"Behold Thy Son": The Deep Love of Jesus for Mary Magdalene — A Neville Goddard Interpretation

At the foot of the cross, in the final hours of his earthly ministry, Jesus utters one of his most intimate and mysterious sayings:

"When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!" (John 19:26, KJV)

Traditionally, the “disciple whom he loved” has been identified as John the Apostle.
But when approached through the symbolic understanding taught by Neville Goddard — where Scripture unfolds as the eternal drama of the soul — another, more tender meaning emerges.

This beloved disciple can be seen as Mary Magdalene, the one who remained faithful through the darkness, the one in whom Jesus — the personification of Divine Imagination — placed his profoundest love and trust.

Mary Magdalene: The Soul's Devotion and Creative Power

In Neville's teachings, every character represents a facet of our own consciousness.
Mary Magdalene, so often misrepresented, symbolises the subconscious mind: the eternal feminine, the womb of all creation, and the deep emotional devotion required to bring the unseen into the seen.

She is the soul’s pure feeling — the unwavering love that does not flee at the death of the old self but stands firm, nurturing the promise of resurrection.

When Jesus speaks to his mother and to the disciple he loves, he is not merely arranging earthly care.
He is revealing an eternal principle: that love — deep, faithful feeling — is the bridge between death and life, between the old and the new.

Mary Magdalene is not merely a follower.
She is the beloved aspect of consciousness, the one who receives, holds, and nurtures the seeds of imaginative creation into form.
In her, Jesus recognises the perfect vessel for the birth of new life.

His love for her is not carnal but divine: it is the sacred unity between the conscious imagining (Jesus) and the subconscious feeling nature (Mary Magdalene).
Without this union, no resurrection is possible.

Thus, when Jesus says, "Behold thy son," he entrusts the future not to logic, not to tradition, but to love — to the steadfast subconscious mind that, through devotion and faith, gives reality to the invisible.

The Wish Fulfilled in the Heart of Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene, in her devoted presence, embodies imagination’s own love for the wish fulfilled.
She carries within her heart the living image of the fulfilled desire, never doubting, never forsaking the vision.
Her unwavering devotion is not simply to the person of Jesus, but to the new life he symbolises — the new state of being, fully realised.

In Neville's understanding, the subconscious only brings forth that which it loves and accepts as true.
Thus, in Mary Magdalene, we see the purest form of imaginative love — the deep, faithful cherishing of the thing hoped for, until it becomes substance.
The wish, once implanted in her heart, is as real as the blood in her veins.
It is this holy fidelity to the end, this ceaseless embracing of the invisible, that births the resurrection.

The Presence of the Mother: The Subconscious Foundation

And what of Jesus’s mother, also present at the cross?

In Neville’s framework, the mother represents the deeper, universal subconscious — the primal creative power that brings forth all states of being.
She is the origin of all manifested life, the eternal earth from which every identity springs.

In the moment of transition, Jesus addresses her as "Woman," not to diminish, but to exalt — for she is the timeless creative essence, the ground from which even the greatest imaginative act must be born.

By instructing the mother to "behold thy son," Jesus is commanding the subconscious to accept the new identity as accomplished — to claim it as already real.

It is through this union of love (Mary Magdalene) and creative foundation (the mother) that the resurrection — the birth of a new reality — becomes inevitable.

Closing Reflection: Love as the Fulfilment

John 19:26, when read through the symbolic vision Neville Goddard offers, is not merely a record of a dying man’s care.
It is the soul’s revelation:

• That love is the true disciple — the one who never abandons the soul in its hour of transformation.

• That Mary Magdalene, representing the subconscious feeling nature, holds the power to carry the seed of new life through to fulfilment.

• That the mother, the universal womb, ever obedient, must now nourish the new son — the new state of being — planted in love.

At the cross, Jesus entrusts his work not to the sword, not to tradition, but to the unseen forces of love and faithfulness within.

And so the great mystery unfolds:

“Woman, behold thy son.”

The old has passed; the new has come.
And it is love — faithful, enduring, creative love — that will bring it into full resurrection.