphasize how colorful and full of detail is the story-telling in James compared to the comparatively bare bones narrative in Luke:

“CHAPTER 11

(1) And she took the cup and went out to fill it with water. 

(2) Suddenly, a voice said to her, "Rejoice, blessed one. The Lord is with you. You are blessed among women." 

(3) And Mary looked around to the right and the left to see where this voice came from. 

(4) And trembling she went into her house. Setting down the cup, she took the purple thread and sat down on the chair and spun it.

(5) Suddenly, an angel stood before her saying, "Do not be afraid Mary. You have found grace before the Lord of all. You will conceive from his word."

(6) Upon hearing this, however, Mary was distraught, saying to herself, "If I conceive from the Lord God who lives, will I also conceive as all women conceive?"

(7) And the Angel of the Lord said, "Not like that, Mary. For the power of God will come over you. Thus, the holy one who is born will be called son of the most high. (8) And you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

(9) And Mary said, "See, I am the servant of the Lord before him. Let it happen to me according to what you say."

CHAPTER 12

(1) And she made the purple and the scarlet thread and carried it to the high priest. (2) And taking it, the high priest blessed her and said, "Mary, God has magnified your name. You will be called blessed among all the generations of the earth."

The mention of purple and scarlet thread is interesting—it indicates Mary’s place as a functioning element in the rituals of the Synagogue, and confirms her high status in the hierarchy of the spiritual community. 

“Why did the tabernacle use the colors blue, purple and scarlet?

I see a lot of blue in the tabernacle, and when moving it. For example: Then they are to cover the curtain with a durable leather, spread a cloth of solid blue over that and put the poles in place.—Numbers 4:6

There is also scarlet used in the tabernacle:

They are to spread a scarlet cloth over them, cover that with the durable leather and put the poles in place. —Numbers 4:8

The special use of purple is used to cover the altar:

They are to remove the ashes from the bronze altar and spread a purple cloth over it.—Numbers 4:13

What is the meaning of blue, purple, and scarlet in the Tabernacle?

Exodus details the materials used to construct the Mishkan (aka Tabernacle). They include blue, purple, and scarlet fabric (or thread), goat hair, and skins. This isn't just an assembly manual. Each element has spiritual significance. For example, the gold represents righteousness and perfection. Silver represents blood and redemption. Bronze or brass represents judgment, and iron represents power and force. Purple is usually associated with royalty and status because it was incredibly expensive to make. Blue dye (technically indigo) was also expensive for the same reason purple dye was: it was difficult to obtain from nature. It's likely that the specific shade of scarlet used was also expensive, though reddish dyes are fairly easy to obtain from natural sources.”

The expression “my soul doth magnify the Lord” has many interesting ramifications. a roundabout interpretation I have come up with begins with a specific definition of this word “soul”. The word “soul” is very freely bandied about; many people confuse the word, and use it to refer to various,  sometimes very different, dimensions of being. I agree with the interpretation of the word “soul” I have learned from Jeanette. If I understand correctly the, soul is the container of the spirit body, rendering it not unlike Steiner’s “astral body”. Soul is not the essence, it is the container. As such, how does the soul magnify the Lord? Let's take the word “magnify” at its literal meaning, which is “to make bigger”. You might say make present. And thus it was that bringing into presence the soul container, Infinity takes this essence and expands in into visible proportions that can be appreciated by human intelligence.

I ran across this interesting diversion in the Secret Gospel of James concerning the soul as a magnifier:

“Therefore, you must be in want while it is possible to fill you, and be full while it is possible for you to be in want, so that you may be able to fill yourselves the more. Hence, become full of the Spirit, but be in want of reason, for reason belongs to the soul; in turn, it is of the nature of soul."

This verse makes a clear distinction between spirit and soul. Furthermore, it warns us against thinking because thinking is in the nature of THE CONTAINER and not of the spiritual essence.

This has a direct bearing on the miraculous process of Immaculate Conception. If we say that the essence of God is in all of us, then it is not unreasonable to suppose that some people have the ability to plumb the depths of innermost being and make contact with the essential God, and in magnify it into appreciable manifestation..

I have always operated on the premise that the father Creator God is within the essence. I have never been able to make myself strong enough to reach all the way down. And thus it is that people like Steiner, Cayce, and Blake — people who have been able to make contact with higher dimensions, people who were born with a talent for reaching into those dimensions — I am forever humbled before them. I hope, when I shuffle off this mortal coil, I will be better able to appreciate the God within me, Whom I can feel right now, but can't really know.

