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The Annunciation

Andrei Rublev: Annunciation

Luke 1: 26, 27: 26 In the sixth month, 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.

The "sixth month", the sixth sign of the Zodiac, the sign of the virgin. The preparation began with John the Baptist, with the witness, and has proceeded so far that the virgin can conceive from the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist is the inner witness. His name is already a promise: "the Lord (God) is grace". Through this grace alone the captivity in the law can be overcome. Every spiritual way begins with the establishment of the inner instance of the witness. In Buddhism it is called mindfulness (attentiveness), it is also designated as the observer, or simply it is "to not to be identified". In the German language the term witness contains in itself the mystery: the witness is in no way or manner involved in a process, but at the same time he is the begetter of new life. * (more about that: see Agnes Hidveghy, The Altar of Isenheim.)

This inner instance, opening a new cycle in the Astrological sign of the Aries, has got to prepare the soil so far that the soul can be purified, that it becomes the virgin. Only then can she conceive from the Holy Spirit out of the very moment, without any memory of patterns of the past interfering in between.

Jesus, the Messiah, is the Saviour at the beginning of the world month of Pisces (through the precession of the axis of the earth originates the world year, also called tha Platonic year, lasting 26'000 years. The length of a world month derives from that and lasts about 2'100 years.) Since the first Christians the emblem of the Pisces in the Zodiac is used as a Symbol for Christ: this symbol consists of two joined fishes. Virgin and Fish are opposite to each other, on the same axis. Their energies require one another and the planet earth has been standing in the vibration of this pair of energy for 2000 years. By this means it becomes understandable that not only Jesus, but also Krishna in India was born from a virgin. How foolish to argue about the virginal birth in the concrete, in the world of the body, as an external event!

The town Nazareth in Galilee has not been selected just accidentally. Gal, the root word of the name Galil - as it is called in Hebrew - has to do with development of the form, the appearance in the form. In the Hebrew writing only consonants are written and each letter has a numeral value. The numbers of Gal are 3-30=33. What appears in form can not "survive" the number 33, therefore the body of Jesus dies within 33 years. What resurrects (from the dead) is beyond that and belongs to 34. This is the Saviour, who is called Go El, written with the numeral value 34. At the same time this is also the number for the word child, which is composed of different letters. The terms Golem (dead body), Gola, Galith (exil), Giluj (manifestation) illustrate the complexity of the Hebrew language.

Zar means the rigid form and is the root word for the terms of burden, suffering, pain. With the town Nazareth the development of form condenses to a crystallised, inevitable obligation. Within the living form, there is something which can not be formed any further. Could that be the hereditary structure of our bodies? Or our destiny, inside of which our determination as a possibility for the "development of being" is included?

Mary, – Mirjam in Hebrew - the virgin, lives in this town. Her name has to do with bitter, ocean, matter. How could she be living in another town than Nazareth?! And how could the Saviour be carried out in any other womb than in the womb of a pure virgin? The root of the terms grace and mercy of God is the word for womb. The pure soul can bare the permanent exposition in the bitter, salty ocean, seemingly without any shore in sight, only with the knowledge that "the grace of God", John, is already on the way.

The angel with the name of Gabriel, which means "the strength or power of God", is able to transmit the message. Message and flesh again is the same term: through incarnation, the "becoming of flesh" coming into existence, the message is transmitted. Without the physical body, without being bound into a rigid form no message can reach us. And without "message" can no birth of God happen in the human being. In this context the "message" is so important.

The man to whom Maria is betrothed with is called Josef. He has the same name as the favourite son of Jacob in the Old Testament, who has been sold to Egypt by his jealous brothers. The favourite son of the father coming into a foreign country, - in a country, standing for all the limitations and sufferings in the duality of this world – and there becomes the deliverer of his brothers. Josef, whose name means "to increase/to augment" is also understood as "there shall (still) come another son". Josef, the fiancé of Mary is from the house of David, the direct successor of "Gods beloved one", what is the meaning of the name David. Josef is the foreigner in this world, with the memory of the former one, the favourite son of his father. He knows how to build a house in this world, he is a carpenter. He will also be able to guide Mary and the child to Egypt, as long as they are in danger. He knows the country indeed.

The corresponding parts within us, personified in the story of the birth, prepare the way. Let us look at them once more:

• Mary: the pure soul, not "knowing a man". Man and memory again are the same notion. The soul is pure when it is not "married" to, or occupied with memory patterns.
• John the Baptist: The witness, perceiving beyond the inner happenings, "taking them truly".
• Josef: the craftsman, functioning in this world, being responsible in the consciousness of his descent for what God confides to him in this world. Even then, when it is not "his (own) child".

Luke 1: 30-31: 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus."

To find grace means: to be lifted out of the law of causality. It means that in the creation, happening in the present moment, an unexpected component appears which can not be grasped with logic. The linearity, the logical concatenation between the past and the future, between cause and effect is interrupted. Causality would mean: normal generation – getting pregnant- giving birth. That would be the law. Also as an inner occurrence. The consequences of our imperfection, our patterns would result in a linear continuation in the future. The same way as psychological experiences are investigated and explained in science: they are consequences of biochemical processes in the body. Though we can not effect nor explain the opening of a new dimension. This can not be made and is not intelligible for the intellect. Only grace can cause the "miracle", when the assumptions are given and the time has come.

