5th AUGUST 21/22 BC VIRGIN MARY - MOTHER OF JESUS CHRIST
Saint Joseph’s Day, which falls on March 19, celebrates the day of Jesus Christ’s foster father and husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every March, a litany of prayer is recited by Catholics to show their devotion to Saint Joseph. Of course, this prayer can also be said during any month. The devotion to Saint Joseph reminds Catholics of how the Christ’s foster father led a good example of a Christian life. The following litany can be recited communally or prayed alone.
Litany of St. Joseph
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, God, the Holy Ghost,
Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us. Holy Mary, pray for us.
Saint Joseph,
Illustrious Scion of David,
Mary (mother of Jesus)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Nuestra Señora" redirects here. For other uses, see Nuestra Señora (disambiguation).
For the 1999 television film, see Mary, Mother of Jesus (film).
This article is an overview. For specific views, see: Ecumenical, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Islamic, Protestant, Lutheran, Anglican, and Mormon perspectives. For other uses see Saint Mary (disambiguation) and Virgin Mary (disambiguation)
According to the New Testament, Mary (Miriam: Hebrew: מרים; c. 15 BC – c. 48 AD), also known as Saint Mary or Virgin Mary, is a Galilean Jewish[1] woman of Nazareth and the mother ofJesus.[Mt 1:16,18-25][Lk 1:26-56][2:1-7] She is also identified as the mother of Jesus in the Quran.66:12
Christians hold her son Jesus to be the Christ or Messiah foretold in Jewish scripture, and the God made flesh; Muslims also believe in Jesus as the foretold messiah, but disavow any actual divinity, instead regarding him as one of God's greatest Messengers.
The gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament describe Mary as a virgin (Greek: παρθένος, parthénos).[2][3] Christians believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the agency of the Holy Spirit; Muslims believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the command of God. This took place when she was already betrothed to Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of marriage, the formal home-taking ceremony.[4] She married Joseph and accompanied him to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.[5] In ancient Jewish custom, Mary could have been betrothed at about 12.[6] There is no direct evidence of Mary's age at betrothal or in pregnancy.
The Gospel of Luke begins its account of Mary's life with the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced her divine selection to be the mother of Jesus. According to gospel accounts, Mary was present at the Crucifixion of Jesus and is depicted as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. According to Apocryphal writings, at some time soon after her death, her incorrupt body was assumed directly into Heaven, to be reunited with her soul, and the apostles thereupon found the tomb empty; this is known in Christian teaching as the Assumption.[7][8]
Mary has been venerated since Early Christianity,[9][10] and is considered by millions to be the most meritorious saint of the religion. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and LutheranChurches believe that Mary, as Mother of Jesus, is the Mother of God and the Theotokos, literally "Giver of birth to God". There is significant diversity in the Marian beliefs and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas; namely her status as the mother of God; her Immaculate Conception; her perpetual virginity; and her Assumption into heaven.[11] Many Protestants minimize Mary's role within Christianity, based on the argued brevity of biblical references.[12]
Mary (Maryam) also has a revered position in Islam, where a whole chapter of the Qur'an is devoted to her, also describing the birth of Jesus.[13]
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Contents
[hide]- 1 Names
- 2 In ancient sources
- 3 Christian devotion
- 4 Roman Catholic doctrines
- 5 Perspectives on Mary
- 6 Cinematic portrayals
- 7 Image gallery
- 8 Music
- 9 See also
- 10 References
- 11 Further reading
- 12 External links
Names[edit]
The English name "Mary" comes from the Greek Μαρία, which is a shortened form of Μαριάμ. The New Testament name was based on the original Aramaic name ܡܪܝܡ Maryam or Mariam. [14] Both Μαρία and Μαριάμ appear in the New Testament.
In Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that she conceived Jesus miraculously through the Holy Spirit without her husband's involvement. Among her many other names and titles are Saint Mary, Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in Western churches, Theotokos in Orthodox Christianity, and Maryam, mother of Isa, in Islam.
In ancient sources[edit]
New Testament[edit]
Specific references[edit]
- Luke's gospel mentions Mary most often, identifying her by name twelve times, all of these in the infancy narrative (1:27,30,34,38,39,41,46,56; 2:5,16,19,34).
- Matthew's gospel mentions her by name five times, four of these (1:16,18,20; 2:11) in the infancy narrative and only once (13:55) outside the infancy narrative.
- Mark's gospel names her once by name (6:3) and mentions her as Jesus' mother without naming her in 3:31.
- John's gospel refers to her twice but never mentions her by name. Described as Jesus' mother, she makes two appearances in John's gospel. She is first seen at the wedding at Cana of Galilee[Jn 2:1-12] which is mentioned only in the fourth gospel. The second reference in John, also exclusively listed this gospel, has the mother of Jesus standing near the cross of her Son together with Mary Magdalene, and Mary of Clopas (or Cleophas), described by John as her "sister", along with the "disciple whom Jesus loved".[Jn 19:25-26] John 2:1-12 is the only text in the canonical gospels in which the adult Jesus has a conversation with Mary. He does not address her as "Mother" but as "Woman", an honorable title in the culture of the time similar to "My Lady" in later ages. It may be that this title links Mary to the "Woman" of Genesis 3:15 promised by God to have "enmity" for the serpent, and the "Woman clothed with the sun" in Revelation 12:1, John's later work.
- In the Book of Acts, Luke's second writing, Mary and the "brothers of Jesus" are mentioned in the company of the Eleven who are gathered in the upper room after the Ascension.[Acts 1:14]
- In the Book of Revelation,[12:1,5-6] John's apocalypse never explicitly identifies the "woman clothed with the sun" as Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus. Jean-Pierre Ruiz makes that connection in an article in New Theology Review[15] but the belief is quite ancient.
Family and early life[edit]
The New Testament tells little of Mary's early history. John 19:25 states that Mary had a sister also named Mary, but is likely a sister-in-law, the wife of Joseph's brother, Clopas (Cleophas), according to the early 2nd century historian, Hegesippus.[16]
According to St. Luke, Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, wife of the priest Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah, who was herself part of the lineage of Aaron and so of the tribe of Levi.[Luke 1:5;1:36] Some of those who consider that the relationship with Elizabeth was on the maternal side, consider that Mary, like Joseph, to whom she was betrothed, was of the House of David and so of the Tribe of Judah, and that the genealogy of Jesuspresented in Luke 3 from Nathan, third son of David and Bathsheba, is in fact the genealogy of Mary, while the genealogy from Solomon given in Matthew 1 is that of Joseph.[17][18] (Aaron's wife Elisheba was of the tribe of Judah, so all his descendents are from both Levi and Judah.)[Num.1:7 & Ex.6:23]
Mary resided in "her own house"[Lk.1:56] in Nazareth in Galilee, possibly with her parents, and during her betrothal—the first stage of a Jewish marriage—the angel Gabriel announced to her that she was to be the mother of the promised Messiah by conceiving him through the Holy Spirit, and she accepted His Divine Will in perfect virtue of humility and responded, "I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to your word."[19] After a number of months, when Joseph was told of her conception in a dream by "an angel of the Lord", he was surprised; but the angel told him to be unafraid and take her as his wife, which Joseph did, thereby formally completing the wedding rites.[20][Mt 1:18-25]
Since the angel Gabriel had told Mary (according to Luke 1:36) that Elizabeth—having previously been barren—was then miraculously pregnant, Mary hurried to see Elizabeth, who was living with her husband Zechariah in "Hebron, in the hill country of Judah".[21] Mary arrived at the house and greeted Elizabeth who called Mary "the mother of my Lord", and Mary spoke the words of praise that later became known as the Magnificat from her first word in the Latinversion.[Luke 1:46-55] After about three months, Mary returned to her own house.[Lk 1:56-57]
According to the Gospel of Luke, a decree of the Roman Emperor Augustus required that Joseph return to his hometown of Bethlehem to be taxed. While he was there with Mary, she gave birth to Jesus; but because there was no place for them in the inn, she used a manger as a cradle.[22]:p.14 [2:1ff] After eight days, he was circumcised according to Jewish law, and named "Jesus" (Hebrew: Yeshua ישוע), which means "God saves", [Luke 2:21] in accordance with the instructions that the angel had given to Mary in Luke 1:31, and Joseph was likewise told to call him Jesus in Matthew 1:21.
After Mary continued in the "blood of her purifying" another 33 days for a total of 40 days, she brought her burnt offering and sin offering to the Temple in Jerusalem,[Luke 2:22] so the priest could make atonement for her sins, being cleansed from her blood.[Leviticus 12:1-8] They also presented Jesus – "As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord" (Luke 2:23other verses). After the prophecies ofSimeon and the prophetess Anna in Luke 2:25-38 concluded, Joseph and Mary took Jesus and "returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth".[Luke 2:39]
Sometime later, the "wise men" arrived at the house where Jesus and his family were staying. They fled by night to Egypt and stayed there for a while; then, after Herod's death in 4 BC, they returned and took up residence in Nazareth.[Mat.2]
Mary in the life of Jesus[edit]
Mary is involved in the only event in Jesus' adolescent life that is recorded in the New Testament. At the age of twelve, Jesus, having become separated from his parents on their return journey from the Passover celebration in Jerusalem, was found in the Temple amongst the religious teachers.[23]:p.210 [Lk 2:41-52]
After Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist and his temptations by the Devil in the desert, Mary was present when, at her suggestion, Jesus worked his first miracle during a marriage they attended in Cana, by turning water into wine.[Jn 2:1-11] Subsequently there are events when Mary is present along with James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, called Jesus' brothers, and unnamed "sisters". [Mt 1:24-25] [12:46] [13:54-56] [27:56] [Mk 3:31] [6:3] [15:40] [16:1] [Jn 2:12] [7:3-5][Gal 1:19] [Ac 1:14] Following Jerome, the Church Fathers interpreted the words translated as "brother" and "sister" as referring to close relatives.[24] [25]
There is also an incident which can be interpreted as Jesus rejecting his family in the New Testament: "And his mother and his brothers arrived, and standing outside, they sent in a message asking for him[Mk 3:21] ... And looking at those who sat in a circle around him, Jesus said, 'These are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.'"[26][3:31-35].
Mary is also depicted as being present among the women at the crucifixion during the crucifixion standing near "the disciple whom Jesus loved" along with Mary of Clopas and Mary Magdalene,[Jn 19:25-26] to which listMatthew 27:56 adds "the mother of the sons of Zebedee", presumably the Salome mentioned in Mark 15:40. This representation is called a Stabat Mater.[27][28] Mary, cradling the dead body of her Son, while not recorded in the Gospel accounts, is a common motif in art, called a "pietà" or "pity".
After the Ascension of Jesus[edit]
In Acts 1:26, especially v. 14, Mary is the only one to be mentioned by name other than the eleven apostles, who abode in the upper room, when they returned from mount Olive. (It is not stated where the later gathering of about one hundred and twenty disciples was located, when they elected Matthias to fill the office of Judas Iscariot who perished.) Some speculate that the "elect lady" mentioned in 2 John 1:1 may be Mary. From this time, she disappears from the biblical accounts, although it is held by Catholics that she is again portrayed as the heavenly woman of Revelation.[Rev 12:1]
Her death is not recorded in the scriptures. However, Catholic and Orthodox tradition and doctrine have her assumed (taken bodily) into Heaven. Belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is universal to Catholicism, in both Easternand Western Catholic Churches, as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church,[29][30] Coptic Churches, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglican Churches.[31]
Later Christian writings and traditions[edit]
According to the apocryphal Gospel of James Mary was the daughter of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne. Before Mary's conception, Anne had been barren and was far advanced in years. Mary was given to service as a consecrated virgin in the Temple in Jerusalem when she was three years old, much like Hannah took Samuel to the Tabernacle as recorded in the Old Testament.[32] Some apocryphal accounts state that at the time of her betrothal to Joseph, Mary was 12–14 years old, and he was thirty years old, but such accounts are unreliable.[33]
Mary, according to some in Christianity, never died because she was free from Original Sin since her creation. One of the results of Original Sin is death, but because Mary was an Immaculate Conception, she never had to face the consequence of it. Instead, she was assumed into Heaven, body and soul to prevent the Mother of God, the perfect innocent one, from seeing bodily corruption in soil.