At this point it is necessary to re-read the familiar annunciation story from Luke:

“26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

40 And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

54 He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;

55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.”

Next week we will continue with James—more Advent material especially concerning Joseph, who encountered a lot of problems with his women.

Let us pray: Jesus, the spirit of the season always catches us by surprise—we wonder that every year the old stories vibrate in our hearts with new significance and resonance. Thank you for this time of renewal, and prepare out hearts for the coming birth—for the coming re-birth. Amen.

17 Divine Forms 3 : Archetypes

17 Divine Forms 3 : Archetypes

Genesis 1:27:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;”

Romans 5:14:

“Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.”

Patterns “of the one to come” is what we have been talking about for the past three weeks, in our discussion of divine forms. This discussion has led us to two definite conclusions:

1. All creations spring from an impulse of identity with the Father.

2. The Cosmic Original, formless and timeless, nevertheless possesses an ESSENTIAL NATURE which may be echoed, somehow mirrored, in articulate mundane expressions—expressions limited by the constraints of time and space, giving form to the ESSENTIAL NATURE only in part, but which are, nevertheless, in spite of this limitation, still capable of focussing our minds upon higher modalities of existence.

The representation of the ESSENTIAL NATURE, as embedded in the central core of articulate manifestations, leads quite naturally and inevitably to a discussion of archetypes. One wonders if the archetypes are formed by the essence, or if the archetypal form is a chosen channel through which the essence adapts itself to our puny powers of appreciation. It amounts to the same thing, either way.

The question of archetypes has a bearing on most of our thinking about spiritual things, because it is the manifestation of essence, through articulate forms, that defines the language and symbology of our doctrines, our rituals, and even our ethics.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The concept of an archetype is found in areas relating to behavior, modern psychological theory, and literary analysis. An archetype can be:

a statement, pattern of behavior, or prototype which other statements, patterns of behavior, and objects copy or emulate;

a Platonic philosophical idea referring to pure forms which embody the fundamental characteristics of a thing;

a collectively-inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., that is universally present in individual psyches, as in Jungian psychology;

or a constantly recurring symbol or motif in literature, painting, or mythology.

In the first sense, many more informal terms are frequently used instead, such as "standard example" or "basic example", and the longer form "archetypal example" is also found. In mathematics, an archetype is often called a "canonical example".

Etymology

The word archetype, "original pattern from which copies are made", first entered into English usage in the 1540s and derives from the Latin noun archetypum, latinisation of the Greek noun ἀρχέτυπον (archetupon), whose adjective form is ἀρχέτυπος (archetupos), which means "first-molded", which is a compound of ἀρχή archē, "beginning, origin", and τύπος tupos, which can mean, amongst other things, "pattern," "model," or "type."

Plato

The origins of the archetypal hypothesis date back as far as Plato. Plato's ideas were pure mental forms that were imprinted in the soul before it was born into the world. They were collective in the sense that they embodied the fundamental characteristics of a thing rather than its specific peculiarities. In the seventeenth century, Sir Thomas Browne and Francis Bacon both employ the word 'archetype' in their writings; Browne in The Garden of Cyrus (1658) attempted to depict archetypes in his usage of symbolic proper-names.

Jungian archetypes

The concept of psychological archetypes was advanced by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, c. 1919. In Jung's psychological framework, archetypes are innate, universal prototypes for ideas and may be used to interpret observations. A group of memories and interpretations associated with an archetype is a complex ( e.g. a mother complex associated with the mother archetype). Jung treated the archetypes as psychological organs, analogous to physical ones in that both are morphological constructs that arose through evolution.At the same time, it has also been observed that evolution can itself be considered an archetypal construct.

In The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche Jung states:

“religious ideas in their present form are variants of archetypal ideas created by consciously applying and adapting these ideas to reality.”

In part one of Man And His Symbols Jung states that:

"My views about the 'archaic remnants', which I call 'archetypes' or 'primordial images,' have been constantly criticized by people who lack a sufficient knowledge of the psychology of dreams and of mythology. The term 'archetype' is often misunderstood as meaning certain definite mythological images or motifs, but these are nothing more than conscious representations. Such variable representations cannot be inherited. 

