Pastoral Psychol (2007) 55:537–542

DOI 10.1007/s11089-007-0073-2
ORIGINAL PAPER

The Mother-child Relationship as an Archetype for the

Relationship between the Virgin Mary and Humanity
in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation

Pierre M. Balthazar

Published online: 21 February 2007

C Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Abstract Following the work of Stevens Rogers (2002), this article starts with the premise
that humanity can be seen as a child growing in changing relationship with his or her mother.
With Jesus representing humanity, the relationship between a mother and a child can be
an archetype for understanding the changing relationship between the Virgin Mary and
humanity as narrated in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation. With the Annunciation by
the Angel, the Boy Jesus in the Temple, the wedding at Cana, and Mary at the foot of the cross
as developmental stages, this article shows the changing relationship between humanity and
the Virgin Mary.

Keywords Mother . Child . Humanity . Separation-individuation . Identification . Despair

Many attributes of the Virgin Mary make her the Christian equivalent of the Great
Mother, particularly in her image as virgin and mother and her son who is god, dies and
is resurrected. (Ayers, 2003, p. 103).
In recent years, interest in the psychology of religion has grown exponentially. Scholars
have studies the relationship between God and humanity (Rogers, 2002). The importance of a
mother-like figure has been neglected. Any full study of the parent-child relationship between
God and humanity cannot stop with God and/or Jesus. To do so would be like limiting
the religious experience of the believers. Since the beginning of Christianity, Christians
have approached the Virgin Mary in way that resembles a Mother-child relationship. For
people who do not believe in the virginal and Immaculate Conception of Mary, this may
be manifested in anger and rebellious behavior of a stepchild toward his or her stepmother
who in his or her mind comes to replace the biological mother. For those who believe in the
Virginal Conception, this may be reflected in their need to find a female figure whom they can

Pierre M. Balthazar is a student in the PsyD program in Clinical Psychology at the Illinois School of
Professional Psychology.

P. M. Balthazar (
)
5134 South Cicero Ave, Apartment # 1, Chicago, Illinois, 60638 USA
e-mail: pmbalthazar@yahoo.com
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call mother, someone they can go to whenever feelings of inadequacy, lack of confidence,
self-doubt, and fear of the unknown surface. This mother provides the secure base to go
into the environment and explore. With Jesus representing humanity, this relationship is best
captured in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation where the relationship between the
Virgin Mary and humanity resembles the relationship between a mother and a child during
the growth period of development. Beginning with the symbiosis of the Annunciation and
Incarnation and continuing with the presence of the Virgin Mary at the foot of Jesus’ Cross,
the Gospels and the Book of Revelation present the details of the growth of a new humanity
from conception to adulthood and the Virgin Mary’s corresponding interaction as a mother
whose initial care-giving is gradually displaced by a dance between attachment and need for
individuation. With the Annunciation, the Boy Jesus in the Temple, the wedding at Cana,
and the foot of the cross serving as stages of development of humanity, this article argues
that these events seem to portray the relationship between the Virgin Mary and humanity as
changing in a way that resembles a mother’s changing relationship with her children during
their development, their learning process, attachment, and their growth toward separation
and independency.