Hyppolitus of Thebes claims that Mary lived for 11 years after the death of her Son, dying in 41 AD.[34]
The earliest extant biographical writing on Mary is Life of the Virgin attributed to the 7th-century saint, Maximus the Confessor which portrays her as a key element of the early Christian Church after the death of Jesus.[35][36][37]
In the 19th century, a house near Ephesus in Turkey was found, based on the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich, an Augustinian nun in Germany.[38][39] It has since been visited as the House of the Virgin Mary by Roman Catholic pilgrims who consider it the place where Mary lived until her assumption.[40][41][42][43] The Gospel of John states that Mary went to live with the Disciple whom Jesus loved,[Jn 19:27] identified as John the Evangelist. Irenaeus andEusebius of Caesarea wrote in their histories that John later went to Ephesus, which may provide the basis for the early belief that Mary also lived in Ephesus with John.[44][45]
Christian devotion[edit]
Main article: Marian devotions
2nd to 5th centuries[edit]
Christian devotion to Mary goes back to the 2nd century and predates the emergence of a specific Marian liturgical system in the 5th century, following the First Council of Ephesus in 431. The Council itself was held at a church in Ephesus which had been dedicated to Mary about a hundred years before.[46][47][48] In Egypt the veneration of Mary had started in the 3rd century and the term Theotokos was used by Origen, the Alexandrian Father of the Church.[49]
The earliest known Marian prayer (the Sub tuum praesidium, or Beneath Thy Protection) is from the 3rd century (perhaps 270), and its text was rediscovered in 1917 on a papyrus in Egypt.[50][51] Following the Edict of Milan in 313, by the 5th century artistic images of Mary began to appear in public and larger churches were being dedicated to Mary, e.g., S. Maria Maggiore in Rome.[52][53][54]
Middle Ages[edit]
The Middle Ages saw many legends about Mary, and also her parents and even grandparents.[55]
Since the Reformation[edit]
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| Prayers and devotions |
| Ecumenical |
Over the centuries, devotion and veneration to Mary has varied greatly among Christian traditions. For instance, while Protestants show scant attention to Marian prayers or devotions, of all the saints whom the Orthodox venerate, the most honored is Mary, who is considered "more honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious than the Seraphim".[56]
Orthodox theologian Sergei Bulgakov wrote: "Love and veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the soul of Orthodox piety. A faith in Christ which does not include his mother is another faith, another Christianity from that of the Orthodox church."[57]
Although the Catholics and the Orthodox may honor and venerate Mary, they do not view her as divine, nor do they worship her. Roman Catholics view Mary as subordinate to Christ, but uniquely so, in that she is seen as above all other creatures.[58] Similarly Theologian Sergei Bulgakov wrote that the Orthodox view Mary as "superior to all created beings" and "ceaselessly pray for her intercession". However, she is not considered a "substitute for the One Mediator" who is Christ.[57] "Let Mary be in honor, but let worship be given to the Lord", he wrote.[59] Similarly, Catholics do not worship Mary as a divine being, but rather "hyper-venerate" her. In Roman Catholic theology, the termhyperdulia is reserved for Marian veneration, latria for the worship of God, and dulia for the veneration of other saints and angels.[60] The definition of the three level hierarchy of latria, hyperdulia and dulia goes back to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.[61]
Devotions to artistic depictions of Mary vary among Christian traditions. There is a long tradition of Roman Catholic Marian art and no image permeates Catholic art as does the image of Madonna and Child.[62] The icon of the Virgin Theotokos with Christ is without doubt the most venerated icon in the Orthodox Church.[63] Both Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians venerate images and icons of Mary, given that the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 permitted their veneration with the understanding that those who venerate the image are venerating the reality of the person it represents,[64] and the 842 Synod of Constantinople confirming the same.[65] According to Orthodox piety and traditional practice, however, believers ought to pray before and venerate only flat, two-dimensional icons, and not three-dimensional statues.[66]
The Anglican position towards Mary is in general more conciliatory than that of Protestants at large and in a book he wrote about praying with the icons of Mary, Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, said: "It is not only that we cannot understand Mary without seeing her as pointing to Christ; we cannot understand Christ without seeing his attention to Mary."[67][68]
Titles[edit]
Main article: Titles of Mary
Titles to honor Mary or ask for her intercession are used by some Christian traditions such as the Eastern Orthodox or Catholics, but not others, e.g., the Protestants. Common titles for Mary includeMother of God (Theotokos), The Blessed Virgin Mary (also abbreviated to "BVM"), Our Lady (Notre Dame, Nuestra Señora, Nossa Senhora, Madonna) and the Queen of Heaven (Regina Caeli).[69][70]
Specific titles vary among Anglican views of Mary, Ecumenical views of Mary, Lutheran views of Mary, Protestant views on Mary, and Roman Catholic views of Mary, Latter-day Saint views on Mary, Orthodox views of Mary, in addition to Mary in Islam.
Mary is referred to by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Anglican Church, and all Eastern Catholic Churches as Theotokos, a title recognized at the Third Ecumenical Council (held at Ephesus to address the teachings of Nestorius, in 431). Theotokos (and its Latin equivalents, "Deipara" and "Dei genetrix") literally means "Godbearer". The equivalent phrase "Mater Dei" (Mother of God) is more common in Latin and so also in the other languages used in the Western Catholic Church, but this same phrase in Greek (Μήτηρ Θεοῦ), in the abbreviated form of the first and last letter of the two words (ΜΡ ΘΥ), is the indication attached to her image in Byzantine icons. The Council stated that the Church Fathers "did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God".[71][72][73]
Some titles have a Biblical basis, for instance the title Queen Mother has been given to Mary since she was the mother of Jesus, who was sometimes referred to as the "King of Kings" due to his lineage of King David. The biblical basis for the term Queen can be seen in the Gospel of Luke 1:32 and the Book of Isaiah 9:6, and Queen Mother from 1 Kings 2:19-20 and Jeremiah 13:18-19.[74] Other titles have arisen from reported miracles, special appeals or occasions for calling on Mary, e.g., Our Lady of Good Counsel, Our Lady of Navigators or Our Lady of Ransom who protects captives.[75][76][77][78]
The three main titles for Mary used by the Orthodox are Theotokos, i.e., Mother of God (Greek Θεοτόκος), Aeiparthenos, i.e., Ever Virgin (Greek ἀειπαρθὲνος), as confirmed in the Fifth Ecumenical Council 553, and Panagia, i.e., All Holy (Greek Παναγία).[56] A large number of titles for Mary are used by Roman Catholics, and these titles have in turn given rise to many artistic depictions, e.g., the title Our Lady of Sorrows has resulted in masterpieces such as Michelangelo's Pietà.[79]
Marian feasts[edit]
- Main article: Marian feast days (includes lists of feast days)
The earliest feasts that relate to Mary grew out of the cycle of feasts that celebrated the Nativity of Jesus. Given that according to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2:22-40), forty days after the birth of Jesus, along with the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple Mary was purified according to Jewish customs, the Feast of the Purification began to be celebrated by the 5th century, and became the "Feast of Simeon" in Byzantium.[80]
In the 7th and 8th centuries four more Marian feasts were established in the Eastern Church. In the Western Church a feast dedicated to Mary, just before Christmas was celebrated in the Churches of Milan and Ravenna in Italy in the 7th century. The four Roman Marian feasts of Purification, Annunciation, Assumption and Nativity of Mary were gradually and sporadically introduced into England by the 11th century.[80]
Over time, the number and nature of feasts (and the associated Titles of Mary) and the venerative practices that accompany them have varied a great deal among diverse Christian traditions. Overall, there are significantly more titles, feasts and venerative Marian practices among Roman Catholics than any other Christians traditions.[79] Some such feasts relate to specific events, e.g., the Feast of Our Lady of Victory was based on the 1571 victory of the Papal States in the Battle of Lepanto.[81][82]
Differences in feasts may also originate from doctrinal issues—the Feast of the Assumption is such an example. Given that there is no agreement among all Christians on the circumstances of the death, Dormition orAssumption of Mary, the feast of assumption is celebrated among some denominations and not others. [70][83] While the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Assumption on August 15, some Eastern Catholicscelebrate it as Dormition of the Theotokos, and may do so on August 28, if they follow the Julian calendar. The Eastern Orthodox also celebrate it as the Dormition of the Theotokos, one of their 12 Great Feasts. Protestants do not celebrate this, or any other Marian feasts.[70]
Depiction within Renaissance Art[edit]
In paintings, Mary is traditionally portrayed in blue. This tradition can trace its origin to the Byzantine Empire, from c.500 AD, where blue was "the colour of an empress". A more practical explanation for the use of this colour is that in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, the blue pigment was derived from the rock lapis lazuli, a stone imported from Afghanistan of greater value than gold. Beyond a painter's retainer, patrons were expected to purchase any gold or lapis lazuli to be used in the painting. Hence, it was an expression of devotion and glorification to swathe the Virgin in gowns of blue.
Our Lady of the Angels[edit]
Since 2011 the once common but ultimately lapsed custom of conducting a procession and Mass in honour of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in commemoration of the founding of the City of Los Angeles in 1781 was revived by the Queen of Angels Foundation, with the support and approbation of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as well as several civic leaders.[84]
On September 4, 1781, 11 families of pobladores arrived from the Gulf of California and established a city in the name of King Carlos III. The small town was named El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula (after our Lady of the Angels), a city that today is known simply as Los Angeles.
The recently revived custom is a continuation of the original processions and Masses which commenced on the first anniversary of the founding of Los Angeles in 1782 and continued for nearly a century thereafter.
Roman Catholic doctrines[edit]
Main articles: Mariology and Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church
There is significant diversity in the Marian doctrines attributed to her primarily by the Roman Catholic Church. The key Marian doctrines held primarily in Catholicism can be briefly outlined as follows:
- Mother of God: holds that Mary, as mother of Jesus is therefore Theotokos (God-bearer), or Mother of God.
- Virgin birth of Jesus: states that Mary conceived Jesus by action of the Holy Spirit while remaining a virgin.
- Dormition: commemorates Mary's "falling asleep" or natural death shortly before her Assumption.
- Assumption: the doctrine which states that Mary was taken bodily into Heaven either at, or before, her death.
- Immaculate Conception: states that Mary herself was conceived without original sin.
- Perpetual Virginity: holds that Mary remained a virgin all her life, even after the act of giving birth to Jesus.
The acceptance of these Marian doctrines by Roman Catholic Christians can be summarized as follows:[12][85][86]
| Doctrine | Church action | Accepted by |
|---|---|---|
| Mother of God | First Council of Ephesus, 431 | Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists |
| Virgin birth of Jesus | First Council of Nicaea, 325 | Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrians, Anglicans, non-liberal Protestants |
| Assumption of Mary | Munificentissimus Deus encyclical Pope Pius XII, 1950 | Roman Catholics, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox (only following her natural death), some Anglicans, some Lutherans |
| Immaculate Conception | Ineffabilis Deus encyclical Pope Pius IX, 1854 | Roman Catholics, some Anglicans, some Lutherans (early Martin Luther) |
| Perpetual Virginity | Council of Constantinople, 533 Smalcald Articles, 1537 | Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrians, some Anglicans, some Lutherans (Martin Luther) |
The title "Mother of God" (Theotokos) for Mary was confirmed by the First Council of Ephesus, held at the Church of Mary in 431. The Council decreed that Mary is the Mother of God because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human.[71] This doctrine is widely accepted by Christians in general, and the term Mother of God had already been used within the oldest known prayer to Mary, the Sub tuum praesidium which dates to around 250 AD.[87]
The Virgin birth of Jesus was an almost universally held belief among Christians from the 2nd until the 19th century.[88] It is included in the two most widely used Christian creeds, which state that Jesus "was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary" (theNicene Creed in what is now its familiar form)[89] and the Apostles' Creed. The Gospel of Matthew describes Mary as a virgin who fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, mistranslating the Hebrew word alma ("young woman") in Isaiah 7:14 as "virgin", though.[3] The authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke consider Jesus' conception not the result of intercourse and assert that Mary had "no relations with man" before Jesus' birth.[Mt 1:18] [Mt 1:25] [Lk 1:34] This alludes to the belief that Mary conceived Jesus through the action of God the Holy Spirit, and not through intercourse with Joseph or anyone else.[90]
The doctrines of the Assumption or Dormition of Mary relate to her death and bodily assumption to Heaven. The Roman Catholic Church has dogmaically defined the doctrine of the Assumption, which was done in 1950 by Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus. Whether the Virgin Mary died or not is not defined dogmatically, however, although a reference to the death of Mary are made in Munificentissimus Deus. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is believed, and celebrated with herDormition, where they believe she died.