The archetype is a tendency to form such representations of a motif—representations that can vary a great deal in detail without losing their basic pattern."

Campbellian Archetypes

"Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth. In a well-known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarized the monomyth:

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."

Campbell called this journey of the hero the monomyth. While Campbell offers a discussion of the hero's journey by using the Freudian concepts popular in the 1940s and 1950s, the monomythic structure is not tied to these concepts. Similarly, Campbell uses a mixture of Jungian archetypes, unconscious forces, and Arnold van Gennep's structuring of rites of passage rituals to provide some illumination. However, this pattern of the hero's journey influences artists and intellectuals worldwide, suggesting a basic usefulness for Campbell's insights not tied to academic categories and mid-20th century forms of analysis.

Archetypal literary criticism

Archetypal literary criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works and that a text's meaning is shaped by cultural and psychological myths. Archetypes are the unknowable basic forms personified or made concrete by recurring images, symbols, or patterns (which may include motifs such as the 'quest' or the 'heavenly ascent;' recognizable character types such as the 'trickster' or the 'hero;' symbols such as the apple or snake; and imagery) and that have all been laden with meaning prior to their inclusion in any particular work.

The archetypes reveal shared roles among universal societies, such as the role of the mother in her natural relations with all members of the family. This archetype may create a shared imaginary which is defined by many stereotypes that have not separated themselves from the traditional, biological, religious and mythical framework."

The terms “universal societies”, “shared imagery”, and “stereotypes”, lead us to the word “collective”. The “Collective Unconscious” is container for all the archetypes that spring from Human consciousness. The ultimate form of Collective Consciousness may be thought of as the “Omega Point”, a concept famously announced by Teilhard de Chardin:

“The Omega Point is a spiritual belief that the universe is evolving toward a higher level of material complexity and consciousness. The term was coined by the French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955). Teilhard argued that the Omega Point resembles the Christian Logos, namely Christ, who draws all things into himself, who in the words of the Nicene Creed, is "God from God", "Light from Light", "True God from true God," and "through him all things were made." In the Book of Revelation, Christ describes himself thrice as "the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." 

Five attributes:

Teilhard de Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man states that the Omega Point must possess the following five attributes. It is:

• Already existing
• Only thus can the rise of the universe towards higher stages of consciousness be explained.

• Personal (an intellectual being and not an abstract idea)
• The increasing complexity of matter has not only led to higher forms of consciousness, but accordingly to more personalization, of which human beings are the highest attained form in the known universe. They are completely individualized, free centers of operation. 
• 
  
• It is in this way that man is said to be made in the image of God, who is the highest form of personality. Teilhard expressly stated that in the Omega Point, when the universe becomes One, human persons will not be suppressed, but super-personalized. Personality will be infinitely enriched. This is because the Omega Point unites creation, and the more it unites, the increasing complexity of the universe aids in higher levels of consciousness. Thus, as God creates, the universe evolves towards higher forms of complexity, consciousness, and finally with humans, personality, because God, who is drawing the universe towards Him, is a person.”
• 
  
• [Sidebar: The Personality of the Omega Point is of immense interest to us, because it the Person of God, articulated in the Christ Consciousness, to which we all wend our way back. It is the image of the Christ Consciousness that awakens memories of our own unique, personal origins.
• 
  
• Back to Chardin:]
• 
  

• “The Omega Point is outside the framework in which the universe rises, because it is by the attraction of the Omega Point that the universe evolves towards Him.
• Autonomous
• That is, free from the limitations of space (nonlocality) and time (atemporality).
• Irreversible
• That is, attainable and imperative; it must happen and cannot be undone.

Of course all these pictures of the universe painted by philosophic imagination are non-specific, as they ought be having sprung from visions of higher worlds, and yet recurrence of identical articulate patterns, throughout the collective unconscious, leads us to the conclusion that: shared experience creates shared idiomatic expressions.

The idea of a “collective spiritual community” is developed in Thomas Moores’s Care of the Soul:

“Like all activities of the soul, community has its connection to death and the underworld. Christianity talks about the “community of saints,” meaning all the people present and past to whom we are related by reason of the human community. From the point of view of the soul, the dead are as much a part of community as the living. In a similar spirit Jung makes a mysterious comment in the prologue to his memoirs: 

“Other people are established inalienably in my memories only if their names were entered in the scrolls of my destiny from the beginning, so that encountering then was at the same time a kind of recollection.”

