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A certain mystic has written, "The Blessed Virgin Mary was adorned by the Holy Ghost with special privileges, her Immaculate Conception, her perfect freedom from sin, her perpetual virginity and her plenitude of grace. Her soul offers the Holy Ghost a glorious temple in which to dwell, a closed garden into the secrets of which He alone can enter, an altar on which is offered the purest of sacrifices. Her soul was so docile to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost that she followed His least indication and thus her sanctity is incomparable. On account of this purity and loveliness and because she is so well suited to Him, the Holy Ghost in the Canticle of Canticles calls Mary my dove, He Himself appearing in the form of a dove, the symbol of purity and love."
These words are comparatively modern, yet they carry the spirit of an early tradition concerning Mary and the Holy Ghost, which, however, differs in several important respects from orthodox belief today, and which must be carefully considered if the mystery is to be understood.
The Virgin Mary's entire earth life was preparatory for her translation into the angelic kingdom. Early Christian legends have preserved the truth for us in their frequent allusions to her intimate and continuous companionship with Angels. Master artists show her in even the most commonplace situations of life surrounded by angelic presences. She was from birth more closely attuned with Angels than with humanity. Her pure mind was intent upon their life and activities. Inspired poets have well described her as being "half human and half divine." Such an exalted state of consciousness was understood by the Illumined of her day as being "filled with the powers of the Holy Ghost." This high Initiate, known to the world as Mary of Bethlehem, was often referred to in the esoteric Wisdom of the early Church as the "Bride of the Holy Ghost."
The divine creative life essence is rayed out upon the earth by the Cherubim (Hierarchy of Cancer). These forces descend no lower than the world of Life Spirit (the realm of Christ consciousness). From this high plane the creative force is received and transmitted to the earth by the Great Being known as the Holy Ghost, the most exalted of all Angelic Beings whose home is the Third Heaven. Gabriel and his Angels are the messengers between the Holy Ghost and humanity, by way of the lowest or First Heaven.
All life evolving on our planet is under the guidance of this Third Aspect of the Godhead. Its force is dual, it is positive and negative, masculine and feminine, will and imagination, intellect and love.
Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost for the reason that she was the supreme Initiate of all earthly women, and had most nearly perfected within herself the image-building or feminine faculty of Spirit. She was, by reason of this attainment, able to aid the Master Jesus in fashioning the most perfect body ever known upon the earth plane.
Great feminine Initiates have since the beginning of time been instructed in the art of image-making and body-building by the Hierarchy of Virgo, the Lords of Wisdom. Virgo is therefore represented as the perfected Woman, the Artist-Mother who creates in terms of flesh and blood a House for Saviours to dwell in.
Under this divine tutelage the ego known to history as Mary of Bethlehem was born when the Sun in Virgo was flooding the earth with its sacred force. And on that most mystical night of the year when the Capricorn powers hold sway over the earth and the Sun-child is born anew to redeem the world from a year of darkness and death, the starry Madonna stands upon the eastern horizon, holding aloft her gleaming sheaf of wheat — symbol of eternal life — in greeting to the holy Babe born under the Winter Solstice. Mary's Virgin Wheat bears an esoteric connotation identical with Joseph's rod that blossomed; and before we can know to the full the joys of this holiest of nights, his staff must blossom again in us, as a "sign" that God is with us.
Cancer is the "Star of Mothers," the gateway between heaven and earth. On Holy Night, this constellation gleams near the midheaven, while the invisible Sun in Capricorn is shining in darkness below the earth. In early epochs of our planet's evolution, when man was guided wholly by the celestial Hierarchies, having no will of his own, the union of man and woman took place only when the cosmic forces were harmonious, and in Temples where it was venerated as a holy ceremony. Then pain and discord were unknown. As materialism deepened, the sense of the sacredness of life was lost, and except in the innermost sanctums of the Temples of Initiation, the Mysteries of Creation were perverted and debased to the levels of lustful animality. This remains so to this day with the result that all humanity suffers universal pain, disease and death-the inevitable accompaniment of the misuse of the sex forces without due regard for the cosmic plan. The original design according to which every birth would have been a holy birth ministered unto by the Angels has been lost and forgotten. Nonetheless the Blessed Mary works unceasingly with the mothers of the world that these glorious truths may again' be brought to light and that woman may come once more to realize something, of the high destiny which is rightfully hers.
The two primary mother signs of the Zodiac, Cancer and Virgo, have placed upon Mary's work their radiant impress. Cancer, as the fructifying mother, is represented by the Madonna and Child, the theme which has been immortalized by the world's master-artists. Virgo, the spirit of the Immaculate Conception, is typified by the Madonna enthroned and surrounded by the multitudes of Angels singing hosannahs, not for Mary alone, but for all the mothers of the world in a shining future.
Taurus, the third mother sign of the Zodiac, relates to the beauty of all things earthly. Her worship is best typified in Aphrodite, the beautiful mother of ancient Greece.
In the Aquarian Age, when the Vernal Equinox will be in the constellation Aquarius, the Summer Solstice will be in the constellation Taurus, and a new understanding of the Beauty of God will be poured out upon the earth, an understanding which will embody all that the Greeks loved in Aphrodite together with a real comprehension of the spiritual beauty of femininity or beauty of holiness, of which we have no idea today.
Since the Holy Spirit of God is dual, both masculine and feminine, it may appear masculine to women Initiates (as to Mary) and feminine to men Initiates, as in the likeness of Sophia (Wisdom) to the prophets and disciples. Thus Moses "married Shekinah" even as Mary knew the Holy Ghost.
It is written that "it came to pass on the fifth day of the week on the tenth day of the month that He invited the disciples and the women who had become His disciples and sent them to the Mount of Olives, where He gave them spiritual commandments and admonished them to remain in the upper chamber in Jerusalem for ten days, until they received the Holy Spirit; then they were to go forth and preach His gospel among all nations."
The descent of the power of the Holy Ghost, which represents the equal development of the dual qualities of Spirit, lifts the Initiate above humanity, endows him with superhuman powers, and makes him a citizen of the angelic kingdom. Such an exalted soul henceforth works with Angels as his brothers. Such was Mary's attainment; and such, too, was the attainment of the Disciples after Pentecost.
Mary attained the full completion of this downpouring of Spirit in the interval between Golgotha and Easter sunrise. This will be discussed more fully in the later chapters dealing with the Acts.
On the Day of Pentecost it was that Mary and the Twelve entered into the freedom of the Sons of God through the supreme gift of the power of the Holy Ghost.
— Corinne Heline
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