The rebirth of humanity: Annunciation, incarnation and symbiosis

The fall of Adam and Eve put humanity and the “creator God” in discord. The perfect
union that existed between God and humanity was ruined. Consequently, humanity was
symbolically chaotic. A sense of helplessness in the lack of responsibility of Adam and
Eve manifests itself through feelings of guilt and shame. The eyes of the creator God were
surveying humanity and humanity finds itself in a position where it realizes that it can
see and at the same time be seen by God. A descendant of humanity must come and take
responsibility to provide life to humanity. With the creator God putting “enmity between
you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers” (Gen 3: 15), God provides an
opportunity for the social consciousness of humanity.
In the New Testament, the Creator shifts the life giving power of humanity to a young
virgin whose image represents transference for humanity (Is. 7: 14). God sees the Virgin
Mary as the object of delight that restores the symbiotic union with humanity. She is to
recapture humanity, to take humanity back to its state of wholeness where humanity can
enter into deep intimacy with the creator and the God of the universe. As a woman, she
possesses the life giving powers of mother earth. As she gives birth to the person Jesus, Jesus
represents an image of transference for humanity, a way to fulfill the desire to go back to the
natural life giving powers of mother earth. Humanity is born in the person of Jesus, the God
with us. As “the Great God himself becomes a child again, he enters the womb to renew
himself” (Clark, 1959; Ayers, 2003, 130).
Being the mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary is the mother of the new humanity. She is a life
producer, both a sacred and magic icon. As such, her eyes of mercy are the first things that
humanity gazes into. Through her eyes, humanity as a child, finds its identity, the descendant
of Adam and Eve the first born of the new creation. Jesus and the humanity he represents
are dependent upon the Virgin Mary for their survival (Mt 2: 13–23) and the satisfaction of
their needs for wholeness and exploration. The Virgin Mary responds to the helplessness
of her child in ways that directly elicit sense of trust, security, and attachment. In the Book
of Revelation, a woman whom many have come to identified as the Virgin Mary is present
and humanity integrates itself in her maternal protection (12: 5f, 14i). To fully attend its
wholeness, humanity gets a name that separates it from other children, “and they shall name
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him Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’” (Mt 1: 23) and Jesus as the Angel of the Lord
instructed (Lk 2: 21b). Having a name, the child also has an identity. He does not live in a
vacuum outside of his mother’s world. It is his identity that connects him with his mother and
provides for his psychological integration. Jesus “wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in
a manger”(Lk 2: 12) represents the maternal nurturance provided by the Virgin to the infant
humanity.
The instinctive ability of a mother can predict the hurt and bond to the child more than
anybody else. Her physical presence provides a sense of security and protection for the
child. Humanity and the Virgin Mary develop a bond or attachment that not even the dark
forces of the world can disrupt. Baby humanity is able to distinguish between the face of its
mother, her voice, her touch, and her eyes from that of other people (Bowlby, 1988). It is
through this secure attachment that the Virgin Mary fosters humanity’s subjective self. As
a mother, the Virgin Mary is not ready to hear the prophetic message of Simeon and Anna
(Lk 2: 34–38). She does not want people to define who her child is. However, as a mother,
she is concerned with the maturation and developmental process of her child. Whatever is
said about her child, she kept them in her heart (Lk 2: 19). By taking in the information
she gets concerning her child, the Virgin Mary holds a secret that she has to share with
her child one day or another. One may only postulate that the Virgin Mary incorporates
these prophetic messages in her mode of interacting with her child. Following the human
development schema, humanity must have been socialized. How else could humanity come
to know who humanity is? It is through socialization that humanity comes to know that it
exists in a particular context, a point in time and belong to a group that differs from others.
Roger Straus (1985) defines socialization as “lifelong process involving the internalization
of cultural assumptions, beliefs and values of one’s social group” (p. 62). It is the Virgin
Mary’s responsibility to make sure that humanity does not grow apart from the God who
creates. But for the internalization process to take effect humanity must continuously repeat
what humanity learns and make them its own.
Humanity finds itself in a situation where it cannot fight against God, the father figure. As
the creator God chooses the Virgin Mary to become the mother of the new humanity, she is
in a way the love partner of the creator God. She is completely, totally in love with God and
after all, she is the servant of the Lord (Lk 1: 38). As humanity continues to develop, it goes
to a series of trial-and-error. Humanity as a child in transition must have experienced feelings
of resentment toward this powerful father like figure. Unable to conquer this Almighty who
“has thrown down the rulers from their thrones” (Lk 1: 52), humanity identifies with the
aggressor by observing the commands of the creator God. Receiving baptism from John
the Baptist, humanity becomes the beloved creation with whom God is well pleased (Mt 3:
13–17).
The new humanity needs to finds its independence. It cannot rely on its mother any more.
We can only assume that as a secure relationship is established, exploring the universe and
its possibilities become easier for the child. Baby humanity becomes confident because it
knows that mother Mary is available and responsive. In the next stage, humanity in the person
of Jesus differentiates itself clearly through separation-individuation.

