 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
We need just a little science before we continue our studies into the real meaning of Christmas.
The Earth is actually nearer the sun in January than it is in June -- by three million miles. Pretty much irrelevant to our planet. What causes the seasons is something completely different. The Earth leans slightly on its axis like a spinning top frozen in one off-kilter position. Astronomers have even pinpointed the precise angle of the tilt. It's 23 degrees and 27 minutes off the perpendicular to the plane of orbit. This planetary pose is what causes all the variety of our climate; all the drama and poetry of our seasons, since it determines how many hours and minutes each hemisphere receives precious sunlight. The word "Solstice" means "standing-still-sun". Winter solstice is when, because of the earth's tilt, your hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun, and therefore: The daylight is the shortest. The sun has its lowest arc in the sky. The winter solstice takes place on or about December 21 every year, and is the moment when the sun is at its southernmost position. For those in the northern hemisphere, this means that on the winter solstice the sun rises the latest and sets the earliest of the entire year. It hangs low and weak in the sky during the brief daylight hours, and daytime shadows are the longest. Because the day is the year's shortest, the winter solstice is also the time of the longest night. When it's winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun is directly overhead at noon only along the Tropic of Capricorn, on which lie such places as Sao Paulo, Brazil, southern Madagascar, and areas north of Brisbane, Australia. No one's really sure how long ago humans recognized the winter solstice and began heralding it as a turning point -- the day that marks the return of the sun from its death in winter which was understood by the Ancients as its "birth" or "rebirth". Many, many cultures the world over perform solstice ceremonies. At their root: an ancient fear that the failing light would never return unless humans intervened with anxious vigil or antic celebration.
Those of us today who have ever pondered the ramifications of a cataclysmic event such as a "nuclear winter" or the aftermath of a giant meteor impact can understand how frightening it must have been to see the sun slip away every fall. Harsh winter conditions and scare food supplies made survival risky. Vegetation was dormant, migratory birds had long since disappeared to warmer climes, and many animals had vanished into hibernation. As the weeks drew closer to the solstice, it was a time of anxiety over ever-darkening days. You can just imagine how the Ancients, not understanding the Science behind all this asked themselves: "What if the sun lost its vigor and never came back? Would light and warmth simply fade away forever? Would the earth be wrapped in eternal night and cold?".
Early peoples, living at the mercy of a hostile environment and also highly sensitive to natural phenomena held supplicating rites to the forces of nature as a way of ensuring the return of longer, warmer days. To early cultures, the winter solstice represented the death of the old solar year and the birth of the new.
Yule festivities, accordingly, marked this planetary turning point away from darkness and the blessed return to light. And although the comforts of today's modern civilization now shield us from winter's harsh effects, Western cultures continue knowingly or unknowingly to honor this tradition through Yule celebrations.
Some think the wheel figured in the development of other forms of knowledge and mysterious practices. There's much new scholarship about Neolithic peoples and their amazing culture. For example, it now looks as though writing is much more ancient than we earlier thought -- as much as 10,000 years old. Neolithic peoples were the first farmers. Their lives were intimately tied to the seasons and the cycle of harvest since this was the foundation for the food chain and their very life and lives of their families so their attention would be attuned to the turning skies. Scholars and Archeologists, when examining Ancient Egypt, for example, have found abundant proof that these Ancient peoples as long ago at 13,000 B.C.E. had abundant skill and precision to pinpoint celestial events like Solstice and Equinoxes. Earliest markers of time that we've found from even pre-Egyptians, these Neolithic peoples is found in notches carved into bone that appear to count the cycles of the moon. But perhaps they watched the movement of the sun as well as the moon, and perhaps they celebrated it -- with fertility rites, with fire festivals, with offerings and prayers to their gods and goddesses. And perhaps, our impulse to hold onto certain traditions today -- candles, evergreens, feasting and generosity -- are echoes of a past that extends many thousands of years further than we ever before imagined.