[Sidebar: The ideas of deja vu and “recollecting” the present are not unrelated to the idea of pre-destination: the ordering of events OUTSIDE TIME, the present felt as fate or myth.

Back to Care of the Soul:]

“Outward community flourishes when we are in touch with the inner persons who crowd our dreams and waking thoughts. To overcome loneliness, we might consider releasing these inner figures into life, like the one who wants to sing or cuss in anger or is more sensual or more critical or even more needy than “I” would like to admit. To “admit” who I am is to “admit” those people into life, so that the inner community serves as a start for a sense of belonging in life. I “remember” people I met for the first time because I am in touch with the archetypal world of my imagination, and on the basis of that self-knowledge I can love anyone I meet and be loved in return. The roots of community are immeasurably deep, and the process of belonging, dealing actively with loneliness, begins in the depth of the soul.”

In his book, Matrix Energetics, Dr. Richard Bartlett refers, in a somewhat sideways flight, to the origin of the essential nature of the archetype as a configuration of “light and information”.

 “The term “Matrix Energetics” comes from books on energy medicine by James Oschman, who in turn was inspired by the work of Alfred Pischinger, author of Matrix and Matrix Regulation: Basis for a Holistic Theory in Medicine. In both Pischinger and Oschman’s work, the term deals only with our normal, electric atom/molecule level of physical reality. Dr. Bartlett, on the other hand, thinks that we are basically constructed from light and information and are thus malleable to focus intent. Under this rubric, Matrix Energetics is an archetype; practitioners maintain a state of awareness and enter into a kind of energetic rapport with clients, holding for them what shamanic cultures call “sacred space” so that they can have the freedom to express a different outcome for their physical state.”

Framing the expression “from light and information” to describe the essential structure of human beings, suggests a state of being, not unlike that which is commonly represented as “angelic”. Thus, if we are, in our essential nature, like the angels, then “information and light” must result in  AN ENTITY. This leads us to the idea of the archetype AS AN ENTITY, not unlike angels.

The following book review summarizes the idea that archetypes are actually spiritual beings: 

Jung & Steiner by Gerhard Wehr: A Book Review by Bobby Matherne ©2004

"There was one area where Jung stayed out of the realm of content in his work, and that was in his understanding of what an archetype was. At least he never admitted any differently in his writings. I came across a piece in a news item somewhere a couple of years ago, perhaps after Sardello wrote the words below. It quoted a close friend of Jung's who said that, a couple of years before his death, Jung had admitted to him privately that "archetypes are spiritual beings" but said he had been afraid to say so publicly. What Jung did to strengthen his claims for the archetypes was to build on the solid scientific foundation of Kant's epistemology. That limited Jung to speaking of the phenomenal world and blocked him from speaking about the noumenon. He was left to describe transcendent reality with what Sardello calls, "the truth within."

This is why Jung posited the existence of the archetypes but would never say anything of their reality beyond what could be said "psychologically."

On the other hand, Steiner makes it clear that he speaks of spiritual beings and that archetypes in Jung's sense are ways of talking about a spiritual reality."

Back to Wikipedia:

Steinerian archetypes

"In his early book Theosophy - An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man, which, as its name indicates, was written when he was still in his theosophical phase, even if it was later revised, Steiner presents a comprehensive account of the archetypes of the spiritual world as he perceived them.   He begins by describing the dynamic qualities of the archetypes:

"In the spiritual world all is in perpetual mobile activity in the process of ceaseless creating.  A state of rest....does not exist here because the archetypes are creative beings.  They are the master builders of all that comes into being in the physical and soul worlds…"

[Sidebar: The idea of archetypes as living conscious beings is significant. I have long maintained that the truth of music was not the representation of things, but the miraculous manifestation of the divine in the physical. People are always trying to get me to explain to them what makes good music and what makes bad music. Over the years, I have invented a few convincing lines about the quality, time periods, unity-in-variety, etc.,; or I have suggested different ways of gauging how honestly (accurately?) nature is reflected in the art, all based on somewhat rational principles. But preparing this sermon has awakened in me the realization that my response to music is not really rational at all; that the reflection of the inner divine impulse in an outer form is something that can only be sensed intuitively. 

