DeeGeesLifeBlog ~ Life as Art ~ Or is it Heart?

Oh, holy night! The stars are brightly shining / It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth; Long lay the world in sin and error pining / Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth; A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices / For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn; Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices / Oh, night divine; Oh, night when Christ was born…

PART ONE

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land ~ Jeremiah 33: 14-15

Were we led all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. ~ T. S. Eliot, The Journey of the Magi

Theirs was the Age of Myth; a world where night was not dimmed by the web of lights that now obscures the stars. Their nights were lit by flaring torches, dim oil lamps, guttering candles; by the phases of the moon and the broad shimmering river of the Milky Way.

As the sun declined and night ascended, life withdrew into shuttered and barred homes. Only the very rich or the very poor were abroad in the dark.

The night sky, now so thin and distant, so seldom really seen, was to them as thick and close as a handful of coal studded with diamonds. They could turn it in their mind’s eye even as it turned above them. They reclined on their hillsides, their roofs, or in rooms built for viewing and marking the moon and the stars. They watched it all revolve above them and sang the centuries down.

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PART TWO

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined … For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. ~ Isaiah 9: 1-6

Myth or history? A tall tale, or indeed a journey of reality paying homage to an obscure birth in a wretched town, during a not very pleasant passage in history, over 2,000 years in our past?

We do not know. We cannot know. As it is in so much else that we ignore, it is not given to us to know.

Like all our other celebrated sciences since those far away days, ‘we three kings’ looked to astrology to give them hints about the future, about what they should do, what they should expect, what they should become. They looked to their science then, as many look to their science now, to remove their doubt.

The new sciences, you see, are much, much more about ‘Reality’ than the old sciences. They will never be tossed aside as so many playthings of mankind’s youth. The authority of our astronomy, our biology, our physics, our chemistry and others is, we fervently believe, as certain as the pole star.

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PART THREE

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;  whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. ~ Micah 5: 1-3

It is far more interesting to ponder those ancient ancestors known as The Magi, whom today we would describe as astrologers and interpreters of dreams.

They had no doubts at all that what they had seen in the heavens was unusual enough to travel towards; perilous as the journey might have been in those days. Following The Star and dreaming dreams – all had their turns with the story.

They would also have likely been very rich and held in high esteem in their own society, as well as by people who weren’t from their country or religion.

Back when astronomy and astrology were all part and parcel of the same overall studies, (ie ‘science’), they went hand in hand with each other.

The Magi were definitely men of learning, men of great learning, and they would have followed the patterns of the stars religiously.

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Truly He taught us to love one another / His law is love and His gospel is peace;  Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother / And in His name, all oppression shall cease; Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we / Let all within us praise His holy name;
Christ is the Lord! Oh, praise His Name forever; His power and glory evermore proclaim / Oh, night divine; Oh, night when Christ was born…

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