Roman Catholics believe in the Immaculate Conception of Mary, as proclaimed Ex Cathedra by Pope Pius IX in 1854, namely that she was filled with grace from the very moment of her conception in her mother's womb and preserved from the stain of original sin. The Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church has a liturgical feast by that name, kept on December 8.[91] Orthodox Christians reject the Immaculate Conception dogma principally because their understanding of ancestral sin (the Greek term corresponding to the Latin "original sin") differs from the Augustinian interpretation and that of the Roman Catholic Church.[92]
The Perpetual Virginity of Mary asserts Mary's real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made Man. The term Ever-Virgin (Greek ἀειπάρθενος) is applied in this case, stating that Mary remained a virgin for the remainder of her life, making Jesus her biological and only son, whose conception and birth are held to be miraculous.[90][93][94] While the Orthodox Churches hold the position articulated in the Protoevangelium of James that Jesus' brothers and sisters are older children of Joseph the Betrothed, step-siblings from an earlier marriage that left him widowed, Roman Catholic teaching follows the Latin father Jerome in considering them Jesus' cousins.
Perspectives on Mary[edit]
| Blessed Virgin Mary | |
|---|---|
 | |
| West: Mother of God, Queen of Heaven,Mother of the Church East: Theotokos | |
| Honored in | Christianity, Islam |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Major shrine | Santa Maria Maggiore (SeeMarian shrines) |
| Feast | See Marian feast days |
| Attributes | Blue mantle, crown of 12 stars, pregnant woman, roses, woman with child |
| Patronage | See Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
Christian perspectives on Mary[edit]
Christian Marian perspectives include a great deal of diversity. While some Christians such as Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have well established Marian traditions, Protestants at large pay scant attention to Mariological themes. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutherans venerate the Virgin Mary. This veneration especially takes the form of prayer for intercession with her Son, Jesus Christ. Additionally it includes composing poems and songs in Mary's honor, painting icons or carving statues of her, and conferring titles on Mary that reflect her position among the saints.[56][68][70][79]
Catholic view[edit]
Main articles: Veneration of Mary in Roman Catholicism and Roman Catholic Mariology
In the Catholic Church, Mary is accorded the title "Blessed", (from Latin beatus, blessed, via Greek μακάριος, makarios and Latin facere, make) in recognition of her assumption to Heaven and her capacity to intercede on behalf of those who pray to her. Catholic teachings make clear that Mary is not considered divine and prayers to her are not answered by her, they are answered by God.[96] The four Catholic dogmas regarding Mary are:Mother of God, Perpetual virginity of Mary, Immaculate Conception (of Mary) and Assumption of Mary.[93][97][98]
The Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus has a more central role in Roman Catholic teachings and beliefs than in any other major Christian group. Not only do Roman Catholics have more theological doctrines and teachings that relate to Mary, but they have more festivals, prayers, devotional, and venerative practices than any other group.[79] The Catholic Catechism states: "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship."[99]
For centuries, Roman Catholics have performed acts of consecration and entrustment to Mary at personal, societal and regional levels. These acts may be directed to the Virgin herself, to the Immaculate Heart of Maryand to the Immaculata. In Catholic teachings, consecration to Mary does not diminish or substitute the love of God, but enhances it, for all consecration is ultimately made to God.[100][101]
Following the growth of Marian devotions in the 16th century, Catholic saints wrote books such as Glories of Mary and True Devotion to Mary that emphasized Marian veneration and taught that "the path to Jesus is through Mary".[102] Marian devotions are at times linked to Christocentric devotions (e.g. the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary).[103]
Key Marian devotions include: Seven Sorrows of Mary, Rosary and scapular, Miraculous Medal and Reparations to Mary.[104][105] The months of May and October are traditionally "Marian months" for Roman Catholics, e.g., the daily Rosary is encouraged in October and in May Marian devotions take place in many regions.[106][107][108] Popes have issued a number of Marian encyclicals and Apostolic Letters to encourage devotions to and the veneration of the Virgin Mary.
Catholics place high emphasis on Mary's roles as protector and intercessor and the Catholic Catechism refers to Mary as the "Mother of God to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs".[109][110][111][112][113] Key Marian prayers include: Hail Mary, Alma Redemptoris Mater, Sub Tuum Praesidum, Ave Maris Stella, Regina Coeli, Ave Regina Coelorum and the Magnificat.[114]
Mary's participation in the processes of salvation and redemption has also been emphasized in the Catholic tradition, but they are not doctrines.[115][116][117][118] Pope John Paul II's 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater began with the sentence: "The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation."[119]
In the 20th century both popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have emphasized the Marian focus of the Church. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) wrote:
when he suggested a redirection of the whole Church towards the program of Pope John Paul II in order to ensure an authentic approach to Christology via a return to the "whole truth about Mary".[120]
Orthodox view[edit]
See also: Theotokos and Hymns to Mary
Orthodox Christianity includes a large number of traditions regarding the Ever Virgin Mary, the Theotokos.[121] The Orthodox believe that she was and remained a virgin before and after Christ's birth.[56] The Theotokia (i.e.,hymns to the Theotokos) are an essential part of the Divine Services in the Eastern Church and their positioning within the liturgical sequence effectively places the Theotokos in the most prominent place after Christ.[122]Within the Orthodox tradition, the order of the saints begins with: The Theotokos, Angels, Prophets, Apostles, Fathers, Martyrs, etc. giving the Virgin Mary precedence over the angels. She is also proclaimed as the "Lady of the Angels".[122]
The views of the Church Fathers still play an important role in the shaping of Orthodox Marian perspective. However, the Orthodox views on Mary are mostly doxological, rather than academic: they are expressed in hymns, praise, liturgical poetry and the veneration of icons. One of the most loved Orthodox Akathists (i.e. standing hymns) is devoted to Mary and it is often simply called the Akathist Hymn.[123] Five of the twelve Great Feasts in Orthodoxy are dedicated to Mary.[56] The Sunday of Orthodoxy directly links the Virgin Mary's identity as Mother of God with icon veneration.[124] A number of Orthodox feasts are connected with the miraculous icons of the Theotokos.[122]
The Orthodox view Mary as "superior to all created beings", although not divine.[57] The Orthodox does not venerate Mary as conceived immaculate. The Orthodox celebrate the Dormition of the Theotokos, rather than Assumption.[56]
The Protoevangelium of James, an extra-canonical book, has been the source of many Orthodox beliefs on Mary. The account of Mary's life presented includes her consecration as a virgin at the temple at age three. The High Priest Zachariah blessed Mary and informed her that God had magnified her name among many generations. Zachariah placed Mary on the third step of the altar, whereby God gave her grace. While in the temple, Mary was miraculously fed by an angel, until she was twelve years old. At that point an angel told Zachariah to betroth Mary to a widower in Israel, who would be indicated. This story provides the theme of many hymns for the Feast ofPresentation of Mary, and icons of the feast depict the story.[125] The Orthodox believe that Mary was instrumental in the growth of Christianity during the life of Jesus, and after his Crucifixion, and Orthodox Theologian Sergei Bulgakov wrote: "The Virgin Mary is the center, invisible, but real, of the Apostolic Church."
Theologians from the Orthodox tradition have made prominent contributions to the development of Marian thought and devotion. John Damascene (c. 650─c. 750) was one of the greatest Orthodox theologians. Among other Marian writings, he proclaimed the essential nature of Mary's heavenly Assumption or Dormition and her mediative role.
More recently, Sergei Bulgakov expressed the Orthodox sentiments towards Mary as follows:[57]
Anglican view[edit]
Main article: Anglican Marian theology
The multiple churches that form the Anglican Communion and the Continuing Anglican movement have different views on Marian doctrines and venerative practices given that there is no single church with universal authority within the Communion and that the mother church (the Church of England) understands itself to be both "catholic" and "Reformed".[128] Thus unlike the Protestant churches at large, the Anglican Communion (which includes the Episcopal Church in the United States) includes segments which still retain some veneration of Mary.[68]
Mary's special position within God's purpose of salvation as "God-bearer" (Theotokos) is recognised in a number of ways by some Anglican Christians.[129] All the member churches of the Anglican Communion affirm in the historic creeds that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, and celebrates the feast days of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. This feast is called in older prayer books the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 2. The Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin on March 25 was from before the time of Bede until the 18th century New Year's Day in England. The Annunciation is called the "Annunciation of our Lady" in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Anglicans also celebrate in the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin on 31 May, though in some provinces the traditional date of July 2 is kept. The feast of the St. Mary the Virgin is observed on the traditional day of the Assumption, August 15. The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin is kept on September 8.[68]
The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is kept in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, on December 8. In certain Anglo-Catholic parishes this feast is called the Immaculate Conception. Again, the Assumption of Mary is believed in by most Anglo-Catholics, but is considered a pious opinion by moderate Anglicans. Protestant minded Anglicans reject the celebration of these feasts.[68]
Prayers and venerative practices vary a great deal. For instance, as of the 19th century, following the Oxford Movement, Anglo-Catholics frequently pray the Rosary, the Angelus, Regina Caeli, and other litanies and anthems of Our Lady that are reminiscent of Catholic practices.[130] On the other hand, Low-church Anglicans rarely invoke the Blessed Virgin except in certain hymns, such as the second stanza of Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones.[129][131]
The Anglican Society of Mary was formed in 1931 and maintains chapters in many countries. The purpose of the society is to foster devotion to Mary among Anglicans.[68][132] The high-church Anglicans espouse doctrines that are closer to Roman Catholics, and retain veneration for Mary, e.g., official Anglican pilgrimages to Our Lady of Lourdes have taken place since 1963, and pilgrimages to Our Lady of Walsingham have gone on for hundreds of years.[133]
Historically, there has been enough common ground between Roman Catholics and Anglicans on Marian issues that in 2005 a joint statement called Mary: grace and hope in Christ was produced through ecumenical meetings of Anglicans and Roman Catholic theologians. This document, informally known as the "Seattle Statement", is not formally endorsed by either the Catholic Church or the Anglican Communion, but is viewed by its authors as the beginning of a joint understanding of Mary.[68][134]
Protestant view[edit]
Further information: Protestant views on Mary
Protestants in general reject the veneration and invocation of the Saints.[12]:1174 Protestants typically hold that Mary was the mother of Jesus, but was an ordinary woman devoted to God. Therefore, there is virtually no Marian veneration, Marian feasts, Marian pilgrimages, Marian art, Marian music or Marian spirituality in today's Protestant communities. Within these views, Roman Catholic beliefs and practices are at times rejected, e.g., theologian Karl Barth wrote that "the heresy of the Catholic Church is itsMariology".[135]
Some early Protestants venerated and honored Mary. Martin Luther wrote that: "Mary is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin. God's grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil."[136] However, as of 1532 Luther stopped celebrating the feast of the Assumption of Mary and also discontinued his support of the Immaculate Conception.[137]
John Calvin said, "It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor."[138] However, Calvin firmly rejected the notion that anyone but Christ can intercede for man.[139]
Although Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli honored Mary as the Mother of God in the 16th century, they did so less than Martin Luther.[140] Thus the idea of respect and high honor for Mary was not rejected by the first Protestants; but, they came to criticize the Roman Catholics for venerating Mary. Following the Council of Trent in the 16th century, as Marian veneration became associated with Catholics, Protestant interest in Mary decreased. During the Age of the Enlightenment any residual interest in Mary within Protestant churches almost disappeared, although Anglicans and Lutherans continued to honor her.[12]
Protestants acknowledge that Mary is "blessed among women"[Luke 1:42] but they do not agree that Mary is to be venerated. She is considered to be an outstanding example of a life dedicated to God.[141]
In the 20th century, Protestants reacted in opposition to the Catholic dogma of the Assumption of Mary. The conservative tone of the Second Vatican Council began to mend the ecumenical differences, and Protestants began to show interest in Marian themes. In 1997 and 1998 ecumenical dialogs between Catholics and Protestants took place, but to date the majority of Protestants pay scant attention to Marian issues and often view them as a challenge to the authority of Scripture.[12]
