What’s the Point of the Three Kings?
December 24, 2024
24 Comments
Those of us raised as Christians know this holiday is about a lot more than rushing about, partying and shopping, and many of us enjoy warm memories and nostalgic feelings this time of year. But why are the moments of love, joy and peace so difficult to find during the holiday season? Where do the feelings of exhaustion, anxiety, disappointment and depression come from? Why do we keep missing the point of Christmas? How can we recapture it?
24 Responses
So glad you are well and without major damage. Thank you for letting us know.
Sent from my iPhone
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Thanks, Diane. It’s beautiful out today, but signs of Matthew’s visit are everywhere, including lots of people out cleaning up.
cindychristm
Jeanie,
I thank you, we all thank YOU!
Congrats on the Mandorla hits!
Cindy
So thankful you have all came through it relatively unscathed.?As for the hits on your blog, when you check the stats country wise is there a spread. I remember years ago something similar happened to me and it seemed that a particularly well followed person on social media had reposted a piece and hundreds of her followers had dropped by.
Thanks Brian. I thought it was something like that so I checked my stats and found that the vast majority of hits came from the U.S. When I looked at the referrers most of them were from Reddit, but I didn’t know how to trace it any further back than there. Oh well, I suppose it will remain a mystery! I’m okay with that.
It’s good to know you’re safe and I for one think it’s totally okay for you to take a break from writing until your internet is functional again. As for the record number of hits on your article, I suspect that a page that has many readers linked to it on that day. 😉 Look at the list of referrers (it’s right underneath the list of posts and pages) and you will see where the views came from.
Hi, I will just share why I came to your page on the Mandorla symbol. In my morning contemplative practice, that symbol was ‘inserted’ in answer to a question I was living with. I did not have a name for it so I googled something descriptive. I was led to the term “mandorla” and eventually your page. Today I am here again. This symbol keeps showing up everywhere (including a random podcast playing in the background that same morning the image came to me). The symbol showed up again a few days ago in an online intuitive course I am taking. It is a fitting symbol for me on so many levels. Physically, it is played out in nature’s design; in the abundant and highly productive “edge” where two systems meet and overlap. I also see it as a symbol in community work. And it gives me a perspective on the way out of the polarity and dualistic entrapment reflected on the world stage. For me this symbol calls me to be vulnerable and permeable enough merge and yet maintain a sacred boundary. In doing so a sacred space of overlap is created where BECAUSE of the creative tension, something new bursts forth and flourishes
Hello, beyond salon,
This is wonderful! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this. It was exactly what I was hoping for.
I also saw an especially beautiful image of a mandorla a few days ago on a Jungian Facebook page I follow. Perhaps the answer to my mystery is simply that somehow in the last few days that symbol has been emerging into collective awareness and is touching people in an unusually powerful way! I’m thrilled to know that. And what a statement it is to the power of the internet to spread new (old) ideas when the time is right.
Of course, as an author, I’m hopeful that this new awareness will attract more attention to my book, Healing the Sacred Divide, which deals extensively with what this symbolism has to do with our search for our authentic whole selves as well as our search for understanding and acceptance of others.
Your description of what the mandorla means to you is especially lovely. It has been a profoundly meaningful symbol to me as well, in the ways you describe and others. I believe it may one day become a universal symbol for our era and the evolutionary growth occurring in the human psyche in our time.
Again, thank you for writing.
Hi Zarah. Thanks for writing. My internet just came on about 20 minutes ago so I’m “Back in the saddle again,” as Roy Rogers, one of my favorite cowboys, used to sing in the 50’s! Brian suggested the same thing you did; as I told him above, the vast majority of referrals came from Reddit. But that’s as far as I know how to get. Well, I’m grateful to whomever it was.
Your post probably got shared on Reddit and made it to one of the front pages. Reddit gets a lot of traffic, so it’s responsible for many videos and articles going viral or semi-viral.
Ahh! Okay. I didn’t really know what Reddit is! Thanks for this info.
Glad to hear that you’re safe. I’m from St. Augustine, so we were under mandatory evacuation. I’m gad the storm didn’t hit as hard as anticipated.
I am too, Emerald. Things were tough a little further north from you, and it could have been much worse everywhere had it moved 30 miles to the east.. We’re still cleaning up around our house, but luckily suffered no damage.
1,141 is interesting. I have been seeing 114s for weeks now and the days leading up to the hurricane and during the hurricane they were all over the place. I find this confusing. I had been seeing 411s all over the place for a few weeks before the son of a friend of ours died and we were told at 4:11 pm through an email message. Shortly thereafter the numbers became inverted as they are here today 1,141. Very confusing.
Wow. That’s fascinating. I’d be interested in hearing thoughts anyone might have about this.
The other thing I noticed was you originally posted the Mandorla symbol blog on 10-04-11.
