The Christmas Festival is the first of the many festivals that span the Christian year. It begins with Advent, the date of which is taken from the first Sunday of the four before Christmas Day.
The festival continues through the Twelve Holy Nights until Epiphany on the 6th of January; the Festival of the Three Wise Men.
Christmas Tide is a festival that celebrates with great joy and wonder, the birth of a baby in a stable who brings with Him, “Divine Revelation in the Heights and Upon Earth, Peace to the Men who Have Good Will.”
Every human being on this earth, be they young or old, always stand in wonder and awe in the presence of a new born babe. Birth and the baby continue to be miracles worthy of reverence. With every baby comes a blessing and a seed that can bear fruit into the future. So was it the case with the birth of the baby Jesus, when he was born – not in a palace or in the fields, but somewhere inbetween – in a manger. This baby was born at a time in the world where darkness and coldness of soul prevailed.
In the eons past, mankind was far more connected to the Spiritual Worlds. The ancient civilizations dwelt within a consciousness that encompassed heaven and earth.
By the time of the Graeco Roman era of consciousness, the gods had their place high up on Mt Olympus. The gods were thus separated from man.
Into this dark earth a Spiritual Being was born . He brought with him the capacity to fill each and every one of us with the strength and will power to unite heaven and earth once again. The Christian impulse, in its purity, is for every man.
That this impulse has been abused and used as a tool for power and greed is deplorable. This abuse is used at the hand of a materialistic, hardening force which has a place only in terms of providing a balance to the equally significant force of flightiness and insubstantiality. It was into this cold, chaotic world that the child appeared. Gabriel, the Angel announced His coming to the humble shepherds in the field.
This event was the culmination of many generations of preparation. A Sun Being took up an earthly abode to bring light and warmth in order to rekindle everything of substantiality with heavenly possibility.
Christianity itself is still in it’s infancy. All that needs to penetrate our world is still on its way. We as human beings are preparing ourselves to be vessels and vehicles for this capacity. Through the powers of love and goodness, mankind will come to the truth in freedom.
The celebrating of the Christmas festival began in the 4th century after the birth in the manger. During the first three centuries after the birth it was in the Roman catacombs that ‘gratitude ceremonies’ were held for those who suffered and died, for the devotion they had shown to the new spiritual awakening that had taken seed in them.
An imagination of Christmas today scarcely occurs without the presence of a tree. Trees of every kind, residing between heaven and earth in such graceful, life giving ways certainly are “entitled” to their special place at this joyful time. The origin of “the tree’s” presence can in fact be traced back even to Paradise.
There is a sacred legend which reminds us of the story of Adam when he was driven out of the Garden of Eden, after he had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is said that he sent Seth his son to collect three seeds from the fruit of the other tree in the garden – The Tree of Life. When Adam died, it is said his son Seth took the three seeds and placed them in Adam’s grave and then there grew from out of the grave, a tree. Jacob Streit’s story from the book “And Then There Was Light” is as follows:
“Adam had grown very old. The earth drew him towards her with even greater force until he was quite bent over when he walked. When he knew that he would die before long, he said to Seth, “My dear son! Soon my soul will go to God. My body, however, belongs to the earth. Will you, my son, fulfil a last request for me? “All that I am able to do, “Seth answered. “Go toward the rising sun. Let the angel of the Lord guide you to Paradise, and bring me three seeds from the Tree of Life. Place them in my coffin. From the seeds a tree will grow, which will bring blessings to mankind” Seth asked “Father Adam, will I find Paradise? Whom shall I call upon to be my guide? “ Adam answered, “Paradise has been lifted into heaven. You will never find it on earth. Call upon Michael, he will guide you”
Seth wandered towards the sunrise until he came near to the cave of the Holy Book. He went into the cave in order to rest. He fell into a deep sleep. The Archangel Michael came to him and led his soul to heaven, into the Garden of Paradise. The flaming gate was guarded by the Cherubim, lightning flashed from the gate. Michael took Seth’s soul under his wing and carried it through the portal to the Tree of Life. Seth picked one fruit, broke it open and took three seeds from it. Then Michael carried Seth back through the lightning and fire into the cave. When Seth awakened, he found the seeds in his hand. He hastened back to father Adam, around whom people had gathered. The news that he lay dying had travelled far and wide. Sons, daughters, grand children – all had come to be near Adam in this hour.
