INNER CHRISTMAS GUIDELINES
The Twelve Minutes - How much time for Inner Christmas?
The Twelve Holy Nights -A description of the Holy Nights.
Why Twelve? - Some insights into the number 12.
The Thirteenth Gift - The potential results from celebrating Inner Christmas.
The Twelve Minutes of Inner Christmas Practice
Inner Christmas is a nightly practice of inner work. I recommend "twelve minutes" of practice each night. Because twelve is the number of completion, "twelve minutes" is however many minutes of contemplative inner work it takes for you to find a new insight or relationship to yourself. You will know you have reached this completion when you feel an inner "aha" or an inner bell starts to chime in your soul. It may come quickly some evenings. Or it may take longer in clock measured minutes.
Remember wonder and wisdom live in questions, not answers. When an answer comes into your thoughts work with it until it transforms into a new question. Do not be surprised to find the cosmic bell ringing in your soul when you find your own questions.
The "twelve minutes" can also be spiritually measured as the time it takes for new light to dawn in your soul, illuminating some new aspect of your life. You begin the practice in the darkness of soul night and end it with the dawning of a new soul day. It is a joy to experience the inner Sun rising in your soul.
In our busy, chaotic lives it is often difficult to devote any time to the stillness of inner work. If all you can manage is the time it takes to read the Twelve Holy Nights' messages, be glad. The spiritual world does not work within the earthly measurements of time and
can provide your soul with great renewal in a moment. Read the message with your seeking heart - the love of the spiritual world will meet you. You may find earthly time expands through this openness.
***Some thoughts on working with the messages:***
Create safe space and sacred time - something we all need - if only for a few minutes each day.
During the Holy Nights I suggest you choose a space in your home where you feel good, safe energy. It does not need to be a place that looks good - it just needs to feel good.
Finding sacred time may be more challenging. Twelve minutes without distraction is rare in our busy lives. Usually when we are ready to go to bed, we are too tired to focus on our inner life. But it is lovely to go into sleep with the thoughts of Inner Christmas.
Candlelight is much more enlivening than electric light. The flame is so warming and radiant. It is such a metaphor for your spirit. So do your best to light a candle or twelve.
Take a few deep cleansing breaths and then read the message.
Let the message live freely in your soul. Attend to your thoughts. Sink into your feelings. I encourage you to write down your thoughts and feelings. Writing has a way of engaging your will and making thoughts active. And you will have a record of your Holy Nights work to return to throughout the year.
If you are sharing the messages with your partner, friends or family, I encourage you to discuss your insights.
You may find that some messages don't set of any bells or whistles in your soul. Yet others will start you on a path
to creative self-awareness. Discussing them with others may inspire new resonances and insights.
I would love to hear from you about your experiences. Please write to me.
The Twelve Holy Nights of Inner Christmas
Just as earthly nature responds to the yearly journey around the Sun, so does our inner soul nature. There is a calendar of the soul that reveals a movement between our earthly and spiritual natures. In the height of summertime light and warmth, our souls attend to the intense perceptions of the world. But in the dark and cold of early winter, our souls turn inward seeking the spirit. Like the Sun, we can experience an inner rebirth at the time following the winter solstice.
The Christian calendar of seasonal festivals reflects this calendar of the soul. Since Inner Christmas is a practice for all human souls regardless of religious faith, I will speak of these Christian festivals in relationship to the universally experienced needs of the soul. The Inner Christmas Sun shines on all humankind, and is reflected in every human soul.
In Christianity, December 25th is celebrated as the Nativity, the birth of the Divine. It is the Day of Innocence, of newly born Wonder. Our souls, whether Christian in faith or not, need renewal of innocence and wonder. We need to experience an annual dawning of self-awareness. Imagine a new way of knowing your "I".
Can you take the journey to your inner Bethlehem and find a new sense of self in the manger of your soul?
January 6th is celebrated as Epiphany. This is the day of the Baptism in the river Jordan, when Jesus Christ is recognized and takes up his Divine Deed. Our souls long to find new clarity of purpose for the deeds of the coming year. We need an inner epiphany of personal intention. Imagine strength that comes with the renewal of direction and empowerment. Each of us brings the inner capacities to receive and give, to learn, to heal, to love, to transform, to create and to sacrifice.
Can you look into your soul to find the awakening of a new perception of purpose? Can you recognize the deed that holds the meaning of your coming year?
Why Twelve?
There are Twelve Nights between Nativity and Epiphany. They are a sacred time for our souls. They begin with wonder and conclude with wisdom. It is during these nights that the veils lift between the earthly world and the spiritual world and between our earthly nature and our spiritual nature. It is the time for knowing the mysteries of the outer world and the Cosmos and the inner world of our souls.
Twelve is a very special number. It is most related to the circle and the cyclical divisions of sun time with twelve months to the year and twelve hours of light and twelve hours of night in the image of the day. It is the number of cosmic completion as represented in the zodiac. There are twelve units to governance, as in the twelve tribes of Israel, and to fair judgment, as in twelve members of a jury.
Most meaningful to me are the twelve pairs of ribs that embrace and protect our hearts and lungs. The heart is the location of the holy of holies - the dwelling place of personal divinity. The lungs are the organs of transformation of blood and breath.
There are twelve cranial nerves coming from and going to the brain. They serve as pathways for the perceptions we receive and actions take in our lifetimes.
Twelve is also the result of multiplying 3 by 4. Three is representative of divinity in many belief systems. Four is the number earthly existence as in the four elements of earth, water, air and fire. Twelve is the fulfillment of the meeting of our earthly and divine natures. No other number of nights could fulfill the sacred gesture of this time.
The Twelve Holy Nights are a cosmic and human harmony. Although Christianity has laid claim to this mysterious time, we can see that this harmony has existed as long as the sun has been pouring forth light and warmth into the world and wonder and wisdom has been living in human souls. These nights and their mysterious powers of spiritual renewal belong to everyone throughout all time.
The Thirteenth Gift
Epiphany is a sudden awakening to new knowledge. In the Christian festival year, January 6th is a twofold celebration. It
is the day of the Baptism is the river Jordan. It is also Three Kings Day, celebrating the arrival of the three Wise men of the East who followed the Star to the manger in Bethlehem to bring three gifts to the newly born King.
January 6th is the day of inner epiphany. You receive the threefold gift of new inner clarity, inner beauty and inner strength. Perhaps you will want to write down a description of this threefold gift. It may be simply a seed that will germinate at sometime during the year when it has received the right warmth and moisture in your soul. When a seed germinates its pours forth its sweetness into the world. When the inner seed of the Twelve Holy Nights germinates your soul is filled in the sweetness of self-unfolding.
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