''Open the [heavenly] gates and welcome in a supernatural way the Mother of eternal light. For it is by her synergy that the salvation of the whole race of men has been achieved. Her whom power we have not [eyes to lift up and] gaze upon.''
(Praise for the Vespers of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary)
The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, one of the greatest feasts of the Orthodox calendar dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which takes place on 15 August and refers to the transfiguration of the Blessed Virgin Mary to heaven.
(Praise for the Vespers of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary)
According to Christian tradition, when the Virgin Mary learned from God that her time had come to leave, she gave her belongings to two widows and went to the Mount of Olives. There she prayed and prepared herself for the event, and also called all the Apostles. It is even said that those who were not in Jerusalem at that time were carried to her by a cloud. The Assumption of the Virgin finally happened in the house of John the Evangelist. After closing her eyes, they carried the deathbed to the garden of Gethsemane, where she was buried. After 3 days, her tomb was found empty, as she had been resurrected and ''relocated'' to heaven.
Virgin Mary holds a special place in Christian teaching, embodying the archetypes and powers of protector, helper, patience, benevolence and, of course, motherhood and tenderness. Contemporaneously She was the person who brought into the world the Saviour of mankind. Of course, the divine feminine element has played a particularly important role in most cultures since ancient times. The first deity in history was Mother Earth, while deities such as Hestia, Silonen, Ishtar, Bastet, Bridget, etc., indicate the dissemination of matriarchy.
Historically - with the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, the change in the division of labour and the emergence of class societies - humanity may have moved to more patriarchal structures, but the Virgin Mary, with her light, reminds us of the essential existence of the female gender for the balance of nature, the equality of societies and the evolution of humanity as a whole.
(Foto: Master of the Amsterdam Death of the Virgin, 1500)
