by Doug Esse
The following is my response to a Facebook post for a Progressive Catholic group. The question posed was:
“Do you think that the virginal conception of Jesus is pure myth, a tall tale or legend, or real? Can it be proven historically? Can it be proven with exact certitude? Thoughts?”
This question elicited hundreds of responses ranging from traditional Catholic affirmations of the facticity of Jesus’ divine conception on one hand, to arguing how Christianity appropriated earlier religious beliefs from the so-called pagans. The latter argument was used to assert that the whole Jesus story is a myth.
I wanted to weigh in to provide another layer of meaning. The language and concepts I use below are appropriate for the audience to whom I was writing. For what it is worth:
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The quick answer is, we don’t know and I don’t think it matters.
That said, I know that my response here is not in line with how the Church interprets the idea of the “Virgin” Mary mystery. I’ve been a Catholic all of my life, have a masters in pastoral ministry from a Catholic university, and work as a mental health therapist who deals much in the nexus of spirituality and psychology.
I’m informed by things Spiral Dynamics and how the Church has interpreted many things, including the virginity of Mary, from the consciousness level of Blue [ref https://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/en/blue/].To say that Mary was “ever virgin” can be true and not factual at the same time. The Blue level will interpret the facticity of the biological virginity of Mary in the mystery of “ever virgin.” [For my article on Spiral Dynamics and the Law of One, click here.]
The Turquoise level [https://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/en/turquoise/] may interpret “ever virgin” as a condition of spiritual, emotional, and physical focus that reaches a kind of singularity where a person wills “the one thing,” (ref Luke 10:42 and Psalm 27.4). This kind of singular focus of will to surrender to the will of God is, itself, a true state of purity that is untouched by distraction.
The purity of self-emptying at this level–the virginal level–would be met with a filling of the Holy Spirit of such a quality and fullness that it brings a truly new arising within the person. A person that can wield such an inner environment would have to be so balanced and integrated, that they “one” themselves with God so that they become a kind of crystalized channel of God’s Spirit in an undistorted manner, pure in its delivery to a hungry world.
Also, such a crystalized person would deeply know (gnosis=lived experiential knowledge) that separation from God and from each other (and from the rest of creation) is an illusion. Sin, on the other hand, is something we act out based upon our lack of full gnosis of the universal reality of universal unity and union.
For me, declaring that Mary was sinless and virgin, are statements of Mary’s ability to fully will that God’s will of divine fullness be done to and through her (requiring a singularity of mind/body/spirit, or virginal purity), which could only come about through her foundational unitive consciousness which she must have enjoyed from the beginning of her life (unitive consciousness’ qualities include an inner wholeness, an integrated personality that is crystalized and directly plugged into Source, “seeing the world from God’s eyes;” this is her Immaculate Conception).
As such, Mary is us–we, humans–who shows us how to will “the one thing” and what happens when we become crystalized channels for a pure stream of the Holy Spirit. For her, as was proper for her role in our humanity, the womb of her inner life was so pure–virginal–that the Jesus Event could incarnate and explode into the world like a new Big Bang of Love.But we also can birth Christ anew when we endeavor the mind/body/spirit singularity that results in us acting as crystalized healers for a hurting world.
The Church’s declaration that Mary was a virgin and immaculate is not just a statement about Mary, but also holding Mary up for all of us to see as the example par excellence of how a person lives and loves without the veil of separation in place. It’s an invitation for us to be virgins and immaculate.
Translating “virgin” and “immaculate” in contemporary terms, we could reformulate the invitation as: “How can I learn to live and love from my True Self where I seek union with God to the such a degree that my field of perception perceives holographic unity everywhere and that all of creation, including the person in the mirror, are hiding places of God.
The automatic byproduct of this kind of unitive perception is luminous wholeness in which I embody and can be felt by others through sympathetic resonance. Said differently, inner wholeness produces its own intense light that changes consciousness in the outer world. And isn’t that bringing the Light of Christ–or being Christ–to the world?
Relevant Law of One passages:
66.15 Questioner: Is this desire and will that operates through to the time/space section a function only of the entity who is healed, or is it also the function of the healer, the crystallized healer?
Ra: I am Ra. May we take this opportunity to say that this is the activity of the Creator. To specifically answer your query, the crystallized healer has no will. It offers an opportunity without attachment to the outcome, for it is aware that all is one, and that the Creator is knowing Itself.
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47.7 Questioner: Can you define what you mean by a “crystallized entity”?
Ra: I am Ra. We have used this particular term because it has a fairly precise meaning in your language. When a crystalline structure is formed of your physical material the elements present in each molecule are bonded in a regularized fashion with the elements in each other molecule. Thus the structure is regular and, when fully and perfectly crystallized, has certain properties. It will not splinter or break; it is very strong without effort; and it is radiant, traducing light into a beautiful refraction giving pleasure of the eye to many.
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73.10 Questioner: In invoking the alerted light, then, it would seem to me that the visualization of the invocation would be dependent upon what the use was to be of the light. The use could be for healing, could be for communication, or it could be for the general awareness, you might say, of the creation and the Creator. Would you please speak on this process and my correctness in making this assumption?
Ra: I am Ra. We shall offer some thoughts, though it is doubtful that we may exhaust this subject. Each visualization, regardless of the point of the working, begins with some work within the indigo ray. As you may be aware, the ritual which you have begun is completely working within the indigo ray. This is well, for it is the gateway. From this beginning, light may be invoked for communication or for healing.
You may note that in the ritual which we offered you to properly begin the Ra workings the first focus is upon the Creator.
We would further note a point which is both subtile and of some interest. The upward spiraling light developed in its path by the will, and ultimately reaching an high place of mating with the inward fire of the One Creator, still is only preparation for the work upon the mind/body/spirit which may be done by the adept. There is some crystallization of the energy centers used during each working so that the magician becomes, more and more, that which it seeks.
More importantly, the time/space mind/body/spirit analog, which is evoked as the magical personality, has its only opportunity to gain rapidly from the experience of the catalytic action available to the third-density space/time mind/body/spirit. Thus the adept is aiding the Creator greatly by offering great catalyst to a greater portion of the creation which is identified as the mind/body/spirit totality of an entity.
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83.18 Questioner: Specifically, by what process in the first case, when two polarized entities would attempt to penetrate the veil, whether they be positively or negatively polarized—specifically by what technique would they penetrate the veil?
Ra: I am Ra. The penetration of the veil may be seen to begin to have its roots in the gestation of green-ray activity, that all-compassionate love which demands no return. If this path is followed the higher energy centers shall be activated and crystallized until the adept is born. Within the adept is the potential for dismantling the veil to a greater or lesser extent that all may be seen again as one. The other-self is primary catalyst in this particular path to the piercing of the veil, if you would call it that.
Building 4th Cosmic Christ 