4th Week of Advent

Today we reach the level of Air.  The symbol is the Angel.

The angel Gabriel brought Good News.  He teaches us to not over-intellectualize, and to appreciate the things of Air.

Merry Christmas! Happy Yule!  and many Winter Solstice blessings!

wishing you a wonderful 2012.

Advent, 3rd Sunday: Fire

 This week we lit the 3rd candle, for the element of Fire.  



Fire is about going on a Quest.  Fire is about doing what you need to do.  Fire is not letting thoughts or feelings or anything else interfere with wht your heart tells you to do.


We brought out the figure of the Wise Man. 

He represents Fire because he followed the Star, which is a hot bright fireball; and it was not logical or sensible, but he followed his heart and found a way to accomplish this quest through passion and courage.

Here is a prayer honoring Fire:

"Ancient sun, eternally young, 

 giver of life and source of energy, 

 In coal and oil, in plant and wind and tide,

 in spiritual light and human embrace

You kindle the heavens, you shine within us
(for we are suns with hearts afire—
we light the world as you light the sky

 and find clouds within whose shadows are dark);

We give thanks for your rays. . . ."

Yokuts Indian prayer 

Congregation of Abraxas

The Third Sunday of Advent is called "Gaudete Sunday."  Gaudete means Rejoice! because Christmas is almost here.

Advent 2011, Second Sunday

On Sunday December 4 we lit the second candle on our Advent Wreath.  It represents the element of Water.  

The flowing world of psyche, soul, and emotions is where we are now.  Raising our vibratory level a bit has made us aware of our own feelings, and those of other people.  Sometimes we receive sensations and impressions from the astral sea.

Sometimes our psyches feel as if we are caught in the undertow.  We feel at the mercy of a storm at sea.  We feel pain and bliss of every conceivable kind.

Yet we are aware of another side to Water....its ebb and flow, its ability to refresh and renew, its ability to cleanse and heal.

 Its positive expressions are dreams, visions, and intuitions.  We learn to go with the flow, to rejoice in the gentle rain that brings new life.  The purpose of emotions is to move us.

The psyche is a source of light as well as darkness, of wisdom and empathy. It takes us on a journey through the Underworld, and back again.  We may drink deeply of the cup of life.

To the creche, we added the figure of Mother Mary, who represents Water:

Mary is like the goddess Isis, who represents the River Nile, which retrieves the scattered dark earth of Egypt, and carries it to the land so that life may continue for another year. In this way she brings fertility to the earth.  She represents the waters of life.

Mary received a special message from Gabriel, the Angel of Water.  He told he she would give birth to someone very special.  Fertility is the gift of Water.


May we receive awakening.  May we ascend. May we receive that which has been scattered, feelings of light and the dark in balance.  May we receive the waters of life.

Here is a Hindu prayer, which is a Water contemplation:

"Waters, you are the ones who brinng us the life force.

Help us to find nourishment so that we may look upon great joy.

Let us share in the most delicious sap that you have, as if you were loving mothers.

 Let us go straight to the house of the one for whom your waters give us life and give us birth.

For our well-being let the goddesses be an aid to us, the waters be for us to drink.  Let them cause well-being and health to flow over us.

Mistresses of all the things that are chosen, rulers over all peoples, the waters are the ones I beg for a cure.

Soma has told me that within the waters are all cures and Agni who is salutary to all.

Waters, yield your cure as an armour for my body, so that I may see the sun for a long time.

Waters, carry far away all of this that has gone bad in me, either what I have dome in malicious deceit or whatever lie I have sworn to.

I have sought the waters today, we have joined with their sap.  O Agni full of moisture, come and flood me with splendour."

Advent 2011, First Sunday

On Sunday November 27 we lit the first candle on our Advent Wreath.  It represents the element of Earth.  

The physical, material world is where we start from.  Sometimes our bodies feel so inert and immovable. We feel so heavy, so constrained, so trapped by cause and effect.  Sometimes it feels so cold and dark.  We are aware of restrictions, necessity, work, limitations.  

But there is another side to Earth.  Its positive expressions are foundations and boundaries...things we can work with to improve our lives and give them substance...form...security...strength.  

Material things can be dense and burdensome until we give them an inner meaning.  That is our purpose in starting with Earth...to awaken it, for Spirit to descend into Matter...like the divine being born as human.


The manger is just a manger until we give it meaning, until we awaken it and it awakens us.

To the creche, we added figures representing Earth: Joseph, Ox, and Manger:

St. Joseph is a hard-working carpenter.  He has many hopes for the future. Maybe he built the manger himself? it is ready...for  something ordinary?  or something special?   He is the counterpart of the god Osiris, who represents the fertile black earth of Egypt.

