Honoring the Once-in-a-Lifetime Christmas Star
O star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light
-We Three Kings lyrics
We’ve all heard the words of this famous Christmas carol, but how many of us have stopped to consider the science behind the star of Bethlehem?
Some astronomers believe that the “star of Bethlehem” in the Nativity story was actually a conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars.
And as NBC news reported earlier this month, the “Christmas Star” will be visible again this year as Jupiter and Saturn align; this extremely rare phenomenon hasn’t occurred in 800 years!
How miraculous and fitting that a guiding light will appear to us in 2020, one of the most tumultuous years in memory. Perhaps more meaningful is that this “star” will appear on December 21, the winter solstice.
As I wrote in a recent blog, the solstice is a time to turn within, to balance the darkness and the light within ourselves. It’s a time to embrace stillness as a way to meet our deepest selves.
As a deaf person, I’ve always had a special relationship with silence and stillness. When I was young, I spent a lot of energy trying to fit in with the hearing world. I failed to see my hearing loss as a gift and, as a result, I spiraled into a very lonely world.
This week I watched a movie called The Sound of Metal about a heavy metal drummer who lost his hearing. He reached a point in his life when he couldn’t hear but didn’t know sign language. I got a stomach ache watching it. As the week went on, I felt worse and knew that I was deeply triggered by this movie. I’ve known the same profound disconnection and anger. I’ve known the sense of feeling completely alone and separated from life, not realizing that it was my fears that separated me, not the world.
But what resonated with me most about the film was when the character’s mentor told him that he needed to learn how to be deaf, and that deafness was not something to be fixed.
He told him to write his feelings down every day, and to not stop until he finally met his stillness and sense of peace.
My own sense of peace began to take hold when, as a child, I discovered my strong connection to whales, yet I did not fully embrace that connection until my late twenties. As my relationship with whales evolved and became deeper, I recognized that, like whales, I have a special ability to “hear” vibration. Whales have a higher vibration than any other living being. Every time I’ve ever been on a whalewatching boat, I have sensed the presence of the divine feminine before the whales appear.
The more I study whales, the more I understand the link between whales and the divine feminine.
It’s this divine, feminine energy that I believe is emerging as a new paradigm to guide us toward a more perfect light. The Christmas Star symbolizes this perfectly. Just as Jesus represented the Christ consciousness so long ago, Mother Mary represents the divine feminine.
The Christ, or spirit, energy lives in the breath and feminine energy lives in the body.
We need both healthy feminine and masculine to reclaim the “I AM.” But in order for us to connect to divine feminine, we must surrender to the breath and be in stillness.
The solstice is a powerful time to:
Review and honor your year.
Grieve your losses.
Connect with your shadow side by taking ownership of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Keep breathing through resistance. Don’t give it power.
Stay with the body. Let the breath and the body work together and through that sacred marriage receive the energy of light.
As challenging as 2020 has been, I feel fortunate to be a witness to the rise of the feminine. Each time I welcome stillness and face the disruption that sometimes follows, I feel more grounded, more powerful, and more connected to my values.
I invite you to bring your awareness to the “Star of Wonder” this year to find your own deep connections.
“Enter into the stillness inside your busy life. Become familiar with her ways. Grow to love her, feel (her) with all your heart and you will come to hear the silent music and become one with Love’s silent song.” Noel Davis