The Council Of Chalcedon, accepted by Protestants, held Mary to be Mother of God (not Christ).[citation needed]
Lutheran view[edit]
Main article: Lutheran Marian theology
Despite Martin Luther's harsh polemics against his Roman Catholic opponents over issues concerning Mary and the saints, theologians appear to agree that Luther adhered to the Marian decrees of the ecumenical councils and dogmas of the church. He held fast to the belief that Mary was a perpetual virgin and the Theotokos or Mother of God.[142][143] Special attention is given to the assertion that Luther, some three-hundred years before the dogmatization of theImmaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in 1854, was a firm adherent of that view. Others maintain that Luther in later years changed his position on the Immaculate Conception, which, at that time was undefined in the Church, maintaining however the sinlessness of Mary throughout her life.[144][145] For Luther, early in his life, the Assumption of Mary was an understood fact, although he later stated that the Bible did not say anything about it and stopped celebrating its feast. Important to him was the belief that Mary and the saints do live on after death.[146][147][148] "Throughout his career as a priest-professor-reformer, Luther preached, taught, and argued about the veneration of Mary with a verbosity that ranged from childlike piety to sophisticated polemics. His views are intimately linked to his Christocentric theology and its consequences for liturgy and piety."[149] Luther, while revering Mary, came to criticize the "Papists" for blurring the line, between high admiration of the grace of God wherever it is seen in a human being, and religious service given to another creature. He considered the Roman Catholic practice of celebrating saints' days and making intercessory requests addressed especially to Mary and other departed saints to be idolatry.[150][151] His final thoughts on Marian devotion and veneration are preserved in a sermon preached at Wittenberg only a month before his death:
Certain Lutheran churches such as the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church however, continue to venerate Mary and the saints in the same manner that Roman Catholics do, and hold all Marian dogmas as part of their faith.[155]
Methodist view[edit]
Further information: Saints in Methodism
Methodists have no official writings or teachings on the Virgin Mary except what is mentioned in Scripture and the ecumenical Creeds, mainly that Christ was conceived in her womb through the Holy Spirit and that she gave birth to Christ as a virgin. John Wesley, the principal founder of the Methodist movement within the Church of England, believed that Mary "continued a pure and unspotted virgin."[156][157] The church does hold that Mary was a virgin before, during, and immediately after the birth of Christ.[158][159]
Article II of The Confession of Faith from The Book of Discipline states:
The Methodist churches disagree with veneration of saints, of Mary, and of relics; believing that reverence and praise are for God alone. However, studying the life of Mary and the biographies of saints is deemed appropriate, as they are seen as heroes and examples of good Christians.[160] The Methodist churches reject the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary, stating that Christ was the only person to live a sinless life and to ascend body and soul into Heaven.[161]
Latter Day Saints[edit]
Main article: Latter Day Saint views on Mary
Together with Eve, Mary is seen as a chosen vessel and fore-ordained to directly change the course of history of mankind in that she participated in the 'condescension of God' by bearing Jehovah, who took upon himself a mortal body through her. As such she is held in high regard by Latter-day Saints. In the Book of Mormon she is likened to the Tree of Life in Nephi's interpretation of his father Lehi's dream, where she is seen as 'most beautiful and fair above all other virgins'. The tree on the other hand is described as'white and delightsome' and in answering tha angel was declared by Nephi to be the 'love of God'. Both bear fruit that leads to eternal life. After being carried away in the Spirit she is seen with the Lamb of God in her arms. In the first edition of the Book of Mormon(1830), Mary was referred to as "the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh", a reading that was changed by Joseph Smith to "the mother of the Son of God" in all subsequent editions (1837–) in order to avoid confusion between the eternal Mother of Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament, namely our common Mother in heaven, and Mary the physical mother of the physical Jesus and spouse of the carpenter Joseph. As Latter-day Saints reject the original sin altogether, their view of the conception is actually not as far from the Catholic Immaculate Conception, which sees her sinless state by virtue of the foreseen merits of her son Jesus Christ, as some LDS think. However, the LDS church does not share the Roman Catholic views of the perpetual virginity and her assumption into heaven.[162] Mary is not seen as an intercessor between humankind and Jesus, but is one of God's many children in need of the atonement. Latter-day Saints do not pray to her.[162]
Nontrinitarian view[edit]
Nontrinitarians, such as Unitarians, Christadelphians and Jehovah's Witnesses[163] also acknowledge Mary as the biological mother of Jesus Christ, but do not recognise Marian titles such as "Mother of God" as these groups generally reject Christ's divinity. Since Nontrinitarian churches are typically also mortalist, the issue of praying to Mary, whom they would consider "asleep", awaiting resurrection, does not arise.[164] Swedenborg says God as he is in himself could not directly approach evil spirits to redeem those spirits without destroying them (Exodus 33:20, John 1:18), so God impregnated Mary, who gave Jesus Christ access to the evil heredity of the human race, which he could approach, redeem and save.[165]
Islamic perspective[edit]
Main article: Mary in Islam
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Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned as Maryam in the Qur'an a total of fifty times.[166] Mary holds a singularly distinguished and honored position among women in the Qur'an. A Sura (chapter) in the Qur'an is titled "Maryam" (Mary), which is the only Sura in the Qur'an named after a woman, in which the story of Mary (Maryam) and Jesus (Isa) is recounted according to the Islamic view of Jesus.[167]
She is mentioned in the Qur'an with the honorific title of "our lady" (syyidatuna) as the daughter of Imran and Hannah.[168]
She is the only woman directly named in the Qur'an; declared (uniquely along with Jesus) to be a Sign of God to humanity;[169] as one who "guarded her chastity";[170] an obedient one;[170] chosen of her mother and dedicated to Allah whilst still in the womb;[171] uniquely (amongst women) Accepted into service by God;[172] cared for by (one of the prophets as per Islam) Zakariya (Zacharias);[172] that in her childhood she resided in the Temple and uniquely had access to Al-Mihrab (understood to be the Holy of Holies), and was provided with heavenly "provisions" by God.[172][168]
Mary is also called a Chosen One;[173] a Purified One;[173] a Truthful one;[174] her child conceived through "a Word from God";[175] and "exalted above all women of The Worlds/Universes (the material and heavenly worlds)".[173]
The Qur'an relates detailed narrative accounts of Maryam (Mary) in two places, Qur'an 3:35–47 and 19:16–34. These state beliefs in both the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Virgin birth of Jesus.[176][177][178] The account given in Sura 19 is nearly identical with that in the Gospel according to Luke, and both of these (Luke, Sura 19) begin with an account of the visitation of an angel upon Zakariya (Zecharias) and Good News of the birth of Yahya (John), followed by the account of the annunciation. It mentions how Mary was informed by an angel that she would become the mother of Jesus through the actions of God alone.[179]
In the Islamic tradition, Mary and Jesus were the only children who could not be touched by Satan at the moment of their birth, for God imposed a veil between them and Satan.[180] According to author Shabbir Akhtar, the Islamic perspective on Mary's Immaculate Conception is compatible with the Catholic doctrine of the same topic. "O People of the Book! Do not go beyond the bounds in your religion, and do not say anything of Allah but the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was but a Messenger of God, and a Word of His (Power) which He conveyed to Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah (as the One, Unique God), and His Messengers (including Jesus, as Messenger); and do not say: (Allah is one of) a trinity. Give up (this assertion) – (it is) for your own good (to do so). Allah is but One Allah ; All-Glorified He is in that He is absolutely above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And Allah suffices as the One to be relied on, to Whom affairs should be referred." Quran 4/171[181][182]
The Qur'an says that Jesus was the result of a virgin birth. The most detailed account of the annunciation and birth of Jesus is provided in Suras 3 and 19 of the Qur'an, where it is written that God sent an angel to announce that she could shortly expect to bear a son, despite being a virgin.[183]
Baha'i perspective[edit]
The Bahá'í Faith venerates Mary as the mother of Jesus. The Kitáb-i-Íqán, the primary theological work of the Baha'i religion, describes Mary as "that most beauteous countenance," and "that veiled and immortal Countenance." It claims that Jesus was "conceived of the Holy Ghost."[184]
Other views[edit]
Pagan Rome[edit]
From the early stages of Christianity, belief in the virginity of Mary and the virgin conception of Jesus, as stated in the gospels, holy and supernatural, was used by detractors, both political and religious, as a topic for discussions, debates and writings, specifically aimed to challenge the divinity of Jesus and thus Christians and Christianity alike.[185] In the 2nd century, as part of the earliest anti-Christian polemics, Celsus suggested that Jesus was the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier named Panthera.[186] The views of Celsus drew responses from Origen, the Church Father in Alexandria, Egypt, who considered it a fabricated story.[187] How far Celsus sourced his view from Jewish sources remains a subject of discussion.[188]
In Judaism[edit]
The issue of the parentage of Jesus in the Talmud affects also the view of his mother. However the Talmud does not mention Mary by name and is considerate rather than only polemic.[189][190] The story about Panthera is also found in the Toledot Yeshu, the literary origins of which can not be traced with any certainty and given that it is unlikely to go before the 4th century, it is far too late to include authentic remembrances of Jesus.[191] The Blackwell Companion to Jesus states that the Toledot Yeshu has no historical facts as such, and was perhaps created as a tool for warding off conversions to Christianity.[192] The name Panthera may be a distortion of the term parthenos (virgin) and Raymond E. Brown considers the story of Panthera a fanciful explanation of the birth of Jesus which includes very little historical evidence.[193] Robert Van Voorst states that given that Toledot Yeshu is a medieval document and due to its lack of a fixed form and orientation towards a popular audience, it is "most unlikely" to have reliable historical information.[194]
4th-century Arabia[edit]
According to the 4th-century heresiologist Epiphanius of Salamis the Virgin Mary was worshipped as a Mother goddess in the Christian sect of Collyridianism, which was found throughout Arabia sometime during the 300s AD. Collyridianism had women performing priestly acts. They made bread offerings to the Virgin Mary. The group was condemned as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church and was preached against by Epiphanius of Salamis, who wrote about the group in his writings titled Panarion.[195]
Study of the historical Jesus[edit]
The statement that Joseph "knew her not till she brought forth her first born son" (Matthew 1:25 DouayRheims) has been debated among scholars with some saying that she did not remain a virgin and some saying that she was a perpetual virgin.[196] Other scholars contend that the Greek word heos (i.e., until) denotes a state up to a point, but does not mean that the state ended after that point, and that Matthew 1:25 does not confirm or deny the virginity of Mary after the birth of Jesus.[197][198][199]
Other biblical verses have also been debated, e.g., that the reference by Paul that Jesus was made "of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Romans 1:3) may be hypothesized as Joseph being the father of Jesus.[200] However, most scholars reject this interpretation in the context of virgin birth given that Paul used the Greek word genomenos (i.e., becoming) rather than the word gennetos(i.e., that is born, born)[201] and the reference to "seed of David" is likely to Mary's lineage.[202][203][204]
Early Life of Virgin Mary Till The Birth of Jesus Christ
Its the Catholic Church that gives most importance to the Virgin Mary among all the Churches. But yet they fail to give an account of her early life in their version of the bible. Here I have tried to give a brief account of the early life of Mary until the birth of Jesus. The information comes from the Gospel of James, who is said to be the brother of Jesus (Son of Joseph). This gospel gives us an entirely different view on Mary, Joseph and the events during the birth of Christ.
Parents of Mary (Introduction)
Joachim was an extremely rich man. He always brought a double offering to the Lord. Joachim and his wife Anna did not have children for a long time. Once Joachim was discouraged from giving his offering to the Lord first, by a man called Reubel, because he has not conceived a child in Israel. Joachim became extremely frustrated and went away to the history of the twelve tribes of his people, saying to himself, “I will look in the history of the twelve tribes of Israel and see whether I am the only one who has not conceived a child in Israel”. To his disappointment he searched and found that all the righteous people had raised children in Israel. He reminded himself about the patriarch Abraham and that the Lord God gave his son Isaac to him in his last days.
