The Mystical Christ

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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by Michael Maciel

There is a deeper meaning to the teachings of Christianity. But unless we sense that there is a deeper side of us, we will never delve below the surface of the teachings of Christ Jesus. We have to be nagged by the knowledge that there is something more before we will go looking for it. And unless a thing speaks to our intuitive nature, unless it rings true in a way that surpasses our rational mind, our soul will not hear it, and we will remain unmoved.

The teachings of Jesus have perplexed the most learned scholars for centuries, but only because they were trying to figure them out instead of sensing the inner openings they provide. Seeking wisdom from scholars, therefore, is unwise. Only the mystics—those who have experienced God firsthand—can lead us to the door of realization. But it is we who must walk through it.

One has to be driven to find out what lies behind the visible world. As long as the physical senses set the parameters of the real, the door to realization will remain closed, and no amount of intellectualization will open it. A higher calling will never come as the result of thinking. The higher calling is the soul crying out as though from behind a veil. What cannot be seen can nonetheless be heard. What the mind cannot rationalize can still be felt by our inner senses.

Hidden truths only speak to that which is hidden within us. It is from that unknown place that we respond, and our response is foolishness in the eyes of the world. Answering the inner call is not swimming upstream, neither is it is going with the flow. Answering the inner call is getting out of the stream altogether. We have to ignore the protests of others, those who are happy with their place in the world. For unless we recognize that we are not of this world, we can never find our rightful place in God’s true creation.

Unless you’re in a spiritual group where practice is a communal activity, finding your your True North can seem like a never-ending trek through a pathless jungle. Let’s face it, living “in the world” can demand huge amounts of one’s time—and money—which requires even more time.

The old Piscean strategy of escaping from the world doesn’t work anymore. Monasteries are not an option for most of us. And simply calling the world “evil” no longer works either, not in a spiritually viable way. No, there is only one way to get to heaven now—we must bring it to earth.

Service is the surest way to thrive spiritually. Just as the body needs to eat in order to be healthy, the spirit thrives through giving. Giving is living, spiritually speaking (see Service 1 – Paying Attention). But the main benefit of service can only be obtained if it is done with the consciousness of God. So you have to be continually working at raising your consciousness while you are getting out of the way in order to help people. This leads to the most important spiritual practice of all—meditation.

Meditation is a senseless, egotistical activity unless it is sanctified in and by the presence of God. Otherwise, you will find yourself wandering the aisles of your own limited mind. How do you know if you’re in God’s presence? It gets real quiet, real fast. If the word “holy” mystifies you, you haven’t experienced the presence, because once you do, you will know what holy is.

Once there, you won’t feel like there is anything else or anything left to do. All you want is to bask in it. But there’s good news and bad news about that. The bad news is that the unholy parts of you are going to get agitated and will start to work their way to the surface, where you will then have to give them up. The good news is that this is only as difficult as you make it. Okay, maybe that’s bad news too, given how attached most of us are to our underbelly. But the really good news is that we have lots of help—if we ask for it—because God is always ready to jump in and lend a hand to anyone who asks.

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Rituals are the tools we use to invoke the Christ Consciousness. They are composed of a few basic elements. First, there is intention, your intention, the combination of your desire and mental focus, your thoughts and words. Next, there is symbolic action—movements and objects arranged in symbolic ways that meaningfully represent what you are trying to do. Examining altars and how they are arranged can lead to a much greater understanding of living symbology, which is what ritual actually is.

• The altar symbolizes the human heart, the core of your being, which is creative, intelligent, and loving.
• By approaching the altar physically, you are expressing your intention to go within.
• Many altars have three steps, which you must climb to reach them.
• Climbing the three steps symbolizes rising above bodily, emotional, and mental concerns.
• Raising your hands to God symbolizes submitting your will to the Divine Will, because your hands are the expression of your will and intention.
• Fire, which should always be present on the altar when in use, is the connecting link between the earthly and heavenly planes.
• White linen symbolizes purity – what you do at the altar should always be for the GOOD of all. Never, ever approach an altar with ill intent, lest you corrupt the innermost part of you.

Deeper and more intricate aspects of the symbolism will reveal themselves to you as you work with the basics.

The most common mistake is to think that it is your consciousness that you are invoking, as though the purpose of ritual were to access higher levels of your own mind. While this might be technically true, most do not come to this realization until much later. Those who assume this posture prematurely usually succumb to megalomania, not realizing that they must decrease while God must increase.

The consciousness you are trying to invoke comes from above, sometimes quite literally; you can have the distinct feeling of a powerful presence accompanied by light descending, filling, and surrounding you, without you having to use your imagination to create it. In other words, when it happens, you will know that you didn’t cause it. This is the surest sign that you have made the connection with the Christ Consciousness and that it is  infusing itself into your being.

Once you have experienced these kinds of movements of Divine power at the altar and have put them to work through prayer, you come to the realization that you can invoke the Christ Consciousness wherever and whenever there is a need. The outer symbols of ritual are tools only, not magical formulae that you must use in order to get results. That would be superstitious thinking.

Note: By saying “Christ Consciousness,” we are drawing attention to a particular aspect of God. Too often, people take any concept or experience they do not understand and throw it into a closet labelled “God.” Part of our work is to make distinctions in the heaven worlds, just as earthly life involves making distinctions here.

by Michael Maciel

When the God-Self shines outward from within us, as a result of our seeking God, it activates all the dross in us, the stuff we need to let go of. As it comes up, it can be tempting to say, “That’s me…those are my sins.” But letting go of these things is what we have to do. How? By not identifying with them. Just recognize that what you are seeing/feeling is stuff that is on its way out. If you identify with it, that’s the same as hanging onto it. Just let it go. It’s not you. You’ll be surprised how good you will feel!

The mind doesn’t have hands with which to hang onto anything. The mind’s “hands” are its propensity to identify itself with what it perceives. All kinds of strange cause and effect conclusions can arise from this. The more you identify with an event/activity/idea/feeling, the more it becomes part of what you are “speaking” into the Creative Intelligence we call the Mind of God. The less you identify with it, its power to recur in your experience is diminished.

Studies have shown that detailed analyses of where the chains of events began, the one’s that seem to have us by the throat, are not effective in helping us to let go; in fact, they tend to reinforce the belief that they are us, which is exactly what we don’t want! So, take away their sticky-power. When they parade themselves in your awareness, just say, “Hmm…that’s interesting. Glad to see that that’s moving out,” and let it go. The worst thing we can do is to feel shame about it, which can only happen if we identify with it. That can only lead to suppressing it, which is the same thing as hanging onto it.

Let it go!