Having got that out of the way then understand that four thousand years ago or so, ancient Egyptians celebrated the rebirth of the sun at the Winter Solstice. We have explained this phenomena in detail on a separate article. They set the length of the festival at 12 days, to reflect the 12 divisions in their sun calendar (the Zodiac). They decorated with greenery, using palms with 12 shoots as a symbol of the completed year, since a palm was thought to put forth a shoot each month.
This same special "Appointed Time of God", as recognized by the Babylonians, was adopted by the Persians. One of the themes of these festivals was the temporary subversion of order. Masters and slaves exchanged places. A mock king was crowned. Masquerades spilled into the streets. As the old year died, rules of ordinary living were relaxed. The usual order of the year was suspended which was but a picture of the reign of darkness over light which occurred increasingly since the Summer Solstice up and until the Winter Solstice: grudges and quarrels forgotten, wars interrupted or postponed, businesses, courts, schools were closed, rich and poor were equal, slaves were served by masters, and children headed the family. Cross-dressing and masquerades, merriment of all kinds prevailed. A mock king -- the Lord of Misrule -- was crowned. Candles and lamps chased away the spirits of darkness as the reborn Sun was expected to do on December 25th. As Roman culture became more licentious, so did Saturnalia. You can well imagine for this was Rome. The Roman Saturnalia, a weeklong Winter Solstice celebration, was a prototype of organized anarchy.
Answer for yourself: Why? With the triumph of darkness over light for the time being the chaos reigned in creation. The Laws of nature's order was being turned over. The normal laws of existence were collapsing, however briefly, as they do at the Winter Solstice. Symbolizing this de-evolution in life masters and slaves exchanged roles, and social rules, laws, and most forms of business were suspended—society was turned on its head, intentionally. Christmas may have been first observed during the week after solstice to absorb and transform Saturnalia, yet echoes of the earlier ceremony remain. During Saturnalia, Romans decorated their abodes with candlelit trees as so many do today to instill faith and hope in the returning "light" of the Sun when it is reborn on December. 25th.
The ancient's fear engendered by the failing of the light of the Sun at this time of year shaped a striking legend that continued into Greek culture when the Greeks became Christian. It's the story of the Kallikantzaroi--ugly monsters of chaos who, during most of the year, are forced underground. During the 12 days of Christmas (symbolic for the 12 houses of the Zodiac in which the Sun travels yearly), the demons are said to roam freely on the earth's surface. They are known more for malicious practical joking than any real harm--braiding horse's tails, souring milk, putting out the home fire in a particularly indelicate manner. To scare them away, the Greeks kept their Christmas log burning. They also burned old shoes, believing the smell would repel the creatures. Any child born during the twelve days was in danger of becoming a Kallikantzaroi. The antidote? Binding the baby in tresses of garlic or straw, or singeing the child's toenails!
Due to this fear associated with the failing light of the Sun you can see from the above paragraph that mankind fell into the most silly superstitions; one not so silly is the idea expressed in the New Testament that Jesus battled Satan, the Devil for 3 days during his death.
Matt 12:40 40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (KJV)
1 Pet 3:18-19 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; (KJV)
Answer for yourself: Here we see the mention of the same "3 days" that we see the Sun dead at the Winter Solstice right before its "rebirth" or "resurrection" from the dead. Likewise we see that the reference to Jesus being "put to death in the flesh" is a reference to this same 3 days which he remained in the grave and dead as the Gospels attest. Are then these above accounts but a retelling and personification of the Sun doing battle with darkness (Set/Satan) for 3 days at the Winter Solstice? It sure is!
