Question: Dear Jesus:
What is the TRUE meaning of Christmas and is the actual date of your earthly birth more close to around April 16, 6 BC? How should we view this season known as the "Christmas" season since we are not to look on you as an idol as the orthodox church has made you.
Love, Bambi
Answer from Jesus:Thank you for asking that question on this particular day [December 25th, 2003]. I welcome the opportunity to comment on the Christmas celebration.
Let me first comment on the time and date issue. At this point I do not want to reveal the exact time and date of my birth. The fact that people are so obsessed with the time and date of my birth is an expression of this idolatry. If I gave you the exact time and date of my birth, people would use it to find some characteristic that set me apart from other human beings. They would take it as proof that I was different, and therefore it was easier for me to manifest Christhood.
The reality of the situation is that my birth date and time did not have some kind of cosmic, universal significance. Because I had the potential to become the spiritual Master for the next age, I was born during the time period that marked the transition into the Age of Pisces. My exact birth time had a significance in terms of my personal karma that I needed to work out in my last embodiment on Earth, and it set the best possible stage for my personal mission. Therefore, the particular astrological configurations at the time of my birth do not have any significance for other souls, who have their own circumstances to work out.
If you could project yourself back to the mindset that existed 2,000 years ago, you would see that many people were obsessed with a person's birth. Not only did the Jews discriminate against those who were not Jews, but even within the Jewish community there was a discrimination based on family background. So when the Gospel writers started writing the Gospels, they decided that in order to make the story more acceptable to people they had to put a special emphasis on the importance of my birth.
It is generally accepted by scholars that the Gospels were written in a certain order, with the Gospel of Mark being the first Gospel. You will see that the Gospel of Mark hardly mentions the circumstances around my birth, whereas the Gospel of John makes it an incident of cosmic importance. This is simply an illustration of how the succeeding Gospel writers placed greater emphasis upon, and to some degree even embellished upon the facts, of my birth. This is one of the main reasons for the intense idolatry around my outer person that has been built and now sustained for 2,000 years.
So the bottom line is that the time and the date of my birth, and the circumstances around that birth, are not particularly important. I will say that the date you mention is closer to my actual birth date than December 25th in the year 0. Nevertheless, it is not the exact date.
In reality, I was born in the spring season, and the celebration of my birthday during the darkest time of the year was a later addition. Because I do not consider it particularly important that people know or celebrate the exact time of my birth, I have no problem with the birth of Christ being celebrated during the darkest time of the year. In fact, I consider this a very practical arrangement. It is precisely during the darkest days of the year that people need to be reminded of their potential to become the Christ. And this potential should be the main focus for the Christmas celebration.
For those who are willing to look beyond the exact outer circumstances around my life, and who can free their minds from a literal interpretation of the Bible, the story of my life can be seen as a symbol for the birth of the Christ in every soul.
Once again, the inordinate idolatry around my birth obscures reality. So many people believe that I was born in the fullness of personal Christhood and with a full remembrance of my divine origin and mission. This is far from being the case. Although my soul did have great spiritual attainment at inner levels, I was born with no particular remembrance of this. I did have a very strong intuition, but I had to gradually discover my spiritual identity and my spiritual mission. Therefore, I can assure you that my life was not different from or easier than the life of most other human beings on this Earth. Everyone faces the challenge of discovering his or her true identity and of deciding whether to fulfill his or her spiritual mission.
Therefore, the correct way to approach the celebration of Christmas is to see the story of my life as a symbol for the stages that every soul goes through as the Christ child is born within that soul and eventually grows to the full maturity, at which the soul can express its personal Christhood in this world.
I was born as a helpless baby, as is every other human being. No human being suddenly walks from an unenlightened state of consciousness into the fullness of Christ consciousness. For spiritually inclined people, there does come a specific time in a person's life when the Christ consciousness is born within that person. This is an inner experience in which the soul senses that there is more to life, more to reality and more to his or her own identity than the normal human consciousness.
The Christ consciousness is born as a fragile and in many ways helpless baby. Saint Paul understood this and talked about people who were still babes in Christ. The reason being that in the beginning the soul’s sense of Christ consciousness is fragile. It needs protection, support and nourishment. Ideally this should be given in a spiritual community, in which those who are further along on the path of Christhood can support the soul. Unfortunately, in today's world neither orthodox Christianity nor materialistic science can provide this kind of support and understanding, and therefore most souls have to fight their way through the wilderness of the human consciousness largely on their own. This is not to my liking, and I hope it can be changed by the emergence of spiritual communities, in which people can support each other in the growth towards Christhood.
So let me return to the celebration of Christmas. I see no reason to abandon the Christmas celebration. I see no reason to move it to another time of the year. It is a tradition that is ingrained in Western culture, and it could easily be turned into a very significant spiritual experience.
I do believe that Christmas in many nations has become unnecessarily commercialized and is too centered around materialistic pleasures, from giving gifts to eating large meals or even drinking and making merry. This, of course, has nothing to do with the birth of the Christ consciousness within the soul. Realistically, I do not see that this can be changed in the near future.
However, for those who are willing to look for a deeper meaning, I suggest the development of a celebration that focuses less on my life and birth and truly sees this as a symbol for the birth of the Christ consciousness in every human being. Once you begin to see that the Christ child is not simply the baby that grew into the person of Jesus, you are on the right track. You can then see that Christ child as the innocent birth of the Christ consciousness within every soul.
You can now create a celebration that is aimed at assisting souls in experiencing the birth of the Christ consciousness within them, and you can extend that celebration into a community of people who support each other in protecting and nourishing that Christ consciousness until it eventually matures.
In today's world, many people have already attained a high degree of Christhood, as explained elsewhere. Therefore, it will not take 30 years for the Christ consciousness to mature within them. It can be achieved in a much shorter period of time. Nevertheless, a celebration focused on the birth of the Christ within the individual soul could be an immense inspiration that could help people consciously recognize their Christ attainment. They could then nourish the Christ child within them, until it matures and comes into full expression when that soul transforms the water of the carnal mind into the wine of the Christ consciousness. When that transformation occurs within an individual, there is no turning back, as there was no turning back for me after I performed that feat at the wedding in Canaan.
At that moment, the soul can no longer hide its light, and it will now go on to fulfill its mission. This will include challenging the persecution of the world, but obviously a person in today's world will not need to be nailed to a cross for manifesting Christhood.
So I encourage people to continue to celebrate the Christ mass at the darkest time of the year but to turn it into a celebration of the birth of the Christ consciousness within every soul. When I was born 2,000 years ago, the Christ mass was the birth of a single child destined to manifest Christ consciousness. In today's world the Christ mass has taken on a new meaning.
The second coming of Christ truly means the birth of the Christ consciousness within thousands and millions of people on this planet. When this does occur, you can celebrate the true Christ mass in which a great mass of human beings experience the birth of the Christ child in their hearts. I can assure you that wise beings from all over the spiritual realm will flock to bear witness to that birth and to bring many spiritual gifts to the establishment of a new sense of community between those Above and those below.