We all are afraid of the unknown. We want to stay in what we know, what is familiar to us. How much can happen, when something bigger than we can seize is braking into our life? We can no longer get hold of it. Whether with our hands neither in the head. So the first what has to be spread out in us in order to receive the message of heaven is trust. "Don't be afraid", or better: "Don't let yourself be bewildered", says the angel to Mary. Mary in us endures so much bitterness, the salty ocean is her element, she does not expect a miracle. Decisive is, that her trust builds up on the highest. Towards the appearing she first remains biding. Until the angel "proves his identity".

The angel explicitly speaks of a son, not of a child. The term "Son" is closely related with "to build". In this world everything what is built through the Son. In a Christian orthodox formulation the Son is called, as a part of the trinity, "the soul of all live". God, the father, the Creator lets a part of himself come into appearance in the created world. This is meant when we speak about God as Immanence; as being inherent in all the appearances of Creation.

Creation happens in every instant anew. That way in the new creation of the presence the Son can be conceived inside of us. When the soul is pure.

We see how the connections gradually lead to the whole. When we proceed from only one part of the Holy Script, it will lead us to the whole. It is like when we take hold of a (piece of) cloth, no matter on which point, lifting it up, the whole cloth, the whole tissue will follow. Because it is building a unity.

The name of Jesus derives from the Hebrew name Jehoschua. His meaning is: "The Lord delivers, helps". The deliberation from the dependence of the tides of time. The inner instance, giving to us (as a present) a new dimension of identity and leading us thereby/with that beyond death, is the announced saviour. The help can only come directly out of the heart when it gets fertilized by another dimension.

Luke 1, 32-33: 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 the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

The son-"hood" the angel is speaking about, is conceived from "the highest". Not from any world in-between. This is decisive. As long as we turn to intermediate worlds, where we go for help for our innermost longing and from where we let ourselves fill with concepts, our soul is not able to receive the "Son of the highest". There is no room for him. He needs the whole inner space, which first has to be cleared of the lumber of the past. This dimension, in which the son is ruling, is what we call eternity. Our daily consciousness however only knows this world and only knows endlessness. In this way, we try to measure eternity with the means of time, to seize the realm which is "not of this world" with the measures of this world. Eternity was not before time and will not be after, eternity is. Time is an attribute of eternity and not conversely. The realm which is not of this world has no end, because it has no beginning.

Luke 1, 34-35:34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

The virgin soul does not know any man; this means it has no memory patterns. It does not have a model or a stored sample of how to "do" what the angel has announced. We get into panic, when something is not makeable. When something happens with us, we have no control about.

To make and power in German have the same root word. Our logic says: "How can the Son of God be born within us, when we do not know, how will it be done?" In this world we have to learn everything, before we are able to do it. In this context is that kind of experience not useful. But we do not know something else.

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you," announces the angel. Not the father. What is actually the idea of the Holy Trinity? Because we do not understand it and nobody can transmit us its significance, we simply remove it. Maybe we can imagine more with another formulation of Trinity: Holy Affirmation, Holy Negation, Holy Union/connection. Or: Origin of the World, Soul of all Life, Eternal Presence. Like this, the access/gateway to the idea of the Trinity could open up.

The angel repeats that "the Holy which will be born, will be called the Son of God". In the concise formulation of the text repetitions are not only literal trifles. What thus is emphasised on is of central importance.

Luke 1,36: 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.

Mary, the pure soul, who is conceiving within us, should get in contact with another female part as well within us. The two mothers should meet each other and support each other. They know about the commission of one another, but they do belong to different layers inside of us. Elisabeth belongs to the human, transient layer, yet she is this part who is agreeing and supporting the divine mission of the human being. Maria needs this kind of teamwork; she needs the female inside of us, which draws her wisdom of this side world. She needs the wise relative, who as an "old woman" knows this world well enough.

The angel emphasizes again: Elisabeth is in the sixth month. The time of harvest of the virgin, when the experiences and the gained knowledge from them can be harvested and used. Everything happening to us through the human way is in the womb of Elisabeth, in the female reservoir of our soul, ready to be harvested. The soul was always seen, at all times, in all spiritual traditions, as the female in relation to the divine core. In Elisabeth the natural soul with all her experiences is personified as the raw material for the building of the immortal soul.

John will make it possible, that this raw material can be transformed into the substance of existence.

Luke 1, 38: 38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

The consent is the expression of the free will of man. It is the only possibility of an act, which is not conditioned through the past or raised from an actual need. In the unconditional consent we are not determined with conditions, we are free. Through manipulation or with strain we can be brought to everything. If we believe that this is not true, we have been exempted from certain experiences some have to go through. The only thing which can not be forced upon us, not through destiny, not through others, not by God, is the unconditioned "Yes" to what ever happens. Mary exactly speaks out this unconditional yes. Without this consent, the process leading to the birth of God inside the human being can not be performed on us. Only when we are ready to this yes, we get all the help we need for it. Yet than we get it according to a law.

The angel disappears. Maria can not make sure once more, if she understood it properly. How often we experience that an impulse of heaven, a message, is given to us like a lightning! But we want security, our intellect demands for the possibility to repeat. We do not believe ourselves capable of having understood it quite right. That way we destroy with doubts and arguments the "information’s", that what has been given to us out of the presence through the Holy Spirit, through what is uniting heaven and earth with each other. Only because we do not get it written, because we can not look it up again and again.

Gabriel just comes once. Mary does not need him in repetition.

Agnes Hidveghy