As we move from superstition to literal history let us take note of the fact that in a fascinating book Holy Blood, Holy Grail the authors detail and discusses the pragmatic political motives of the fourth-century Roman emperor Constantine, who first moved the celebration of Christmas to December 25. Interestingly, Christmas (and its attendant holiday, Easter) actually have roots in ancient beliefs going back tens of thousands of years. Many folk holidays and celebrations were absorbed into Christian culture in the early days of Christianity to make the new religion more acceptable. The authors of this book claim that Constantine followed the cult of Sol Invictus, a monotheistic form of sun worship that originated in Syria and was imposed by Roman emperors on their subjects a century earlier. There was no consensus among early Church fathers over the date to use for Christ's birth. (In fact, as devout Christians know, there is no certain date for the birth of Christ. Current estimates based on historical and astronomical records put it at around February 6, 6 B.C.) A December festival to celebrate the birth of Christ didn't exist until the fourth century when Christians simply adopted the popular Yule celebrations for their own use. Roman churchmen favored the Mithraic winter solstice festival, which they themselves had adopted from the Persians called the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. On the old Roman calendar, December 25 (not December 21) was the date of the winter solstice. Rome was well aware that the Winter Solstice was also the traditional date to honor the birth of the pagan Divine Child, and Norsemen celebrated the birthday of their lord, Frey, at the winter solstice. After much argument, Pope Julius selected December 25 as Christ's Mass, or Christmas, in 350 A.D.-in part to counter persistent pagan solstice rites, but also because people of the time were already used to calling it a god's birthday. This proclamation was not without objection, however. The date was so controversial that eastern churches refused to honor it for another hundred years, and the church of Jerusalem ignored the date until the 7th century. And in an interesting twist, the fifth-century Bishop of Constantinople firmly believed December 25 was selected so Christians could celebrate Christ's birthday undisturbed while "the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies"!
"His primary, indeed obsessive, objective was unity -- unity in politics, in religion, and in territory. A cult or state religion that included all other cults within it obviously helped to achieve this objective...In the interests of unity, Constantine deliberately chose to blur the distinctions among Christianity, Mithraism [another Sun cult of the time] and Sol Invictus..."
That's why Constantine decreed that Sunday -- "the venerable day of the sun" would be the official day of rest and the Christian's Sabbath as substitution for the Jewish Sabbath and the 4th Commandment of Moses. Early Christians before the time of Constantine celebrated their holy day on the Jewish Sabbath -- Saturday.
That's also why by Constantine's edict, the celebration of Jesus' birthday was moved from January 6th (Epiphany today) to December 25, as it was Constantine that celebrated by the cult of Sol Invictus as Natilis Invictus, the rebirth of the sun. This was by decree to be enforced on all Christendom.
Even today, pagan and Christian belief is intermingled with Christmas celebration due to Constantine. Many traditions that are now a part of the mainstream Christian culture actually come from ancient pagan celebrations-rites such as decorating with evergreens, hanging ornaments on a tree, partaking of sweet confections, processions, gift giving, singing carols, and the burning of the yule log.
Answer for yourself: And are you wondering about the concept of the 12 Days of Christmas? The midwinter festival of the ancient Egyptians celebrated the birth of Horus (the prototype of the earthly king) son of Isis (the divine mother-goddess). It was 12 days long, reflecting their 12-month calendar and the 12 Constellations in which the Sun traveled in its yearly cycle and path. These 12 Days of Christmas are really the Zodiac. This concept took firm root in many other cultures. In 567 AD, Christians adopted it. Church leaders proclaimed the 12 days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.
But this was Rome and although Rome held sway over many nations it did not all. In the ancient nations north of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, there were other mid-winter festivals, the greatest and most sacred of their year. To these northern barbarians, shuddering in the snow-laden forests beyond the Danube, the return of the Sun was the most desired event of the year, and they soon learned, approximately, the time -- the Winter Solstice -- when the "wheel" turned. For them, the Sun was figured as a fiery wheel; and as late as the nineteenth century there were parts of France where a straw wheel was set on fire and rolled down a hill, to give an augury of the next harvest. Almost all peoples at one time preserved Earth-based wisdom within teachings focused on the annual cycle of the year. Among many American Indian peoples the central device of such teachings was the Medicine Wheel. Other peoples called the annual cycle of the year by many names: wheel of the year, path of the Sun, magic web of the year, zodiac, and so forth. For your information the "great wheel in the sky", if you did not make the connection, is the Sun as it moves through the constellations of the Zodiac with its Equinoxes and Solstices and incorporates the ceaseless changing of the seasons. The wheel of the year is multi layered and multi purpose. On the purely physical level it can be a circular arrangement of stones or earthenworks, often incorporating natural features, that mark the points of the compass and allow for ceremonial alignment at the solstices, equinoxes, and other cyclical events. One thinks immediately of Stonehenge. But such features were common in most sacred sites of antiquity. The wheel functioned on the abstract informational level as calendar and almanac (with considerable amounts of oral tradition). Its subdivisions mirrored seasons and months, allowing a system of time. It was a key part of observance and the timing of planting, hunting, migrations, and other seasonal events.
