We Wish You a Merry…!
It’s Christmas and we are meant to be happy . . . jolly, in fact! Another year is drawing to a close, and it’s time to celebrate. But it can be a busy and very confusing time of year: work parties, family gatherings, curious snowy figures on special trees, coloured lights and decorations, presents, special foods, and lots of alcohol! What’s not to be merry about?
Well, lots of things, actually. It’s Christmas, and all our personal, family and cultural traditions come to the fore . . . . all bringing their emotional loading, both good and bad! As well as the joy and fun, there’s all those unresolved relationships, life’s disappointments, losses and grief . . . from the past year, and from our whole life. With another year to end soon, everything in our life can be brought into dramatic relief! What emotional turmoil!
Why is this? What is happening at Christmas? We’ve been bought up to anticipate, to expect a whole range of good things to happen for us at Christmas. From as early as we can remember, we have had our hopes, our excitement stimulated for weeks, or even months, leading to this time of great joy.
What will Father Christmas bring? How will Santa Claus come if we don’t have a chimney? Wow! I’ve been invited to a great Christmas party! Will that person [male or female] go out with me? Will the new year be better than this one? etc, etc, etc.
If our hopes and expectations are not fulfilled, and don’t seem fulfill-able, we might expect to feel down; even down to the core of our being – totally depressed – if we had felt intensely enough. For many people at this time of year, it seems that all feelings are more intense, and so easily dashed. In fact, we come face to face with who we are, and what we are holding on to. Somehow, we know that’s not just about social and cultural upbringing. There’s definitely more to it!
The key is that Christmas is celebrated at the summer solstice [in the southern hemisphere], when the Sun’s cosmic energy penetrates most deeply into the Earth, and into our Earthly personalities. Many human societies and belief systems have understood this for millenia: we are not only part of Earth, but are linked closely with the energies of our Solar system, and beyond, and their seasonal fluctuations.
This all-pervading, Solar vibration is referred to as the Cosmic Christ in the western esoteric traditions, and flows through our higher self [or soul], from where it shines an intense light of love into our personalities, intensifying our personal feelings and showing us what needs to be discarded or healed. If our feelings are self-focused or unresolved and concerned with what we want, have lost or never had, then we will feel them acutely. Essentially, we are grasping for the love of this higher light, and may not be able to feel it. And so we suffer.
This is an opportunity – the opportunity of personality life. When confronted by our own baggage, by what we are still carrying from our past, we have a chance to see it clearly and to leave it behind. For the higher light streaming into us is uplifting and joyful and loving. It is the light of our souls on their own level. It is pure love.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
– Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi [1207 -1273]
That, of course, is what confronts us, isn’t it? So much of our personal stories, feelings, wants, wounds and baggage are not loving, but are barriers to love. They start to sizzle and smoke when subject to the higher vibration of cosmic love, of our soul’s true nature. And so we suffer.
But, how do we overcome the barriers you ask? The starting place is to become aware of the process and aware of our baggage. Not just to keep busy, running from one celebration to another like a scalded cat, but to sit with our baggage, acknowledge it, talk with it and seek to let it go. There are many ways to tackle this: meditate, talk it out, give it love, seek help from a friend or a therapist, and so on. Above all, go within and tune into the love and light of our own higher self. Get to really know our self.
‘Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time. It’s easy.’
– John Lennon & Paul McCartney
Ultimately, this flow of cosmic light and love at Christmas challenges us to know ourselves and be ourselves in our highest nature – to open to that love and light and to let it flow through us.
“All You Need Is Love”
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Nothing you can know that isn’t known
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown
Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
All you need is love (All together, now!)
All you need is love (Everybody!)
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
– John Lennon & Paul McCartney