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THE DEEPER MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

Christmas comes at a time, close to the shortest day of the year, which the astronomers call the Winter Solstice. Most of the great religions seem to have festivals timed to coincide with planetary cycles represented by the Winter Solstice, the Spring Equinox, the Summer Solstice, and the Autumnal Equinox.

The celebration of the Winter Solstice in the Western Mystery Tradition can be easily traced back to Egypt, the true source of all Spiritual inspiration and guidance for the West. The birth of the Egyptian savior, Osiris, was celebrated in mid-winter. Later, in Roman times, the Saturnalia was celebrated around December 17th of each year. According to our calendar the cycle of the shortening days ends on December 21st, and at that time the Sun is closest to the earth.

This close approach of the Sun to our planet has a deeper meaning in the birth of the Christ-child than is given in the orthodox church. At this time we can and should realize a closer approach of our Higher Self to our personality. This actually means an added force in our lives at this time of the year, Christmas.

When we speak of our Higher Self we are speaking of an archetype. There are over all things, all peoples, and all matters these high principles called archetypes. Each archetype is actually a great force destined to do certain work. Each must be considered as working in two different ways. First, the archetype works through the symbol of its power. Second, the force emanating from the archetype surrounds certain personalities on earth. These personalities have qualified themselves as channels to bring the archetypal force, really Solar force, a into the physical world. To properly understand the Christmas story; you must recognize both aspects of the archetypal idea which stands behind or above it.

THE TWO CHRISTMAS ARCHETYPES

Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that the birth of the Christ child is a manifestation of two great Archetypes because two very distinct personalities are involved. One is the birth of Jesus, the other, is his mother, Mary. The Archetype which overshadowed Mary is very powerful, though less well known to Protestant Christians.

In order to fully grasp the deeper meaning of Christmas one must realize the Christ-symbol is an archetypal idea which has overshadowed every Savior who came to every race and nation on the planet. Though the ministry in Judea 2,000 years ago was the last and greatest [2] manifestation of this male Cosmic force. For the same reason it must be realized that the Mother-force which manifested through Mary in Judea had also manifested countless times before in the births of previous Saviors. These two great Archetypes of the Mother and the Child are the two Great Symbols of Christmas.

MARY, AN ASCENDED MASTER

The Roman Catholic Church has given more recognition to Mary in the Christmas story than have the Protestant churches. Also there is a hint in Roman dogma that Mary long ago became what we call an ascended Master. It is interesting to note that She often appears to peasants or people of little education in Catholic countries. This means that the Great Archetype, the World-Mother, has personalized in that area for some particular reason. The many thought-form of Mary created by Catholic worshipers furnish astral vehicles through which the Great Force could manifest to an available medium.

These visions seem to occur only in Catholic countries because only they worship Mary directly. The Archetype can only manifest through minds open to its influence. In Protestant countries the Mother of Christ is a small, rather sad, semi-historical figure. The full Significance of Christmas will come to you only if you recognize the importance of Mary in the Manger scene. The positive male force of the Christ must be balanced by the negative female force of Mary.

THE CAVE OF THE NATIVITY

Now let us consider the details of the Manger scene. These details you must understand thoroughly if you are going to create a true picture of Christmas in your mind. Most of the Christmas legends have placed the Manger in a cave. The Bible story located the cave in Bethlehem, but the Mystery Teachings place the Cave of the Nativity at the center of the earth. This Cave is made of the substance of the Earth-Mother, a great Planetary Being. This Cave should be visualized as being dark and warm, but with one end open to the night sky. There of course blazes the Star of the East. This star of the new era is always seen at the birth of Christ. In this cave you see and feel the elemental forces of the earth -- the non-human forces of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.

In the traditional Christmas story the elemental forces are represented by the animals in the Manger, and the birds and creeping things. Now we are ready to add the figures of the Mother and the Infant. As you watch the figures you see the silver cord stretching from each one up, up and up into the heights beyond your sight. This silver cord glows as the clear white Light descends along it to form around the Infant in great circles or globes of Light. This is the reservoir of Divine Energy the Christ-Child will use during the years of his growing to early manhood, but the greater past will be reserved until those all-important three years of His ministry. Then that Cosmic Christ force comes through the personality, Jesus. As an adult this force entirely surrounds him.