An utterly astounding array of ancient cultures built their greatest
architectures like tombs, temples, cairns and sacred observatories so that
they aligned with the solstices and equinoxes. In fact the Jerusalem
Temple
is an Equinox Temple known for its "Eastern Gate". Many of us
know that Stonehenge
is a perfect marker of both solstices. Stonehenge is angled such that on
the equinoxes and the solstices, the sun rising over the horizon appears
to be perfectly placed between gaps in the megaliths. But not so many
people are familiar with
Newgrange, a 
beautiful
megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is
estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge! It
was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at
dawn on winter solstice. For about 2 weeks on either side of the winter
solstice, light streams through a roof box located above the entrance
passage. This allows light to shine through the length of the passageway,
lighting up the entire central chamber, where people must've been buried.
This couldn't happened by accident. Newgrange was definitely planned out
and built to face sunrise at the midwinter mark. Hundreds
of other megalithic structures throughout Europe are oriented to the
solstices and the equinoxes. The blossoming field of
archaeoastronomy
studies such sacred sites in the Americas, Asia, Indonesia, and the Middle
East. Recent research into the medieval Great Zimbabwe in sub-Saharan
Africa (also known as the "African Stonehenge") indicates a
similar purpose. In North America, one of the most famous such sites is
the Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, built a thousand years ago by
the Chacoans, ancestors of the Pueblo people. Even cultures that followed
a moon-based calendar seemed also to understand the importance of these
sun-facing seasonal turning points. And now a book, The Sun in the
Church reveals that many medieval Catholic churches were also built as
solar observatories. The church, once again reinforcing the close ties
between religious celebration and seasonal passages, needed astronomy to
predict the date of Easter. And so observatories were built into
cathedrals and churches throughout Europe. Typically, a small hole in the
roof admitted a beam of sunlight, which would trace a path along the
floor. The path, called the meridian line, was often marked by inlays and
zodiacal motifs. The position at noon throughout the year, including the
extremes of the solstices, was also carefully marked. The Sun in the
Church by J.L. Heilbron is a provocative work of scholarship that
challenges long-held views of the relationship between science and
Christianity. Heilbron's main point is simple enough: "The Roman
Catholic Church gave more financial and social support to the study of
astronomy for over six centuries, from the recovery of ancient learning
during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and,
probably, all other, institutions." Despite the persecution of
Galileo, Heilbron notes, the Church actively supported mathematical and
astronomical research--often designing cathedrals that could also function
as observatories--in order to set the precise date of Easter (a crucial
endeavor for maintaining the unity of the Church). Between 1650 and 1750,
four Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world.
Built to fix an unquestionable date for Easter, they also housed
instruments that threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system,
and so, within sight of the altar, subverted Church doctrine about the
order of the universe.
Through the efforts of Rome the Winter solstice was, as you are beginning to see, overlaid with Christmas, and the observance of Christmas spread throughout the globe. Along the way, we lost some of the deep connection of our celebrations to a fundamental seasonal, hemispheric event. Many people of many beliefs are looking to regain that connection now.
Notice carefully the following two phrases:
As see from the similarity of these two words "Sun" and "Son" Christmas was transplanted onto the winter solstice by Rome some 1,600 years ago, centuries before the English language emerged from its Germanic roots.
Answer for yourself: Is that why we came to express these two ideas in words that sound so similar? It sure is. When "the Christ Within" was "literalized" to the "Christ Without" and the ancient oral tradition of the killing of the Egyptian Messiah, the Egyptian "Joshua-Jesus" and Son of God on the eve of the Passover at Sinai was transplanted from the days of Moses to the first century by Rome and the synthesis completed between these two ideas by Rome then out came the "Roman historical Jesus" of whom we read about in the New Testament. Hidden behind all this is the truth about Tutankhamun, the Egyptian "historical Joshua-Jesus".