Well for heaven’s sake! I had no idea. I do often notice numbers and consider their symbolic meaning, but I don’t quite know what to make of this……
Denise, I woke up this morning with some thoughts about the recurring numbers you’ve pointed to regarding the interest in my post about the mandorla symbol. If we see them as a synchronicity, it says to me that there’s some sort of very real and meaningful convergence of public opinion regarding a pair of opposites which have heretofore been widely separated. In other words, there’s a new and potentially fruitful coming together of opposites.
Given the recent stir about the upcoming election whose candidates couldn’t be more representative of the myriad polarizations in our patriarchal culture, I’d say the issue in question is the cultural divide between the masculine and feminine archetypes and all they symbolize. The debates between the two candidates are highlighting America’s misogynistic shadow in an unprecedented way and changing the opinions of many voters.
Perhaps the reason this synchronistic repetition of number sequences is happening on my blog site is because of the theme of Matrignosis, which is about understanding and accepting the feminine archetype. Two other reasons would be that my most recent posts have been about the dire need for more understanding and acceptance of the feminine principle in relation to the leadership of our country and the direction in which I believe it should go, and also because the title of my latest book, which addresses many manifestations of this issue, is Healing the Sacred Divide.
Thank you very much for calling my attention to this. It feels very meaningful to me. Jeanie
Thank you Jeanie, this is meaningful to me as well. I see numbers in sequence and then the reverse of those numbers all the time. As I stated, I was seeing 411s until our friend’s son passed; then 114s which I have taken to mean higher consciousness. 14 is the number of the hawk which represents higher consciousness.
The two numbers referenced in your blog are the exact reverse of each other (mirror images)
1,141 = 10-4-11.
I believe, too, there is a shift in the understanding and accepting of the feminine. It is courageous and mysterious. It feels powerful!
I would love to speak further about this. Do you ever have speaking engagements in Florida?
Thanks again,
Thank you for this, Denise. I don’t normally pay much attention to number sequences unless they show up frequently in a brief period of time. And I didn’t know the meaning of the number 14. I find the fact that the two series of numbers I mentioned on my last post are mirror images, or opposites, of each other absolutely fascinating. And very affirming!
I don’t seek speaking engagements much any more but I do accept offers when I’m invited. Apart from the weekend workshops I’ve conducted for Jungian groups around the country, I’ve done several appearances in Central Florida in the past few years; for example, one to a Unitarian church, another to the Orlando Police Department, a leadership seminar, some conventions, women’s study groups, Jungian study groups, bookstores, etc. If you have anything in mind, let me know. I’d enjoy talking with you about this too. You can contact me privately by email at jeanraffa@aol.com.
My best,
Jeanie
Okay, Denise. The fullest implication of this numerical synchronicity has taken a while to become clear enough for me to summarize it for readers. If the switch from the 114 to the 411 (surrounding the passing of your friend’s son) suggests a major transformation into a state of higher consciousness for him as an individual, then the same switch in the response to my mandorla post from 6 years ago to the repost from a few days ago says that collective consciousness (collective because the venue in which these posts appear is the worldwide web) is also undergoing a profound shift to a higher consciousness. People are finally getting what I’ve been trying to say for so long about the necessity for respecting and integrating the feminine principle! Yaaay! This is enormously affirming. Your sharing has been a gift to me. Thank you again. 🙂
Thank you, Jeanie,
I did not consider the 114 as a transition into a higher state for my friend’s son. I just struggle with these things and hope at some point I will understand, lol. This is helpful though.
I remembered that on the weekend of the hurricane and the political mess with the second debate I kept seeing 114s everywhere but on Friday I also kept seeing references to Little Red Riding Hood — at least 4 times in 4 different scenarios. I struggled with it at the time but I think it too relates to what you are saying. Little Red Riding Hood was coming into awareness of who the wolf was and who she is. He was trying to keep her from achieving her goal in nurturing and caring for her grandmother. I think that the red color on her coat also reflects maturity (women’s menstrual cycle) and the girl becoming fully realized into womanhood (in the forest alone). The wolf tried to prevent these things. Does this make sense?
This is very helpful. As I said, I am aware of synchronicity’s but I rarely can figure them out.
I am sending you an email regarding a women’s group in central Florida.
I usually don’t try to figure out what the isolated synchronicities I have (often several times a day) mean other than that they are letting me know something meaningful is going on in my inner life at the time I have them….an affirmation like “Atta’ girl; you’re on the right track here.”
However, the kind of synchronicities you’re talking about, i.e. a series of repetitions, seem different to me. I think these are trying to get your attention and teach you some sort of message. To me this does call for an attempt at an interpretation. I would associate these with my inner life as well. I loved your interpretation of the Little Red Riding Hood repetitions and would interpret them the same way. If they had happened to me I would assume they were about my inner life…..unless I was with someone else during all those instances, in which case, they might apply to the other person as well. Another possibility would be that I should call the other person’s attention to them so they can perhaps become more aware of synchronistic phenomena in their own lives.