What is the meaning of the relief of the Virgin Mary on Notre Dame?
This is the relief above the central entrance. It's a carving of the Virgin Mary. The reason why we know it is the Virgin Mary is because a woman is sitting on the throne. A woman is sitting on the throne and has two books in her right hand. She is holding a scepter in her left hand, something like a cane. No question. This woman is the Virgin Mary because she is sitting on the throne.
The church called Notre Dame is the Church of the Virgin Mary. As I said before, Notre Dame: Notre is ours, Dam is Lady.
Notre Dame is our lady. It's not actually a Christian church. Jesus Christ is formally enshrined, but the Virgin Mary is placed in the center of the temple. Even if you pray to Jesus Christ, Christianity has a theory of predestination, and Jesus Christ coldly says, "Those who will be saved have already been predestined." But the mother who gave birth to Jesus Christ, she might be able to save us, maybe? This is what Notre Dame is all over Europe, and what is known as the belief in the Holy Mother of God.
Jesus Christ himself is pretty cold and a predetermination theorist. So people hope Maria does something for them. That's why Maria is put in the center. The scepter, the staff she holds in her left hand, represents the right to rule in the real world. That means, this temple is greater than the king.
In those days, a scepter was usually held only by a king. Only kings, such as the king of ancient Babylon, had a scepter. So the fact that the Virgin Mary has this means that she is the reigning king of the real world.
The point is the two books in her right hands. One is opened and the other is sealed with something like a belt, if you look closely. The open one is the public religion. The closed one in the back is esoteric religion.
What does that mean? Christianity, a Bible given as knowledge that anyone can understand. The esoteric religion in the back is closed and only a few people can read it. Alchemy that is supposed to be hidden from anyone, or represents Hermeticism. So this relief represents Christianity and the hidden alchemy behind it.
Also this relief declares, "All of this architecture is carved with this kind of double structure of meaning."
The nine-tiered ladder in front of Maria, it is said to represent nine stages of chemical reaction required when alchemizing gold, and the nine types of patience that an alchemist must have.
If you interpret this in a Christian way, you won't understand it at all. This staircase or whatever. It becomes clear when you interpret it as alchemy. Because with this explanation, all the reliefs can be clearly understood...