This wheel of the
year, the Sun in its path across the Heavens, can be seen as a foundation
tool for geometry and astronomy. Some see its influence in astrology and
the Kaballah while others 
see
that it lies at the very foundation of all later "holy days" and
"feasts" in world religious observances. This
is what I uncovered in my studies as I began to see how almost every major
religion of the world sanctified and set apart these "Appointed
Times of God" and "Equinoxes and Solstices"
as varied "festivals" and "feasts" unto the "LORD".
It was during my studies in Judaism that I noticed that the Biblical
Festivals ran parallel to the Equinoxes and Solstices. Christianity does
the same only the interpretation of these events differ. I began to think
and was correct that behind these special times of the year lies a hidden
message of God that runs deeper than any man's religion of which I am
currently familiar (meaning Judaism and Christianity). I was to be proved
correct when my studies finally culminated in Egyptian Religion where I
found the motherload of all revelation about these "Appointed Times
of God".
Many approach the wheel as the Sacred Circle, a tool for deeper understanding of Earth cycles and for spiritual empowerment. They might use it devotionally, attuning their spiritual and other work to the energies of the season (remember Beltane/May Day?). Many use it and its knowledge as a tool for self discovery, employing information encoded in the wheel as keys to unlocking the subconscious and symbolic worlds that seem unavailable in everyday life. As a result, wheel practice is often associated with the way of the shaman, a way of looking at the seen world as only one aspect of an infinitely diverse cosmos.
Answer for yourself: And what of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights that occurs around this time every year? Is it related to other celebrations of the season?
The placement of Hanukkah is tied to both the lunar and solar calendars. It begins on the 25th of Kislev, three days before the new moon closest to the Winter Solstice. It commemorates an historic event -- the Maccabees' victory over the Greeks and the rededication of the temple at Jerusalem. It is a short leap to surmising that the Syrian Greeks may have chosen the 25th of Kislev (December) as a time to desecrate the Temple by making their own sacrifices there precisely because it was a time of solar and lunar darkness, the time of the winter solstice and the waning of the moon. And it is a short leap to surmise that the Maccabees, when they took the anniversary of that day as the day of rededication, were rededicating not only the Temple but the day itself to Jewish holiness; were capturing a pagan solstice festival that had won wide support among partially Hellenized Jews, in order to make it a day of God's victory over paganism. Even the lighting of candles for Hanukkah fits the context of the surrounding torchlight honors for the sun.
Some commentators have objected that Hanukkah cannot be a solstice festival because it is tied to the lunar, not the solar, cycle. But this objection ignores the fact that the Jewish festivals that are most clearly solar--Sukkot and Pesach, the festivals of fall and spring--are nevertheless tied to the full moon for their dates. The objection also ignores the fact that Judaism insists on keeping the sun and moon cycles in tension with each other in its entire calendar--never adopting either a purely lunar or a purely solar calendar, but insisting that each be corrected by the other.
Moreover, if Hanukkah is not merely a solstice but a darkness festival, then the 25th of Kislev is the perfect time. In some years, the solstice day itself would be a night of bright full moon--especially powerful in an agrarian-pastoral culture with few artificial lights. So even the solstice itself would feel less like the darkest day of the year on such a moonlit night. By setting Hanukkah on the 25th of the month, the Jews made sure that the night would be dark. By setting it in Kislev, they made sure the day would be very short and the sun very dim.
It may even be that the Maccabees' desire to celebrate a late Sukkot, or to celebrate this newly Judaized solstice festival in ways reminiscent of Sukkot, was tied to Sukkot's earlier career as in part a festival of the sun. The Mishnah goes out of its way to preserve the memory that "Our forebears turned toward the East, to the Sun..." and the torches of Sukkot, juggled by the Levites as they danced through Jerusalem, may have been reminders of the sun.
