one can the Logos, the
kosmic Mystic Christ, take on Himself the clothing of matter, entering
in very truth the Virgin's womb, the womb of Matter as yet virgin,
unproductive. This matter had been vivified by the Holy Spirit, who,
overshadowing the Virgin, poured into it His life, thus preparing it to
receive the life of the Second Logos, who took this matter as the
vehicle for His energies. This is the becoming incarnate of the Christ,
the taking flesh--"Thou did'st not despise the Virgin's womb."

In the Latin and English translations of the original Greek text of the
Nicene Creed, the phrase which describes this phase of the descent has
changed the prepositions and so changed the sense. The original ran:
"and was incarnate _of_ the Holy Ghost _and_ the Virgin Mary," whereas
the translation reads: "and was incarnate _by_ the Holy Ghost _of_ the
Virgin Mary."[208] The Christ "takes form not of the 'Virgin' matter
alone, but of matter which is already instinct and pulsating with the
life of the Third Logos,[209] so that both the life and the matter
surround Him as a vesture."[210]

This is the descent of the Logos into matter, described as the birth of
the Christ of a Virgin, and this, in the Solar Myth, becomes the birth
of the Sun-God as the sign Virgo rises.

Then come the early workings of the Logos in matter, aptly typified by
the infancy of the myth. To all the feebleness of infancy His majestic
powers bow themselves, letting but little play forth on the tender forms
they ensoul. Matter imprisons, seems as though threatening to slay, its
infant King, whose glory is veiled by the limitations He has assumed.
Slowly He shapes it towards high ends, and lifts it into manhood, and
then stretches Himself on the cross of matter that He may pour forth
from that cross all the powers of His surrendered life. This is the
Logos of whom Plato said that He was in the figure of a cross on the
universe; this is the Heavenly Man, standing in space, with arms
outstretched in blessing; this is the Christ crucified, whose death on
the cross of matter fills all matter with His life. Dead He seems and
buried out of sight, but He rises again clothed in the very matter in
which He seemed to perish, and carries up His body of now radiant
matter into heaven, where it receives the downpouring life of the
Father, and becomes the vehicle of man's immortal life. For it is the
life of the Logos which forms the garment of the Soul in man, and He