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INNER CHRISTMAS 2007

Inner Christmas is a personal process

of meaningful and enriching self-reflection

that takes place between December 25 and January 6,

the Twelve Holy Nights.

Ordinary existence with its demands, its compromises and its overwhelm can dull your inner light- just like the darkening of the sun every year. Celebrating Inner Christmas leads to the renewal of your inner light, the rebirth of your inner divinity.

Every year, I send an Inner Christmas message for each of the Twelve Holy Nights to inspire your inner rebirth, restore meaning, clarity and vitality to your thoughts and feelings, and to reunite your destiny with your unfolding life.

These messages are written for every human soul regardless of beliefs, traditions or culture. The 12 Inner Christmas messages and the accompanying questions will nurture your capacity to say "I Am" with deep joy and clear purpose throughout the coming year.

To view The Inner Christmas Movie click here.

Here is an essay that appeared in LILIPOH Magazine this Fall. It offers a suggestion for inner work during the four weeks prior to Christmas. Again this is an ecumenical and universal gesture designed for everyone. I wish you a rich and enriching holiday season.

Our inner life has seasons, the seasons of the soul. Just like the seasons of Nature, each soul season has a particular mood and a particular activity.  In the past, inner seasons were acknowledged and shaped by outer cultural and religious celebrations and festivals.  They were communal and traditional.   The outer moods and activities were dominant.

But in our current times of self-awareness and self-development, there is a growing sensitivity to the need to bring a seasonal cycle to our individual inner life.  We need inner rhythms and practices to bring our attention to the cyclical nature of our souls.  Many of our emotional challenges, anxieties and imbalances would resolve if we recognized this need and attended to and reflected on the seasonally available inspirations of the soul.

One of the more important seasons of the soul occurs during the late fall as Nature falls into darkness. This is the time in our outer, cultural life we celebrate Thanksgiving and prepare for Christmas and the ending of the year. In the Christian Liturgical Year this season is called Advent and prepares for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus.  Inwardly, it is a time for all souls to do a compassionate and objective review of the year as preparation for the inner birth of a new consciousness of self at Inner Christmas. 

As the outer light of day decreases, the inner light of soul increases.  The Inner Sun is the self-observing I, the higher self. The light of this Inner Sun can bring harmonious awareness to our yearly unfolding of meaning and purpose, transforming our observations into yearly festivals of the soul. The festival that prepares us for our Inner Christmas and the Twelve Holy Nights is  the four weeks of Inner Advent, when we reflect on our personal development over the course of the year.

I have found inspirations for Inner Advent in the traditions of Christianity and the attention devoted to nature and human development in Waldorf Schools.

The evergreen table wreath with four candles (and often a fifth in the center) is a Christian tradition for the home. .  The first Sunday in Advent, one candle is lit and a prayer is spoken. On the second Sunday two candles are lit and the prayer is repeated and so on. The center candle represents the Christ and is lit on Christmas Eve.

As a parent at the Waldorf School of Princeton I found each class had its own Advent Wreath.  Each week the wreath would be decorated with symbols of the kingdoms of nature.  The first week found minerals among the evergreen needles, the second week, the pine cones and dried flowers of the plant kingdom.  Little wooden animals and shells arrived to bring attention to the animal kingdom with the third week and the fourth week brought the creative elements of the human kingdom

Combining the two traditions, I brought the advent wreath ritual into my home.  It gave the family a visual reminder that nature and spirit were bringing our attention to something special.  I wanted to create a balance to my children’s and my focus on the more secular and sensory delights and demands of food and presents at Christmastime. Lighting the candles, speaking a prayer, finding and placing the symbols of the four created kingdoms brought a mood of quiet reverence to the otherwise hectic weeks.

But my soul still had a longing for some inner, more personal ritual. As human beings, our souls form a bridge between earthly nature and the purely spiritual.  I needed a way to work with my soul uniting the wondrous rhythms of nature, the mysteries of spirit and the evolution of my individuality. Based on anthroposophical wisdom as I understood it and this longing in my soul, I began to imagine celebrating Inner festivals.  Let me share my Inner Advent festival suggestions with you.

The liturgical Advent is based on the Sunday services of the Church and begins four Sundays before Christmas Day. The timing of Inner Advent is based on the 28 day lunar rhythm of reflection. This year Christmas falls on Tuesday.  Inner Advent will begin on Monday, November 26. This gives you 28 days to review your year, to prepare for the Twelve Holy Nights.

I realize that with our crazy, complex and chaotic outer lives it is very hard to carve out time for inner work.  But celebrating Inner Advent does not demand lots of time.  If you want to attend to it in a daily rhythm for 28 days, I suggest between five and 20 minutes each day.  If you are more comfortable attending to your inner life in a weekly session like going to church on Sundays, yoga on Fridays, your therapy session on whatever day--do your best to devote 30 - 60 minutes on your chosen day to do this seasonal inner work.  In either the weekly or daily rhythm make sure you choose a time of day when you have the least demands and distractions. Create a mood of reverence and devotion.

I do recommend having an Advent Wreath (a small 10 - 12” evergreen) and decorating it with the kingdoms of nature and the four candles.  Light one candle for your first week, two for the second and so on.  The candles represent the increase of inner light as you work with your reflections. The center candle represents your Higher Self - the observant I, that grows brighter with self-knowledge and self-compassion.

You may want to keep an Inner Advent journal. Putting the force of your attention into writing down your reflections and insights can be very empowering. Your journal writings will allow you to review your inner growth and development in the years to come. Write down a self-reflective question and then note your observations as they surface in your consciousness.

Reflect on how the yearly harvest of your soul finds an inspirational foundation in using metaphors from Nature. I recommend working with the elements of earth, water, air and fire. Within these archetypal metaphors is a creative wisdom to which our souls feel a meaningful, “natural” affinity.  The soul remains soft and open when inspired by these metaphors. Be careful to avoid clever, meaningless or sentimental observations, though.

Earth, the element of solidity and completeness. 

Reflection on what you have completed this year.  What has been achieved and no longer needs your creative attention? Reflect on the books you read , the things you  wrote, work projects you finished, vacations you took,
what new skill was acquired, etc.  You might also think of life transitions – marriage, pregnancy, new job, menopause, and retirement. 

Water, the element of rhythm and developmental process

How did your life unfold this year?  What was in process?  What did you do differently? Did you begin a project?  Did you maintain healthy rhythms in your practical and spiritual lives? Did you stop anything in midstream? Did you face the challenges of turbulence or were the seas of life calm?

Air, the element of the meaning and purpose of relationships. 

Who came into your life this year?  What relationship had the most impact on your life?  What relationships faded or renewed? Were there any deaths?  What relationships demanded your attention? Whose attention did you desire?
What were the most significant conversations of the year?

Fire, the element of individuality and spirit.

Do you feel you have more you this year? What do you mean by that? Are you more aware of your special gifts?  Your special challenges?  How did you contribute to the world through your thoughts, feelings and deeds? Did you experience higher imaginations, inspirations and intuitions? Did you face “soul” challenging obstacles to your self-expression?

You can ask yourself many more questions each week but I suggest you work deeply with only a few reflections. 

At the end of the four weeks of Inner Advent reflections, you are prepared to give birth to a new Inner Self in the manger of your soul. You are ready to meet directly with spiritual beings during the Twelve Holy Nights between Christmas and Epiphany. You are able to see the potential for greater truth, beauty and goodness in the elements of your life during the coming seasons. 

Please let me hear from you.  Share your questions, your process, your surprises.

Email me if you have any questions.