Follow Your Bliss: Following Yonder Star

“And Stars Twinkle in the night air” by Richard S Gilbert

"And the stars, twinkling in the night air,
Become beacons leading to a babe in a manger, or a cave,
Or other humble place, in east or west,
A child in whom the human race was born anew.
And simple shepherds, so close to the earth,
Become heroes in a great miracle play,
Finding the new born babe before the great kings of the East.
And angels, those celestial non-creatures, made heavenly music,
To stir the heart for centuries.
(Oh we know it didn’t happen that way
But one must admit, it is very poetic.)
Only a myth, you say?
Of course only a myth,
The stuff of which dreams are made.
The fabrications of which joys are made.

Only a myth.
Yet those myths link us with those we never knew,
And will link us with those we will never know.
They will speak a poetry irresistible.
For we are sustained not by bread alone,
Or by reason,
Or by fact,
Or by the daily hum drum,
So much as we are by the poetry of human imagination,
Which paints pictures where before there were only colours,
Which forms songs where before there were only sounds,
Which writes stories where before there were only words.

Someone needs to be our story teller,
For human life is more than a bleak passage
Between the portals of life and death.
It is a story, a myth
It is the myth of Jesus, or the Buddha or Confucius.
Heroes of the race.
Or is it the story of a life,
Yours or mine, a story with a beginning and ending
And all that goes between of despair and hope."

There are many powerful symbols of the Christmas mythos. Now I see these as universal symbols that speak to us from generation to generation. They link us to those who came before us and those who are yet to come. They may not mean exactly what they meant when the first stories were told, but they still have the power to speak to us today. They must have otherwise why would we continue to tell them, to engage with them. They still speak to we who live in our materially advanced aged. Why I wonder? Well perhaps it is because although we have progressed materially, beyond recognition, we may well still live with a kind of spiritual poverty. There is still something in these tales that can touch us, nay transform us. I wonder what the symbols and stories of Christmas mean to you. I wonder if they mean something different today than they did in the past.

One symbol that really speaks to me is that of the star. The star that drew the “wise men” out of the comfort of their homeland to seek out this baby who they believed was the King of the Jews. They travelled from the east and began to ask where this child was to be found, as they wished to pay homage to him. They came to Herod who learnt from them the exact time when the star had appeared and told them to go and seek out the child and to let him know where he was so that he could pay him homage too. They continued their journey and followed the star; they followed the guiding star, from afar. Finally they reached the manger and were overwhelmed with joy at the presence that they found there. They offered the child gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and then having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod they left for home by a different route.

Now these three figures have become a much talked about aspect of the Nativity Mythos. Why is this I wonder? We seem to know an awful lot about them and yet there is little said of them in the gospel account. By the way you will only find them in Matthews Gospel. Today we talk of three wise men and yet the account does not tell us this or that they were even men. They even have names today Balthazar, Melchior and Caspar. We have all seen images of these tall handsome stately men in long robes with deep reverential voices. I’m sure that if you asked children about them that most would say that one of them was black. Of all the characters of the nativity story it is these figures that people have most powerful image of. The mythos has grown and developed with time. I wonder why this is. Oh by the way I’m sure that there are one or two you reading this who are thinking that I really ought not to be talking about them as Epithany is the last day of Christmas. I am fully aware that Christmas does not officially begin until sunset on the 24th of December. But hey I’m a Unitarian and I do not follow the church calendar, please forgive my dissent. Besides I want talk about these figures as I believe that they have a vital role in the light of hope that is a symbol of Advent.

You see and I choose that word carefully...You “see” the wise men were moved by a rising star. They were not spoken to by an angel like the other characters in the story. They observed a star with their own eyes and they followed it from afar. Now this has been interpreted in many ways down the centuries and these understandings have been of great interest but that’s not my focus here. I’m more interested in what significance it may hold for we who live today. We who are perhaps ourselves looking for symbols that may inspire us, that may draw us out of ourselves.

Now some will say that this myth has nothing to say today. Some will choose to tear the story to pieces and show us all the historical inaccuracies. That it’s just some stupid and meaningless fantasy. They may say it’s irrational, give me some reasoned facts...they may even begin to sing...

"God rest ye, Unitarians,
Let nothing you dismay!
Remember that there is no proof
There was a Christmas Day
For Christmas really started as
A pagan holiday.

Oh, glad tidings of reason and fact,
Reason and fact.
Glad tidings of reason and fact.

No wise men travelled from the East,
The journey's far too long.
There were no shepherds in the fields,
The time of year's all wrong;
We don't believe in angels;
That rules out the angels' song!

(Chorus)

We're too sophisticated to
Believe in tales so old.
We know that human avarice means
Too much bought and sold;
We only celebrate because
This season is so cold.

(Chorus)

By Rev Chris Raible (Sung to same tune as the Carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"

Yes it is easy to rip the Nativity story to pieces, including the journey that the wise men took, but why would we want to? To do so is actually fail to see what is really there, what is beneath the story. I see so much in these tales that can speak to we who think we are so clever and sophisticated in the 21st century. Do we need glad tidings of reason and fact or comfort and joy. There is more to myth than merely factual accuracy.

