MERRY CHRISTMAS TREE

Why do we celebrate Christmas Joy with a tree?  I bet you, you don’t know the reason for it like I didn’t know myself through the years.  For one who is a major in Literature, it’s a shame not to be aware of its symbolism.

 Awareness is the key, for just sensing the truth through reading books, and not speaking of it denotes ignorance if not indifference to suffering mankind.  For as you know in art, as in literature, we live not entirely by words that are flat when not imbued with deeper meaning than what mainstream media can accept as norm.

 Words are flat when not seen in their multi-dimensional levels of meaning. Literature or books are not real unless they carry multidimensional levels. Words when used to convey merely logic and reason would be limiting the truths or wisdom of the laws of the universe for they cannot be contained by logic and reason alone, they are measureless, they are governed by man’s faculty of Intuition which carries the Soul and embraces the All that is, the I am that I am… Eternity, Infinity, Immortality.  

In poetry, field of special study we deal with metaphors which consists of imagery replete with hidden meaning.  To discover their meaning one needs to use an intuitive spade to dig beneath the surface to get at its roots just like the way Jesus Christ spoke/ He spoke in parables to teach the Truth about God and man’s relationship, using symbols, because by merely using words without symbolic meaning he would be limiting God. God is beyond logic and reason, beyond measure, Infinite.

I’ll try to be symbolic, if perchance I might make the laws of the universe flourish   

in my language, too, and once embraced in my robes of light as a teacher of literature (ahem) a new tone is struck, a sublime transfiguration comes to me magically, transmitting images to my students the fruit of divine love’s yearning for itself.  This is

metaphorically, the Joy of life. Christmas is endless joy in time, as we know it, it is Love and Light’s human expression. It’s only in the most recent advent of Aquarius, age of universal brotherhood that I started thinking seriously about the inner meaning of the Christmas tree which I love to decorate in our house at Christmas time with my children when they were small.

 Now that they have grown to live their own lives, I and my husband are alone to do it, if he will, though some of the family are always around to come on weekends to pitch in bringing a basket of foodies to go with bonding again around the family Christmas tree, and on Christmas day, we have a special family dinner for giving/receiving gifts .  

Truth to tell, I thought these stylized Christmas trees were simply there to make Christmas cheer extra brighter or more scintillating for the child in us to delight in seeing   this merry month of December happen, other than that you have to contend with its commercial value to explain why we have to decorate and light up trees in public or private spaces and big houses or to escape from super-spending, forget the Christmas borloloy, for we remember Jesus Christ’s birth in the poorest of conditions, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger where animals get their feed for there was no room for him in the inn.

 The King of kings, Lord of lords born without a crib?  He teaches us how to be humble, for we are of the earth, how to be noble for we are made of stars.  Why do we celebrate Christ’s birth?  For we have to rejoice in the coming of the Messiah so we shop for more food and forget about the waistline, beat the jolly drums to make jolly music, and dance till we drop out of sheer joy…But this year 2013, something dire, almost apocalyptic happened to us in November, to remind us that all is not well in the world, we have people who are suffering, starving, shivering in the cold with their homes shattered, surroundings devastated, future uncertain by the visit of a super typhoon named Haiyan/Yolan. We need to dole out much needed cash to give assistance or share what little we have to help its poor victims. The poor has always been with us, true, but with wisdom we begin to see Christ’s image in them, and we shudder, we feel a melt-down of our own nuclear troubles.        

So what! we say if the Christmas tree has a long traditional value of legends involving many European countries in pagan times. But I have a deep respect for ancient pagan times when men worshipped .Mother Nature, the only things that mattered to them were the “Sun and Moon and Truth” as they walked in the company of gods, winged divine beings, called skywalkers who also walked the earth in earliest times.

While I was tinkering with colorful, dazzling balls, ribbons, stars, and baubles to hang on our tree, an activity I used to enjoy as a child,

still do as I advance in linear time, I continue to be perceived as incurably romantic and forever a child, as it takes genius (haha) to keep the spirit of a child till senior age, says Huxley, now what’s his first name? (haha)  A thought kept nagging me. Why not research on the deeper meaning of the Christmas Tree and blog on it?

With its tender promise of a New Day, a New World quickening within every cell of humanity we may now understand how these heavenly frequencies have returned ushered in by rainbows after a horrendous storm called Yolanda. It is indeed a time of the Great Miracle to draw the now the shimmering center of humanity up to embrace the pillars of Heaven, whose beams descend upon the excessive materialists, the non-beings, non-believers.  They have at last awakened to the cruelty of political governments for their immorality, corruption, ineptness to serve, to govern, showing a lack of compassion for the suffering poor who are fleeing the socio-political upheavals in middle east in Syria and central Africa.

 Our hearts go out to hundreds of thousands, nay millions of these refugees who are now so destitute in other lands they become victimized by human trafficking, prostitution of women and mothers selling their children somewhere in a poverty-stricken Asian country as reported by Yahoo in the face of no faith, no hope…

 “Winged child who walks in wisdom and tenderness, thou art innocent laughter and flowered heart open wide in celebratory passion for the dream (of the poor, and oppressed) is now vitally alive!!” (The Mayan Oracle)    

Let us take a free fall dive into the unknown to        

become egoless, fearless to survive the deadly apocalyptic storms like Haiyan/Yolan that teach us to learn to forgive, to be compassionate and patient while going through the turbulence of a changing planet earth that wishes to shine as a Star in the firmament.   

