The Astral Soul Ministry

Through the practice of sitting still and following your breath as it goes out and dissolves, you are connecting with your heart. By simply letting yourself be, as you are, you develop genuine sympathy towards yourself.

By simply being on the spot, your life can become workable and even wonderful. You realize that you are capable of sitting like a king or queen on a throne. The regalness of that situation shows you the dignity that comes from being still and simple.

December 25 - the world's most famous unlikely date
by Malcolm Stewart

The gospels don't say exactly when Jesus was born? Of course quite a few scholars who have said he wasn't born at all. But allowing that he was, the actual date's disputed. The Gospels didn't make it clear. The Roman census? - no one's sure when that happened. Herod being King? - that means it has to be before 4 B.C. when Herod died. There were some other clues ... Galilean shepherds don't spend nights watching their flocks in the height of winter, the nights are far too cold ... but they do during the spring lambing. Then there are possible dating clues in the 'Bethlehem Star' (was it a comet, a conjunction, a constellatory rising?) - it suggests that Jesus was actually born in April or September - depending on which astronomical event one favours. Different years are proposed 5 B.C, 7 B.C. Recent astronomers have had views on this. (Patrick Moore, Professor Percy Seymour et al.) Of course the early Church didn't have modern astronomical tools. It's thought that astrology rather than astronomy is a better guide to what brought the Magi from the East. Of course if the star was a UFO ...!

Our December date for Christmas was proposed at the Council of Nicaea 325 A.D. It matched up well with the solstice date recognised since megalithic times(Dec 21 - e.g. built into the layout of the first construction at Stonehenge). Nicaea's date also matched with the still popular Mithraic religion of the Roman legions. The birth of Mithras was Dec 25. Mithras was Sol Invictus = the Unconquered Sun; and that was by then also applied to Jesus whose Resurrection could be symbolized in the lengthening days. At this time Constantine was running the Council Nicaea, and wanted to generalize the religion of his Empire. He and most of his army came from of a Mithraic background. Until his deathbed he wasn't actually a Christian - though he famously claimed to have had a Christian vision ... and somehow managed to be in charge of a Church Council!

Official sanction was finally given for this date by Pope Julius 1 in 350 A.D. But there were competitors for the December date. There's a 6th century exchange of letters between two churchmen in which one laments that some people are using December 25th and others are using January 6th, and the other - a Bishop - replies: why not use both? In effect this was pretty much what happened ... In 529, Emperor Justinian named Christmas to be a civic holiday. Work and public business not associated with the celebration of the holiday (i.e. cooks, bakers, entertainers, etc.) was strictly forbidden. And to further make sure that the holiday should be fun - in 563 the Council of Braga decreed that fasting on Christmas was actually prohibited. Then in 567 the Council of Tours pronounced the twelve days from December 25th to Epiphany (January 6th) to be the Christmas feast. That decision still echoes today in some Christmas songs.
Mediaeval festivities in some locations lasted all the way from St. Thomas' Day, Dec. 21 (honouring the "doubting Thomas") to Candlemas (February 2). In 1252 for instance it is recorded that Henry III of England slew 600 oxen to go with the salmon pies and roasted peacocks (and no doubt the partridges in the pear tree). Merry Christmas everyone!

God, Life and Teachers
by Christian Bodhi

God is the living, moving and growing nature in all things. Nothing is static and entirely disconnected - all is alive and interconnected. The Universal Life in our body is God. This is not a theoretical thought, but a practical fact, for we exist within the body of the Logos. Our life is a part of His life and we are personified sparks of Him, who is within and without. If we treat the life within our body with love and respect, if we realise that it is divine, then that life will blossom, and we will have a capacity to treat kindly all life.

The Teachers like the Christ, the Buddha and other great Yogis demonstrate this truth that God is life in all, and when one finds God within then one can see it in everything:

"Where is delusion, where is grief to the one who is established in unity?"

These great spiritual teachers represent God, because they are in a much more conscious touch with it - they are aware of the divinity of life in everything. The Christ, who is the Buddha of Love, is the yogi of the West. His true teaching is about Life and He is the one who brings the "water of life", i.e. the creative vitality of the Spirit, to the "thirsty" - the ones whose awareness is trapped in the illusion of the material world. His resurrection is a symbol of the triumph of life over death and over the limitations of form of any kind, physical or ideological.

The mind can be a problem - our identification with the lower mind is so strong that we close ourselves to the greater life and live only a very limited existence - far below our true capacity. So it is the rigid mind who really crucified the Christ. The whole biblical story has to be seen in a new psychological light. The mind of the rulers of the world fears the new, because such mind clings to that which knows and commands - it clings to a familiar and comfortable reality. In the past the rulers tried to kill Krishna, Rama, Moses and Jesus even as babies. The rigid mind fears the liberating force of life, because the experience of the greater life feels like a death to the ego. Yet, this cannot be avoided for everything flows, everything changes and grows toward its fruition and transcendence.

