Symbolic Secrets of the Christmas Story

Our world is rich with symbolism, ranging from elements in the natural world to dream messages and archetypes, and even, perhaps, secret truth is woven into scripture. The Nativity Story has influenced the world for an entire age, and when we interpret it like a dream, we find a message that reveals the birth of the Christ seed within you, and the realization of your own wholeness.

Join me for a quick dive into the symbolic meaning of Jesus' birth, and deepen the way you experience Christmas!

Transcript

Happy holidays,

Everyone.

My name is Brenton,

And I teach esoteric mindfulness and meditation.

One of my favorite areas of study is reading and contemplating holy texts.

Our world is rich with symbolism,

Ranging from elements in the natural world to dream messages and archetypes,

And even,

Perhaps,

Secret truth woven into scriptures from all over.

In our collective quest to navigate this crazy river we call life,

Humans often shared wisdom through metaphor and stories.

So,

In a way,

The legacy of humanity is preserved in the stories we tell,

Both the inner stories we tell ourselves and the legends of ages past that slowly lose details as they're passed from one generation to the next.

One such story,

The Nativity story,

Has influenced the world for an entire age,

And every year millions of people celebrate the spiritual roots of Christmas.

Today,

I invite you to take the story you're familiar with and join me as we interpret the birth of Jesus the Christ symbolically in the language of dreams.

We'll highlight major symbols and examine a story that reveals the birth of the Christ seed within you and the realization of your own wholeness.

So,

I want you to imagine that you awaken from a vivid,

Impactful dream,

The kind of dream that lingers with its feel and detail.

You revisit the dream and fast forward.

Figures called Mary and Joseph dreaming about angels,

An immaculate conception and the Son of God,

Travel to an overcrowded Bethlehem,

And birth in a stable,

Three wise men following stars and bringing gifts.

Like dreams can be,

This one is a wild ride,

And yet even the most outlandish dreams contain profound insight,

And this one is no different.

So if we were to interpret this Nativity story dream,

We'd need to clear a few things up first.

Number one,

Dreams can have different meanings in various interpretations,

Just like holy works,

Yet what matters most is that we find our own meaning in them.

So you will always be your best dream interpreter,

Even if the dream you're interpreting is a holy text thousands of years old.

And number two,

If we interpret dreams symbolically or metaphysically,

We can look at them as reflections or messages from the inner collective awareness we call consciousness.

Therefore,

Every person,

Place,

And thing in your dream is a symbolic representation of you.

So with those ideas in mind,

Let's dive into the universal meaning of the Nativity story.

One of the many reasons it makes sense to talk about the Bible like a dream is because dreams are frequently utilized in its stories.

In fact,

Our Nativity story opens with Mary and Joseph each being visited by Archangel Gabriel in their dreams.

Mary represents a kind of nurturing love,

While Joseph represents clarity and perception.

Both of them also symbolize a willingness to be led from within and a trust of the process.

The word angel has roots that literally mean messenger,

And in a dream angels symbolize a kind of inner message.

Typically,

Angels only show up in dreams if the message conveyed is important and direct,

And often from that expansive centered place of inner being.

In this case,

The message being delivered is kind of a doozy.

To Mary,

You are now pregnant with the Son of God,

Sorry you had skipped the fun part.

And to Joseph,

Don't be afraid,

But also don't leave.

Oftentimes,

A literal interpretation of our dreams will leave us confused or cause us to write them off as impossible situations.

Similarly,

People often skip over the juicy metaphysical symbolism of scripture because they're turned off by the literal interpretation.

Babies in a dream represent new ideas,

And so pregnancy symbolizes the formation of new ideas and new ways of being,

Like the gestation process.

In the case of a virgin birth,

What we're really talking about is a kind of earnest purity in the desire we have for something new and better for ourselves,

The readiness and openness to give birth to a new version of you.

So to bring things together in an interpretive kind of way so far,

The beginning of the nativity story represents an important turning point along the journey of not only our spirituality,

But also our humanity.

We're awakening to our own suffering,

And the suffering around us,

And in our earnest desire to free ourselves into something greater,

The spark of a belief forms inside.

