Short Reflections on Cultivating Light and Peace Within
Christmas is a festival of peace and light. The Gospels in the New Testament speak of the light of angels shining over shepherds in the fields and starlight guiding the three magi to the birth of a child who carries the promise of redemption and renewal for all of us.
‘… the birth of the light at Christmas time has been celebrated since the times when the light became the symbol of revelation in the world and human beings. In the East all peoples of the post-Atlantean epoch saw in the light the garment of the wise world order, of world wisdom.’ (Steiner 1904 GA 90a).
In the Northern Hemisphere, the light in the darkness is a special motif of hope at a time when the earth appears cold and sleeping and human forces may be at a low ebb. But here in the south, the light of Summer fills our days and dreams, and our northern cousins often marvel that we can have a feeling for Christmas at all in the heat and business of Summer holidays.
Christmas in Summer
But even in the midst of Summer and sunlight, the soul may feel dark and withdrawn from the bustling community around them. And experiencing the peace of Christmas may feel beyond us when we look at the violence and desolation in the world today.
But it is at such times, that cultivating peace in and around us is perhaps the most important gift we can give. Being a light for our family and friends, for our community, is to be a light for the world. For our cultivated light is a reflection of the Christ light in the world.
Whether it is rejoicing at the lights on the Christmas tree or the candles lit at at midnight on Christmas Eve or the warmth and love we share with each other, each is a symbol of a fight against the darkness.
Here are excerpts from three Christmas lectures by Rudolf Steiner to read and ponder. Two concern the light we must actively kindle in our hearts at Christmas-time and the third on finding peace of heart at a time of little peace in the world.
On the light of Christ
‘We come to feel that Christ has to be sought for amid that which is hidden—there where all is dark and obscure, unless we ourselves kindle the light in the Soul—that Soul which becomes clear and illumined when penetrated by the Light of Christ. At Christmas-tide, therefore, we may well feel an ever-increasing sense of strength—strength due to that Impulse which, grace to the Mystery enacted on Golgotha, has permeated the human race. If truly experienced in this way the Christ Impulse becomes for us indeed the most powerful incentive, strengthening year by year this life which is leading us into the Spiritual Worlds where death—as known in the physical world—does not exist’.¹
Light in the human heart
‘Gazing into cosmic space today, we see the light shining steadfastly and harmoniously from the stars. In reality, however, the Spirits of Wisdom reveal themselves through the light, which in ancient religions was conceived of as the garment of cosmic wisdom. It was at first celebrated as the unity, the primeval wisdom, then as the duality of light and darkness, and finally as the trinity, the illuminated human being, the teacher and mediator, Mithras. But humanity could be blessed by this cosmic harmony only when a consciousness of it arose from the human heart itself. The external light, the light that is born out there in the universe, must today be born also in the human heart.’²
On peace
‘Especially this year as Christmas approaches, we must think of the kind of feelings that unite us with these words and their deep and universal meaning—that deep meaning for the world experienced by countless people in such a way that the word peace resounds through it, the word peace in a time when peace is utterly absent in the widest circles of humanity. How do we think of these Christmas words in this time?
Nevertheless, it is a thought that, perhaps in connection with these words resounding through the world, touches us ever more deeply in the present than in other times. One thought! Nations confront one another full of animosity. Blood, so much blood saturates our earth. We have witnessed and must feel countless deaths around us in this time. Infinite suffering weaves around our inner atmosphere of feeling. Hate and antipathy race through spiritual space and can easily show how far human beings in our time still are from that love spoken about by the One whose birth is celebrated at Christmas. One thought, however, is especially predominant. We think how enemy stands against enemy, opponent against opponent, how human beings can bring death to each other and how they then can go through the same portal of death with the thought of the divine leader of light, the Christ Jesus. We think of how, all over the earth, where there is war and pain and discord, those who are otherwise in such discord can be united. Within their deepest hearts they carry their connection with Him who entered the world on the day we celebrate at Christmas.
We think how through all animosity, through all antipathy, through all hate, a feeling can impress itself into all human souls everywhere in these times, can impress itself in the midst of blood and hate: the thought of the innermost link with the One, with Him who thereby united hearts through something higher than what is able to separate human beings on earth. And so it is nevertheless a thought of infinite greatness, a thought of infinite depth of feeling, this thought of the Christ Jesus who harmonizes human beings no matter what their discord might be, no matter what goes on in the world.’³
To conclude, take time to contemplate the beautiful image of The Annunciation by the African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner. No angel, no halos or holy attributes; just a simple girl in a rumpled bed witnessing a glorious revelation of light as she comes out of sleep. It is a picture of the light available to all of us.
Fiona Campbell
ASinA website editor
References
¹ Steiner, R.The Christmas Tree: A Symbolic Rendering, in Festivals of the Seasons, GA 117.
² Steiner, R. Birth of the Light, in Signs and Symbols of the Christmas Festival GA 90a.
³ Steiner, R. The Christmas Thought and the Secret of the Ego
GA 157a and 165.
Feature image: The Annunciation, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
‘Peace within us, peace among us’
Adam Bittleston