Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2 and Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:46-56 mirror one another with such striking similarity that Scripture almost commands the reader to see them as two sides of one revelation. These are not disconnected songs spoken centuries apart; they are unified expressions of the same spiritual event — the moment a new state of consciousness is conceived within.
Both women speak after conception. Hannah prays after Samuel is promised. Mary speaks after Jesus is conceived in her womb. In Neville Goddard’s teaching, this is the moment when an individual has accepted a new assumption, a new identity, a new inner reality. Their songs are the proclamation of that inner shift.
The Shared Structure
Hannah and Mary both declare the same movements of spiritual transformation:
- The mighty are cast down
- The lowly are lifted
- The hungry are filled
- The barren becomes fruitful
- The proud are scattered
These statements are not about social conditions but psychological ones. The “mighty” represents the formerly dominant self-concept — the old state. The “lowly” is the new, previously unnoticed state rising into dominance. The “hungry” are the unfulfilled longings of the heart now satisfied by assumption. The “barren” is the mind that once believed itself incapable but now conceives with ease.
Hannah’s Song — The Inner Reversal Begins
In Hannah, we see the first articulation of this inner reversal — the very pattern later encapsulated in the declaration “I AM [is] the Alpha and the Omega.” Most people imagine this title as something cosmic or distant, but Scripture reveals it again and again as a psychological movement: the beginning becomes the end, the lowest rises to the highest, the barren becomes fruitful. Hannah moves from bitterness to conception, from sorrow to assured fulfilment. Her song marks the mind’s earliest recognition that God — the creative power within — overturns outward appearance.
She proclaims that:
- “The bows of the mighty are broken”
- “They that were hungry ceased”
- “The barren hath born seven”
This is the mind discovering that its limitations were self-imposed and can be undone by a new assumption. Hannah represents the early stage of awakening, where the individual first senses that the impossible is, in fact, already accomplished within.
Mary’s Song — Fulfilment of the Same Revelation
Mary’s Magnificat carries the same structure but with fuller awareness. Hannah feels the change; Mary embodies it. Hannah announces the possibility; Mary speaks as the one in whom it is happening.
Mary proclaims:
- “He hath put down the mighty from their seats”
- “He hath exalted them of low degree”
- “He hath filled the hungry with good things”
Where Hannah’s song foreshadows a shift, Mary’s Magnificat is the matured proclamation of a consciousness that now understands its identity with God. Mary represents the full acceptance of the Christ-state — the awareness that imagination is the creative power.
The Two Songs Together
Read together, the prayers form a single narrative arc:
- Hannah — The first awakening to inner power.
- Mary — The full recognition and embodiment of that power.
The parallels are deliberate, showing that the Bible is not a collection of disconnected stories but a psychological progression. Hannah is the seed; Mary is the harvest. Hannah is the stirring; Mary is the understanding. Hannah is the dawn; Mary is the day.
The Mind Re-adjusting Itself
Hannah’s difficulty echoes the pattern seen with Moses and the Israelites. Moses struggles with a people who constantly resist the new direction — just as the mind resists new assumptions. Old thoughts, old emotions, old reactions attempt to assert themselves. This is not failure but the natural re-adjustment of the inner world.
Mary’s song shows what happens once the mind yields. The scattered doubts, the collapsing of the old state, and the exaltation of the new identity are no longer battles but accomplished facts.
Conclusion
Hannah and Mary together reveal the inner journey of conception, acceptance, and embodiment. They show that Scripture speaks in recurring patterns, repeating the same revelation across Testaments so that the reader may finally recognise it.
Every birth in the Bible is the birth of a new state. Hannah and Mary announce the same truth: when the individual accepts a new assumption, the world must follow.