Although the word “Christmas” derives from
“Christ’s mass,” it is not only a Christian holiday, but one that relates to
many traditions around the world. The word Christ originated from the Greek word
Kristos (also spelled “Christos”), and represents the illuminated saviour of
humanity. So for today’s quote, let’s return to that wonderful encyclopedic
book The Secret Teachings of All Ages:
From Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928):
“This Christos, or divine man in man, is man’s
real hope of salvation—the living Mediator between abstract Deity and mortal
mankind…Since the Christos was the
god-man imprisoned in every creature, it was the first duty of the initiate to
liberate, or ‘resurrect,’ this Eternal One within himself. ”
The celebration of Christmas on December 25 corresponded
to the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar. Having the birthdate
of the Kristos on the shortest day of the year is significant symbolically: the
saviour is born on the darkest day of the year, representing the time when
humanity needs him most. After his birth, the days begin to get longer, and
hope and life will soon be renewed with coming spring (though spring will take
a while to come, at least if you’re in Canada…). The martyrdom and resurrection
of the Kristos has also been prevalent throughout many religions, and is also
related to astronomy, in particular, the Sun, which rises from the “tomb” of winter
at the end of every year to illuminate and revive the world. Some of the saviours
who are related to the Kristos and the crucifixion doctrine include Jesus, Prometheus,
Apollo, Buddha, Atys, Adonis, Bacchus, Osiris, Krishna, Horus, Indra, Ixion, Mithras,
Pythagoras, Quetzalcoatl, Semiramis, Jupiter, King Arthur, and Orpheus.
The Kristos is also known as the Divine Mind, which is personified in
these saviours. Regarding the Divine Mind, Manly Hall says, “The Divine Mind
offered Itself as a living sacrifice and was broken up and eaten by the world.
Having given Its spirit and Its body at a secret and sacred supper to the
twelve manners of rational creatures, this Divine Mind became a part of every
living thing. Man was thereby enabled to use this power as a bridge across
which he might pass and attain immortality. He who lifted up his soul to this
Divine Mind and served It was righteous and, having attained righteousness,
liberated this Divine Mind, which thereupon returned again in glory to Its own
divine source.” And so the Divine Mind, or Kristos, is the bridge whereby we
can reach the divine, and Christmas is the celebration of his birth into the
world, the key to raising humanity to enlightenment.
As mentioned above, there have been many crucified
saviours throughout history. Indeed, Thomas Macall Fallow, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, says that “The
use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times, and among
non-Christian people, may probably be regarded as almost universal.” This
includes Christians, pagans, druids, Tibetans, the Chinese and Japanese,
Egyptians, the Central American Natives, and the Greeks and Romans. Although
there is much that can be said about the cross symbolism itself, I’ll just look
at how it applies to the universal saviours and their crucifixion.
For example, the first missionaries of the
Christian Church, when trying to convert pagan Greeks and Romans to
Christianity, tried to emphasize the similarities between Jesus and their own
gods (“sons of Jupiter”) so that pagans would be more willing to accept the Christian
doctrine.
Indeed, in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to
being “called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek,” so that,
as Manly Hall says, this makes “Jesus one of a line or order of which there
must have been others of equal or even superior dignity.” Those of this order
were priest-kings in ancient times, though little is known about them. This
could very well be referring to the line of Kristos incarnations throughout
history, which Jesus was a part of.
King Arthur
also represents the Kristos in the Arthurian legends (though the historical
Arthur has certainly been mythologized into a greater figure than reality).
Various powers are associated with Arthur, including his tutelage under the
magician Merlin, and the sword he pulls from the stone that establishes his
divine right to rule. The creation of his Round Table and the moral codes and
the legacy he left behind is characteristic of the Kristos. It is often
portrayed that there were either 12 or 24 Knights of the Round Table, which
signifies either the 12 zodiac signs (which also correspond to Jesus’ 12
apostles), or for 24, signifying each of the zodiac signs divided into two
parts, one for the day and one for the night. Also, at the centre of the Round
Table is a rose, symbolic of the resurrection. Arthur’s untimely death by those
who disbelieved him (in this case, his son Mordred killed him) also follows
closely with that of other saviours. Thus, Arthur can be seen as the Sun, his
knights the zodiac, the Round Table the universe, and his sword Excaliber the
sun’s rays with which he vanquishes darkness and evil. As Manly Hall says,
drawing the sword out of the stone has alchemical symbolism of “the withdrawal
of the sword (spirit) from the anvil of the base metals (his lower nature),”
thus attaining the perfected state of the Kristos.
Krishna
represents the Kristos figure in the East Indian religions. Krishna, while
playing his flute in the forest, was crucified upon a tree by his enemies. He
had previously known of his impending death, and had prepared himself for it by
bathing in the river Ganges and praying to heaven. After his death, his
disciples came to recover his body, but it had disappeared, and the tree upon
which he had been crucified was covered with great red flowers.
And so the abbreviation “Xmas” might be a more
fitting title for Christmas. “X” stands for the Greek letter chi,
which is the first letter in the Greek word for Kristos (Khrīstos), and
so with “Xmas” we are able to appreciate all the saviours that have sacrificed themselves
so that we might come to attain a higher level of being, and ultimately, the
sacrifice that must take place within each of us to become connected to our
divine source.
For more posts in my Quotes of Wisdom series,
click here.
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1 comments:
How interesting this is!
I always assumed that Xmas was just a lazy way of writing Christmas, but the real meaning is intriguing.
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