At this time of the year, we meditate with Theotokos. She represents the divine mother who births, nurtures, and protects the essential divinity within all people. Yes, in a classical Greek Orthodox Christian tradition, she is the Mother of Christ and the Queen of Heaven. But, if the symbolism is understood – like that of the Christmas story – then, the instruction and inspiration of the spirit is freed from the veils of a particular faith or doctrine.
As the mother of the essence within, then, Theotokos (like Tara, or Prajnaparamita, or Isis, Hathor, Ceres, and more) represents the ability of a person to give rise to the powerful spiritual nature that is innate and ready for birth. She also represents the ongoing nurturing and protection of the vulnerable and toddling spiritual novice as well as the tender sensitivity that all practitioners experience as one opens to the inner grace.
This image of Theotokos also presents something of one’s destiny. Christian imagery aside, the image of Jesus in the bottom left corner reminds us that each of us will mature into the fuller stature of a powerful human being and asks what will we do with that?
As the new year approaches and the current year fades, we can ask ourselves how we have grown, what have we birthed, how have we grown in vulnerability, sensitivity, and thus in the inner capacity of wholeness? With this meditation we meditate as the light within.
Downloadable: Inter: Theotokos and the divine light within