Found With Child of the Holy Spirit
A Metaphysical Interpretation of Matthew 1:18-21
The Story of Jesus' Soul Evolution
An unpublished manuscript written by Charles Fillmore in 1947
Pages 47-53
Text
Matt. 1:18-21 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise; When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But when he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord, appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins.
Interpretation
Everything first takes place in the mind. In truth it is in mind where real demonstrations find their impetus. Joseph and Mary’s betrothal was to them such a sacred and holy thing that it stirred into activity the most spiritual forces of their souls, which forces perhaps had never been set into expression before, and their spiritual union was consummated. There followed such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit (which is God’s Word in action) that Mary, through Joseph, was over-shadowed by this heavenly power, and though she did not “know man” in a physical way, the initial germ seed was thereby projected, and she conceived and brought forth the child, Jesus.
Metaphysically interpreted within the soul, Mary, the Virgin mother, represents a pure state of mind that ponders spiritual things in her heart and believes in revelations from angels and messengers from God. Her imagination is so intense that she vitalizes the ultra-microscopic germs of life and they multiply in her body without external contact. Joseph represents the outer mind that practices obedience to the Lord, gained in dreams and external symbols. Nazareth their home, represents the commonplace if not unpopular environment in which the spiritually-minded are usually found.
Mary was “found with child of the Holy Spirit” means the miraculous conception by which the Virgin Mary is held to have conceived without original sin. Joseph, not fully understanding the prophecy, “was minded to put her away privily,” meaning that we do not in the first stages of the birth of Christ in us understand the process, and sometimes are moved to put it away from us. Joseph’s soul (the name Joseph meaning “from perfection to perfection”) is so heavily charged with divine life that it cannot express itself intelligently, because no union has yet taken place between it and the understanding, which union—when it is consumated—always equalizes and adjusts.
An angel is a messenger of the Lord. Metaphysically, our angels are our spiritual perceptive faculties, which ever dwell in the presence of the Father.