There is more to the Christmas mythos than the historical accuracy or inaccuracy of the Biblical accounts. In fact to get lost in detail of what did or didn’t actually happen is to miss the whole point of the story.

Joseph Campbell taught that myths such as the nativity story are actually metaphors for human life. That they are eternal and universal tales that can teach us about our lives right here right now. He believed that by understanding these mysteries we can begin to understand who we truly are and what life is all about.

So what can the wise men mythos teach we who live today? Well I believe that they can teach us an awful lot. To me the wise men are archetypes of something that Campbell himself spoke of. Remember that they observed a star and in seeing it they began their journey, one of transformation. You see what they saw was more than just merely a star it was a vision of something more and it was this that drew them beyond themselves that compelled them to travel afar. The wise men were following their bliss.

But what on earth can that possibly mean, to “follow your bliss?”

Well it is a sacred call to action. It is a call from your soul to light the fire within you to do what destiny asks of you, to bring yourself fully to life and therefore to become a light in the lives of others. Following your bliss is about doing the things that bring meaning and fulfilment despite the troubles that may accompany it. It’s not about seeking highs or wanton consumption of everything material; it is something much deeper it is about truly living, about meaningful living. Campbell says that by following our bliss doors will open up for us where we could only see barriers before.

Following your bliss is about saying yes to this call and beginning your own heroic journey. In doing so synchronicity will seemingly be abound and luck will follow. By following your bliss you seemingly become guided by something more than yourself. This is what Campbell observed and it has certainly been my experience, at least for the last ten years.

Following your bliss though is not an easy ride, quite the opposite actually. Campbell observed that like all heroic journeys there are tests and trials along the way. There are monsters and dragon to slay on the journey although most of these are the ones we carry with us. It is our fear of the adventure that is our greatest enemy.

Human history is littered with figures who have been drawn out of themselves, have followed there bliss and begun their adventure thus inspiring others to do likewise. Some have done this on a mass scale, figures like Nelson Mandela, who the world is currently grieving the loss of and many others have done so on a much smaller, but no less important scale. All have had to face their trials and tribulation and all brought so much light to our world. They were not special people though, they were ordinary people just like you me; ordinary people who found that star that inspired them on their journey; ordinary people who followed their bliss.

The Nativity story has so much to offer we who live today. But please do not get lost in the metaphor in arguments about whether or not these things could have actually happened. Mythos is not really about this. Instead it teaches us something personal and yet universal, something that can inspire we who live today. There is so much in the story of the Magi being drawn out of themselves and following that star to that humble place. We too can follow our star and it can inspire we who live today. I believe, if we seek it and if we prepare ourselves for it we can find our star and that it can draw us out of ourselves and send us forth on our journey. Maybe we too can begin to follow our bliss and inspire others to do likewise. Maybe we too can become stars that lead others to journey afar.

And isn’t this what Advent is all about? Isn’t it about preparing ourselves for the coming of new light and new hope.

Let us follow our bliss.

The Gift is in the Giving when we Give our Hearts

“What can I give him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what can I give him: give my heart.”

Christina Rossetti

I like most people I love singing carols, well if truth be told I pretty much love singing anything. "My life goes on in endless song, how can I keep from singing?" “In the Bleak Midwinter” may well be my favourite carol. Yes I know it is not the jolliest, but I suspect it is the most beautiful. It is certainly the one that touches me the deepest, in the roots of my soul. It is the final line that has always tugged at my heart strings. The words “Yet what can I give him: give my heart.” This to me is the message of the whole Christmas story; this is the message of the universal Christmas “mythos”. This is the religious message of Christmas and the message that the life of Jesus brought to humanity and it is a message that can still reach we who live in the materially obsessed 21^st century. So what is it that we should be giving? Well I beleive that we should be giving our hearts. We should be giving ourselves wholeheartedly to one another.

The Carol brings to mind the following story of "Poinsettia" told by my old minister 
John Midgely.

"In recent years a plant, the Poinsettia, has become a new symbol of Advent, because of its joyous red colour and the story associated with it.

It originates from Mexico where the associated legend is a miracle story, told to the children as part of the Festival of the Holy Journey, a re-enactment of the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. It comes to its climax when the couple arrive in Bethlehem and find no room at the inn. For the Christmas Eve service the people of the towns and villages attend their church and bring gifts for the Christ child, as the three Wise Men did.

The story tells of Pepita, a poor Mexican girl who wanted to attend but had no gift to bring. As she walked slowly to the chapel with her cousin Pedro, her heart was filled with sadness rather than joy. “I am sure, Pepita, that even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes,’ said Pedro to her, consolingly. Not knowing what else to do, Pepita knelt by the roadside and gathered a handful of common weeds, fashioning them into a small bouquet. Looking at the scraggy bunch, she felt more saddened and embarrassed than ever by the humbleness of her offering. She fought back a tear as she entered the small village chapel. All this was made worse by the jeering remarks of those who had bought much grander gifts.

