Love Peace and Other Thoughts for Christmas and the End of the Year
This is really a blog of two parts. The first is a little reflection on our Western Christmas and then a brief look through to 2014 and some of the energy of that year as I see it and that may be useful to others to consider.
I have noticed the Christmas jollying whooping up already and must say each year it seems to have less and less to do with me or its original message.
Maybe it’s because the children have grown up, left home and those events and rituals so entrancing for our little ones just don’t have the same allure for the riper ones among us. It seems little more than a materialistic booze up, an opportunity for overindulgence and often a time for the surfacing of painful memories and old family wounds.
As a child I can’t remember a Christmas without some element of family conflict, some tears on the tinsel, and an old family feud of some kind rearing its ugly head: either a repeat of an earlier conflict or a fresh battle emerging around the turkey sandwiches on Boxing Day the 26th. Maybe they didn’t like the gift which was given with good grace like the time my mother sent back to her sister, by mistake she always insisted, the same scarf that she had received from her the previous year and never worn. A difficult relationship erupted into outright war that December. Then there are the traditions. “We always go to Mary’s on the 26th, every year.”
Oh how we love to either hide behind these rituals, use them as an excuse for lack of creative decision making, or perhaps a security blanket to avoid upsetting the relatives who expect us to do their bidding to show that we “love them”. Whether or not they are operating in a spirit of love and peace seems not the issue for them. ”We always do it this way-every year.” I must confess to falling into that one myself as a parent and what started out as innocent repetitive fun becomes a burden, especially for growing children, who quite naturally want eventually to ring the changes, especially when girl and boy friends come along, and they can legally or almost legally, buy their own beer at the pub instead of “borrowing” yours.
We should perhaps remember that a ritual or a tradition, that other excuse for not thinking outside the box, was once a new idea, not done before, so what’s wrong with initiating a new “tradition”? We are sometimes obsessed with hanging on to the familiar as it seems safe to do so when actually the opposite is true.And the Aquarian Age which is now upon us is a time for letting go of the old ways and welcoming something new. It is certainly not a time to persist with a routine, however pleasurable it may have been in the past, simply because that’s the way it has always been. I don’t mind a bit of tradition but not when it is a vehicle for procrastination or, as is sometimes the case, especially at Christmas sadly, a form of emotional blackmail to bring the erring divergent ones among us back into line.
Whatever we may or may not believe, if Christmas has a message hidden away behind the DVD box sets, paper hats and holly, it is one of love and hope: one of loving from the heart as a child would naturally seek to do, of giving and sharing time freely with those we truly love, not as duty or obligation, not because it will annoy them if we don’t, but as a gift we wish to give, a joy. It is also a time of renewal, the hope for something more innocent, peaceful and caring to emerge from our busy and often cynical grown up world and our dusty blinded hearts.
It is about change and growth rather than tired repetitive and safe formulae. The man who’s birth we commemorate, whoever we think he was, came to challenge and change things, often upsetting those who wanted to keep things just as they were whoever they themselves upset or trod upon on the way. Honour the old by all means, reflect a while if you wish, but also don’t be a slave to tradition, ring in the changes with the church bells and be generous, kind and imaginative, willing to treat each Christmastime as an opportunity to flow and grow with life rather than be in thrall to its limits and old boundaries. Boundaries have nothing to do with love. As the man himself went on to show us, it knows no limits and constantly seeks renewal and rebirth into something blessed, kind, better than before.
I wonder who the man whose birth we remember will visit at Christmas.
Anyway, from my heart I send you love, wish you inner peace and offer my goodwill to you in the spirit of this time and many wonderful opportunities throughout 2014.
2014 - Some observations
25th November 2013
I am not an astrologer though I have a very limited basic knowledge of it, but I do look at the energy movements of individual lives and also those of the times in which we live.
It is quite clear to me that the energy and forces of any New Year are already upon us, coming powerfully through us as we move from Scorpio into Sagittarius. This is particularly apt as the human soul family first populated the earth at a time when the sun would have been positioned in that sign. We are all variants on Sagittarius at least at the soul or spiritual level. On what I see the recent communication hiatus has largely left us and we shouldn’t have as great a problem with our phones and conversations as may have been the case over the last month or so for many – a time of crossed wires if ever there was.
The new rhythm still has its challenges with a growing shake out of old patterns and redundant ideas continuing well into next year and beyond, but it is coupled with a new period of openness and a further breaking down of secretiveness and obfuscation. It will be increasingly difficult to hide things from one another as the next 12 months or so progress. An open loving heart is really the name of the game.
What especially interests me is a beautiful light emerging around 6th May 2014 until the end of Gemini in late June. This light is tinged with the most wonderful old gold hue and will offer an opportunity for those who wish to unfold more dynamically than ever some of the old wisdom asleep in their hearts so they may bring it into a new time, a fresh framework, beginning to live and work in a new way together. Good for those who want to grow, but it could be a bit rough for those who want to stay more or less as they are, living and working in the same patterns. It will stimulate radical change in us over a time. Nearer the date I will suggest a meditation that may be of special value around that emergence.
There is also a “taking risks” theme rising over the coming months, especially in early February. I am not suggesting recklessness or gambling with life but rather, when we are truly relaxed and in our hearts properly, which is a more difficult task than most realise, we have to let go of old paradigms which are governed more by the intellect and lower logic and trust life to support us as we follow our dreams and know that there are many ways of realising good sustainable and fulfilling modes of living not purely based on what we normally expect.
It is a “there are ways that you know not of” period which will bear out the “fortune favours the brave” maxim when we seek to work with creativity, love and goodwill for a better world for all, including ourselves. And it is a time to explore more deeply the power of the group, the greater effectiveness of working together more and more rather than as a solo act, as a new synergy emerges through the human family.