What church-ianity did to the Christ is that they mystified Him, abstracted Him, and removed Him from our everyday reality. The ego thrives on the identification with the lower mind and it likes to endlessly indulge in theologies - it wields the doctrine, but it does not implement the spirit of the doctrine. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, in The Key to Theosophy described both the Buddha and the Christ as practical Reformers:
"Q. Do you mean to suggest that neither the teachings of Buddha nor those of Christ have been heretofore rightly understood?

A. What I mean is just as you say. Both Gospels, the Buddhist and the Christian, were preached with the same object in view. Both reformers were ardent philanthropists and practical altruists-preaching most unmistakably Socialism of the noblest and highest type, self-sacrifice to the bitter end.
"Let the sins of the whole world fall upon me that I may relieve man's misery and suffering!" cries Buddha. "I would not let one cry whom I could save!" exclaims the Prince-beggar, clad in the refuse rags of the burial-grounds. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest," is the appeal to the poor and the disinherited made by the "Man of Sorrows," who hath not where to lay his head. The teachings of both are boundless love for humanity, charity, forgiveness of injury, forgetfulness of self, and pity for the deluded masses; both show the same contempt for riches, and make no difference between meum and tuum. Their desire was, without revealing to all the sacred mysteries of initiation, to give the ignorant and the misled, whose burden in life was too heavy for them, hope enough and an inkling into the truth sufficient to support them in their heaviest hours. But the object of both Reformers was frustrated, owing to excess of zeal of their later followers. The words of the Masters having been misunderstood and misinterpreted, behold the consequences!"

The Avatars have been visiting us throughout the history and will continue to do so in the future. Sooner or later Someone will appear and take the karmic burden of challenging the materialistic ways of humanity more directly than "usual" gurus. It did happen in the past, therefore it will happen again - it is the Cosmic Law of Cycles. What would happen if the Christ, the most well-known yogi of the West, would come again, quietly and unexpectedly, "like a thief in the night"? How would we respond?

The life in our body is God. If we develop an awareness of this fact, through the means of meditation or any other creative activity, then we will not have problems with the new waves of life taking us forward - we will not have problems with Buddhas or Christs, for we will understand! Instead of following their personalities, we will follow their example. Instead of searching for the Truth and virtues, we will live the Truth and spontaneously demonstrate the virtues. A quiet, gentle and truly intelligent mind can let the divine life flow in the body until it overflows. Then one will find That, which we sometimes call God.

Global Prayer Project
Prayer, Meditation & Discussion
with James & Salle Redfield
via Live Teleconference & Webcast

Tuesday, December 23
8-9 pm Eastern/US

If you can't join us, please hold a supportive prayer vision for
the world at that time...

* This week's prayer visualization:
As many of us are experiencing the challenges of the worldwide
economic crisis, we are finding ourselves even more focused on
the essence of the relationships in our lives. During this
holiday season, many of us seem to be not as concerned with the
material aspects, but on the inner meaning of the holiday. This
appears to be one of the many potential silver linings in the
economic situation. Let’s join in a collective prayer wave of
healing and gratitiude, with everyone breaking through to higher
levels of spiritual meaning that can change each family and the
world.

* Follow-up discussion:
How can we break through to higher levels of relationship? One
specific way humanity seems to be learning.

_______

Teleconference:
Call 212/461-5860 OR 646/519-5860
Caller ID: 6999#

The phone line will open at 7:55pm EDT. Call the number above and
follow the directions. Once you are connected to the call,
please say your name and where you are from, and then press *6
to mute yourself so the noise level will be kept to a minimum.
Each participant will be responsible for their own long-distance
phone charges.

Live Webcast @ [http://www.celestinevision.com]

______

Our twice-monthly gatherings have been making a powerful
difference, both in people's individual lives and the world at
large. Many of you have written us saying that the energy
generated from this network of spiritually-minded participants
is "indescribable," and we look forward to continuing this
healing circle of focused prayer. Like all prayer experience
devoted to helping others, many participants have felt the
results in their own bodies and received guidance for their own
lives.

Research tells us that the more people praying together, the more
powerful the prayer and the greater the level of energy felt by
the participants. We invite you to join the largest regular
prayer network in the world. If you would like to take an active
role in maintaining a circle of positive intention across the
globe, while going deeper and heightening your own spirituality,
join us on Tuesday, December 23.

_______

US & CANADA
Tuesday, December 23
8 pm New York
5 pm Los Angeles

AUSTRALIA
Wednesday, December 24
12 noon Sydney

EUROPE
Wednesday, December 24
1 am London

_______

Blessings,
James Redfield
Salle Merrill Redfield

EXTENDING PRAYER FIELDS
For centuries, religious scriptures, poems, and philosophies have
pointed to a latent power of mind within all of us that
mysteriously helps to affect what occurs in the future. We are
now finding that this prayer power is a field of intention,
which moves out from us and can be extended and strengthened,
especially when we connect with others in a common vision.
-The Eleventh Insight
[http://www.celestinevision.com/insights2.html]

© James Redfield 2008

May the Light of Love without human expectation fill your heart this season; to Inspire Creations that will rock this world!

Love and Peace to You my Dear Friends.

lostjohnny
wizardparadox