Then, Joachim was extremely frustrated and did not appear to his wife, but gave himself to the desert and pitched his tent there. He fasted forty days and forty nights. All the while, Joachim was saying to himself, “I will not go down for food or drink until the Lord my God visits me; prayer will be my food and drink.”
Anna also became extremely frustrated went down to her garden to walk around. She saw a laurel tree and sat down under it. And after a rest, she petitioned the Lord, saying, “God of my ancestors, bless me and hear my prayer, just as you blessed our mother Sarah and gave her son Isaac to her”. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord stood in front of her, saying, “Anna, Anna, the Lord God has heard your prayer. You will conceive and give birth and your child will be spoken of everywhere people live”. Anna said, “As the Lord God lives, whether I give birth to either a male or a female child, I will bring it as an offering to the Lord my God and it will be a servant to him all the days of its life”. Next, two angels came, saying to her, “Look your husband Joachim is coming with his flocks”. For an angel of the Lord had gone down to Joachim, saying, “Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down from here. Look, your wife Anna has conceived in her womb”. After nine months (Another book says seven months), Anna gave birth to a baby girl.
At the Temple of the Lord
When the child turned three she was taken to the temple of the load. While Mary was in the temple of the Lord, she was fed like a dove and received food from the hand of an angel. When she turned twelve, a group of priests took counsel together, saying, “Look, Mary has been in the temple of the Lord twelve years. What should we do about her now, so that she does not defile the sanctuary of the Lord our God?”
As the high priest was praying for a way, an angel of the Lord stood before, saying, “Zachariah, Zachariah, depart from here and gather the widowers of the people and let each one carry a staff. And the one whom the Lord God points out with a sign, she will be his wife.”
After all the widowers have gathered, Zachariah received everyone’s rod and went into the temple and prayed. When he was finished with the prayer, he took the rods and went out and gave them to each man, but there was no sign among them. Finally, Joseph took his rod. Suddenly, a dove came out of the rod and stood on Joseph’s head. And the high priest said, “Joseph! Joseph! You have been chosen by lot to take the virgin into your own keeping.”
Joseph replied, saying, “I have sons and am old, while she is young. I will not be ridiculed among the children of Israel”. But fearing God, Joseph took her into his own possession. And he said to her, “Mary, I took you from the temple of the Lord and now I bring you into my house. I am going out to build houses, but I will come back to you. The Lord will protect you”.
At the house of Joseph
As one day she took the cup and went out to fill it with water. A voice suddenly said to her, “Rejoice, blessed one. The Lord is with you. You are blessed among women”. Mary looked around to the right and the left to see where this voice came from. Trembling she went into her house. Setting down the cup, she took the purple thread and sat down on the chair and spun it. Suddenly, an angel stood before her saying, “Do not be afraid Mary. You have found grace before the Lord of all. You will conceive from his word”. Upon hearing this, however, Mary was distraught, saying to herself, “If I conceive from the Lord God who lives, will I also conceive as all women conceive?” And the Angel of the Lord said, “Not like that, Mary. For the power of God will come over you. Thus, the holy one who is born will be called son of the most high. You will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”. Mary said, “See, I am the servant of the Lord before him. Let it happen to me according to what you say”. These mysteries happened when she was sixteen.
In the sixth month of her pregnancy, Joseph came from his house-building and went into the house to find her swelling. And he struck his face and threw himself on the ground in sackcloth and wept bitterly, “How can I look to the Lord God? What will I pray about her, for I took her as a virgin from the temple of the Lord and did not guard her? (4) Who has set this trap for me? Who did this evil in my house? Who stole the virgin from me and defiled her. Then, she wept bitterly, saying, “I am pure and I did not know a man”. And Joseph said to her, “Where did this thing in your womb come from then?” But she said, “As the Lord my God lives, I do not know where it came from.”
In this sleep an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, saying, “Do not fear this child. For the child in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son for you and you will call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins”. Joseph arose from his sleep and glorified the God of Israel who had given grace to him. And he guarded the child.
When the priests came to know what had happened, they led Mary with Joseph to the law court. Joseph and Marry swear that they have done nothing wrong. The high priest said, “I will give you the water of the Lord’s wrath to drink and it will make your sin clear in your eyes”. And taking the water, the high priest gave it to Joseph to drink and sent him out into the desert. And he returned unharmed. After wards he made the young girl drink also and sent her out into the desert. And she came back unharmed. And all the people were astonished that their sins were not revealed. And the high priest said, “If the Lord God has not revealed your sins, I will not judge you either.” And he released them. And Joseph took Mary and went away to his house, rejoicing and praising the God of Israel.
Birth Of Jesus Christ (Jammanuel)
Then, there was an order from the Emperor Augustus to have everyone in Bethlehem of Judea be registered for a census. Joseph said, “I will register my sons. But this child? What will I do about him? How will I register him? And my wife? Oh, I am ashamed. Should I register her as my daughter? The children of Israel know that she is not my daughter. This day, I will do as the Lord wants.” And he saddled his donkey and sat her on it and his son led and Samuel followed. When they came to the middle of the journey, Mary said to him, “Joseph, take me off the donkey, the child pushing from within me to let him come out”. He found a cave and led her there and stationed his sons to watch her, while he went to find a Hebrew midwife in the land of Bethlehem. He saw a woman coming down from the mountain and she said to him, “Man, where are you going?”
He said “I am seeking a Hebrew midwife.”
Replying, she said to him, “Are you from Israel?”
And he said to her, “Yes.”
Then, she said, “And who is giving birth in the cave?”
And he said, “The one who has pledged to be married to me.”
And she said to him, “She is not your wife?”
And he said to her, “She is Mary, the one who was raised in the temple. I won her by lot to be my wife. She is not yet my wife, but has a fetus from the Holy Spirit.”
And the midwife said, “Really?”
And Joseph said to her, “Come and see.”
So the midwife went with him. And they stood near the cave and a dark cloud was hovering over the cave. And the midwife said, “My soul glorifies this day, for today my eyes have seen a miracle: salvation has come to Israel”. And immediately, the cloud withdrew from the cave and a great light appeared in the cave so that their eyes could not bear it. And a little while later the same light withdrew until an infant appeared. And he came and took the breast of his mother, Mary. And the midwife cried out and said, “How great this day is for me, for I have seen this new miracle.”
Read Further
You are encouraged to read further. Remember that to be a good Christian one have to be a truth seeker. The primary source of information comes from the Gospel of James in the book ‘Lost Scriptures’ by Barth D. Ehrman. I have also provided a link to a PDF version of the Gospel below. The PDF version seems to be missing some details though. The actual gospel goes a little further.
Please feel free to post your comments and opinions.
- Reference:
- Gospel of James (PDF)
- , BooK: Lost Scriptures by Barth D. Ehrman
Cinematic portrayals[edit]
Mary has been portrayed in various films and on television, including:
- The Miracle (1912 color silent film of the play The Miracle (as a statue which comes to life))
- Das Mirakel (1912 silent film; a German version of the play The Miracle
- The Song of Bernadette (1943 film)
- The Living Christ Series (1951 non-theatrical, non-television film twelve-part series)
- The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952 film)
- Ben-Hur (1959 film)
- The Miracle (1959 film; a loose remake of the 1912 film Das Mirakel)
- King of Kings (1961 film)
- The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965 film)
- Jesus of Nazareth (1977 two-part television miniseries)
- The Last Temptation of Christ (1988 film)
- Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999 television film)
- Saint Mary (2002 film)
- The Passion of the Christ (2004 film)
- Imperium: Saint Peter (2005 television film)
- Color of the Cross (2006 film)
- The Nativity Story (2006 film)
- The Passion (2008 television miniseries)[205][206]
- The Nativity (2010 four-part miniseries)
- Son of God (2014 film)
Image gallery[edit]
- See also: Life of the Virgin
- For a larger gallery, please see: Marian image gallery
_basilica_inferiore_di_assisi_(1310-1329).jpg)
_The_Annunciation,_The_Virgin_Mary_enthroned_under_a_green_canopy..jpg)
Music[edit]
- Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)
- Johann Sebastian Bach: Magnificat (1723, rev. 1733)
- Franz Schubert: Ave Maria (1835)
- Charles Gounod: Ave Maria (1859)
See also[edit]
 |
- Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary
- Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission
- Christian mythology
- Fleur de lys
- History of Roman Catholic Mariology
- Holy Name of Mary
- Hortus conclusus
- Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
- Marian apparition
- Madonna (art)
- Marian and Holy Trinity columns
- Mary, Protector of Faith (Russo)
- May crowning
- New Testament people named Mary
- Shrines to the Virgin Mary
- Society of Mary (Marianists)
Mary Queen Of Heaven Icon
References[edit]
Virgin Mary: Astrology and Horoscope |
| Born: | August 5, -21 (22 BC), 5:05 PM (Julian cal.) | |||
| In: | Jerusalem (Israel) | |||
| Sun: | 9°26' Leo | AS: | 10°57' Capricorn | |
| Moon: | 4°16' Gemini | MC: | 29°29' Libra | |
| Dominants: | Leo, Capricorn, Scorpio Mars, Venus, Uranus Houses 7, 10, 5 / Earth, Water / Fixed | |||
| Numerology: | Birthpath 7 | |||
| Popularity: | 77,652 clicks, 128th woman, 269th celebrity | |||
Celebrities born the same day: Abbé Pierre, Marine Le Pen, Neil Armstrong, Guy de Maupassant, Kajol, Sydney Omarr, William Wallace, Jean-Marc Morandini, Maddox Jolie Pitt, Pete Burns, Elisabeth Depardieu, Loni Anderson... List of all the celebrities born on August 5.
Celebrities having the same aspect Moon sextile Venus (orb 0°09'): Cameron Diaz, Emmanuelle Béart, Freddie Mercury, Che Guevara, Gerard Butler, Gwen Stefani, Françoise Hardy, Sylvester Stallone, Mila Kunis, Carl Jung, Zac Efron, Mylène Farmer... Find all the celebrities having this aspect in the database.
Celebrities having the same aspect Mercury trine Jupiter (orb 1°24'): Monica Bellucci, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Katie Holmes, Vincent van Gogh, Prince Harry of Wales, Ian Somerhalder, Muhammad Ali, Kourtney Kardashian, M Pokora,Alexander Skarsgard, Kate Hudson, Oscar Pistorius... Find all the celebrities having this aspect in the database.
Astrology DataBase updated Tuesday, 4 August 2015 at 3:22 pm, CEST
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Search by filters, aspects, positions, categories, heights, or latest additions.
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49,158 celebrities and events, out of which 20,554 entries with a known time of birth.
Search by filters, aspects, positions, categories, heights, or latest additions.
Celebrities clicked on in real-time or yesterday: 332,668,929 times.
Horoscope and chart of Virgin Mary (Placidus system)
Hover your mouse on an object and click to display information
Caption
Conjunctions
Opposites and Squares
Trines and Sextiles
Semi-Squares and Sesqui-Quadrates
Semi-Sextiles, Quintiles and Bi-Quintiles
Inconjunctions
Opposites and Squares
Trines and Sextiles
Semi-Squares and Sesqui-Quadrates
Semi-Sextiles, Quintiles and Bi-Quintiles
Inconjunctions
* A planet less than 1° from the next House cusp is considered to be posited in the said House. 2° when the AS and the MC are involved
Biography of Virgin Mary
According to the New Testament, Mary (Judeo-Aramaic מרים, Maryām, from Hebrew Miriam) was the mother of Jesus of Nazareth (birth time source: Gilles Roy, on his website http://dsa.pagesperso-orange.fr/ and http://dsa.pagesperso-orange.fr/svm.html) at the time of his conception she was betrothed (or engaged) to Joseph and was a virgin. The child was conceived by the agency of the Holy Spirit, and Mary was a virgin at the time of the birth, as predicted by the angel Gabriel. Her biography is further elaborated in later Christian and Islamic traditions, including the names of her parents: Joachim and Anne.
