Epiphany: The Manifestation of the Gifts

In the current dating and historical referencing of Christianity, January 6th is known as "Epiphany". 

Epiphany is the holy day for recognizing the manifestation of God through the journey of the Three Wise Men or Three Kings, the magii.

The story of the "Three Wise Men" was originally translated from the ancient form of the magicians who could read and follow the stars. This stemmed originated from the Zorastias of Persia in the general area of the Middle East. As priests they were considered magicians or chemists (early alchemists). In other words the three magii, kings or wise men were ancient astronomers!

These wise men who could read and follow the stars came bearing their sacred gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, as they followed the light of the "Star of Bethlehem", to their revelation and understandings of the Holy and Blessed Birth of a great inner light of the Christ Child called Jesua (Joshua) or Jesus.

The journey towards the light, the magic of that revelation, and the power of the gift itself, are all seen as their own Epiphany or manifestation of the Divine and the gifts of the Godhead of that Divine, the Universal all knowing, all seeing, all being presence of the "I am".

Today, in secular terminology, an epiphany is a sudden realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something. It is used in either a philosophical or literal sense to signify receiving new information or having an experience that illuminates a deeper understanding.

To 'have an epiphany' is to have a 'wow' or 'aha' moment. Suddenly, every thing is crystal clear, seen, understood or recognized. I long for aha moments. But I am grateful for any gifts of the sacred, in any manifestation, that I receive.

As some of my holy or holiday gifts over the years, I still treasure these simple but highly valued and sacred resins. I'd always secretly wanted both frankincense and myrrh and was delighted to receive them one Christmas long ago from my older  daughter who shares and understands my deep love of the mystical. 

I placed my gifts within an abalone shell (my own gift from the sea) and now have gold (gold pyrite shown here) frankincense‐‐which is the pale yellow resin and myrhh‐‐the golden amber resin. These are the three gifts of the magii as they came bearing their gifts.

I was also given the gifts of a resin known as dragonsblood (dark red chunks) from the Canary Islands and Morocco, and copal (white chunks) a plant resin sacred to the Mayans. All highly treasured throughout time among many cultures and belief systems.

Then there are the more unusual selection of salts: Red Alea Salt, Cyprus Flake Salt, and Black Lava Salt as well as a dainty salt spoon for serving them, a little mortar and pestle, and another smaller jar of frankincense of myrrh.

Seen as a miracle in themselves, all salts, precious minerals, and resins are really quite magical even mysterious.  Mystical sap emanating from sacred plants and trees, which magically hardened with contact with the air and emit exotic fumes when burned as incense.  How amazing that must have been to the ancients and how treasures they remain today.

And of course many of you will recognize dried sage, a gift to many peoples for both burning and purification and of course, for a seasoning herb in cooking.

All of these precious gifts from days long ago, carefully mined, collected, and saved and used as currency or as gifts to those most worthy. Now often unknown or simply not recognized by many but treasures they remain in my own  heart forever.

Celebrate Epiphany, the giving of the gifts. Light a candle in a window, give gifts of your own to loved ones and truly celebrate the beautiful dawning of a new light into this world.

Michele Bilyeu 

Creates With Heart and Hands 

sharing an imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon and back again.

Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting,

 "from my heart and with my hands".

I am fascinated to know how people found my posts. Here are source of original stats for this current post.

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem was first read by Dr. Angelou at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington D.C. in 2005. Although written in the spirit of Christmas, the poem is intended to be a gift for people of all faiths and encourages us to celebrate and embrace the promise of hope, peace and unity during the holiday season. The poem offers a beautiful message of acceptance and love that seems to be as current today as ever.

 

  Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou

"Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.

We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.

Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?

Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.

Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.

We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.

Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.

We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.
On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.

We, Angels and Mortal’s, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul."

May Peace fill all of our hearts during this blessed season where our ancients roots -- the original not often recognized pagan celebration by the Celts/Druids which was the very basis for the timing of the Christian adaptation into our holy Christmas and the strength into glory of the Jewish Peoples during Chanukah/

Hanukkah now overlap in one season and even over one day..a special and rare event of great significance.

Holy of Holies in all ways filled with Blessings for All - all colors, all races, all religions, all belief systems. A time for peace and acceptance and joy in all that makes us alike, and not different.

The light casts out the darkness of all of the projected shadows that seem to overwhelm our world right now. We must always keep in mind - that is what projections are. The deepest and darkest parts of each of our collective selves being brought forward for acknowledgement, transformation and atonement or at its truest "at-one-ment".

The light casts them out and ushers in glory and goodness and love. For whatsoever you do to one you do to all of our brothers, our sisters, you do to your self/ourselves.

💜🙏💜

 

Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands as she shares her imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon. Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting - from my heart and with my hands.

Bringing Forth the Light

From ancient times, the winter season has been seen as part of balance of nature, a time where the balance point changes between the darkness and the light.

