The True Meaning of Christmas?

On this day when Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Christ, it might be worth remembering that in the story of Christ, the one considered the savior by todays' Christians is said to have expressed some resistance to his leaving his earthly body even after he had been nailed to a cross:  He is said to have asked his heavenly father why he had been forsaken.  Yet, before he died, Christ let go and claimed peace before his body died.

For many who call themselves Christians, the meaning of this day has become little more than about decorating the house, buying gifts that we often cannot responsibly afford to buy, and an excuse to bring family together so that some can exercise control or feel abused, victimized or  overwhelmed.   It's a time when ego runs rampant: we get to feel some brief excitement that we bought or received great gifts, or that we are righteous for still being willing to invite that aunt who is so difficult to get along with to Christmas dinner.  If we are cooking that dinner, we get chance to be acknowledged.  If we are cleaning up, we'll be thanked.  If one buys more expensive gifts for the kids than somebody else in the family, it is an opportunity to feel artificially superior in a way that has evaporated by the time one goes into work on Monday.

With the congregation of family that may not occur very often during the rest of the year, ego can run rampant on Christmas with the opportunities to either feel righteous in "outgiving"others, triuimphant in power tripping others or in feeling justified or abused in our martyrdom.

Could it be that Christs' lesson to us is a mirror and a metaphor for claiming our power, of letting go of that which does not serve us?  In seeing all the challenges in front of us not as persecutions but as windows for accepting our true and loving nature, we let what appears to be so difficult be transformed into a time of ascension of the Spirit.

Whether you choose to see the story of Christ as myth or history does not matter.  The question is whether you are willing to see the truly powerful lesson in his story.

We can remember today that at the end Christ fully surrendering his Spirit to his father can be a mirror for what we are being asked to do in choosing to learn and be transformed by all the mirrors our world shows us.  Our society has foolishly seemed to integrate the notion that we, the People, should adopt a stupid definition of the word "power." The words "love" and "power," as Martin Luther King observed, are seen by many as polar opposites.

Love is seen as a form of weakness and vulnerability.  Power is seen as the key to being able to manipulate or control someone else, or to attain worldly riches.  Both of these ideas are stupid and silly, yet if you identify with the ego as who you are, they are ideas that make you feel more powerful.

If you pray, I ask you to consider the value in where you direct your prayer.  Christian dogma asserts that there is some big, bearded, ultimately powerful being in the sky who, for some reason, has male equipment.  This being, it is said, has a strict set of rules which, if broken, condemn one to an eternity of torture and anguish.

Could it be that Christ was not praying to a father of any parental lineage that just included him?  Could it be that the being Christ called "the Holy Ghost" is simply an expression of our Collective Spirit?  What is more powerful as prayer: beseeching favors from a vengeful and angry god who needs to be worshipped or sending out loving thoughts and intentions to other living beings who are challenged just as you are challenged?

Christ prayed as he bled on the cross. It might be perceived that the last vestiges of ego as something real were being addressed at one point, as Christs' suffering was intense.  Might we interpret his last words on the cross as a metaphor for the death of ego, the claiming of true and loving power:

* First, he felt abandoned: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)

* He felt needy: "I thirst!" (John 19:28) Here he wanted some worldly satisfaction, some solace while in suffering.

* He surrenders his bodily life: "It is finished!" (John 19:30)

* He fully surrenders: "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46)  These are said to be his last words as he died.  In them, we might see a clear mirror for what we are all being asked by Spirit to do: to let that which is not real die, to let our loving and powerful essence be expressed at all times.  It is the Universe asking us to drop the ego, to claim true life.

Might the father that Christ was praying to be the metaphor for our own collective divinity, that communal wholeness that is the only true God?  Christ is said to have told us that what he can do we can also do.  Misguided religion has taught us the lie that we are somehow disconnected from God, that we would be wise to fear god, to be afraid that we might be damned. These are destructive lies.

On this day when we commemorate the birth of Christ, we might realize at a deeper level that, together, we ARE the Christ.  We can do this by a simple realization that we are Spirit, not the vehicles and facilitators of body and mind.  This is the catalyst for our own rebirth, our ascension.

What must die for us to ascend is not the body. What must die is the imaginary egoic self that does not understand what true power is. Spirit lives on after the body dies.  Spirit continues to live, thrive and joyfully serve after we let go of the identification with ego.

Might the story of Christs' birth, death and rebirth be a remarkable mirror for your own life?  You came into this life in pure innocence. (Let me be direct: the whole idea of "original sin" is one quite stupid belief.)  As you have matured in this life, the world and its' institutions--religion, government and big corporations in particular---have given you false evidence to provoke you to feel either falsely superior or inferior to others.  Christmas is simply one day in which one can choose to experience rebirth: the power of surrender to true and loving power.

