by Michael Maciel

It is the mind’s way of dealing with the soul. It externalizes inner experiences as they arise into our awareness. It turns them into myths. Thus Christmas has become a story about someone else, rather than the story about the Christ being born within us.

It’s not that Jesus wasn’t born or that he wasn’t hugely significant in the growth and evolution of souls on this planet. It’s that the entire story is useless unless it also applies to us—each person individually. The Christ must be born in us for the story to have a real effect in our lives.

Fortunately, an intellectual understanding of this isn’t necessary to reap the benefits of sacred symbols. Our souls recognize the reality within the Christmas story and are eager to enter into it. It is this eagerness that opens us up to the Spirit.

The spiritual patterns within the story of Christmas lay the groundwork that enables us to experience the reality to which the story points. This is how sacred symbols operate. They are the doorway to God, portals through which we can experience God directly.

When we externalize the Christmas story, it only serves to separate us from the direct experience of the birth of Christ in our body. But mystics know that every story about the life of Jesus Christ is actually about how we grow and evolve on the spiritual path.

Jesus is us.

Studying and reflecting upon the deeper meaning of these symbols will speed up the process of our spiritual growth, but we must never confuse the understanding with the experience.

And never let your lack of understanding prevent you from opening up to the experience. That’s pride at work, because you’re saying that you are the one who’s doing it, not God.

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