By a “virgin,” Eckhart means that in order to receive God into its home the soul must be pure of all attachments, not only to worldly paraphernalia like wealth and power, but even to religious paraphernalia. By the latter he means what I have been calling piety, the pieties of religion, the pieties of the prescribed prayers, ascetic practices, fastings and vigils, to which I would add the paraphernalia of creedal and doctrinal assertions, which can deprive the soul of its purity and freedom for God just as surely as can worldly concerns.12 So virgin purity signifies religion without religion.
