Note 452 — Chapter V · SYMBOLISM OF THE MOTHER AND OF REBIRTH

528The relation of the son to the mother was the psychologic basis of many religions. In the Christian legend the relation of the son to the mother is extraordinarily clear. Robertson (“Evangelical Myths”) has hit upon the relation of Christ to the Marys, and he conjectures that this relation probably refers to an old myth “where a god of Palestine, perhaps of the name Joshua, appears in the changing relation of lover and son towards a mythical Mary. This is a natural process in the oldest theosophy and one which appears with variations in the myths of Mithra, Adonis, Attis, Osiris and Dionysus, all of whom were brought into relation (or combination) with mother goddesses and who appear either as a consort or a feminine eidolon in so far as the mothers and consorts were identified as occasion offered.”