Jesus lost in the temple: The preadolescent of humanity

It is obvious that we can find evidence of developmental growth in the relationship between
the Virgin Mary and the child humanity. With the narrative of the Boy Jesus in the Temple (Lk
2: 41–52), humanity seems to have entered preadolescence. With a need for connectedness,
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in this age of discovery (Dayringer, 2000), humanity sees itself as a life-giving force. It is
clear in the narrative that humanity, in the person of Jesus, expresses needs for interpersonal
intimacy directed toward the heavenly God (Lk 2: 49). Being in relation with that God
moves humanity out of its self-centeredness and draws it close to others. Contrary to the
old humanity that disobeyed the God who creates, this new humanity is deeply anxious to
obey the creator God; the creator God is to powerful for humanity too disobey, something
that is internalized in the identification with the aggressor process. There is an interest in the
outside world with eyes gazing in heaven for relatedness.
Nothing seems to be more significant in this stage than the interest in a close friend.
Humanity starts to pay attention to feelings of others. We see humanity, represented by
Jesus, in an obedient fashion. We can argue that obedience can be a sign of love. However,
humanity’s need for a particular closeness won it favor before God (Lk 2: 52). It is worth
noted that humanity also develops a sense of industry (Erikson, p 159) in doing the father’s
will. This sense of industry provides humanity with a feeling of worthiness. Humanity is not
restricted in its industry; it is able to relate, to nurture relationship with others. However,
humanity’s sense of self is growing toward absorption of the expectations of its primary
caregiver, naming the Virgin Mary.

The Wedding at Cana: Humanity adolescence

In this stage of struggle (Dayringer, 2000), humanity seems to have acquired someone
that is significantly different from itself. Its mother watches humanity slip away from her
and become more attached to something or someone else. The creator God, who is in
many instances different from humanity, and the troubled ones become its interest. In his
book, Identity: Youth in Crisis (1967), Erikson discussed this in terms of vocation, beliefs,
ideology, and social values. Using James Marcia’s theory of Identity Statuses, we can argue
that humanity in its adolescence is a foreclosure. “Foreclosure”, in Marcia’s words, “are
persons who are committed to occupational and ideological positions, but these have been
parentally chosen rather than self chosen” (Marcia, 1980, p. 161). In the person of Jesus,
humanity has no problem recognizing what it is. The creator God has already predestined its
identity and purpose. The Virgin Mary, however, as the bearer of a truth that not too many
people understand, has to tell humanity the story of its birth. From this recount of its birth,
we can sense the formation of an identity that is connected with the story that Virgin Mary
tells humanity. Another feature of humanity as a foreclosure is the presence of commitment.
Humanity is committed in reestablishing the broken union. It is committed and cooperative
in the act of salvation that its mother is a big part (Jn 2: 4). In that sense, the extended
circle of humanity is involved in its industry. As we expected, humanity seems to behave and
follow through the suggestions of its mother (Jn 2: 3–7). If we accept Marcia’s theory, we
must admit that humanity is obedient and “advanced in wisdom and age” (Lk 22: 52). This
advancement in wisdom and age is an indication of biological and psychological maturation.

