How is Christmas for You?

Here Comes The Sun

Last weekend I went to the supermarket and I was wearing sandals and a tee shirt… Something is wrong! It should be cold, I should be wrapped up with a scarf and gloves and trying to keep warm. When the scientist predicted the idea of global warming they suggested ‘warm wet winters and cool dry summers’, they were right. As the people of Cumbria prepare for their third flood this year and those of the equator dig deeper in the well to find more water, it is not odd for us to feel that the world has gone mad.

The cycles of mother nature may have nothing to do with global warming and the role that mankind has played in warming the planet, who knows?, but there is something odd happening out there.

But Christmas is Christmas and the solstice is the solstice.

Following the darkness of winter, that has its depth at the winter solstice and the longest night, comes the lightening, as the days draw out. This sense of the light coming to dispel the darkness has been ever present in the psychological cycle of the year. The festivals of Solstice, (Yuletide), originally the three days around midwinters day, December 21st, was gradually superseded by Christmas or ‘Christmastide”. In some parts of the pagan world the festival of ‘Yule’ lasted for twelve days, which became the twelve days of ‘Christmastide’.

For many of us Christmas is a magical time for our children whose excitement and expectation is wonderfully infectious. The tree full of lights sparkle in the darkness and many streets are so bright that they must be visible from the moon.

The magic of these festivals, at this time of year, is in the realisation of the coming of the light back to the world. Psychologically this is the development of awareness and understanding, as the light dispels the darkness, or symbolically, good dispels evil. The symbol of the star shining over Bethlehem, as the light shining in the dark, is the same as the Chinese symbol Yin and Yang or the Hindu symbol of Hatha, both showing the relationship between the duality of consciousness and unconsciousness. Consciousness is the light that illuminates the darkness of unconsciousness.

Christmas is, at its best, a time of light, of increasing awareness, of love and joy, of acceptance, and giving. The gifts given to Jesus were represented in pagan ‘Yuletide’ by the gifts given by the farmers, and the people at the Yule feast, often these were animals that were sacrificed to God as an expression of gratitude for the coming of the light in the New Year.

I have never been a lover of dark cold winters, and to know that the darkness is behind me and that ahead is the lighter warmer time of spring and the heat of summer becomes the light at the end of a tunnel.

Perhaps, the issue is that I am in my darkness walking towards my light. My winter leads to my spring. This time of the year is my symbolic emotional and spiritual ending and rebirth in the new beginning of the New Year.

We all deserve a new beginning. We all have the right and the power to make our lives good and right.

Enjoy the lightness and love of your festivities, be happy and merry

Have a wonderful Yuletide and a meaningful Christmastide

See you in the New Year

Sean x