I always hesitate to throw in the towel when it comes to the epistemological limits of expression, but I think, in this case, I really must admit that I don't know what makes good music or bad music: but I feel it. This feeling is, I'm sure, connected to some deep inner sense of the divine form in myself; and any distortion of that essential form turns me off. Two compositions may share literally identical musical materials, but, in the case of the "bad" composition, the constraints of idiomatic style effigies may cause a constricted, rather than free movement of higher intellect. In this case, the displacement of one note, or one phrase, in an expression, can make the difference between truthfulness and distortion of the inner divine form.

Further on in Steiner, we encounter the idea that archetypes exist on a continuum just like every other parameter of existence. Thus, there may exist archetypes of archetypes.

Back to Steiner:

Concerning these archetypes of archetypes, Steiner says:

"These regions differ from the lower ones because the beings here  supply the lower archetypes with the impetus for their activity.   They are the creative forces of the archetypes themselves, the  purposes that underlie our world.  Like living germ-points, the  archetypes lie here ready to assume the most manifold forms.  If these archetypes are projected into the lower regions, they well  up, as it were, and manifest themselves through the most varied shapes." 

"Here there is a spiritual language, the Spiritual Word through  which things and beings of this region make themselves known;  they utter what may be called their eternal names." 

"In the highest planes of Devachan are found the subtle or seed-archetypes, the thought-germs, which have a composite nature.  Only the germ-sheath manifests in the lower  worlds, whilst the life kernal it surrounds remains above.  This  life kernal has its origin in higher worlds.

In the seventh (or highest) subplane of the Spirit-world, Man stands in the presence of the life-kernals, at the  boundary of the three worlds (physical, astral and mental), and  recognises himself in his own life-kernal.  This means that for him the problems of the three lower worlds have been solved.  He has a complete view of the life of these worlds."

It is easy to talk about literary archetypes, since they are so up front in our literal (literary?) consciousness; but there are many, many musical archetypes as well. The foregoing material emphasizes archetypes as expressed in the medium of verbal communication, but I have been saying, for years, that musical archetypes contain the essence of Christ consciousness every bit as much as the story of Moses, or the Sistine Chapel.

The array of musical archetypes begins with such onomatopoetic expressions as thunder and lightning, bees buzzing and bombs crashing; but other more resonant, and less materially grounded, archetypes appear in the music portfolio: there is a whole library of stock musical cliches representing things like, "foreboding", or "excitement, wonder, anger. Musical archetypes, just like most items in the collective unconscious, change in their surface features the from one century to the next, while the underlying expressive impulse remains the same.

The following is an excerpt from Steiner's The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone:

"When the musician composes, he cannot imitate anything. He must draw the motifs of the musical creation out of his soul. We will discover their origin by pointing to worlds that are imperceptible to the senses. We must consider how these higher worlds are actually constituted. Man is capable of awakening higher faculties of the soul that ordinarily slumber. Just as the physical world is made visible to a blind person following an operation to restore his sight, so the inner soul organs of man can also be awakened in order that he might discern the higher spiritual worlds.

When man develops these faculties that otherwise slumber, when, through meditation, concentration, and so forth, he begins to develop his soul, he ascends step by step. The first thing he experiences is a peculiar transformation of his dream world. When, during meditation, man is able to exclude all memories and experiences of the outer sense world and yet can retain a soul content, his dream world begins to acquire a great regularity. Then, when he awakens in the morning, it feels as if he arose out of a flowing cosmic ocean. He knows that he has experienced something new. It is as if he emerged from an ocean of light and colors unlike anything he has known in the physical world. His dream experiences gain increasing clarity. He recalls that in this world of light and color there were things and beings that distinguished themselves from those of the ordinary world in that one could penetrate them; they did not offer resistance. Man becomes acquainted with a number of beings whose element, whose body, consists of colors. They are beings who reveal and embody themselves in color. Gradually, man expands his consciousness throughout that world and, upon awakening, recalls that he had taken part in that realm. His next step is to take that world with him into the daily world. Man gradually learns to see what is called the astral body of the human being. He experiences a world that is much more real than the ordinary, physical world. The physical world is a kind of condensation that has been crystallized out of the astral world. In this way, man now has two levels of consciousness, the everyday waking consciousness and the dream consciousness.”

The following article offers suggests scientific explanation or description of how the divine truth in the mind of God penetrates to the physical, creating archetypal images.

