The soul is a tree whose roots are deeply imbedded in the "world"--in things, both in ourselves and around us, which are capable of being felt, tasted, lived; the "world" is diversity, as well as the passional movements that respond to it, whether in the flesh, in sentiment, or in thought.
The "one thing needful" is the transferring of our roots into what appears to be nothingness, emptiness, unity. Since the soul cannot plant its roots in the void, the void is "incarnated" in the symbol; it is in everything that brings us nearer to God.
Frithjof Schuon
Prayer Fashions Man
This quote sums up the Dormition for me. I haven't quite got a handle on how it seems so perfect to me for this Feast. It seems to mesh well with the scripture readings for the day: it has the same sort of movement. From the diversity of the world, to the humble void of the receptive, virginal soul, and back out, through that unity, to the diversifying fecundity of the symbolic imagination. See, I don't really know what I am talking about, but I am trying to get a handle on it.
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One thing that makes me think I am on the right track with this idea is that the Scripture readings for today do not explicitly include the Theotokos. If we are to apply them to her, then we must activate our symbolic imagination. We must try to see how Mary the sister of Martha is really a symbol for the Virgin. It is as if the Virgin is hiding behind symbols and is only to be found by one who is not seeking her directly. So, she has, in these readings, the feel of a void.
I hasten to add that she is not actually a nothingness, but rather a fecund void. I think it is not going too far to say that her fecundity gives birth to all of the Saints. The Saints, then, are really symbols of Mary. But we must activate our imagination through fasting from the diversity of the world, before we can live this. Any clearer? I didn't think so.
Likewise, Mary Magdelene and Mary the mother of Jesus are fused together in Paschal hymnography, as the latter is hinted at as being the one receiving Jesus from the tomb.
There seems to me to be a deep significance to this spilling over of the reality of the Virgin into the other Marys.
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