As she approached the alter, she remembered Pedro’s kind words: “Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes.” She felt her spirit lift as she knelt to lay the bouquet at the foot of the nativity scene.

Suddenly the leaves of the bouquet of weeds changed. They were transformed into blooms of brilliant red, and all who saw them were certain that they had witnessed a Christmas miracle, right before their eyes. From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as Flores de Noche Buena, Flowers of the Holy Night, for they bloomed each year during the Christmas season.

'Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable.'"

“Even the most humble gift if given in love will be acceptable," or as we often hear, this time of year, “It’s the thought that counts”. After all isn’t the giving of gifts symbolic of the expression of love. It is not really about the gift at all, but the love expressed in selecting and then giving the present. There is real religion to be found in those ribbons and wrapping paper.

Whenever I hear the phrase “It’s the thought that counts” I always think of my brother and the time he was a poor music student in the late 1980’s. He was studying in Leeds and would often walk from Headingley to Birstall some eleven miles, because he couldn’t afford the bus fare home. Well one Christmas he was so poor that he couldn’t really afford presents for anyone and so he bought the family a joint present of both The Christmas Radio and TV Times, bumper double editions of course! As you can imagine he has suffered from years of stick for this. I also remember him one year beautifully wrapping a gift for our step brother Alan’s two boys. They opened it with a great deal of excitement to reveal a raw potato inside. One of the boys looked most disappointed while the other leapt about in excitement and said “Yes we can have chips”. Yes it definitely is the thought that counts. The two boys who are now fully grown men remember the gift very well and were joking about it at a recent family wedding.

So if it’s the thought that counts, why do we give presents, however humble, at Christmas? Well it obviously dates back to the three gifts of the Magi “Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh”. Gifts of great value 2,000 years ago, although only gold has retained its worth today. Now in early Christianity the journey of the Magi was celebrated on the Feast of the Epiphany on the 6^th of January, the 12^th day of Christmas, hence the Carol “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree” etc...

The early Christian church did not celebrate Christmas as we do today. The tradition of giving Christmas presents is really a modern one. By Victorian times the culture of gift giving and the myth of Santa Claus was beginning to take hold, immortalised in the fiction of Dickens and the like. As the twentieth century moved on into the twenty first this culture developed into mass consumerism. Today it would seem that buying, wrapping and giving gifts has become nothing more than a mechanical chore and one of the worst examples of mass consumerism going. Is this really what Christmas is about? Is this really giving by heart?

“What shall I give him? Give my heart” or if you prefer   “Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable”

Perhaps these are thoughts that we ought to be thinking about as we continue our Christmas shopping. I will certainly be doing so as I begin mine. I will bring my heart into the experience. I will practise not making it a chore, but an expression of the love I feel and know for those I am buying gifts for. I will try not to rush the experience. I will attempt to make space as I purchase the gifts. I will attempt to increase my sensitivity to the experience instead of just trying to get it out of the way. How many of us just rush through the whole season instead of absorbing the love, the religion that this gift giving expresses?

Christmas can only be experienced, enjoyed, if we slow down and really feel and watch the love that is at the core of it. Now some would see this as a luxury as wasting time, but is it? As David H Cole points out “Antoine De Saint-Expury wrote in ‘The Little Prince’: ‘It is the time you have wasted on your rose that makes your rose so important’” He extends this to Christmas time claiming it’s really important to ‘waste’ time at Christmas. What he is saying is how important it is that we slow down in this season of Advent and pay attention to what we are doing to see the love expressed in the time we ‘waste’ thinking about the gifts we buy and wrap, or the scarves we knit and cakes we bake. By paying attention to these activities we give our hearts, remembering always that “Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable”

Of course if we give from our hearts, if we buy, wrap and offer our gifts in love we will receive exactly what it is our hearts desire. For it truly is in giving that we receive. This is where the Christmas magic incarnates in our very lives. When we give with our hearts to and for others we truly receive all that we could have ever wished for.

The Christmas “Mythos” is that of perfect love incarnating in human form. That love can manifest itself today in our hearts and lives. We all have the capacity for great good, if we would but feed the good wolf within each of us. It is surely here that the hope for the whole of humanity lies. If we feed the loving wolf within ourselves then the wolf of hate and fear dies off. If we do we have already begun to spread love and we have begun to bring joy to the world.

There is so much that is wrong with our world. Watching the news each night highlights this, so much destruction, so little love. There is so much that mocks those bells at Christmas time and there does indeed seem to be a deficit of “peace on earth and good will to all.” I do not believe that it has to be like that. We can incarnate that love in our lives and we can begin to spread it out into our world. We can create tidal waves of compassion, that can swamp the whole of the earth.

So how do we achieve this? Well it begins as we pay attention to the love that we feel for those that we buy or make our gifts for, it continues as we take time to wrap those gifts and really comes to life as we give them to those we love and experience that moment of magic as they open them...it is in those moments that we come to know that the gift truly is in the giving.

“What can I give him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what can I give him: give my heart.”

And if you do it is you who will receive in abundance