Joe Loizzo, M.D., Ph.D.
Faces, Voices and the Brain-Heart Brake: The Divine Science of Tibet
 
"How can a face launch a thousand ships? Why do lullabies quiet an infant's cries? Must we be mystics to "still our beating hearts"? Over millions of lifetimes, we mammals evolved a range of special neural structures that have equipped us for an increasingly social life. Three of these help resolve a puzzle that has long stumped modern science: Why do archetypal images, prayers and gestures exert a stubborn hold even on scientifically schooled minds? Breakthroughs in the neuroscience of empathy, emotions and our conscious control of the breath have radically changed our view of our nature, helping explain the stubborn power of spiritual imagery, prayers and ritual.

The newest layer of brain behind our foreheads, called the prefrontal cortex, includes "mirror neurons" and other elements that help us read and imitate the facial expressions, vocal tones and bodily actions of others. These same neurons form "resonance circuits" with deeper brain layers that call up in our own hearts the emotions we read behind others' body language. Other parts of this newest cortex, unique to humans, allow us to exert a higher degree of control over bodily functions and primal emotions, helping us integrate neural functions around a conscious intention. Beyond just "reading minds," this new layer of brain allows us to tune our mindset, motivation and actions to meet those of others, sustaining higher social forms of life based largely on communication and teamwork.

The second special structure is a network of two-way links joining prefrontal areas with our emotional processing centers in the inner brain layer we share with the oldest mammals. Called the limbic cortex or "ring-like covering" since it arches like a ring over the core brain we share with reptiles, this inner layer of neurons holds the older half of the resonance circuits that support empathy and our higher control of motivation. 

Recently, we've learned that this network empowers us to consciously shift from reactive emotions like fear, rage and shame into proactive emotions like trust, care and love, a shift our newer cortex needs to support our full capacities for social engagement. This network is keyed into our ability to read the facial, vocal and bodily language of others' moods, and in turn influences and is influenced by our own face-voice-body expressions.

Finally, there's a missing link connecting the muscles of our face, voice, inner ear and breath to our reptilian core brain and the primal life-support centers of the brainstem. As our amphibious ancestors became the first mammals, the nerves that used to serve gill arches morphed into new "cranial" nerves linking our facial, vocal, auditory and respiratory muscles to our brainstem. One of these was a new branch of the ancient nerve that controls breathing, digestion, excretion and reproduction. Called the "vagus" or "wanderer" because it works to sense and regulate most of our internal organs, this nerve also counters the fight-flight reflex and supports our ability to relax the body, calm breathing and put a "brake" on heart rate. The new branch of this nerve only we mammals have, dubbed the "smart vagus," lets us consciously control breathing and also networks with the nerves repurposed for social expression, to feedback on our basic life support rhythms and bodily tone. It's thanks to the smart vagus, plus the new hormones oxytocin and vasopressin it releases, that our fears melt, our breathing slows, and our hearts calm when we recognize the face, voice and gestures of a loved one.

What does all this have to do with religious symbols and rituals? However social our brains have grown, nothing in the 70 million years it took for them to evolve could have possibly prepared them for the unnatural conditions that emerged in the eye-blink of civilization. Our pre-historic ancestors knew too well that our natures straddle the fence between higher social capacities and the reptilian self-protective instincts mammals needed to survive in the wild. Soon, they also learned that familiar masks, chants and dances helped us stretch our circle of kinship and tip the balance of our capacities in ways that helped adapt us to ever larger, more complex social groups. This is why the world religions that spread with civilization were set up like extended human families, to revolve around remembering the image, words and deeds of universal, model ancestors.”

 This excerpt is charming in its sincere effort to synthesize scientific phenomenology with issues of faith. It doesn’t really matter to me if these scientific rationalizations are true or not, it just matters that we come to understand that none of this stuff is simple—that we will NEVER reach the end our inquiries because each new discovery lights the way to an infinitely long cavalcade of more fresh new discoveries.

The thing to remember is that God is in everything, and everybody’s symbols lead back to God. We have often been warned to beware of ignorance and inattention. Let me add this warning: beware of missing out on the resonance of symbols, as they constitute the core of our rational mind state. We must finally accept the idea that meaning is hidden in every atom of carnal life, and that the more of this we can take in, the more alive we can be. 

Let us pray.

Jesus: Thank you for articulate expression, and the power to raise those expressions from lower to higher modalities being. Amen