If we see Hanukkah as intentionally, not accidentally, placed at the moment of the darkest sun and darkest moon, then one aspect of the candles seems to be an assertion of the Jewish hope for renewed light. Just as at Sukkot when worshippers poured the water in order to remind God to pour out rain, perhaps one reason for worshippers to light the candles is to remind God to renew the sun and moon.
So as we now see it is a short leap to surmise that the Maccabees, when they took the anniversary of that day as the day of rededication, were rededicating not only the Temple but the day itself to Jewish holiness; were capturing a pagan solstice festival that had won wide support among partially Hellenized Jews, in order to make it a day of God's victory over paganism. Even the lighting of candles for Hanukkah fits the context of the surrounding torchlight honors for the sun.
But the form of this celebration, a Festival of Lights (with candles at the heart of the ritual), makes Hanukkah wonderfully compatible with other celebrations at this time of year. As a symbolic celebration of growing light and as a commemoration of spiritual rebirth, it also seems closely related to other observances.
Many Christmas customs and much of our Christmas music of any antiquity originated in the Western European Pagan celebrations of Yule. Customs attached to the Yuletide constellation of Saints' Days: Stephen, Basil, Nicholas, Lucia, Barbara, Sylvester and the Epiphany derive almost entirely from Yule. There is a richness of customs concerning food, fires, plants, animals, wild birds, stars, mummers, music, magic, clothing, angels, social roles, gifts, lights, omens and so on, endlessly. Imagine the figure of baby Dionysus, newborn of Demeter or Persephone (depending on which myths you read), lying swaddled on a bed of straw in a harvest basket on the threshing floor, his head surrounded by a gold nimbus (halo) looking exactly like the Christ-child in the cradle and evoking the same feelings of love and mystery as does the image of the Baby Jesus born in the stables.
The Winter Solstice is in its simplest form celebrated and observed as a fire-festival of Yule with its Yule-log saved from the previous year's fire to kindle the flames for the new years's celebrations. To the ancient Egyptians it marked the birth of Osiris. To the ancient Persians it celebrated the birth of Mithras, the all-seeing Sun, god of friendship. The Romans knew it as Saturnalia with its feasting and exchanging of roles of masters and slaves. Whatever the name and outward appearance of its festivities, however, Yule's esoteric meaning stayed the same - it noted the shortest day of the year with emphasis on the fact that from this time until the Summer Solstice, the solar forces, both material and spiritual, would be gaining in strength.
Hence "Yule" (from the same old Teutonic word hoel or wheel) was the outstanding festival of the ancestors of the French and Germans, the English and Scandinavians. However, some who have studied the linguistics tell me that the association of "Yule" with "wheel" is a myth. The roots of the two words have about as much similarity in Scandinavian languages as in English. According to one theory, the root word for Yule came from the aboriginal Scandinavians, and has always meant only one thing: the festival at the Winter Solstice. The word for wheel came from the Indo-Europeans who migrated to Scandinavia around 3800 BC (although they didn't even begin to use wheels until about 2500 BC!) The debate points out how ancient the word is. Many of the ancient traditions surrounding Yuletide are concerned with coping with the darkness and the evils it was thought to harbor, and helping the return of light and warmth.
In spite of some's indecision about the word Yule it can be traced to the ancient Celtic word 'hioul' which means wheel. It is the celebration of the return or rebirth of the Sun god, the Lord of Life, the Child of Promise which are all allegories expressing a scientific phenomena dealing with God's Sun returning to the Heavens as the vehicle the Creator uses to impart His life and life abundantly to His children. The rites are solemn yet filled with joy for they solve the paradox of Death and Rebirth. This festival represents the redemption of the world and mankind from death and darkness and is a celebration of hope and joy amidst the barrenness of Winter.
Such understanding of the scientific explanation for God and the movement of his Cosmos which pours out His life and energy for mankind is concealed in the simple story of the birth and life of Jesus. In fact the whole "Jesus Story" can be shown to be an allegorical adaptation of the path of the Sun through the Zodiac. Let me just say you have to see it and read it to believe it but believe it is as I say.
For ancient Germanic and Celtic people, the impulse to celebrate solstice was the same as for their neighbors to the south -- a celebration of the cycle of nature and a reaffirmation of the continuation of life. But the style and substance of their celebrations took very different shape.
