YouTube: The Essence of Christmas
Christ is the essence of God individualized in each of us. However, we have accepted as the basis of our identity, ideas of lack and limitation. These have found expression in our minds, our bodies, and our circumstances. Our hope of glory lies in recovering the awareness of our spiritual core. We re-establish our identity in the Word (soul) so that Word may become flesh, full of grace and truth, and dwell among us.
Mary represents the spiritually receptive intuition. She is the higher Self that is open to the things of Spirit. She is our intuitive nature, that part of us that knows there is more to life than this human, physical existence.
Joseph represents the intellectual aspect of our spiritual awakening. We must reassess the function of our intellect. Before, it was the leader, the teacher, the presenter of new ideas. Now it becomes the observer, the student, the discerner of eternal truths. It beholds divine ideas that are untouched by the limitations of human thought, born out of the virgin regions of the soul.
The shepherds represent our ability to watch over our thoughts. They represent our innate ability to discern and judge from the spiritual perspective. In the same way the shepherd keeps watch over his flock by night, so we keep watch over the flock of our thoughts and feelings. In daily periods of quiet, we remember that we are spiritual beings, here to express the highest and best that is in us. We let go of all that is not constructive, so that we may focus this wonderful energy and power of our spirit on the good.
The wise men from the east represent the innate wisdom of the soul. Just as there is a wisdom that knows how to unfold a mighty oak tree from within a tiny, insignificant acorn, so there is a wisdom that knows how to unfold the full potential of the soul through the mind and heart of each one of us. Sometimes we are afraid to move out of current conditions of limitation because it doesn’t appear that we have the knowledge to successfully pull it off. When we commit ourselves to growth, to changes that will encourage the bringing forth new dimensions of the emerging soul, the wisdom we need is given, as we need it.