 

 The Mayan Manik calls – ‘‘Glide with me, cosmic dancer!  Embody the beauty way here on Earth.  Fearlessly, let the great tsunami wash over you, for it is the surf of the return path to the stars… Within your grasp is the wave of completion that frees you.  I am the opening, the gateway through.” comment: The deathly storm surges of Tacloban represent the wave of completion that frees us? 

 To save the planet, one must cease to be anthropocentric, to become bio-centric as the Mayan elders in Latin America counsel us, to unite all planes of sentient life, human, plants and animals, declaring the end of hatred, after 2012, and the beginning of Joy in 2013 with emphasis on the joy of Christmas time which has the vibrant power to envelope the Earth with its message of Love and Light penetrating all dark corners of different shades of non-entities, non-beings, non-believers… After 2012, end of hatred, we have the beginning of Joy?  So we are stupefied to see many countries in the rush to rescue the victims with needed aircraft carrier loaded with planes, helicopters, to send,drop relief goods to people in remote areas, to remove road blockages with heavy equipment, to serve and heal the wounded, the sick among the survivors of Haiyan and to comfort the distraught.  This has not happened before in such huge numbers in our world, helping, caring for others, irrespective of race, belief, and nationality. Definitely, a sign of transformation for erring, war-mongering mankind that has found love, harmony, peace in their hearts. Incredible change of attitudes,feelings.  God is great indeed! 

 

Christianity has the upper hand in enjoying the Joy of life by anchoring on esoteric symbols of a tradition like Christmas that is centered on the Tree of life.  The Mayan Elders advise us to follow a tradition with great roots.  Now what has Roots but trees?  Your heart will tell you, according to the Mayas, which tradition has great roots.  As we perceive its Light, Christianity has great roots based on its uplifting of the Cross of Christ, and that Christ has returned, renewed, redeemed the world with the Tree of Life exuding the radiant frequencies of God’s kingdom from on high.

         

 It is the tree of life which is an important symbol in nearly every culture. With its branches reaching into the sky, and its roots deep in the earth, it dwells in three worlds – a link between heaven and earth and the underworld, uniting Above and Below.  It is both a JOY feminine in symbol, bearing substance, and masculine, visibly bearing the urge to attain a soul-union, since the tree of life is the symbol of the Soul, expressing Presence that has never left us, our immortality…

In Jewish and Christian mythology, a tree sits at the center of both Heaven and Earthly Edens.  The Norse (Scandinavian) cosmic world Ash Ygdrassil, has its roots in the underworld while its branches support the abode of the gods. The Eqyptian Holy Sycamore tree stood on the threshold of life and death, connecting the worlds.  To the Mayas.it is Yxche, whose branches support the heavens.

Many trees take on the appearance of death in the winter – losing their leaves, only to sprout new growth with the return of Spring. In Samar-Leyte area you see the trees crashing down with their leaves split, torn and blown by the wrath of Haiyan’s Wind.  This aspect makes the tree a symbol of resurrection, and a stylized tree at home is the symbol of many resurrected Gods – Jesus of the Romans, Attis, and Osiris of the Greeks, Ramayana of Bhagavad Gita of the east, all have crosses as their symbols.  Most of these divine beings are believed to have been ‘crucified’ on trees, as well.  The modern Christmas tree harkens back to an old tradition that honors Jesus Christ as the crucified God of Christianity.

A tree bears seeds or fruits which contain the essence of the tree. This continuous regeneration is a potent symbol of immortality. It is the fruit of the tree that confers immortality in the Jewish tradition; it is a divine peach that gives them a gift of immortality.  In ancient Persia, the fruit of the haome has this essence.  The apples of Idunque gives the Norse gods their powers.  The Naga or divine serpent guards the Hindu tree. 

The tree as the abode of the Gods is another feature common to many mythologies. In some, the tree itself is a god.  The ancient Sumerian God Dammugi was personalized by a tree, as is the Hindu Brahman. The Byzantine world tree represents the omnipotence of the Christian God.  Another form, the inverted tree represents spiritual growth, as well as the human nervous system.  The tree with its roots in heaven, and its branches growing downward, is most commonly found in Kabbalistic imagery.

A similar tree is mentioned with its roots above, and its branches below in Vedic Bhagavad Gita.  I discovered this Inverted Tree guarding a major door of the Indonesian museum in Jakarta. It also represented the cosmic tree—rooted in Heaven, the branches all manifest creation. Great symbolism, and the Indonesians knew it. How about us Pinoys, how much do we know beside trivialities concerning winning in the casinos, lotto, or getting rich?  Have we thought of our own symbolic Roots, and leaves as wings ?

Sources: Symbolismdictionary.com 

The Mayan Oracle by Spilsbury and Brynner

Joy to you dear readers, and the World, for the Lord is come!   (below,the inverted Christmas Tree)