You’ll probably think it is either Heresy or I’ve completely lost my marbles.
I’ve finally figured out the meaning behind the immaculate conception. Hear me out.
The Story of Jesus
A couple of years ago I figured out a possible meaning for Jesus. Scripture insists he is (sorry, He) is the physical manifestation of God – the Son of God. He goes about doing miracles, but miracles were pretty often at the time. There are, however, two very important parts of the story. One of them is, of course, how he died, and resurrected. The other is how he was born without being conceived.
And all the references, in scripture, in prayer and in art kind of repeat the same things. Over the course of 2000 years, the references became more and more literal. Yeah he totally rose from the grave. Yeah his mom was totally a virgin when she had him.
But I don’t think they were meant to be taken literally though. Sure, when you take them literally it makes Jesus very special and unique. When you take them literally you think yes he is the messiah. First of all he is a Capricorn, so yes, he is a messiah.
The Messianic Hero Journey
The story of Jesus is a Hero’s Journey. The way he lived his life, as a guy who just taught everyone to be empathetic and get rid of the scarcity mindset. The metaphor of him eventually being arrested and crucified because of political reasons. The fact that no, he was really not ok with it, bargaining with God on the cross. The way he resurrected as something else. All that is something we must go through, ourselves.
Jesus teaches us to help each other by default. He reminds us there is God in all of us. He also teaches us to take care of our human bodies. Most importantly, he teaches us that if we want to go to the next level, we have to die. We have to give up on that person we’ve constructed for so many years. And it will be painful af.
The Annunciation
What about the Virgin Mary? That story has been eating at me for quite a while now. Gabriel comes to tell her, 9 months before Christmas, that she is pregnant. This happens in a courtyard, when she is alone, sitting quietly, one evening. The courtyard is a very important element in medieval depictions of the scene.
Hortus Conclusus
The courtyard is an important element in medieval churches as well. The importance is two-fold. First, churches had thick walls, two or three layers of walls. They were the last line of defense in case of invasions. Second, they would plant vegetables in the courtyard. The monastic lifestyle is all about the solitary life so they can be in contact with the divine. The courtyard is both space and a state of mind.
There are many elements in medieval art and architecture that give away the symbolism of the New Testament. That’s what’s beautiful about the art. It doesn’t just tell you the story. I reveals symbols and you are free to attribute meaning to it – depending on how much you resonate with it. I’m saying this so that you take both mine and your interpretation as just that – interpretations.
The Crescent Moon
Medieval art also shows Mary radiant, stepping on a serpent, standing on a crescent moon, wearing a crown. The crown gives away the fact that that scene is not from when she was just Jesus’ mom. That image is from after the resurrection – even if sometimes she is seen holding baby Jesus. Baby Jesus is there just for us to easily identify her.
It was a combination of seeing a crescent moon on the Dubai night sky, looking up several paintings of the immaculate conception, from medieval times all the way to baroque (Tiepolo’s depiction is my favorite) that finally made everything click for me.
The Immaculate Conception as Creativity
The immaculate conception is a metaphor for us receiving divine creativity. It is not influenced by others, but comes from within. Creativity is like an infinite field we share in which we sometimes can tap in. We can only tap into it if we are alone, calm, quiet. In a hortus conclusus. It’s a garden (hortus) because being in abundance helps – we’re calm, we’re safe. It’s hidden (conclusus) because we have to be isolated from the outside world in order to receive it. This is not something achievable through team work and Socratic debates. This is not from our prefrontal cortex. This is from the infinite field of creativity. And we can only tap into it if we start thinking not with our brains but with the rest of our bodies. Thoughts yell while intuition softly whispers.
Conclusion
The immaculate conception is actually immaculate creation. She created Jesus, which is also us. We have an idea. Then we go on a virtuous path in implementing it, with help from others. We reach a major trial, we lose. It will be extremely painful. We kill our old selves in the process. We ascend.