The foot of the cross: The adulthood of humanity

Having gone through the identification stages, humanity seems to have entered its adulthood
in the events surrounding the death of Jesus. Following the psychobiological development
framework, with the presence of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross (Jn. 19:25),
humanity’s experience is introduced by a series of learning experiences. Again, in the person
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of Jesus, humanity learns to see itself as an element of the universe with Jesus’ family
representing the symbolic universe (Mk 3: 31–35). With such an attitude, we can argue that
humanity understands that everything does not revolve around humanity. There are other
beings in the universe. There is clearly a break away from the childhood inability to perceive
the world of the other. In the same token, we encounter a humanity that is moving toward
a life of interdependency by becoming gregarious in actions. This is internalized through
socialization. This caring attitude is what Erikson (1963) refers to as “generativity”. There
is a feeling to care for others. Though the sexual capacity of humanity is not mentioned in
the narrative, humanity is concerned with productivity. Humanity wants to carry the sins of
others to create a new world, a world that knows God through humanity. In a way, humanity
becomes part of the solution. Humanity is able to enter into deep and meaningful relationship
with others. The idea of people not liking humanity does not prevent humanity from being
intimate with people. In fact, we see a humanity that is sensitive to the feelings of others. It
is empathetic, a great listener, and caregiver.
At the foot of the cross, the Virgin Mary portrays a mother who is depressed at the
sight of her child moving on into a world of the unknown, a place of uncertainty. The
transition means that humanity is on its own. Her only hope is that humanity internalizes
the cultural assumptions that she teaches humanity through socialization. However, Jesus
and the humanity he represents has established an intimacy with his mother that he makes
sure that he gives her someone to look after her when he is gone (Jn 19: 26–27). This act
indicates maturity. It is no longer the adolescent humanity that just wakes up and goes about
its business. Experience has taught humanity that in the cultural context, a male presence is
important for the social welfare of his mother. Humanity in Jesus gives John to his mother
and his mother to John with the “woman, behold, your son and behold your mother” (Jn 19:
26–27). Adult humanity has no problem sharing its mother with others.
We now face with an adult humanity that experiences despair, and is able to overcome
it. The type of despair we see in adult humanity is not helplessness or hopelessness. Nailed
on the cross (Lk 23: 43), Jesus, representing humanity, still offer hope to new life. The
promise to create life anew encompasses procreativity, vulnerability, and productivity. While
humanity is going through the process of aging, it makes itself vulnerable to that reality. The
same anxiety that humanity experienced as a child, separation anxiety, comes up again as
humanity becomes aware of the possibility of leaving. We see a humanity that experiences
human hardships with great courage. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Discussion and conclusion

We have sought to show that the changing relationship between a mother and a child can be an
archetype in understanding the changing relationship between the Virgin Mary and humanity.
The framework posits two links in the process whereby the mother-child relationship changes.
First, humanity goes to separation-individuation process through which humanity strives for
its identity to become a self. Facing with the idea of its mother being the servant of a powerful
God, humanity cannot fight except to identify with the aggressor. Second, as humanity moves
toward adulthood, humanity experiences separation anxiety, and despair. However, in its time
of depression, humanity comes out to see the light of hope and sees itself as a powerful force
of reproduction.
No matter how appealing this model may seem, we should point out that there are some
limitations to it. As we use interchangeably Jesus and the term humanity, we should keep
in mind that Jesus is a person not an abstract object. For many who believe in Jesus as
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the sole agent of salvation, this model may appear offensive. It was not the intent of this
article to argue for or against this belief. The article, however, sees Jesus as a being that
follows the human development schema and this schema, as we have seen, can be viewed
as archetypical of that of humanity with the Virgin Mary. We should also warn those who
believe in the maternal power of the Virgin Mother that this model does not advocate or
support a particular religious practice. Another limitation to this model is that the stages of
development are events/periods in the life cycle of Jesus and the way that the Bible presents
this interaction with his mother. The information is somewhat limited. Moreover, the fact that
each Gospel narrative presents a different portrayal of the Virgin Mary is not too clear of what
event is representative of the mother-child interaction between Mary and Jesus. Despite these
limitations, the model presented in this article does justice to the development of humanity,
a journey toward self-actualization, and a quest for self-actualization and survival.

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Erikson, H. (1963). Childhood and society (Revised ed.). New York: Norton.
Erikson, H. (1967). Identity: Youth in crisis. New York: Norton.
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