Some Notes on a Platonic Theology, Part 4: The Hypostases and the Virgin

I had intended to cover a number of subjects related to Platonic Christianity, but it turns out I have a great deal to say on that topic, and I'd rather not attempt to pack it all into one post.  Instead, today we're going to discuss some of the possible ways of thinking about God that result when you combine the separate ideas of the Three Primary Hypostases in Plotinus with the Christian Holy Trinity, and then discuss how that then affects the role in the Divine economy of the greatest of Christian saints, the Virgin Mary. 

Now, before we begin, I need to say that all of this is at the level of Wild Speculation. I intend nothing I say here as a statement of dogma and certainly not as an attempt to change anyone's views. I enjoy playing with ideas, combining important or powerful thoughts from different traditions, and seeing what results. If that sort of thing appeals to you, welcome aboard! If not, well-- you probably aren't reading this anyway. 

The Hypostases, Horizontally and Vertically 

As we’ve already seen, the Intelligible Triad of Being, Life, and Intellect (Nous) was borrowed by many of the Church Fathers in order to describe the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In the Christianized Triad, the Father is Being; the Son is Intellect; and the Holy Ghost is Life. Among the pagan Platonists, starting with Porphyry, each term in the Intelligible Triad is a hypostasis represented by a particular God, just as they are for Christians (the Christians also use the term “hypostasis,” though they’d say “three hypostases of One God” rather than “three hypostases, each of which is a God.” I’ll leave it to you to decide how important this difference is). Earlier on, this isn’t the case; Porphyry’s teacher, Plotinus, did not see them as hypostases, but as qualities possessed by the First Principle. For Plotinus, the three Primary Hypostases are Being Itself, Intellect (Nous) Itself, and Soul Itself. 

 

I wonder if it isn’t possible to combine Porphyry’s view with Plotinus’s, and Christianize both. In this case, the First Principle, Being Itself, is the One, or God the Father. Within the One Itself are three terms, Being, Life, and Intellect. The Being of the Father is the Father, within the Father; the Life within the Father is the Holy Spirit, within the Father; the Intellect within the Father is the Son, within the Father.

It's worth noting, by the way, that at least some of the late Platonists wouldn't like that notion very much at all. For Proclus, the One must be preserved exempt from all qualities and all multitude; in the Second Book of his Platonic Theology he calls it  "the cause of the Gods," and emphasizes that it is "not the leader of a Triad." Fortunately, we don't have to do what Proclus tells us!
 

The Second Hypostasis, Intellect Itself, is the Son. Please remember that “Intellect” is not thoughts, but the Ideas which make thought and existence possible; Intellect isn’t a particular Idea or even the sum total of Ideas, but that by virtue of which Ideas come to be. At every level, the First Triad is re-capitulated, so that the Father is the Being of the Son, the Holy Ghost is the Life of the Son, and the Son is the Intellect of the Son. 

 

The Third Hypostasis, Soul Itself, is the Holy Ghost. Remember, here, that Soul Itself is not the same as the World Soul. The World Soul or Anima Mundi is a powerful being-- a God-- but it is still one soul, even if it is the one soul that contains all souls. Soul Itself is that by virtue of which there are any souls at all, including the World Soul. Within Soul Itself, the Holy Spirit, the Father is the Being of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the Life of the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the Intellect of the Holy Spirit.

 

Mary and the Hypostases

 

Mary has a unique role to play in this formulation of the Trinity. She is a creature, but a creature which was able to contain the Second Hypostasis, and thus to contain the First Principle. She is thus the mediating principle between the Primary Hypostases and creatures. In traditional Theology, she is the Daughter of God the Father, the Mother of God the Son, and the Spouse of God the Holy Ghost. As such, she plays a different role with respect to each of the Primary Hypostases. 

 

Here are some of the roles and titles Mary is given in traditional Christianity: 1. Queen of Heaven and Earth; 2. Exalted beyond compare above the Seraphim and Cherubim, the highest of the angels; 3. Mother of God; 4. Her womb contained the universe; 5. Mediatrix of All Graces; 6. Recipient of "hyperdulia," the highest veneration possible for a creature; 7. A creature, that is to say, a being with a definite beginning, and so not eternal; 8. Yet, somehow, able to contain the Eternal.

 

Picture the arrangement suggested above, in which the three persons of the Holy Trinity each occur at all three levels of being; in a sense the Triad becomes an Ennead. 

 

On this arrangement, Mary would have a different relationship to each of the terms (or Persons) of the Ennead at each of the three different levels.

 

 At the First Level, she is the Daughter of the Father; this means that she receives her Being from the Father (with the Son, his Intellect, and the Spirit, his Life). It might be that although, in Time, her birth comes rather late in human history, because there is no Time for God, the Idea of her, and thus the fundamental spark of her Being, always existed with him. In that case, as she will become the First of Beings, this was always the core of her being, and thus she was always the First; we can thus justifiably call her the First Creature, even if it doesn't appear so to us who live with Time and History. She is the Mother Secret and Hidden. 

 

At the second level, she is the Mother of the Son; this means that, having received Being from the Father (which includes Life and Intellect), she acts as the Kora in Plato's Timaeus, the Formless-Form which brings forth all the Forms; thus she is Mother of the Word, who is the Logos, the Form of Forms. At this level, too, she is Queen of Angels, as these are the Ideas or Noetic Beings (gods, in an earlier way of thinking) that exist at this level. 

 

At the Third Level, she is Spouse of God the Holy Ghost; this means that, in partnership with Soul Itself (the Holy Ghost), she becomes Mother to all particular souls. Would that make her the same as the Soul of the World (Anima Mundi), or would the Soul of the World be one of the particular souls to whom she is Mother? I don't know; what do you think?
 

The Holy Family and the Divinization of Matter

 

In the thought of Plotinus, Matter is not and can never be a Fourth Hypostasis; Matter is the source of evil and the prison from which we must escape. 

 

I wonder if the logic of the Incarnation doesn’t change this perspective. 

 

By her birth in time, Mary, the first Creature, becomes incarnate in matter. She then bears the Christ-child, who is the Second (or Third) Hypostasis, become incarnate in matter. The two are cared for by Saint Joseph, an ordinary man who rises to an extraordinary occasion. As a living human family, these three become a material model of the Trinity: Christ, the eternal spiritual power who descends into Matter; Joseph, the mortal man who rises to the occasion and thus rises above mere mortality; and Mary, who has elements of both, at once representing an immortal Idea incarnate in material form and also a perfectly ordinary woman who raises herself to universal heights by submitting absolutely to the Will of God: Be it done unto me according to Thy Word. 

 

If all of this is the case, it suggests that part of the work of the Incarnation of Christ is the Divinization of Matter Itself, the creation, in effect of a Fourth Hypostasis-- an adopted Hypostasis, to be sure, but another One which will share in the Life of the Blessed Trinity. The Way is shown by the Holy Family. This is the true meaning of the Gnostic idea of the Fallen Sophia, for whose rescue Christ descends into matter. 

But again, this is all speculation. What do you think?