When Seth came home with the three seeds, he placed them into Adam’s mouth. One last time Adam raised himself. Then he stretched out his arms towards the angel of death, who was sent to guide his soul. Gently the angel lifted the soul from the body of man’s ancestor. Then Adam’s heart stood still; his breathing waned and his limbs grew rigid. Lucifer had been waiting for this moment. He thought, “Adam belongs to me. His soul belongs in my kingdom”. He came near to the angel of death in order to snatch Adam’s soul. But Michael was there. Against him, the fiend of darkness had no power and was forced to flee.
Seth brought Adam’s casket into the cave where the Holy Book was kept. In the book he had read, that the casket would in future times be buried in another place. It would be carried far away, into the region where the Messiah, the Redeemer of mankind, would be born. He had read further that a tree would one time grow from the three seeds. The wood of that tree would yield three things; the staff of a divine leader, the pillars of a Temple and the cross of the Redeemer.
Driven forth from Paradise, with the fruit of Knowledge from the Tree of Good and Evil into an external world of appearances, men have felt within their hearts that yearning for the fruit of the Tree of Life.
When looking at any tree one can only but marvel at it’s growth pattern. Here follows an extract from “Perspectives” on some thoughts with regards to a tree.
In a typical cross-section of a trunk (or large branch). The cambium is alive, just a few cells thick, encircling the entire tree.
When these cells multiply, those moving towards the centre become sapwood (xylem); those going towards the periphery become phloem and bark initials. Bark initials give rise to bark, a dead tissue continually sloughing away like skin. Sapwood continually dies forming heartwood, the bulk of the trunk. The heartwood accumulates, increasing the trunk’s diameter.
If we include sapwood, cambium, phloem and bark initials as the “living part” of, for example, a sugar maple ½ meter in diameter, this living layer would comprise but 2-4 centimetres, the cambium itself but a few millimetres. The phloem transports photosynthetics from the leaves downward for the tree’s growth and functioning and for storage in the roots. When tapping for syrup one must not go in too deep, otherwise one misses the sapwood, which transports sugar-laden sap up from t he roots. But, as already said, the sapwood continually dies into the heartwood. So, the tree is built out of that which is dying or dead”.
Wood is made of substances extracted from the air above and the earth below. Earth substance is pulled up into the air and light via roots and sapwood, while air-light substance densifies and moves earthward via leaves and phloem. Rudolph Steiner describes a tree trunk as a pillar of earth reaching skywards, but it is also sky and light drawn earthwards. He describes the cambium as continuous with the forest-soils, humus layer, which itself is a kind of cambium.
So the living part of a tree is a thin cylinder of life around death. The tree’s life radiates into the surrounding forest. In the roots the dead proportion increases.
A tree, as we know, is a blessing for all sorts of life. The rejuvenation we feel when walking through a forest comes not just from the peace and quiet, but also from that which is continuously being embedded in these tree-borne fields of life and soul.
Rudolph Steiner in a lecture given in 1909 speaks of the Tree of Christmas tide with an expressed hope that it may be a symbol for that which is destined to illumine and burn within our souls in order to raise us higher – even to the realms of the Spirit. For this tree too has sprouted from the depths of darkness. In a comparatively short time – since 1642 The Tree and its lights has come to be a custom that brings happiness to man.
In “Festivals Together” by Sue Fitzjohn, Minda Weston and Judy Lange, there is a story about the Fir Tree and how it came to be chosen as the gilded one that would find its place in the homes of many each year.
Yvette Oxlee, School Mentor
Chalkboard drawing by: Astrid Grimley