The ox is also hard working.  He is just an animal...until we become aware of his soul and his being.  He works hard on our behalf.  We need to be grateful to him.  Our gratitude for the things of Earth awakens our hearts and gives wings to our minds.


May we receive awakening.  May we ascend.

Here is an Earth contemplation written by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: 

"Sons and daughters of the earth, steep yourself in the sea of matter, bathe in its fiery waters, for it is the source of your life and your youthfulness.

You thought you could do without it because the power of thought has been kindled in you?  You hoped that the more thoroughly you rejected the tangible, the closer you would be to spirit: that you would be more divine if you lived in the world  of pure thought, or at least more angelic if you fled the corporeal?  Well, you were like to have perished of hunger.

You must have oil for your limbs, blood for your veins, water for your soul, the world of reality for your intellect: do you not see that the very law of your own nature makes these a necessity for you?"

december 19, 2010

Today we lit the 4th Advent Candle, the yellow one for Earth.

Philip selected a great story called The Christmas Tree Club, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (1875-1961).  
It was about a girls' club that  did good deeds for needy children.  A good way to achieve a meaningful Christmas!


We set the figures of Joseph and the Ox in the creche.  Joseph is like Osiris.  He is a loving and protective father who provides good, dependable and stable material conditions for his children to grow up in.

Ray also selected a story, because we were not sure Philip would have time to look for a story.  The story Ray chose was called The Wooden Shoes of Little Wolff.  Because the story involved shoes, which is how we can walk all over the earth without hurting our feet, it corresponded to Earth...also because we ground (or "earth") ourselves through our feet.)  The story was also about the cause and effect of how caring deeds create magical results.

 

December 12, 2010

On the third Sunday of Advent, we lit the green candle, representing Water.

We put Mother Mary in the creche.  She represents Water because she is like the goddess Isis, whose symbol is the River Nile.  she is the Water of Life.  She refreshes and activates whatever she touche, just as water revives and activates the earth and the sleeping seed within it...and just as baptism welcomes and signifies the new life our souls have taken on.  She was given a message by the Angel Gabriel, who is the Archangel of Water.  Her milk kept her baby alive.  He foated in her waters before he was born.

Water signifies the soul, dreams, the psyche, emotions, intuitions, and feelings.  Water is not as bright as Fire and Air, which correspond respectively to South and East.  Water corresponds to the West, the sirection of the setting sun, and also the land where our sould go after death.  It is a place of the two lands, where we must control the light and the darkness, especially as the darkness gets stronger as the sun goes further west.

Here is a story about  Water:  "The Christmas Spirit," by William W. Hassler.

December 5, 2010

Today is the 2nd Sunday of Advent.  We lit the red candle on the advent wreath, for Fire.

And we set the King figure in the manger, since he followed the Star.  He followed its light, and made the long journey from Babylon, or wherever he came from.  Fire is about courage, and doing what must be done.  It means we listen to our heart, because it does not lie to us.  We do lot let our feelings interfere with what we know is right, and with what needs to be done.  We pray that our hearts may be strong and courageous, with energy for the actions we must carry out.

Here is a story about Fire: "The Holy Night": by Selma Lagerlof.

November 28, 2010

It is the first Sunday of Advent. 

Our Advent candles are of the colors of the 4 elements: earth, air, fire, and water.  During these 4 weeks before Winter Solstice, we honor these elemental realms, which represent stages of spiritual evolution and levels of being.  It is about Spirit coming down to the world of matter; the Word becoming Flesh.

We started with Air, and lit a blue candle representing the air and the sky:

Air is the highest level.  It is the realm of thought.  Everything starts with an idea.  We placed an angel in the manger, to represent the star in the heavens that guides us, and which represents our ideals and our highest truth.  It is this truth that comes down into denser levels of being, and eventually is born into the material world. Also, angels are depicted with wings, like air creatures such as birds:

We sang the Advent song ("O Come O Come Emanuel") then we lit the first candle, blue for Air, and recited "Winter is dark yet each tiny spark brightens the way to Christmas day.  shine little light and show is the way to the bright light of Christmas day."  then we sang "see the little candles shining shining bright O how we love to see their light."  

Then we read a story honoring Air.

It was taken from the book Winter Tales From Poland by Maia Wojciechowska.  It was called "Seven Black Crows," and illustrates what happens when you are not careful what you wish for.  It shows the power of an idea...for good or for ill.  It also features crows, birds of wisdom and the air.

Enjoy this story, which we share with you!