The belief that we are whole and complete just as we are,

Without conditions,

And that perhaps we don't have to spend our lives seeking things outside of ourselves for happiness,

Love,

Or contentment.

And that seed idea of wholeness,

Soon to be baby Jesus,

Will require the qualities within us symbolized by Mary and Joseph.

For that seed idea to take root inside,

We'll have to nurture it with love,

We'll have to discern the choices that help it grow versus the ones that diminish it,

And we'll have to sustain an openness in our minds and hearts to be led from within,

Rather than give in to external stimuli that tend to pull us off center.

Some of the nativity story involves the fulfillment of prophecy.

In the words prophecy and prophet have roots that mean both harbinger,

As in the foretelling of nature,

And also to speak,

As in interpreting or even bringing forth the will of the gods.

Symbolically,

We can think of prophecy as the way our choices,

Words,

And thoughts eventually become our reality.

Nature inherently understands the slow,

Steady progression,

And these are qualities of elemental earth.

Every fall,

The trees prophesy winter as their leaves change color and eventually fall.

In this story,

Mary's immaculate conception fulfills an Old Testament prophecy of a savior named Emmanuel,

Which the Bible tells us means God is with us.

Interpreted like a dream,

When we open ourselves to even the idea of our inherent wholeness,

We begin to realize,

Or perhaps remember,

That there is no separation from the creator,

From each other,

From the planet,

Or from the energy of life and consciousness.

Now when it comes time for Jesus to actually be born,

Mary and Joseph have traveled from Nazareth to Joseph's ancestral home of Bethlehem to be counted for a Roman census.

Typically,

Romans counted people based on their current residency,

Which would have been Nazareth,

But the Jewish custom was to enroll people based on their ancestral homes.

As a result,

Bethlehem was overcrowded and they were forced to stay the night in a stable,

The only space available,

And it was there that sweet little baby Jesus made his debut.

Symbolically,

The census represents a sort of inner accounting,

Like we're taking stock of ourselves,

Our lives,

Our thoughts,

Choices,

And habits,

And in the process we're honoring it as all being the past that's made us who we are now.

But there's also a sense of overcrowding,

As if in our current think there's no room for new ideas to come about.

It's like the idea of our wholeness without conditions sounds nice,

But it's challenging to fully believe it and give it space to grow.

But sometimes all it takes is a little bit of clarity,

Trust,

And love for great change to take root,

As long as we follow the signs.

The wise men,

Also called shepherds and magi,

Were astrologers and they understood how to interpret nature and the stars as they guided their animals.

Again,

An angel appears to them in their dreams,

Beseeching them to seek Jesus.

The magi symbolize the parts of us that understand and support the transformation into wholeness.

They are the awake,

Aware aspects of our psyche that recognize cause and effect,

That understand when it's time to change,

And that know how to be led through the process.

The gifts they bring symbolize our recognition of the value of this new quality within us,

The importance of sinking into our own wholeness.

The great star they see in the east represents the light of awareness,

Leading to the dawn of new possibilities.

Ultimately,

Jesus represents our own liberation in this story,

And the Gospels symbolically teach us the steps for developing that Christ's seed within us.

For us to manifest heaven on earth,

Either globally or just for ourselves,

There will definitely need to be some revelations along the way,

Namely the awareness of oneness,

Of wholeness without the conditions that we tend to attach to it that then give way to suffering.

When we operate from Christ consciousness,

We're centered in the space of inner being,

Where positive qualities spontaneously arise and dwell within our minds and hearts.

And remember now,

This is only the beginning.

This story symbolizes the birth of this idea inside of you,

That you are a beautiful spark of God.

As each of us awakens to our own divinity,

We'll relax into compassion and interconnectedness.

So however and wherever and with whomever you find yourself with this Christmas,

Remember to nurture the Immanuel inside you.

Always and in all ways,

God force is within us.

And that sounds like good news to me.

May the bright light of Spirit illuminate the Christ's seed within you.

Thank you.

Gratitude.

Reviews

Beautiful dive into the true meaning of Christmas, thank you 🙏🏽🎊🌟💚