The Great Force which surrounds Mary as she sits there by the [3] Infant is different. It takes form more quickly than the Christ force because it is not quite so great. The archetype Which overshadows Mary is the great, all-feminine principle of the universe, the Cosmic Mother. In its highest aspect it brings through a tremendous Spiritualisation of all forms. Th Great Mother makes form and yet is beyond form. This is the Woman that is part of God, the negative part which balances the positive. The colors of this great archetypal force are white and blue. These should be visualized as descending on Mary in the cave.

ETERNAL FEMININE

In Egypt ages ago a part of the Cosmic Mother descended on Mais, the mother of Hermes. Another difference between this feminine force and the Christ force is that it will not be entirely incorporated in Mary until long after her physical form is dead, but the Great Mother starts building a home for Herself in the Mary personality at the birth of the Christ child.

Another example of the great feminine principle manifesting on the physical plane is in the great and terrible form known as Kali, in India. Kali is both holy and terrible. You must remember that when a mother brings a Redeemer into the world one aspect of the forces she releases is that of destruction. The Christ is a reformer. He is a radical with new ideas which promise eventual destruction to the established church and state of the time in which He appears.

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The Christ always makes a physical manifestation at the end of one epoch to establish the spiritual principles for the New Age. These radical ideas are never well received by the vested interests of the old era; nevertheless they must give way to the progress symbolized by the birth of the Christ child; hence the destructive aspect of the Cosmic Love manifesting through Mary. When one witnesses the downfall of a mighty civilization such as ancient Rome, one realises that Love is not always a gentle thing; it can also be a terrible thing. A Wise Man has said, "If you look at it properly, the other two aspects of the Cosmic Trinity, Power and Wisdom, are gentler than Love; and that is the real Cosmic truth, my children."

Of all American presidents Abraham Lincoln is the most beloved; and he is most highly honored for his love of the people; yet his administration ushered in the most destruction this nation has ever known. The historical act which freed the Negroes dealt a death blow to the vested interest of slavery.

SUN-FATHER AND EARTH-MOTHER

Now let us return to the two Archetypal forces in the cave at the Center of the earth. One of the reasons these forces build up at the time of the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is because the Sun is nearest the earth, and naturally nearest to man. The Christ force is a Sun force. For this Cosmic Christ force to manifest on the earth It has to use the material of the earth and the nourishing substance of a woman. It must be remembered that the physical materials of any human body are drawn from the earth, and the earth is the body of a great planetary being. Therefore at the birth of the Christ child both the Great Mother of the universe and the Planetary Being of the earth are involved. Just by our visualizing this great event, we can help the Planetary Being to understand better what is going on within Him even though He may not grasp the Christmas story in the same way we do.

The deepest significance of the Christmas story to a student of metaphysics is that the birth of the Christ child is really a re-birth signifying initiation. The midnight sun, the winter sun starting its turning northward on December 23rd is the dawning of a higher consciousness in a human being. Another deep aspect of the Christmas story is the song of the angels which brought a message to men of goodwill. It is only men of goodwill who are ready for the Path of Initiation. They are willing to consider Spiritual matters; they are willing to study the Mystery teachings; and they are willing to help other men.

There is a promise in the Christmas story for mankind. There is also a promise to the creatures and elemental forces in the caves. This promise to the elementals is not fulfilled until the Christ child grows up, experiences the trials and death of the Crucifixion, and is resurrected. Then He goes out into the elemental world giving blessings and fulfilling the promise first given at the birth in the cave. This is the higher interpretation of the Christmas story, but each person should try to get his own understanding of it by visualizing the scene in the cave as clearly as possible. You should try to bring [5] about the birth of the Christ force in your own heart, and to see this force in everything, including the lower forms of life around you the elemental forces in earth, air, fire and water, reptiles, fishes, birds and beasts. Every uplifting thought and feeling directed toward the lower creatures lifts them a little along the path of evolution.

