Look there! But do not mistake the finger for the moon! To believe in what you think you know is not to see. Atheists and dogmatic believers in one shape of God or another make the same mistake. It takes an "epiphany" to see the difference! A light of Damascus to shine down upon you.
detail from: The Conversion on the Way to Damascus by Caravaggio (1601)
The light which struck Paul at Damascus is revelatory, which points back to the shining down of the star which lead the three Kings/Magi to the Christ Child. To put Epiphany, "the appearance or manifestation event" in its right light we need to set the scene carefully at the manger in the cave. I leave here to one side the confusion of the two stories, one set in the stable and one in the house of David (giving us literally and ultra significantly for Anthroposophical Christianity, "two Jesuses"), and concentrate on the different nativity sets of the stable versus the cave.
For today, we need a cave to recreate the witching hour into which the Midnight Sun may shine! This is the deepest dark hour in nature is 21st December, which hides the physical sun for the most part of the day, in order that we may call upon our inner light, instead. Likewise, this revelation of spiritual light is possible every night when we go to sleep.
The feast day of Epiphany marks the end of the journey through the world-soul dark night, that starts with the birth of Jesus on Christmas day. The German name "Weihnachten" is better really (holy night), for the 25th December, or 1st Holy night of Christmas Eve, is not really the day of Christ, yet! Today is!
This is why we may link the Baptism of Christ to the same feast day of the Three Kings. Only at the Baptism did Jesus become Christ. It is this Event or Happening and turning point in man's potential for renewal that is celebrated every 6th January in the day of Epiphany (or Three Kings).
Let us introduces some powerful imagery that also links this Christian feast of Epiphany to the prefiguration in Egyptian times.
Mesrop of Khizan (Armenian, active 1605 - 1651), Getty Center, Los Angeles, California
First, for convenience sake (!)
we can link the Baptism through the above illumination to the Ancient Egyptian myth of Osiris. Note how the sky resembles the river, and connects through the dove, or Holy Spirit. This is because this is an etheric happening, where the eternal "waters" of life flow into the world through the Christ (later to be spilled directly into the earth at the Golgotha event when his side is pierced). Here, in the 30th year of the life of Jesus (by now a fusion of both Jesuses.....long story, for another day), the soul of man is replaced by the spirit of the God-man (Kyriot) Christ. This is the moment when the Christ" is born!
For us a rebirth takes place after the soul has entered into the midnight hour, at the time of Solstice. The soul enters the dark cave of its consciousness to discover what of its own (manger) light shines within. This is the light that feeds the "beast of burden" or mortal self into a nobler Higher Self. It is filled with golden straw, or firmly rooted grasses, the seed of which was fertilised in the wind (no bugs involved) and ripened in the height of summer, carrying within it the "manna" force or etheric formative powers for regeneration (new corn or loaves of bread).
Further, we can find core elements of the Egyptian mystery to prefigure the Christ.
Osiris is a solar god,
who is overcome by Typhon, the scary monster of your subconsicous, the nightmare, the guilty conscious or whatever else your dark shadow is comprised of, or quite simply the obscuring fog of the unconscious (with its gateways onto darker astral forces). Isis - the Maria-Sophia - fishes out the sliced up parts of the God, tossed into the Nile to reassemble or resurrect this brother/husband of hers so that she may be fertilised by him to give birth to Horus. We see in her a prefiguration of the Madonna. What quality of soul (immaculation) do we need to attain in order to conceive of a Christ within?
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It is also a picture for the emersion into the Midnight Hour, each night, when our soul travels into the astral world. She goes through the spheres of Mars and Venus and Mercury, to purify the different wilful, emotional, and mental layers of the soul, to stop at the sun or pure heart centre. Once you arrive at this fourth sphere (out of seven) you might find yourself with very little to present by way of inner light. Once you've been stripped of your glitz and glam (outward appearance) and stand naked in the ether-stream of pure life (solar energy) you will find yourself confronted with the stark truth of who you really are, or rather, who you really are not, yet.
स्मृति
It is then that your smriti prooves to be insufficient. This "complete presence of mind" is what gives you the necessary self-awareness of the tendency to perceive what you sense you are doing. This is an onion of thoughts encapsulating an ISNESS of I. Smriti literally means "to recollect" or "remember" which feels like it pertains to the past, but only in the here and now with presence of mind can we "look back"(re-) at all. Forgetfulness is a sign that you are not really standing firmly rooted in the present. Living in the past you can't remember it. Just like dreaming about the unreal future cannot make concrete memories.