The challenge now, one that is more direct than ever before, is to trust your inner guidance--your inner, loving power---and to know that we are colectively experiencing our rebirth.  Ascension is a choice. Christmastime is a wonderfultime to commit to this choice.

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Capitalisation of words signifying deity here have been minimized except when referring to to our collective divinity.  No offense is intended.  It is my understanding--not one that I see should be necessarily yours--that we all comprise the Collective Deity.

A Gift for Overwhelmed Lightworkers

Over the last few days, I've been called or emailed by four friends whose gifts of light I have long respected.  They all expressed that they were lately more tired and overloaded by the calls upon them for help with the same thing.  Right now so many of us who see ourselves as givers are in overwhelm with much of the rest of humanity.

With our orientation on giving, it is easy to forget that we have a responsibity to nourish ourselves, to do the things in which we find relaxation, a sense of Oneness, calm, and vibrant energy.  We can forget meditation entirely, or trim the time that we devote to it.

Another way of saying that is that it's easy to forget the Self.  If you are flying in a jet somewhere, and the oxygen gets depleted in the cabin in the cabin, we're told to get the oxygen for yourself first, before assisting others. It's good advice.  If you run out of oxygen, your human self cannot serve others and cannot thrive.

Be the change you want to see, is the saying.  This is possible only when you serve the Self to the extent that you take time to meditate and do the Self-nurturing activities and passtimes that turn up your own vibration.

Following is my response to a friend last night who had just detailed her challenge in an email.  You may find it useful:

....First, I think that it is wonderful that you give so much.  For me, it is the healer's apparent dillema: Balancing our waking hours between nurturing of Self and focusing on the nurturing of apparent others.  I am getting over just giving.

(Not a lecture; in writing this I am clarifying it for myself, kind of a different thing us creative types are wondrous about, and you just happen to be easy to share it with now, the catalyst for my creativity in this moment.)

For when we neglect the nurturing of the self, we cannot be in our full power to lovingly give and we cannot attain that which we came here to do: to fully unfold our loving natures. First responsibility, especially when you are close to the living ascended state, is to fully become that which you came here to become.

So if your intent is to be fully of service, an intent which I think you and I share, then you might choose to consider the possibility that you have a prioritized responsibility to nurture the deep Self so that you are as alive and vibrant as you can be for as many of your waking hours as possible, so that you are radiating maximum light to the world that includes and is You.

I see it often lately: Healers who are wonderful, spirited, loving beings in overwhelm, refusing to take time to nurture themselves.

I see it as my responsibility is to do everything in my power to ensure that the light I am sending to the world is of the highest frequency.

This is only possible to the extent that I am willing to take the time to do the things that nurture me, so that the vibration I emit is bright, spinning at high frequency.

The excuse some make, maybe a last vestige of ego, is that in serving others, they, themselves are served.  And that is true, of course.  Which doesn't make that a substitute for taking care of your own Self, building  your own power, engaging in the activities which are chosen to nurture your own Spirit.

One thing that comes to me to reflect on: It has come out, in the last few years

I think, that Mother Theresa never knew who she was.  In other peoples' reflections and in her own writings, we see someone totally disconnected from knowing what nurtured her.  And I am betting she has or had a lifetime after that to get the lesson.  Maybe the final lesson along the  path for some is that, once we get the joy of dedicating ourselves to giving, we allow our selves to more gracefully receive and to give to the Self.

Blessings,

Carlo

Over the last few days, I've been called or emailed by four friends whose gifts of light I have long respected.  They all expressed that they were lately more tired and overloaded by the calls upon them for help with the same thing.  Right now so many of us who see ourselves as givers are in overwhelm with much of the rest of humanity.  Our intent to exercise our spiritual empowerment asks us to remember to allow time and space for our own nurturance.

With our orientation on giving, it is easy to forget that we have a responsibity to nourish ourselves, to do the things in which we find relaxation, a sense of Oneness, calm, and vibrant energy.  We can forget meditation entirely, or trim the time that we devote to it.

Another way of saying that is that it's easy to forget the Self.  If you are flying in a jet somewhere, and the oxygen gets depleted in the cabin in the cabin, we're told to get the oxygen for yourself first, before assisting others. It's good advice.  If you run out of oxygen, your human self cannot serve others and cannot thrive.

"Be the change you want to see", is the saying.  This is possible only when you serve the Self to the extent that you take time to meditate and do the Self-nurturing activities and passtimes that turn up your own vibration.

Following is my response to a friend last night who had just detailed her challenge in an email.  You may find it useful.  Click on your pause button after reading it and ask your heart to express its will and its calm.  This is part of the way that we truly wake up.