Theosophical Correspondence.
Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
Question: — Is it beneficial to pray to the “Virgin Mary”?
Answer: — I can give you no better advice than to pray to the “Virgin Mary,” provided you understand how to do it. The “Virgin Mary” is within us, or at least should be. She is the symbol of the higher region of the soul, which is free and pure from all lower emotions and therefore alone capable of receiving the Holy Spirit, that is, the Spirit of Truth. Without the soul, the spirit could not unite with the body; she is the link between the two, the mirror through which the body receives the light of wisdom, and therefore in a sense our “intercessor before the throne of God,” for without placing ourselves under her protection we cannot attain the divine light. “Praying to the Virgin Mary” means, if it is correctly understood, to raise oneself inwardly from the region of the lower soul activities (instincts, desires, ideas, etc.) to the higher soul region, or rather to allow oneself to be permeated and raised by this and thereby to participate in the higher spiritual-divine life.
Only in this higher region of the soul, and not in the midst of our animal instincts or worldly desires, “Christ is born,” that is, in it the spiritual rebirth takes place, of which the Holy Scriptures speak (John III, 6), and without this there is no eternal life; for the spiritual man needs a spiritual organism, a spiritual individuality, in order to develop his spiritual powers and to use them, just as the material man needs a physical body and sense organs. Whether the believing Catholic understands all this intellectually is another question; but in the end it does not matter; for by forming an ideal conception and raising himself in thought to his ideal, he absorbs the spirit of the ideal into himself and is raised by it, even if his conception does not correspond to the facts.
Note
[1] Endnote Theosophical Correspondence. The Virgin Mary. By Dr. Franz Hartmann. [Theosophische Korrespondenz. Die Jungfrau Maria. Von Dr. Franz Hartmann. Theosophischer Wegweiser 8, no, 7 (April 1907), 217] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than minor typos, translation from German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}