And seeing through it!

At the zenith of the Julian Calendar we have the festivals of ‘Christmas’ and ‘New Year’.

These celebrations carry warm and fond memories for many westerners. We can trace this back to childhood where children become the centre of attention and adults serve them for a few days; they pretend to be Santa Claus.

If, for whatever reason, you wish to influence the minds of adults for life, then you would start with the child because the child has no filters to prevent unconscious programming. The consumer industry that has grown around Christmas and the New Year suggests, very few adults can see through the smoke and mirrors.

Look objectively at these ‘festive times’. We tell stories to children about Santa Claus and a completely disconnected Nativity which they absorb with relish. And even though these are rather thin and bizarre narratives, children believe them.

Did shepherds really watch their flocks during the coldest nights of the year? Surely this nightly routine is only necessary when the sheep are lambing which is not in the winter months. Angelic hosts? Moving stars? Do kings saddle up camels and set off with other kings and no armed guard and courtiers towards a new light in the sky? And why give a babe in swaddling cloths such inappropriate gifts? Surely, a rattle, a soft toy and a blanket are more likely to raise cheeky smile?

This Bible story has the quality of a dream and in my view, for good reason. For just as dreams are constructed using symbols, so are these stories. Modern Jungian psychology is very comfortable with dream interpretation and symbols, as have peoples from around the world and throughout history.

The Roman church does not advertise that the nativity story is laid over identical ancient Egyptian and other traditions in which a child is born on 25^th December of a virgin mother.

It’s interpretation of the gifts are as signs not symbols. They suggest that gold was given to show Jesus was ‘Christ the High Priest‘, in other words giving him power and authority, but a symbolic interpretation carries deeper meaning than signs.

In my view, the symbolic interpretation of the story is related to the winter solstice and a solar god rising and setting (Set being a destroying god from ancient Egypt). At this time the sun effectively dies and is placed in the ‘place of the skull’ or Golgotha. The round stone in front of tomb is closed for three days symbolises the sunrise not moving for three days on the horizon. When the sun moves again on 25^th December is resumes it’s daily ascent into heaven.

This is not to say that Jesus the Christ was not a real person, but in my view, Jesus was born in the spring, did not die on the cross and lived his last days as far away from the evil Roman Empire as he could, in the Indian sub-continent, Kashmir.

Surprise to see that there is no Santa Claus in the Bible because his is a symbolic story from another time and place which I have discussed in a previous blog; just as there are no cuddly Easter Rabbits or munchy chocolate eggs at Easter in holy scripture.

Here is a more serious alternative interpretation of the nativity story that might well have been within the teachings of the mystery schools and secret societies.

Consider the three kings as representing the pineal, pituitary and the hypothalamus neuroendrocine glands. These are all within the ‘place of the skull’. We should note that the birth most likely took place in a cave, a symbol of inner consciousness used by Plato, not a stable.

Many believe that much of human experience is ruled by our energy bodies as depicted in Hindu tradition by the chakras. Each month a sacred oil rises in the spine from the solar plexus and the part of the spine we call the sacrum. This is represented as the gift of myrrh from the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus is symbolised by gold, which is a pure, non-tarnishing, noble element, that freely conducts electricity. This charges the oil with golden, solar ions. Lastly the pineal gland secretes frankincense, a precious oil burnt in holy places to symbolise prayers rising into another dimension which becomes visible when the smoke disperses to reveal the source of the light. This was a new light and new consciousness on planet Earth.

I shall move onto the myth of the ‘new year’ in countries around the world which follow the Julian calendar. This was introduced by the dictator perpetuo, Julius Caesar in 45BCE, to replace the ten month Roman calendar. This was a solar calendar for a new sun god, with 365 days and a leap day every four years. It surfaces in the modern names of September, October, November and December (7,8,9,10) and starts on the first day of January.

But this random 1/1 date is not sympathetic with the cycles of nature. At this time, winter is dormant in the natural world. Animals and humans struggle to keep alive. Understanding natural cycles would suggest that the new year should start at the spring equinox when the days lengthen and there is more sun than darkness; a time of renewal and rebirth.

The Roman January god, Janus, had his two views of the world fixed on a melancholy past and an uncertain future. He was not a god of the moment and reality. He was not awake. Yet we celebrate January as the start of the new year, even to this day.

In the Rome influenced west, adults and children stay up until midnight. This hour is known in Wiccan circles as the ‘witching hour’ because at this time, the veils into the human world are opened and spirits may enter unneeded. Spirits are often consumed within an alcoholic drink to start the new year as one means to continue.

The Druid’s magical mistletoe, is used to give protection from such unwanted guests. It’s berries represent sperm and fertility. A future hope or ‘resolution’ is made real by a kiss beneath the mistletoe. It is an evergreen plant, and therefore provides protection throughout the year, even if unkept resolutions do not.

If these interpretations of Christmas and the New Year were explained to the general populace, their ‘programming’ from childhood is likely to resist any questioning; such is the unconscious power of childhood experience. The modern nativity and new year stories occur arbitrarily within the natural cycles. These children stories are unreal but are repeated without question. At the same time, fairy tales and myths (which are real) are described as unreal. This is the looking glass world which Alice ventured into.

In my view, this uncritical retelling of false narratives spills out into popular understanding and even ethics. For instance, exploiting rather than nurturing the natural environment, is a global policy that does not lead to fertile and happy communities. The erosion of natural habitats leading to reduction in the numbers and extinction of many species, I attribute to this dissonance with the natural world. We imagine it will last forever as that suits our modern self pleasing and comfortable way of live, but it will not.

Waking up from a dream is a slow and dizzying process. There are many who are casting aside these children stories that we were coaxed in our innocence with gifts and jollity to believe in. If our outer and inner ‘nature’ is ever truly understood, humans have a chance of being brought back from the abyss of shallow and false beliefs.

When there are ‘forces’ that do not serve your best interests and highest desires you are being suppressed.