Mary as the Matrix

An excerpt from 'The Last Barrier' by Reshad Field
ChaliceVerlag 1976

…You must first of all understand that although I seem to be talking about an historical event, everything of which I speak is within you and is happening at this moment. There is no other; and what happened, in our world, two thousand years ago is part of the unfoldment of this moment, not that moment but this very instant. It is neither a question of looking back two thousand years nor of trying to recapture the moment in your imagination. All you have to do is to be awake. …

Your body is the Virgin Mary. The Spirit is Christ, the Word that was conveyed through Gabriel the eternal messenger. The breath is the Breath of the Mercy of God, and it is that breath that quickens the soul. Until the soul is quickened by the Spirit it is like an unfledged bird. There are many paths to God, but the way of Mary is the sweetest and most gentle.

If you can melt into Mary, the matrix, the blueprint of life, the Divine Mother, you will be formed and shaped in Christ and Christ in you, and thus through the breath of God’s Mercy you will come into being and know Him. For it is the breath of mercy that bestows being. Every moment God appears in living form, never manifesting twice in the same moment.

Mary brought Jesus into the world because she was chosen to be the one for this work, and so she was trained in the knowledge of birth. It is said that Gabriel, the messenger, appeared to Mary in the form of a man. She thought that he wanted her as a woman, so she froze for a moment, turning to her Lord. If she had not relaxed, then the child born from that moment would have been uncompromising and impossible to live with.

Your body is the Virgin Mary, the Spirit is Christ, the breath is the Breath of God’s Mercy. Your soul remains asleep until it is quickened by the Holy Spirit. … Mary is the Divine Mother. Mary is the blue of the flame, and Mary is the matrix of all divine possibilities in form, here in our world.

It is necessary that she be recognized.
Learn to love God with all of your being, every part of your self, your heart, your mind, your soul and then we may all be granted the understanding of the meaning of virgin birth. Learn to pray and your prayers will come back from the very matrix that forms the child. A sufi is called ‘the son of the moment.’ As you melt each moment into Mary, something is being redeemed that a child may be born, and what is being born is the son of the moment. That child may become God-realized and thus be called a Sufi or he may walk the earth unaware, asleep – not yet human, not conscious of God or of the wonders of His creation, having no knowledge of himself and thus no understanding of love.

Your body is the Virgin Mary – remember this each moment of your life. This is the responsibility that we must take as we come into knowledge, into being. Mary was chosen to bear Jesus because she kept her purity intact. Simple people call this her ‘virginity’, but those who know understand that to be pure means to be completely adaptable, to flow with each moment, to be like a running stream cascading from the water of life itself.

To be pure is to spread joy, and joy is the un-foldment of the knowledge of the perfection of God.
The eternal messenger is always within, wanting to unfold the moment through the Word, and one day when Mary is recognized again, there will be a reappearance of Christ, manifested in the outer world.

Remember who Mary is, and one day when you are ready, and when God so wills it, you will know what I have told you…"

This is an excerpt from 'The Last Barrier' by Reshad Field, ChaliceVerlag 1976 (p 89–91) as spoken by his teacher Hamid, who is a clear reference to Bulent Rauf (see cover image on the right).

This leads us back to Rumi and the relevant passage in the 'Discourses of Rumi' translated by A J Arberry (John Murray Paperback 1975, p 33) and then expressed in poetic form by Andrew Harvey in 'Pain the Midwife' from 'Light Upon Light' (North Atlantic Books 1996, p110)