Epiphany is about taking your blinkers off and seeing what IS. We find this Epiphineal light streaming on through Paul into the Revelations of St. John on Patmos. The narrow mind is opened and ordinary consciousness is flooded with Christ Light. This is the Samadhi, or discovery of the I am that I am.
In the 12 days of Christmas we move out of the darkness through the revision (re-viewing of what was) into the true beginning of the New Year. We have come out of the journey through the nights dedicated to the Midnight Hour, in to the light that can shew the true image of Christ to each individual without mediation (clairvoyants, sibyls). In this image we can perfect ourselves. It is the Parousia (or Second Coming - of the Holy Spirit) you can invite into your life. It is to become intuitive.
We find correspondences in myths from all cultures for the personification of Typhon (not to be confused with the "prince of darkness" which is a larger impersonal force). In the Mesopotamian Anzu pursued by Ninurta, palace relief, Nineveh. | Typon, wife of Anubis, has a Kali-quality about her, not unlike the Hydra, Hercules must overcome either. | The wings symbolise perverted intelletual delusions and the snakey legs refer to the darkness of the subconscious connected with the metabolic-limb-willing system which is, as yet, under developed in man. Clear consciousness, right seeing and hearing must take hold of this region, or it's passions will overwhelm us, making us hysterical and dim-witted. It takes a Zeus-like quality (later Thor) to hammer sense into our actions and inspire clear (genius - lightning bolt-) thinking (and triumph over the darkness).
Olaf Asteson ripping his red tunic and toenails on an arduous stretch of his journey through the 12 Holy Nights
We entered most deeply and bravely into the darkness to be reborn, to be renewed. The day of Christ's "mass" called us to undertake this Asteson journey. Take another look at the illumination above and discover the "mass" of kneaded dough, the leavened bread, with the true life of the Holy Spirit . The demon (double, dark soul) has been trampled underfoot - and we shall be returning to the forces that can accomplish this in the spirit of St. Michael who defeats the dragon - and St. John the Baptist stands apon the hallowed fish, the purified astrality, swimming in the memory of Paradise, or pure spirit.
Andrea Mantegna, “Adoration of the Magi” (c. 1500).
We arrive on the 6th January as kings bearing gifts from our soul-knowing. We understand the world (gold of knowing) and the significance of its birth and death, in nature as in our own mortality. We have seen the spirit world.
As Balthasar we have learned to sacrifice. We offer our soul with joy and sweetness (Frankincense). Dedicating it to the service of all men, to relieve their suffering.
The Guardian of the Crystals, the emblamer Caspar (myrrh) preserves that body that comes out of the (physical) body, healed, whole, revitalised by spiritual light, radiant in the rainbow colours of its soul. We have learned to let go of that which we are not, our dark shadow, and have stepped into the truth of the I am that I am. We can say, not I, but the Christ in me speaks.
Osiris is re-membered, Christ is resurrected, the sacraments are renewed. The Star of Buddhi (the immaculate soul) shone over the cave at Bethlehem and can now become your own radiant aura. This is the light the kings, or tripart soul follow, throughout the year, month by month, deeping their understanding of what can be revealed to her (each night afresh!).
Illustrations:
- Top: Sengai Gibon's 'Hotei (Budai) Pointing at the Moon' (1750-1837
- More details on Caravaggio's Paul and his conversion at Damascus at https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/g/giotto/biograph.html
- Isis nursing Horus, The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, USA More on Egyptian gods here https://www.ancient.eu/article/885/the-egyptian-pantheon/ ; Quentin Metsys, Virgin with child reading (1466-1530)
- Typon drawing from http://highermeaning.org/Authors/CTOdhner/Egypt.shtml#g60; Lernaean Hydra: more at http://www.theoi.com/Ther/DrakonHydra.html; more on the stamp with the Greek version of Typhon at http://www.greekboston.com/culture/mythology/typhon/
- Olaf Asteson travelling through the 12 Holy Nights, from Torvald Moseid: The Dream Poem (DraumkVedet)