Reverence for trees is a part of the Western European Pagan heritage. The decorating of a tree with lights and the burning of the Yule log have their birth in this reverence. At one time in our ancient history it was felt that the sacrifice of a great tree to insure than life would go on was necessary. The burning of the great Yule log would bring good luck and the returning of life force. The fire was lit from a piece of the previous year's Yule log that had been tended all year and saved for this purpose. Such rites were believed by the Ancients to ensure the continued movement of the wheel of the Sun and observe as well as celebrate its life-giving benefits to all of mankind by the Creator. This is the time of the Winter Solstice when the sun reaches the southernmost point in its journey across the sky and appears to remain motionless before beginning to re-ascend northward bringing with it light and the promise of springtime, life and warmth. This is the time for the death of the old god of the year, followed by the Goddess giving birth to the new Sun God. Yule was such a time that ended the period of darkness that has prevailed during Winter and has brought mankind into the gloom of barren trees and shortened days. It is the time to cast aside those inner doubts which have bound mankind and to welcome the growing light which shows them the ways of new beginnings. This is the time of hope born anew.
These northern cultures survived a colder, darker winter for one thing. And they were just as likely to be herders and hunters as farmers. It's cold, it's dark many more hours than light, and snows cover the fields where your herds might forage.
Answer for yourself: What is there to
do but make a delight of necessity, with a great slaughter
and
feasting? And what better time to do it than at the point that marks the
return of the Sun's light and warmth and life?
In these Northern cultures at the Winter Solstice, the Sun rises around 9 a.m. It sets about 3 p.m. A mere six hours of daylight. Even if you sleep for eight hours, you spend much more of your waking time in darkness than in light. I can only imagine what a relief to these people were the sight of the Sun rising again from its death of 3 days at the Winter Solstice when the days begin to lengthen again with the renewed hope that photosynthesis would soon begin again along with a bountiful food chain for all animals and man himself. As you can begin to see many of the ancient traditions surrounding Yuletide are concerned with coping with the darkness and the evils it was thought to harbor, and helping the return of light and warmth and life.
The Sun was born; and fires ("Yule-logs," such as are burned in homes at Christmas today) flamed in the forest-villages. The huts were decorated with holly and evergreens – plants that seemed to defy the death brought by winter and inspired hope in Spring's and Mother Nature's awakening from the dead. Yule trees were laden with presents, and stores of solid food and strong drink were lavishly opened. This lasted for 12 days; one day for each house of the Zodiac.
Thus almost the entire civilized world of more than two thousand years ago and as far back as 10,000 B.C.E. "had its Christmas before Christ." "The figure of Christ," says Kalthoff, "is drawn in all its chief features before one sentence of the Gospels was written." At least thefigure of Jesus in what is deemed its most captivating form was drawn in every feature long, long before it was presented in the Gospels. A study in Egyptian religion for about a year where you read books like Ancient Egypt: The Light Of The World by Gerald Massey will reveal to you hundreds and hundreds of parallels between the "Jesus Story" and the Horus/Osiris of Egypt which again is but the personification of the Sun through the Zodiac. Since all of these "Christ Events" came from personifications of the Sun in its path through the Zodiac each year along with related stories of the Constellations of the Heavens that bordered this Zodiac then one can understand why nation after nation had its own parallels to our "Jesus Story" where only the names were changed; they simply saw the same things in the night sky year after year for thousands of years. Therefore the myths overlap and only the names were changed.
The first symbol of the Christian religion, the manger or basket-cradle of the divine child, the supposed unique exhortation to humility, was one of the most familiar religious emblems of the pagan world. Had it been exhibited to a crowd in one of the cosmopolitan cities of the Roman Empire, it would NOT have been new, unique, or overtly special. One person might pronounce the child figures name as Horus, another Mithra, another Hermes, another Dionysus; but all would have shrugged their shoulders nonchalantly at the news that it was just another divine child in the great family of gods. The world flowed on. Only the names were changed.
