Holy Night 2 2017

Holy Night 2

December 25-26 – Aquarius

Night of John. The Eagle of the soul circling high on its wings and looking back from a great height, observes its own life. And now the man recognizes the Laws of Karma.
The Mystery: Choosing the narrow and difficult path or the path that is wide and easy.
For those who are born of flesh it is hard to find the path of the spirit.
Bhagavad Gita: A selfish life, or a life devoted to humanity?

Rudolf Steiner’s indications for the Holy Nights given to Herbert Hahn
Translation from German by Laura Zanutto 2015 adjusted by Mark Willan 2016

2. Heilige Nacht
25.-26. Dezember – Wassermann
Nacht des Johannes. Der Adler der Seele kreist hoch auf seinen Schwingen, schaut zurück aus grosser Höhe und betrachtet sein eigenes Leben. Und jetzt erkennt der Mensch die Gesetze des Karma.
Das Mysterium: Den schmalen und schwierigen Pfad oder den breiten und einfachen Weg wählen. Für den, der aus dem Fleische geboren ist, ist es schwer den Pfad des Geistes zu finden.
Bhagavad Gita: Ein eigennütziges Leben, oder ein der Menschheit gewidmetes Leben?

Second Contemplation: by Kristina Kaine
Christmas night is called the night of John. Why not the night of Christ whose birthday it is? Perhaps this is because we must acknowledge that without John we could not have received Christ into ourselves. Who was John, and what is he now as we work to build our relationship with Christ?

In his lectures on the Background to the Gospel of St Mark in 2010 Rudolf Steiner says that John the Baptist was an illusory being, “the vehicle for the Angel, the Messenger who was to proclaim what man will become if he takes the Christ Impulse into himself.”

This is plainly stated in the Gospel of St Mark. Angelos is Greek for messenger.

“Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way; Mark 1:2

This is the night when we can devote some time to imagining what we will become as we take the Christ Impulse into ourselves. We can begin by contemplating how John made it possible for Christ to enter into the body of Jesus at the baptism. We can wonder if John is also baptising us as we develop our relationship with Christ. This could be a conversation we can have with Christ.

“The Christ Impulse was to be the most powerful factor in the development of the ‘I’. If the words of St. Paul: ‘Not I but Christ in me’ are fulfilled in the ‘I’, then the ‘I’ is able to grow into the spiritual world through its own forces, whereas formerly this was possible only for the astral body.” 12.12.1910

Many of our difficulties arise through our astral body, “born of the flesh”, especially its lower aspects which are tied to this earth and the pleasures we experience through it. Our astral body is territorial and sees the ‘I’ as an intruder.*

Perhaps we can be open to the work of John on this Holy Night as he continually guides the Christ towards each human being who opens themselves.

*See my book I Connecting for more detail on this 

Baptism of Christ by Pieter de Grebber