Christian churches teach various doctrines concerning Mary, and she is the subject of much veneration. The area of Christian theology concerning her is known as Mariology. The conception of her son Jesus is believed to have been an act of the Holy Spirit, and to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that a virgin (or maiden) would bear a son who would be called Immanuel ("God with us"). The Roman Catholic Church and most Eastern Churches venerate her as the Ever-Virgin Mother of God (Theotokos), who was specially favoured by God's grace (Catholics hold that she was conceived without original sin) and, when her earthly life had b...
Christian churches teach various doctrines concerning Mary, and she is the subject of much veneration. The area of Christian theology concerning her is known as Mariology. The conception of her son Jesus is believed to have been an act of the Holy Spirit, and to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that a virgin (or maiden) would bear a son who would be called Immanuel ("God with us"). The Roman Catholic Church and most Eastern Churches venerate her as the Ever-Virgin Mother of God (Theotokos), who was specially favoured by God's grace (Catholics hold that she was conceived without original sin) and, when her earthly life had b...
Astrological portrait of Virgin Mary (excerpt)
Disclaimer: these short excerpts of astrological charts are computer processed. They are, by no means, of a personal nature. This principle is valid for the 49,158 celebrities included in our database. These texts provide the meanings of planets, or combination of planets, in signs and in houses, as well as the interpretations of planetary dominants in line with modern Western astrology rules. Moreover, since Astrotheme is not a polemic website, no negative aspect which may damage the good reputation of a celebrity is posted here, unlike in the comprehensive astrological portrait.
Introduction
Here are some character traits from Virgin Mary's birth chart. This description is far from being comprehensive but it can shed light on his/her personality, which is still interesting for professional astrologers or astrology lovers.
In a matter of minutes, you can get at your email address your astrological portrait (approximately 32 pages), a much more comprehensive report than this portrait of Virgin Mary.
The dominant planets of Virgin Mary
When interpreting a natal chart, the best method is to start gradually from general features to specific ones. Thus, there is usually a plan to be followed, from the overall analysis of the chart and its structure, to the description of its different character traits.
In the first part, an overall analysis of the chart enables us to figure out the personality's main features and to emphasize several points that are confirmed or not in the detailed analysis: in any case, those general traits are taken into account. Human personality is an infinitely intricate entity and describing it is a complex task. Claiming to rapidly summarize it is illusory, although it does not mean that it is an impossible challenge. It is essential to read a natal chart several times in order to absorb all its different meanings and to grasp all this complexity. But the exercise is worthwhile.
In brief, a natal chart is composed of ten planets: two luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, three fast-moving or individual planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars, two slow-moving planets, Jupiter and Saturn, and three very slow-moving planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Additional secondary elements are: the Lunar Nodes, the Dark Moon or Lilith, Chiron and other minor objects. They are all posited on the Zodiac wheel consisting of twelve signs, from Aries to Pisces, and divided into twelve astrological houses.
The first step is to evaluate the importance of each planet. This is what we call identifying the dominant planets. This process obeys rules that depend on the astrologer's sensitivity and experience but it also has precise and steady bases: thus, we can take into account the parameters of a planet's activity (the number of active aspects a planet forms, the importance of each aspect according to its nature and its exactness), angularity parameters; (proximity to the four angles, Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant and Imum Coeli or Nadir, all of them being evaluated numerically, according to the kind of angle and the planet-angle distance) and quality parameters (rulership, exaltation, exile and fall). Finally, other criteria such as the rulership of the Ascendant and the Midheaven etc. are important.
These different criteria allow a planet to be highlighted and lead to useful conclusions when interpreting the chart.
The overall chart analysis begins with the observation of three sorts of planetary distributions in the chart: Eastern or Western hemisphere, Northern or Southern hemisphere, and quadrants (North-eastern, North-western, South-eastern and South-western). These three distributions give a general tone in terms of introversion and extraversion, willpower, sociability, and behavioural predispositions.
Then, there are three additional distributions: elements (called triplicity since there are three groups of signs for each one) - Fire, Air, Earth and Water - corresponding to a character typology, modality (or quadruplicity with four groups of signs for each one) - Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable - and polarity (Yin and Yang).
There are three types of dominants: dominant planets, dominant signs and dominant houses. The novice thinks astrology means only "to be Aries" or sometimes, for example, "to be Aries Ascendant Virgo". It is actually far more complex. Although the Sun and the Ascendant alone may reveal a large part of the character - approximately a third or a half of your psychological signature, a person is neither "just the Sun" (called the sign) nor just "the first house" (the Ascendant). Thus, a particular planet's influence may be significantly increased; a particular sign or house may contain a group of planets that will bring nuances and sometimes weaken the role of the Ascendant, of the Sun sign etc.
Lastly, there are two other criteria: accentuations (angular, succedent and cadent) which are a classification of astrological houses and types of decanates that are occupied (each sign is divided into three decanates of ten degrees each). They provide some additional informations.
These general character traits must not be taken literally; they are, somehow, preparing for the chart reading. They allow to understand the second part of the analysis, which is more detailed and precise. It focuses on every area of the personality and provides a synthesis of all the above-mentioned parameters according to sound hierarchical rules.
Hemispheres and Quadrants for Virgin Mary
The axis linking the 1st house's cuspide (the Ascendant) to the 7th house's cuspide - the Descendant - divides the zodiac into two bowls, a superior bowl, in the South, and an inferior bowl in the North. Quoting an expression by the famous American astrologer Rudhyar, the Southern part and the Northern part correspond to two functions: "being" and "doing". Other concepts are also associated with this North and South distribution, such as introversion - Northern hemisphere - and extraversion - Southern hemisphere - being or appearances, inner life or external life, reflection or action, dreaming one's life or living one's dreams, the abstract or the concrete, backstage or limelight.
This is not about determination but about personal inclination: thus, some people will be thrown into public life despite a prominent Northern hemisphere. If this happens, however, it will not be due to their will, their taste or their deep nature. Conversely, a prominent Southern hemisphere will not bring about a famous destiny to its owner, even if he tends to turn the spotlight on himself, or if he looks for a more active life. It is a matter of deep nature and natural inclination. Of course, none of the typologies is "superior" to another.
In your birth chart, Virgin Mary, the ten main planets are distributed as follows:
Virgin Mary, the predominance of planets in the Southern hemisphere prompts you to take action, to draw attention on yourself, and to make your actions and what you have in mind visible to everyone. Sometimes, without giving a single thought to, and to the detriment of, a richer inner life and a deeper and wiser reflection. Action and communication are inevitable in your opinion and you tend to think that the only thing that matters is what is seen! This is not always true, and it is up to you to progress through the development of inner qualities such as meditation, solitude and imagination so as to become stronger.
The birth chart is divided into two other parts, Eastern and Western, by the axis linking the Midheaven to the Imum Coeli.
The Eastern part, on the Ascendant side, shows the person's ego, will, magnetism, and vitality, whereas the Western part, on the Descendant side, symbolizes other people, communication, relationships and their influence, as well as flexibility and adaptability.
The predominance of planets in the Western hemisphere of your chart means that you are quite flexible, capable of empathy, convivial and communicative. An excellent factor for many professional activities or for your social or sentimental life for example.
A definite asset... provided that you are not at the centre of the decisions you must take in your life: you may be tempted to listen to the last person who spoke, and your flexibility won't always get you out of the tight spot. You are therefore advised to learn to decide alone and to cope with the consequences of your actions with courage and without regrets. This attitude will allow you to combine flexibility and action, adaptability and absence of hesitation.
Each quadrant is a combination of the four hemispheres of your birth chart and relates to a character typology. The Southern hemisphere – the top of your chart, around the Midheaven – is associated with extraversion, action, and public life, whereas the Northern hemisphere prompts to introversion, reflexion, and private life. The Eastern hemisphere – the left part, around the Ascendant – is linked to your ego and your willpower, whereas the Western hemisphere indicates how other people influence you, and how flexible you are when you make a decision.
Virgin Mary, the diurnal South-western quadrant, consisting of the 7th, 8th and 9th houses, prevails in your chart: this sector brings about a thirst for communication and sometimes, a need to take risks in your dealings with others. Relations are a factor of your evolution and your transformation, which you accept serenely. Indeed, what matters to you is the movement and the energy that link you to others and that make you gain more awareness. A kind of rebellion or a desire to get away from it all is rooted in you.
Elements, Modalities and Polarities for Virgin Mary
Virgin Mary, here are the graphs of your Elements and Modalities, based on planets' position and angles in the twelve signs:
Like the majority of Earth signs, Virgin Mary, you are efficient, concrete and not too emotional. What matters to you is what you see: you judge the tree by its fruits. Your ideas keep changing, words disappear, but actions and their consequences are visible and remain. Express your sensitivity, even if it means revealing your vulnerability. Emotions, energy and communication must not be neglected; concrete action is meaningless if it is not justified by your heart, your intellect or your enthusiasm.
The predominance of Water signs indicates high sensitivity and elevation through feelings, Virgin Mary. Your heart and your emotions are your driving forces, and you can't do anything on Earth if you don't feel a strong affective charge (as a matter of fact, the word "feeling" is essential in your psychology). You need to love in order to understand, and to feel in order to take action, to the detriment of a certain vulnerability against which you should learn to fight.
The twelve zodiacal signs are split up into three groups or modes, called quadruplicities, a learned word meaning only that these three groups include four signs. The Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable modes are more or less represented in your natal chart, depending on planets' positions and importance, and on angles in the twelve signs.
The Fixed mode corresponds to a majority of elements in your chart, Virgin Mary, and represents the desire for security and durability: you are able to concretely appreciate a situation and its stability. You definitely prefer to play the role of a loyal, obstinate and hard-working person, rather than to try new and risky experiences - beware, however, not to confuse obstinacy with intransigence. You structure, cement, and strengthen everything you find on your way: it is your nature, although you are not especially interested in swiftness: slow and steady...
The twelve signs are divided into two polarities, called active or passive, or sometimes masculine and feminine, positive and negative, Yang and Yin. This classification corresponds to two quite distinct tonalities, the first one bringing extraversion, action, self-confidence and dynamism, the second one, introversion, reactivity, reflection and caution. None is superior to the other, each group has its own assets and shortcomings. Odd signs - Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius - belong to the first group, whereas even signs - Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces - belong to the second group.
N.B.: this dominant is a minor one. It is not essential that you read its meaning in the beginning. You can get back to them later on, once you have read more important interpretations.
According to the disposition and qualities of your planets and angles, you are rather influenced by Yin energy, the passive polarity, Virgin Mary: you are quite introverted, imaginative and sometimes discreet, but you are a deep and wise person who is not content with just noisy and flashy things. At times, you doubt but you think that those who don't are a bit... thoughtless. Allow yourself to take more laid-back attitudes and put your reserve aside, because good equilibrium is always healthier.
Houses are split up into three groups: angular, succedent and cadent.
The first ones are the most important ones, the most "noticeable" and energetic houses. They are the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses. Their cuspides correspond to four famous angles: Ascendant for the 1st house, Imum Coeli for the 4th house, Descendant, opposite the Ascendant, for the 7th house and Midheaven for the 10th house, opposite the Imum Coeli.
Planets are evaluated according to a whole set of criteria that includes comprehensive Western astrology rules. At their turn, planets emphasize specific types of houses, signs, repartitions etc., as previously explained.
N.B.: this dominant is a minor one. It is not essential that you read its meaning in the beginning. You can get back to them later on, once you have read more important interpretations.
Your angular houses, namely, the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses, are very emphasized in your chart, Virgin Mary: according to the Tradition, they are the strongest and most dynamic houses. Should the rest of your chart concur, angular houses suggest that you are an enterprising, energetic and assertive woman. Indeed, angular houses are said to generate impulsions and to give a powerful and domineering personality.
Unusual fates are often linked to a predominance of angular houses, but this is only a partial indication...
Each sign contains 30 degrees and can be divided into three equal parts: the decanates. The Tradition indicates that specific meanings can be associated to each of the three decanates. Their sphere of activity is usually limited to the Sun sign, however, it is even more interesting to observe the distribution of all the planets in the chart to get an idea of the respective importance of the three decanates, which can complement the description of the personality.
These meanings must be considered with the greatest caution. Indeed, they are minor characteristics that can only underline other outstanding traits of character.