So here we have all of these ancient cultural influences, each with its own importance and firm entrenchment with the people who followed the beliefs.
Answer for yourself: I used to ask myself, especially during the years of my Pastorate once learning these truth: "What is a good Christian to do?" "What is a Pastor to do?" What are you to do? Well it only spurred me on to deeper studies to find out what really lies behind all of my "Jesus Story". Thus the many websites of Bet Emet Ministries dealing with the thematic and various aspects concerning this "Jesus Story" and the "3 different interpretations of the Christ".
Let us continue our study and not delve into the political history of ancient Rome and Christianity any longer. Let’s take it as a given that the Roman church had great sway over the rulers of the time, and what they did was a move that has been repeated over and over again in the history of Christianity. In summary let me say that if you can’t beat ‘em, and you refuse to join ‘em, at least make it appear that you defeated them. So sometime between 354 and 360 CE, a few decades after Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity which was a great milestone in world history, the celebration of Christmas was shifted to the day of the Unconquered Sun.Thus the birthday of the Christ was born.
Answer for yourself: So what do we do with this information? Before my studies would take me into the study of Egypt and Egyptian religion along with a study of Astronomy and only seeing the parallels between my "Jesus Story" and the myths of sun gods of other nations and not knowing what really laid behind them I rejected Christmas outright as many of you have done I am sure. But having now had the time to look more deeply into Egyptian religion and possess a deeper understanding of these Solstices and Equinoxes as well as the spiritual truths that the earliest Gnostics possessed and gave the world which were originally imparted to mankind by the Creator and passed down through history I have had to rethink many things anew. Instead of rejecting the parallels of mystery religions with the "Jesus Story" I have come to better understand them spiritual allegories and "personifications" of the Sun which was symbolic of the Soul of the Divine which gives life to all things. This higher spiritual understanding of God and the Soul within mankind given us by earlier civilizations has caused me to rethink my position concerning these "Equinoxes" and "Solstices" as the true Appointed Times of God which are understood both in Judaism and Christianity in both similar and dissimilar ways. Both have truth but neither has the ultimate truth until you jettison each's unique understanding of them as sifted down through that religions' historical development. Now seeing the Divine message behind these 4 special times of the year I have come to see the absolute beauty and simplicity and error-free message of God communicated to mankind both yesterday and well as today. Coming to a deeper understanding of God's Divine Truths hidden behind our "religious myths" was the most liberating of experiences to me and forced me to look beyond the superficial parallels to my "Jesus Story" and see "God's Story"and God's real Message that lies hidden behind the all the "religion" that conceals it.
The evergreen trees that we decorate with twinkling lights and trinkets and tokens of our past harkened to the days when our ancestors would light candles and lamps against the darkness and cold of the world. These dancing beacons of warmth and almost living light, serve to inspire us to be lights unto the world. Not in any parochial religious sense, but in a universal spirit of peace, community and love. The Christmas tree stands for me, as it did for my ancestors, as a symbol of life's determination against all odds to persevere. Faced as we are with all manner of perils today, we can learn from this symbol. Even the childness of Santa Claus (by the way, we all know that Saint Nicholas was a real character -- the myths surrounding his life are another story altogether – he died on December 25th) is not lost on me. Even though he is a supernatural being that defies all logic and sense, I can’t help but see the magic his myth does in the eyes and hearts of children. I now get frustrated with others who like myself overreacted to a little knowledge having not possessed enough at that time to see more clearly the real path that needed to be taken and who who say that we should sit the holiday out, just not participate because doing so lends credibility to the myths and superstitions upon which much of the holiday is based. They fail to see beyond the superficial myths of Dionysus and Mithra and even Jesus to see the spiritual message of the Winter Solstice. To not celebrate the Winter Solstice and this special time of the year because of inadequate understanding on our parts of the Christian labeled "pagan myths" which ironically is not different from the "Christ Myth" and "Jesus Story" of Rome only deprives and robs of the opportunity to build bridges to our fellowman and instead we rather build more artificial walls to further divide us. We need to understand the real Message of Christmas and it is to this we turn presently.
Bennoah1@airmail.net