As with the falling of the leaves, it is a time for change and a natural time for letting go of all that which seems dark within one's life. A natural time for making choices to bring in the light, both to lessen the darkness within, and to open ourselves to life's full grace and beauty.

Throughout history, in all of the world's cultures, through belief systems, festivals, traditions and practices, the changes in the cycles of birth, death and rebirth have been intrinsically and symbolically honored. From this honoring comes our holidays, our 'holy days.'

When we walk between the veils of one season and the next, or one change or one emotion and the next., or even one 'holy day' and the next, we find ourselves always balancing our emotions, balancing the dark emotions, the very ones which create power and change, or the light emotions, the ones which bring in joy and abundance.

As with both the winter and the summer solstice, the balancing of the dark and the light is part of the deepest of the shadow work inside, as well as outside of ourselves. Everything and everyone is connected and our connection to nature is the deepest and truest example of this balancing and the deepest of needs for that connection.

Winter Solstice can vary because of place or time but it falls on December 21st or December 22nd  and is the moment when the earth is at a point in its orbit where one hemisphere is most inclined away from the sun.

Solstice is of a Latin borrowing and means 'sun stand', referring to the appearance that the sun's noontime elevation stops in its progress. It is both the shortest day, and the longest night of the year. Many cultures the world over perform solstice ceremonies. At their root is the ancient fear that the failing light would never return unless humans intervened with some vigil or celebration.

The Winter Solstice has always been associated with the birth of a divine king in many different cultures, long before the rise of Christianity and the blessed birth of the holy infant, Jesus. Yet with all connections this same archetypal pattern is also seen in other belief systems around the world.

Since the Sun is considered to represent the male divinity in many pagan traditions, this time is celebrated as the return of the sun god where he is reborn of the goddess. Other cultures have similar beliefs and associations.Many cultures celebrate, or celebrated, a holiday near (within a few days) of the winter solstice--Yalda, Saturnalia, Christmas, Karachun, Hanukkah, Festivus, and Kwanzaa.

Yule and the burning of the yule log, is deeply rooted in this cycle for it is a ritual based upon our own facing of 'the dark night of our souls', and the springing forth of the sparks of hope, the Sacred Fire, the Light of the World, and that which was known in Celtic lore as Coel Coeth.

Christmas, like all holy or holi-days, is a special time of remembranceo f both the birth of thenew divining power and all of the symbols of home and family. It is a time when we can most acutely feel the greatest darkness or the brightest light, a time of giving, of receiving, or for some a time of loss of light, and a feeling of going into the dark.

This is a deep time and a sacred space, a time and a symbol for all of us about being lost, facing those emotions and feeling the sadness, the yearning, and the grief that such loss brings into our lives. It is a time of immense spiritual and energetic power. But because of this, it is also a time when emotions can quickly spark and even inflame and overpower us.

It is therefore a time, to face these deepest aspects of ourselves, known as our shadow self, for it only with the coming of the light that we can cast and therefore be aware of our own shadows and the role they play in our lives.

But with that darkness, comes the sacred birth of a new light and all of the wisdom, power, and knowledge that this sacred birth created and brought into our lives for transfiguration and rebirth.

It is the greatest, and most powerful time to face the truth of your own shadows, to ground yourself by connecting your own heartspace to the deepest and most sacred truths of the heart and joy of the world and unite into the balance point of all we know and feel in the deepest parts of our true selves as being holy.

Once that bell has rung and heard within our consciousness, we do not turn away from that which is in the shadows, but we acknowledge them as being a part of ourselves and turn ourselves into the light.

This wonderful New Moon in Capricorn, and the relationships to the placement of the other planets is a call to action and leadership in our own lives. It is not simply the call to revolution that so many seek to manifest outside of ourselves, but within. Change your own mind, change your own actions, and change your beliefs.

We do not get what we want in this lifetime, we get that which we believe. Change those beliefs and how you choose to emote and to manifest today, and change your life and be the leader in that life that you were meant to be.

We are all warriors of the spirit. Amazing women and amazing men who choose to manifest that which is light within themselves and not that which is the dark shadow self. Both are needed for the balance point but we have the power to choose and to manifest the powers in that side of ourselves which creates goodness and godliness while learning from that which creates empathy and understanding for others

Find that creative manifestation of this gateway, and walk with power and the inner truth of love, joy, and power through the gateway of wisdom and power.

We create our gifts of abundance, we manifest blessings and peace, and we enter into a new place of well-being and joy. Celebrate with the gifts of nature, the gifts of our hands, and the many blessings and gifts from our hearts.

Happiest of Holy Days from the light of my heart, and my home, to yours.

The December solstice takes place on December 21 northern hemisphere/December 22 southern 

It marks the Northern Hemisphere’s shortest day (first day of winter) and Southern Hemisphere’s longest day (first day of summer). 

Michele Savikko Bilyeu 

Creates With Heart and Hands sharing an imaginative, magical,and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon and back again.

Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, 

"from my heart and with my hands"