Traditionally, the first decanate highlights the characteristics of the sign where a planet is located. The two other decanates correspond to sub-dominant planets, depending on the nature of each sign. This system leads to a multiplication of meanings and it is impossible to have a clear understanding: here, we prefer to give only the meaning of one decanate in comparison with the other two, within the birth chart as a whole. Again, the greatest caution is needed with regard to this minor indication as it is not always reliable: it is not essential that you read these texts in the beginning. You can get back to them later on, once you have read more important interpretations
The first decanate, which means the part between 0° and 10° of any zodiacal sign, prevails in your natal chart, Virgin Mary: this decanate is traditionally linked to vitality and physical constitution, and may indicate that you efficiently express your concrete energy on the material and sensual planes.
Dominants: Planets, Signs and Houses for Virgin Mary
The issue of dominant planets has existed since the mists of time in astrology: how nice it would be if a person could be described with a few words and one or several planets that would represent their character, without having to analyse such elements as rulerships, angularities, houses, etc!
The ten planets - the Sun throughout Pluto - are a bit like ten characters in a role-play, each one has its own personality, its own way of acting, its own strengths and weaknesses. They actually represent a classification into ten distinct personalities, and astrologers have always tried to associate one or several dominant planets to a natal chart as well as dominant signs and houses.
Indeed, it is quite the same situation with signs and houses. If planets symbolize characters, signs represent hues - the mental, emotional and physical structures of an individual. The sign in which a planet is posited is like a character whose features are modified according to the place where he lives. In a chart, there are usually one, two or three highlighted signs that allow to rapidly describe its owner.
Regarding astrological houses, the principle is even simpler: the twelve houses correspond to twelve fields of life, and planets tenanting any given house increase that house's importance and highlight all relevant life departments: it may be marriage, work, friendship etc.
In your natal chart, Virgin Mary, the ten main planets are distributed as follows:
The three most important planets in your chart are Mars, Venus and Uranus.
Mars is one of your dominant planets and provides you with its efficient energy and enthusiasm: with a powerful Mars in your chart, action - but also will and ability to undertake - is not an empty word for you. You are active, dynamic, willing to fight, courageous, and you are never afraid to move mountains, even though risks are part of the adventures that you start with determination.
However, your patience is not always up to your boldness and a kind of feverishness, or even anger, can tarnish the quality of your achievements. That would be a pity since the Marsian is a champion in matters of efficiency! Mars symbolizes display of action, conquering spirit that favours discipline and order - beware of not being fussy - and lies at the frontier between action and brutality, between conquest and potential aggressiveness.
With Venus among your dominant planets, one of your first reflexes is... to please! Your look, your charm, and your seduction are omnipresent elements in your behaviour.
Your approach to things is connected to your heart, and for you, no real communication can flow if your interlocutors exude no sympathy or warmth. Cold and logical reasoning, clear thoughts and good sense are not important to you: if there is no affective bond with your environment, no connection can be established with the Venusian that you are, and nothing happens.
You have a strong artistic side, and you never neglect subjective but clear concepts such as pleasure, beauty, and also sensuality. However, sometimes to the detriment of efficiency, durability, logic, and... detachment.
Uranus among your dominant planets: just like Neptune and Pluto, Uranian typology is less clearly defined than the so-called classical seven planets that are visible to the naked eye, from the Sun to Saturn. However, it is possible to associate your Uranian nature with a few clear characteristics: Uranus rhymes with independence, freedom, originality, or even rebelliousness and marginality, when things go wrong...
Uranus is Mercury's higher octave and as such, he borrows some of its traits of character; namely, a tendency to intellectualize situations and emotions with affective detachment, or at least jagged affectivity.
Therefore, you are certainly a passionate woman who is on the lookout for any kind of action or revolutionary idea, and you are keen on new things. Uranians are never predictable, and it is especially when they are believed to be stable and well settled that... they change everything - their life, partner, and job! In fact, you are allergic to any kind of routine, although avoiding it must give way to many risks.
In your natal chart, the three most important signs - according to criteria mentioned above - are in decreasing order of strength Leo, Capricorn and Scorpio. In general, these signs are important because your Ascendant or your Sun is located there. But this is not always the case: there may be a cluster of planets, or a planet may be near an angle other than the Midheaven or Ascendant. It may also be because two or three planets are considered to be very active because they form numerous aspects from these signs.
Thus, you display some of the three signs' characteristics, a bit like a superposition of features on the rest of your chart, and it is all the more so if the sign is emphasized.
With Leo as a dominant sign, you naturally shine brightly. Your dignity, your sense of honour, and your generosity can almost turn you into a solar mythological hero, a knight or a lord from the ancient times. People may blame you for your selfishness, your pride or your somewhat loud authority, but if you are self-confident, kind-hearted and strong-willed, it surely makes up for your little flaws, as long as they remain moderate...
Capricorn is one of your dominant signs and endows you with a grave and serious style that seems to stick to you constantly. But if you have that reserved and cold side - as some extrovert people may think - on the other hand you possess sturdy qualities: you are strong-willed and tough. Your long-term vision, your sense of duty, and your ambition are not affected by the derisory and erratic motions that seem to upset most mortals less steady than you. Besides, you are like a good wine, you age well and your natural solemnity or serious side paradoxically turns into an almost cheerful appearance, as you grow older. You are actually very sensitive when it comes to love. Faithful, caring, sweet, and sensitive, your behaviour is very different in your everyday, sentimental life. A golden heart beats under your tough and austere appearance...
With Scorpio as a dominant sign, you are a strong and astute person, complicated and passionate, sometimes destructive and intolerant, but strong-willed, tough and daring, sometimes bordering on aggressive. So many qualities and dangers combined in one person! Obviously, this often results in a natural selection of people around you: those who stand up to you or admire you and those who can't bear you anymore! But that is precisely what you want. You are what you are and you are not going to transform yourself just to please. You are too proud and you never dread confrontations, although your way of fighting is secret, as is your nature that, mysteriously enough, you are so reluctant to reveal even to your close friends who will never understand you. That said... what a hellish charm you have!
The 7th, 10th and 5th houses are the most prominent ones in your birth chart. From the analysis of the most tenanted houses, the astrologer identifies your most significant fields or spheres of activity. They deal with what you are experiencing - or what you will be brought to experience one day - or they deal with your inner motivations.
Your 7th house is one of your dominant houses: it symbolizes other people, marriages, associations, contracts, and partnerships. Your personal achievement and maybe your problems - depending on the rest of your chart - are strongly influenced by your rapports with others, the area in which you tend to commit yourself deeply. You appreciate communication, and you give importance to others' opinions. Success requires the support of others, which seems obvious and natural to you. Your marriage generally contributes to your fulfilment.
With a prominent 10th house, your destiny's achievement may be very notable: the 10th house represents your career, your public life, and your ambitions. A good deal of your energy may thus be used to successfully implement what you have in mind. Instinctively, you are very keen to make your dreams come true. Sooner or later, you will deal with the public, and your personal achievement will go through trials and ordeals: other people and visible actions.
The 5th house is one of your dominant houses: hobbies, love life, sports, and games, including speculation and all kinds of entertainment, are fields that you actually take seriously! On a more subtle level, artistic creation as well as other forms of creation - including begetting children - could be one of your assets. You gain from taking part in leisure associations and various activity clubs in which a catchword resounds more than for most people: pleasure.
After this paragraph about dominant planets, of Virgin Mary, here are the character traits that you must read more carefully than the previous texts since they are very specific: the texts about dominant planets only give background information about the personality and remain quite general: they emphasize or, on the contrary, mitigate different particularities or facets of a personality. A human being is a complex whole and only bodies of texts can attempt to successfully figure out all the finer points.
Your sensitivity
Virgin Mary, you tend to hold emotions at bay, as if they were dangerous. You observe with curiosity what is occurring and you strive to objectively, logically and impersonally analyze facts in order to form correct judgments. Contacts and communication are very important to you, Virgin Mary, you make use of, even over-use, words, with deep humour because it is an additional way for you to be detached from your feelings. You may come across as superficial because you keep on talking without committing yourself. You need to be constantly on the move, to discover and to communicate in order to avoid boredom. When you are alone, you can spend lots of time with books to nourish your mind that is so avid for knowledge. However, be careful not to miss feelings because you favour intellectual sensations...
Entertainments, hobbies and parties, love affairs, holidays, here are the areas where you express best your emotions, Virgin Mary. You like children's company, your popularity is often good and you use it in order to increase the number of your encounters in order to see your seductive power. You are often endowed with artistic creativity. Art is a good outlet for all these gushing and fluctuating emotions that must be released at the slightest external stimulation.
Your intellect and your social life
Your intelligence is sensitive and delicate, with good comprehension abilities, Virgin Mary, which endows you with a strong intuition and receptivity. To you, impressions and feelings prevail over facts and your excellent selective memory is not cluttered with useless elements. Although you are not aware, your fertile imagination may lead you to change your daily reality so that it matches your dreams better. If you are creative, you may make use of your imagination in literary pursuits where you can freely invent beautiful stories taking place in the past. Your passion for History is such that you may immerse yourself into it with too much nostalgia and therefore, you may miss opportunities the present offers to design projects and to think of the future.
Communication is your forte, Virgin Mary: you will use your entire intelligence efficiently in order to achieve agreements, compromises, or contracts. You are a born negotiator, or at least, that's what you try to be because you are not mentally self-centred and your thoughts are more aimed at others rather than at yourself. With this thinking process, you may be dependent on others and somehow too adaptable... Flexible, chatty, and outgoing when you communicate, you lose in charisma and in convincing power what you gain in quick, efficient, but sometimes light, compromise. Matters related to marriage are sometimes dealt with thoughtlessly but cleverly.
Your affectivity and your seductiveness
In your chart, the Sun and Venus are both in Leo. You are a Leo to the tips of your claws, you resolutely take a conquering attitude, and you do not allow anybody to tarnish your public image. You are sensitive to people’s opinions. You strive to give a dramatic character to your sentimental life, otherwise, love would seem very dull to you. Your weaknesses? An obvious touchiness, the vulnerability to people’s judgments: when your charm works, you are at your best but you feel all the more powerless or distraught when your subtle enchanting mechanism gets jammed by a glitch. Your abilities to seduce are unquestionable. Does it mean that you are inconstant? Nothing is less certain. You are able to show that you are almost absolutely faithful. Faithfulness to your friends, your loves… and your rivals. Your nature is possessive and you seldom forgive blows to your pride. This is a consequence of your unlimited generosity towards persons who consider you and keep you in high esteem. No doubt, one never gets bored in your company. Unless your partner gets tired of always looking for reasons to admire you, to sustain a passionate, unyielding and uncompromising relationship. Some tyrannies are pleasant, whereas some others are more difficult to bear!
You are so proud and generous, Virgin Mary, that the power of your love contains in itself your vulnerability. However, this is precisely what makes you charming and original. You are loyal and straightforward and you need to love as much as you need to be loved. Both feelings are tightly linked and there is a real danger that love is broken up by trivial misunderstandings, just because your touchiness is affected. You are demonstrative, brilliant, and even dramatic, with a legendary generosity. For you, everything is, or must be, excessive: gestures of love towards your partner, your presents, your comfort and the luxury, which marks your outings and your travels. You are physically a lion, at least, you have its sexual appetite; you are voluptuous and passionate. Flexibility is the only thing that is out of your reach, in the ways you show your love, as well as in your responses to annoying events.
Virgin Mary, your warmth and your attractiveness are at the service of your future or current marriage! In the 7th house, Venus colours the expression of your feelings with commitment, a request for reciprocation and for something concrete. Venus gives way, to a great extent, to your desire to be loved as much as to love: in the romantic field, your entire being aims at harmony, diplomacy, mind-openness so as to find, at any cost, a common ground where you can achieve your aim, that is to say a sweet idyll and, why not if it is possible, a nice marriage as an ending. Are problems arising? A disagreement? A lack of understanding? Immediately, you undertake to soothe your partner and to highlight what brings you together, while skilfully omitting anything that might harm the so much sought after harmony. Of course, this merely complacent attitude seems to allow you to progress with conviction towards your goals but there is a price to be paid. The dependency upon your couple becomes tangible. Paradoxically, anyway, you care little about that because it is just the way you are and that, worst comes to worst, you prefer to continue this constant game consisting in a kind of self-sacrifice with its fruitful benefits, rather than to push yourself to the forefront and to take the risk of being less attractive… Actually, you are never happier than when you formalize your union and there is no doubt that, once you are married, you will be a charming spouse and you will strive to make your conjugal life a pleasant one in a spirit of sharing and warmth.
