(10) "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God."
It is evident from this quotation, after all that goes before,
that the City, the heavenly bride, who is here
promised to the Son, is the mother.[16] In Babylon the
impure maid was cast out, according to the Epistle to the
Galatians, so that here in heavenly Jerusalem the mother-bride
may be attained the more surely. It bears witness
to the most delicate psychologic perception that the
fathers of the church who formulated the canons preserved
this bit of the symbolic significance of the Christ
mystery. It is a treasure house for the phantasies and
myth materials which underlie primitive Christianity.[17]
The further attributes which were heaped upon the heavenly
Jerusalem make its significance as mother overwhelmingly
clear:
(1) "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
(2) "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations.
(3) "And there shall be no more curse."
In this quotation we come upon the symbol of the
waters, which we found in the mention of Ogyges in connection
with the city. The maternal significance of water
belongs to the clearest symbolism in the realm of mythology,[18]
so that the ancients could say: [Greek: ê) tha/lassa—tê~s
gene/seôs sy/mbolon].[1] From water comes life;[19]
- ↑ The sea is the symbol of birth.
