The scenes of the Altar of Isenheim describe the inner states and processes of man, clothed in Christian images, based on a cosmological model. This model is much older than Christianity.

This transformation takes time. We have been given time out of eternity so that it can happen. Metamorphosis happens within the individual circumstances of our life, and yet according to a clearly recognizable structure. This common structure of the path of transformation, which is valid for everyone, has always been represented or described in the spiritual traditions through the images of the respective culture. It is basically a triple transformation; its main characteristic is that it is not linear. In other words: One cannot recognize or derive from one state the next one in advance. That is why the process is also called the process of "Die and Become” (Goethe: “Stirb und werde”): The old identity must first dissolve before a new one can be built from its components.

There is a saying in the Sufi tradition: "First the crucifixion, then the birth of Jesus". This order corresponds to the inner experience: Mary goes the painful way of transformation from the crucifixion scene to the birth of Jesus. Her way is the way of the soul, which begins with the awakening from a cosmic enchantment, from the sleep of the sleeping beauty. She grows until she blooms as THE ROSE OF CREATION, the roots of which are rooted in the Father's vision of creation. This is how she becomes the BEARER OF GOD. This way of the soul, measured with time, is long. Let us not be afraid: We have received time as a gift from eternity, as a possibility for this way. We will have our time, the time we need for this way. No more and no less. Once the way starts, time no longer matters – whether we understand it or not.

«I am the way, the truth, and life" (John 14, 6) says Jesus about himself. What does this statement have to do with the misery of the Crucified in the image of the Isenheim Altar? It is always difficult, even impossible for our minds, to combine contradictory elements into a synthesis. The TRUTH, in other words reality, can only be described in contradictions and only in successive steps. Contradictory statements must then come together in us. First of all, however, we have to experience: That is the WAY. Only then unity will be restored through our individual understanding, which is the recognized experience. LIFE is only possible from this recovered unity. This is the theme of the Cross.

Here, at this point, a decisive opening on our part is necessary. Opening up to spiritual tradition so that what it has left behind can serve us like a map. What could we lose in this? At most, our beloved imaginations. It is not about us taking their testimony with believe. We should not believe anything or anyone. In any form whatsoever, all that can be given to us by others is the assertion, as long as we do not take the exertion to connect the assertions with our own perceptions. Otherwise, how can we tell which statement is right and which is wrong? Only by looking at and verifying the truth with our existential experience in the light of a claim. Is the statement consistent with our experience? Is something within us touched by it, beyond feeling and logical understanding? Could it be a lead worth an experiment to follow

With the second opening, a new dimension opens. The four images become more colourful, more vivid, and the theme of suffering disappears. In this world we would like to start here! All indications are that these images describe more joyful, desirable states than on the first opening of the altar. Yes, it is easier for us to accept that I am the altar!

The soul, which has become virginal, takes a different path than the life that flows out. She does not separate, she does not stand out, she remains connected, remains in the same room, and life turns to her – as the faces and figures in this room show. Mary walks out of the building through another gate: straight into the scene of the birth. That is the mystical path of the soul, which gives birth existence.

The birth of Being takes place always the first time and it happens always in the present. To express this properly is not possible with our language. The Eternal Present has not manifested through the birth of the historic Jesus just 2000 years ago, as it is misinterpreted by the church. This happening is neither in the past nor in the future. It is only possible to express it in the present; it is Eternal Present. It does not just happen on this planet, in this solar system, and it does not recur today, sometime or somewhere. In the creation it occurs The First Time, every time and everywhere. The birth of Being-consciousness takes place out of the actual creation in the present moment.

For our glance, caught in duality, the meaning of the picture is quickly clear: victory of the light over the dark, over the low, and over the aggressive. There is no need to look more closely. We think that we know what is in the picture!

 Such are the descriptions and comments on the picture. But is that really what is depicted in the picture?