Your behaviour
Psychologically speaking, your nature is introverted and cold, totally controlled and phlegmatic, at least regarding the image you project invariably. You seem unemotional and austere. Actually, due to your secondarity, you chew over your strategies or your reactions required by your environment. You are slow but very thoughtful, solid and balanced. You are as curt as you are cold and you put the entire strength of your character at the service of your huge and long-term ambition or of your detachment from earthly riches and you focus on spiritual values.
Like all the persons born under an apparently reserved and tough sign, your inner personality is often charming and gentle, as if the thick armour, forged throughout childhood, had entirely preserved the purity and the warmth of the soul imprisoned within.
As you are born under this sign, you are serious, cold, disciplined, patient, focused, thoughtful, ambitious, indomitable, cautious, lucid, persistent, provident, steady, introverted, stern, wilful, hard-working, responsible, persevering, honest, realistic, loyal, reserved, resolute, moralistic, quiet, rigorous, attached and reliable. But you may also be curt, withdrawn, calculating, petty, cruel, unpleasant, ruthless, selfish, dull, rigid, slow or sceptical.
You are courageous and rational, Madam, but you need affection and tenderness in spite of what you say. You try constantly to be reasonable and to repress the sentimental weaknesses that come up once in a while. In general, there are few amorous encounters at the beginning of your life.
But quite rapidly, you become aware that solitude is not good for your balance. You remain on the defensive, you are hurting in your shell, that convenient ivory tower where you protect yourself in all areas, except this particular one…
With an aching heart, you will finally forsake your defences and you eventually experience a few rare exceptional encounters. Among them, you will meet with your soul mate, to whom you will dedicate all your time and your love with loyalty, faithfulness, a strong sense of duty and maximal efficiency.
You will control your children’s education, inculcating in them the values of effort, patience, perseverance and social rules. You will teach them that the old saying applies to them too, that slow and steady wins the race. To be early is not to be on time… but their time will come!
Your will and your inner motivations
Psychologically speaking, your nature is powerful and self-assured. You are a leader whose strength and nobleness naturally arouse your entourage’s respect and adherence and your legitimacy is unquestioned. Your sense of commandment, the honour your person constantly exudes, your prestige and your charisma is a whole which puts you into the spotlight wherever you go.
As you are born under this sign, you are proud, determined, wilful, loyal, solemn, generous, ambitious, courageous, heroic, full of vitality, creative, confident, seductive, happy, daring, proud, majestic, honest, magnanimous, charismatic, responsible, noble, brilliant, radiant, dramatic, affectionate, full of humour, demonstrative, swaggering and self-confident.You can also be domineering, conceited, touchy, authoritarian, stubborn, intolerant, self-centered, irascible, violent, and nonchalant
In love, Madam, you are so proud and you have so much self-confidence that, at the beginning, you will probably need some time to find the partner whom you deem worthy of you.
You shine and you need to be told so; more often than not, your partner, too, must shine… Pre-requisites seem to abound. However, as you mature, you will understand that all that glitters is not gold and that gold may be even more solid when it is less apparent. Then, you will reach higher levels of harmony with your partner.
Your weakness probably lies in your sensitivity to splits, a sort of major ordeal you will not be able to overcome rapidly.
You are a charming partner, with a lot of humour. You are brilliant, bubbling and you receive your guests wonderfully well, all the more so if they belong to your world. Your children will be particularly important to you and they will immensely contribute to your happiness.
To assert yourself, Virgin Mary, you cannot rest until you multiply your contacts. Although you do not consciously understand your ambition early in life, you need to shine through your relationships.
It may take the form of a tendency to rapidly get involved in associations, groups or clubs; you feel fine as soon as people are around you because your communication skills are always highlighted and appreciated; your style is not what matters most because your main concern is to be noticed as soon as you are in contact with the world.
You are meant for marriage, the ultimate form of association. Usually, your destiny is dependent on your marriage, either directly through its consequences on your career and your lifestyle, or indirectly and, in the long run, through the supports and help you may gain, particularly owing to your honesty and your assertive skills. Marriage constitutes the apotheosis of your ambitions. As you unconsciously understand it, your entire will strives to achieve this aim since your adolescence. You have the required flexibility and talent to turn the life of your couple into daily harmony. This area is only one of the facets of the fields where you positively exercise your will but... you do so with so much strength and talent! With this configuration, everything seems all roses. However, it is not as simple and easy as it may look: your will to shine through others and your almost frantic search for contact may hide a fear of solitude and a lack of self-confidence. Why would you constantly seek confirmation of your own worth into other people's eyes if it were not to dispel your own doubts? You are easily influenced and your apprehension about loneliness and not being up to it may cause troubles and out-of-proportion reactions; struggles, conflicts of authority or even lawsuits may be harmful. You often get over them because your determination to show that you are at your best is stronger than anything else. Your challenge is to manage to please others and to conceal your domineering and too assertive side: however, do not make too much effort because, in all cases, you will be equally appreciated. Remember that it's better to let well alone!
Your ability to take action
Your iron will is part of your assets, Virgin Mary. It is supported by an ingenuity and a skilfulness that may turn you into a mighty and feared personality. You have the knack of spotting weaknesses in persons you deal with and you can easily hurt them with your innate propensity to drill or to test their force. You are extremely stubborn and you never let go when you are convinced that you are right. Sexually, you are potent and passionate. You are domineering and secretive, with a magnetic personality. It is safer to avoid being taken in a conflict with you because you may be very aggressive and you bear grudges. In some cases, you may also be sadistic. Your personality is as secretive as it is domineering in the areas of action and sexuality.
Your energy and your capacity for action are at the service of your career and your destiny, Virgin Mary : No doubt, this is one of the simplest and most transparent planetary configurations. You do not hesitate. For you, action means climbing up the social ladder, sooner or later, winning the marshal’s baton, defeating setbacks through efforts and work, and overcoming the obstacles on your path. You get your reward by the sweat of your brow, and you are aware that it is no easy business. Your personal approach is that nothing can be achieved without an effort because you are wise enough to be aware of it. It is so deeply rooted in you that you may feel that you will get nothing if you do not fight for it. You are right, actually, at least as far as you are concerned, because it is your manner. Your destiny implies many struggles, and you have the necessary courage to join battle. However, as time unfolds, try to be gentle with yourself and indulge in a few moments of well-deserved rest and respite!
Conclusion
This text is only an excerpt from of Virgin Mary's portrait. We hope that it will arouse your curiosity, and that it will prompt you to deepen your knowledge of astrology, as well as to visit and use the wide range of free applications at www.astrotheme.com.
Astrological studies describe many of the character traits and they sometimes go deeper into the understanding of a personality. Please, always keep in mind that human beings are continuously evolving and that many parts of our psychological structures are likely to be expressed later, after having undergone significant life's experiences. It is advised to read a portrait with hindsight in order to appreciate its astrological content. Under this condition, you will be able to take full advantage of this type of study.
The analysis of an astrological portrait consists in understanding four types of elements which interact with one another: ten planets, twelve zodiacal signs, twelve houses, and what are called aspects between planets (the 11 aspects most commonly used are: conjunction, opposition, square, trine, sextile, quincunx, semi-sextile, sesqui-quadrate, quintile and bi-quintile. The first 5 aspects enumerated are called major aspects).
Planets represent typologies of our human psychology: sensitivity, affectivity, ability to undertake, will-power, mental process, aptitude, and taste for communication etc., all independent character facets are divided here for practical reasons. The twelve signs forming the space where planets move will "colour", so to speak, these typologies with each planet being located in its particular sign. They will then enrich the quality of these typologies, as expressed by the planets. The Zodiac is also divided into twelve astrological houses. This makes sense only if the birth time is known because within a few minutes, the twelve houses (including the 1st one, the Ascendant) change significantly. They correspond to twelve specific spheres of life: external behaviour, material, social and family life, relationship, home, love life, daily work, partnership, etc. Each planet located in any given house will then act according to the meaning of its house, and a second colouration again enriches those active forces that the planets symbolize. Finally, relations will settle among planets, creating a third structure, which completes the planets' basic meanings. A set of ancient rules, which has stood the test of experience over hundreds of years (although astrology is in evolution, only reliable elements are integrated into classical studies), are applied to organize the whole chart into a hierarchy and to allow your personality to be interpreted by texts. The planets usually analysed are the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which means two luminaries (the Sun and the Moon) and 8 planets, a total of 10 planets. Additional secondary elements may be taken into account, such as asteroids Chiron, Vesta, Pallas, Ceres (especially Chiron, more well-known), the Lunar nodes, the Dark Moon or Lilith, and even other bodies: astrology is a discipline on the move. Astrological studies, including astrological portrait, compatibility of couples, predictive work, and horoscopes evolve and become more accurate or deeper, as time goes by.
Precision: concerning the horoscopes with a known time of birth, according to the Tradition, we consider that a planet near the beginning (called cuspide) of the next house (less than 2 degrees for the Ascendant and the Midheaven, and less than 1 degree for all other houses) belongs to this house: our texts and dominants take this rule into account. You can also choose not to take this shift into account in the form, and also tick the option Koch or Equal houses system instead of Placidus, the default houses system.
Warning: In order to avoid any confusion and any possible controversy, we want to draw your attention upon the fact that this sample of celebrities is very complete and therefore, it also includes undesirable people, since every category is represented: beside artists, musicians, politicians, lawyers, professional soldiers, poets, writers, singers, explorers, scientists, academics, religious figures, saints, philosophers, sages, astrologers, mediums, sportsmen, chess champions, famous victims, historical characters, members of royal families, models, painters, sculptors, and comics authors or other actual celebrities, there are also famous murderers, tyrants and dictators, serial-killers, or other characters whose image is very negative, often rightly so.
Regarding the latter, it must be remembered that even a monster or at least a person who perpetrated odious crimes, has some human qualities, often noticed by his/her close entourage: these excerpts come from computer programmes devoid of polemical intentions and may seem too soft or lenient. The positive side of each personality is deliberately stressed. Negative sides have been erased here - it is not the same in our comprehensive reports on sale - because it could hurt the families of such people. We are hoping that it will not rebound on the victims' side.
Numerology: Birth Path of Virgin Mary
Testimonies to numerology are found in the most ancient civilizations and show that numerology pre-dates astrology. This discipline considers the name, the surname, and the date of birth, and ascribes a meaning to alphabetic letters according to the numbers which symbolise them.
The path of life, based on the date of birth, provides indications on the kind of destiny which one is meant to experience. It is one of the elements that must reckoned with, along with the expression number, the active number, the intimacy number, the achievement number, the hereditary number, the dominant numbers or the lacking numbers, or also the area of expression, etc.
Your Birth Path: 
Your Life Path is influenced by the number 7, and indicates that your destiny is marked with spiritual life, research, and introversion. This number prompts you to steer clear from commonly accepted values. You search for wisdom, sometimes at the cost of some degree of solitude. It may translate into curiosity or a keen interest in metaphysics, religion, or spirituality. Or else, the will to follow a personal path off the beaten path and to build a specific destiny for yourself. Your life is an initiation journey, and worldly vagaries are unable to make you turn away from your research. If the quest for a certain form of the absolute proves to be a powerful factor of creativity, your progression tolerates no easy solutions. The danger is that, owing to your need for independence, you may come across as an exceedingly cold and rigid person. It is all the more so because the number 7 marks extraordinary destinies which sometimes demand sacrifices, particularly on the material or interpersonal areas.
N. B.: when the birth time is unknown, (12:00 PM (unknown)), these portrait excerpts do not take into account the parameters derived from the time, which means, the domification (Ascendant, astrological houses, etc.). Nonetheless, these analyses remain accurate in any case. Regarding the sources of the birth data in our possession, kindly note that the pages we publish constitute a starting point for more detailed research, even though they seem useful to us. When the sources are contradictory, which occurs rarely, after having analysed them, we choose the most reliable one. Sometimes, we publish a birth date just because it is made available, but we do not claim that is it the best one, by no means.
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