I sit this morning, open to possibility. I hold each of us in prayer as I know Radiant Health and Wholeness, boundless Joy, and abiding Peace as the Truth of who we are. May we each find the path that leads us to experience this Truth, day by day, moment by moment.
I have spent the past few days planning the coming year’s calendar for our Beloved Community. Though I am not finished, things are well under way. It is one of my on-going challenges…to plan for the future while remaining present to what is before me, all-the-while allowing what I have accomplished so far (which means peeking into the past) to be enough. Speaking to a friend last week, I was given a beautiful gift. She has decided to eliminate phrases like have to catch up, falling behind, and not enough time from her vocabulary. I think that I will follow her lead in making this a Practice for the coming year. The idea that we are perpetually behind steals the joy from our precious moments. And so, right here and right now, I begin where I am…the only place that any of us can begin.
I left off writing during the close of Advent, and took some time to enjoy the holidays with family. This morning, I am reminded that we are still in the midst of the Christmas holiday. Today is the sixth day of Christmas, the halfway point between Christmas Day and Epiphany, which comes on January 6th. For those who may not know, the 12 Days of Christmas represent the time that it took the Magi in the book of Matthew to reach the baby Jesus so that they could pay homage. Epiphany is the day that their gifts were bestowed.
Looking once again at this Christmas story through the lens of metaphor, we find that the birth of the Christ Consciousness is still in process. Just as the baby Jesus would have spent the first few days of life with his parents, adjusting to his new environment and bonding with his parents, and awaiting his formal naming and circumcision on the eighth day after his birth (as is customary in the Jewish tradition), we are in a period of reflection. What will the next year bring? How will I be different? Can I be more peaceful, more joyful, more dedicated to my Spiritual Practice? How will the Light of the Christ shine more radiantly through me?
There is great significance to the process of naming and circumcising an infant on the eighth day. Metaphysically, to name something or someone is to give it its character, to qualify its substance. (The name, Jesus, which comes from the Hebrew Yeshua, means to deliver or rescue.) Circumcision, in the physical sense, is an external ceremony practiced by Jews to indicate a conformity with, and dedication to, Mosaic law. It is symbolic of cutting off mortal tendencies, and signifies purity and cleanliness. Metaphysically, when we speak of naming and circumcision, we are speaking of determining the character we will live from and express, who we will be in the world. And in order to claim that character, we are looking to a purification of the heart, the mind, and the soul…a conscious realignment with our Highest Nature, a rededication to our Spiritual Walk and to deep communion with God. And so, as metaphysicians, the 12 Days of Christmas offer us a time for reflection.
I don’t know if this is true for you, but when I was a child, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was filled with anticipation. There was a sense that something magical would happen on Christmas Day. In our case, it was the magic of gifts appearing from Santa. I think this sense of anticipation is embedded in the race consciousness…I feel in my heart of hearts that something important is going to happen. The piece that I missed growing up is that the miracle of Christmas morning is not about what happens around me…the gifts, the family, the food, the celebration. That is all beautiful as far as it goes, but these are not the gifts that feed my soul. This year each of us had a real opportunity to discover the real miracle of Christmas…that which happens within.
The anticipation I feel on Christmas Eve is real. It is not simply a childish fantasy. Rather, it is more of a longing, a faithful expectation that I am more than just this human body. And it is a willingness to step into my Divinity in a greater way that ever before. The true miracle of Christmas is not that something is finished…the Christ child has been born. It is that there is new Life, rife with possibility, and this Life lives in, through and as each one of us. Rather than allowing myself to feel let down by the closing of the season, I choose to see Christmas Day as a starting point, the beginning of the journey represented by the Magi.
According to Charles Fillmore of Unity, the wise men from the east symbolize “the inner resources of the soul when it is stirred to the depths by a revelation of Truth. The East symbolizes the within, and the coming of the Wise Men signifies intuitive wisdom reverently seeking out the new ideal of life that is beginning in consciousness.” (Metaphysical Bible Dictionary) And so, this is a time of new beginnings, a time to be stirred to our depths by the sheer magnitude of the possibility that dwells within us. It is a time to acknowledge the miracle of Christmas Day as the opportunity to begin again, to recommit, to reconnect, and to bring the Light of the Christ to the forefront of our experience. I look forward to making this journey with you. I look forward to the Light we will create and shine forth in Community.
Know that today and always, I am here to support you.
Know that today and always, you are stronger and wiser than you know.
May we each live from our Radiant Light…be well…stay in touch…know our unity…and thrive!
And…may we know the Absolute Beauty and Wonder of this Grace-filled, once-in-a lifetime day, as Infinite Intelligence continues to pour Its blessings upon our world.