But how much more of this Christ force is given to man? And how does he use it? It is meant to be used, in all our actions. Even the smallest and most trivial should be blessed with the realisation of this ever-present Cosmic energy, not only at Christmas time, not only in church on Sundays, but on weekdays and in our daily work if it is to be of real use. Remember that the Christ force touches the essential Spirit of men and also the innermost part of other beings not of the human kingdom. And when your understanding brings this Cosmic force through to the physical and accelerates the higher development of all life you are a disciple of Christ.

The central idea, then, behind the Christmas story is that the Christ is the fullness of life for any being when it is in touch with the highest within itself, regardless of how little or much that highest might be.

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A FURTHER NOTE ON MARY, given to Geoffrey Hodson by his Angel Teacher:

"The Building Angels guide growth in every world, and, shaping it according to the law, seek ever to improve, to perfect and inspire. Each immortal spark which finds birth in worlds of thought, of feeling, and of flesh, and, growing, becomes man, owes all its vehicles or bodies to the angel builders; so also do every gem, every plant, every animal, every globe, and every universe. They stand in graded orders, these builders, each laboring at his own height, the lesser ones building gems, the greater ones worlds; there are some who build the outer-forms of angels and of men.

"It is lack of recognition of their place and aid that has made childbirth in later times a period of agony or death. When men invoke their aid, they will teach the human race how to bring forth their kind with joy; they will see that the great sacrifice is no longer marred by fear and cries of agony and woe.

"These angels who build men have, as their Queen, a Holy One, who won freedom from the burden of the flesh and, ascending, joined the Angel Hosts. She labors ever for the cause of human motherhood, and even now is bending all Her mighty strength and calling all Her Angel Court to labor for the upliftment of womanhood throughout the world. Through Her angel messengers, She Herself is present at every human birth, unseen and unknown, it is true, but if men would but open their eyes She would be revealed. She sends this message through the Brotherhood to men:

"'In the Name of Him who long ago I bore, I come to your aid. I have taken every woman into my heart, to held there a part of her that [6] through it I may help her in her time of need.

"'Uplift the women of your race till all are seen as queens, and to such queens let every man be as a king, that each may honor each, seeing the other's royalty. Let every home, however small, become a court, every son a knight, every child a page. Let all treat all with chivalry, honoring in each their royal parentage, their kingly birth for there is royal blood in every man; all are children of the King.'"

(From Chapter One, The Brotherhood of Angels and of Men, by Geoffrey Hodson, Theosophical Press, Wheaten, Illinois.)

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Apollo to Marpessa

"Thou art the chosen of the God,
Full blessed above thy mortal kind,
And I that Grace whose feet have trod
The singing portals of the wind
And pathways of the Sun -- The Moon
Casts down her argent diadem,
Forsakes her starry bowers too soon,
And hides her face from Gods and men
And yields her place and trembles when
Forth from my cloudy palaces
I pour my splendor on the seas,
Blow out the stars like tapers tall
And shake red planets to their fall.

"And I am he whose lyre delights
The concourse of the Gods above,
And oft in hushed Olympian nights
Throbs like the heart of life and love;
Burns like the blood of the heavenly must
Till the Gods lean down from their ivory thrones
Their pallid faces gleam in the dusk
And the subtle sweep of the lyre intones
Deathless passion and long desire,
And their hearts grow faint with the fadeless fire:
Of love immortal that knows not dearth.
And first my song, to the sons of earth
Stirred in the dawn to trembling strings,
And life and light my presence brings
Like dews from fiery firmament
Strewn on the world from healing wings . . .

Meade Layne

(From his "Book of Verses", San Diego, 1947)

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References

1. Hodson, Geoffrey. The Brotherhood of Angels and of Men, Etc. Theosophical Pub. House: London, 1927. Print. [Re-ed, Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Pub. House, 1946, <http://amzn.to/1ItfTVM>.]