At the time of his ministry, Jesus’
mother was a widow. Why is this so important as to merit a step
in the feminine journey? After all widowhood is as common as motherhood.
Why is there an issue?
Widow
All Freemasons are called "Sons
of the Widow". This title comes from Hiram Abiff the Grand
Master Mason and architect of Solomon’s Temple, who was murdered
by three of his workmen. What has this to do with Jesus? In Matthew
13:55 and Mark 6:3, Jesus is referred to as tektwn
(tekton) which is usually translated as "carpenter".
This is the usual problem of trying to squeeze Greek into English.
The problem is that this word also means "mason" and
"builder". Hence archtektwn
(archetekton) is correctly translated into English as "architect"
with the meaning that this person is the designer and builder
of a building. At the time of Jesus and Hiram Abiff, an architect
designed and built in stone. So Hiram was a "builder"
in this sense and Jesus was also a "builder" in the
same sense. There is a specific Greek word for "carpenter"
but that is not the word used to describe Jesus.
The Masonic myth of the building
of Solomon’s Temple in stone is echoed by Jesus who says in John
2:19 that if the temple is destroyed, he will raise it up in three
days. That is a clear allusion to his body and that compares with
the Masonic myth that we are each builders of our own body as
a temple. Perhaps the point is made clear when we realise that
Masons call God the Great Architect. Transliterated into Greek
that would be Megas Archetekton, the "Great Builder".
Since Jesus is described as "tekton", he is the lesser
builder doing the work as directed by God as the greater builder.
So Hiram and Jesus have a subtle
connection as builders of temples and they are both "Sons
of the Widow". Where does that take us in the fourth step
of the feminine journey? This is the letter C
(chi) attributed to Fire and connects Wisdom with Understanding.
It happens that C is the first
letter of the word CristoV
(Christos) whom we call Christ. Mary as widow and mother stands
at the foot of the Cross and watches her son in agony. Truly she
is put to the fire. But that still does not explain how the widowhood
of Mary and the Christhood of Jesus are connected.
We have to revert to a mystery
religion that was prevalent in Hellenistic Palestine at the time
of Christ. In the myth of Isis, her husband Osiris is murdered
by Seth and his body dismembered into 14 pieces. She collects
all the pieces except for his phallus. She constructs an artificial
one and then re-assembles his body for resurrection and sexual
union. That is, the "holy ghost" of Osiris has sexual
union with the "virgin" but "widowed" Isis
and she conceives the "son of god" Horus, who "saves"
his people from the evil Seth. That is why one of the titles of
Horus is "Son of the Widow". Hence the widowed, virgin
mother has an immaculate conception that is vital for the incarnation
of the saviour son. Does all of this sound familiar? It is not
identical to the story of Jesus but close enough to be highly
significant.
There is one more thing. The son
of the widowed Isis is called Horus because that is his Greek
name. In the Egyptian language, his name is Khoor and that is
spelled with two hieroglyphics that correspond exactly to the
two Greek letters C (chi) r
(rho) that happen to be the first two letters of CristoV
(Christos), whom we call Christ.
We must also recall Mary Magdalene
and her relationship to the Resurrection. Sofia as the
Widow and Sofia as the Magdalene, have complimentary roles.
They are opposite aspects of the same inner reality. Through the
myth of Isis, we can see the Widow/ Magdalene being concerned
with the resurrection of a god or Redeemer.
The widowhood of Mary is part
of her pain and loss. Although the old theology venerates Mary
as the Mother it and the Virgin, it does not understand her as
the Widow. Mary in her widowhood is another deep mystery that
requires study, meditation and prayer in solitude (remember the
12 disciplines?), to understand with wisdom and be wise with understanding.
Sofia
This is the path of Y
(psi) that connects Understanding to First Principle. It is attributed
to Aether, the divine activating principle. It is the least
understood path of the feminine journey because our society completely
rejects the issues it involves.
By her Assumption, Mary enters
heaven as a complete woman having lived the entirety of human
experience. Her widowhood should not be underestimated. She is
liberated and she is the ascended Sofia. Mary becomes the
bride of God in the Greater Sacred Wedding and unites God with
humanity. Thus Mary as Sofia can express:
-
The Father as the Foundation
of creation that enhances her Power and is the source of her
Wisdom and Understanding.
-
The Son as the First Principle
of creation, its, meaning, intelligence, truth and justification;
that is, its Knowledge, Victory and Kingdom.
-
The Holy Spirit as the Glory
of creation, its Greatness, Goodness, holiness, purity and
immaculate aspect.
Sofia is the Fourth Person
of the Trinity. Without her, the Trinity is incomplete because
she is the World Soul and therefore becomes the vehicle of manifestation
for the work of the Great Architect. The Eastern Orthodox Church
recognises that as Theotokos (God Bearer), Mary allows God to
become man, so that man may become God. This is the work of the
Great Architect performs for our sake, our Theosis (God Becoming),
through the mediation of Sofia. The fact that she is in
her rightful place gives us hope. But this is all a myth isn’t
it?
What about "real" women
in our society today? For you, Sofia is a strong archetype.
She is your divine potential. She is the Power that overcomes
adversity in order to complete the feminine journey. Her spirituality
is non-linear and therefore not logical. Hence her journey is
different from the masculine experience, but she must be known
by men. Our problem is that she is so little known by our society
at a time when we need her so badly.
Circuit of Power
It is time we reconsidered the
circuit of power that we saw in Part 4 of this series because
we know that there is a deep feminine relationship between some
of the paths. In Part 4 we discovered that "…by Goodness
you have bestowed Power upon Understanding". On the Tree,
Goodness is connected with Power that in turn is connected with
Understanding. Who is the "you" who does the bestowing?
The Good, that is, First Principle. We therefore have a circuit
of spiritual influence as follows:
First Principle Þ
Goodness Þ Power Þ
Understanding Þ First Principle
The First Principle emanates into
Goodness, then into Power in order to energize Understanding so
that the circuit can be closed when Understanding flows into the
First Principle. Note the direction of the arrows. First Principle
to Goodness is also the path of Mary Magdalene – but reversed!
Only in this way can she, through her undefiled goodness, recover
her power and gain understanding of her condition. As Sofia
she moves from Understanding to First Principle taking with her
all that she has learned and giving it freely to her divine lover
in the Sacred Wedding. It has to be this way because in the gnostic
myth she desires to conceive without knowledge, hence as she passes
down through the path there is no sphere of Knowledge. That lack
of Knowledge is the wound on the Tree of Life that we must heal
on our inner journey.
*******
It is now time for the masculine
journey of seven steps. With linear male logic, it is described
by the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet and the seven Letters
to the seven churches, in the Apocalypse of John
