Conscious Christmas
2 Christmas cards, the Fool and the High Priestess.
I have said this in various ways over time, but it is always worth the reminder.
The archetypal Christmas story is simple yet profound, it goes to the very heart of who you are. You are not the body; you are not the mind; these are vehicles you inhabit in your journey of life. The first step of the journey of life is symbolized in the Tarot trump the Fool. The fool steps from the mountain top and can only fall, the fall is a term used in Biblical terms as the fall of man and woman from paradise, to know duality, good and evil.
The Fool, via the law of correspondence, is the Hebrew letter 
Aleph, the number 1, as a Tarot card it has no number for it journeys the 21 other majors. 21 is the age where one is considered to come of age, to enter adult life. So can we assume that the cards represent, in this context, the journey of life that can lead us to become the ripe fruit upon the tree of life.
Aleph is the life death principle, the in and out-breath, by this it expresses duality, yet there is something that is in existence within the in and out-breath, life and death, and this innocent fool at maturity realizes its eternal existence sustained by life and death just as you are sustained by the breath of life, day and night, as above so below.
The nativity story which is the basic theme of Christ mass is also connected with the seasons and the renewal of life within the northern hemisphere as the Sun begins a new cycle of life at the winter solstice. At the summer solstice in the north, the Sun begins its fall just like our Fool, when it reaches the limits of this cycle it begins its return. The Sun in our solar system, soul’s systems, is the source of life and light, it resurrects at dawn every day, transcends to the height of the heavens, dies and is reborn, time and time again.
Hermes says in the Emerald tablet, “therefore am I called thrice great Hermes, having 3 parts of the philosophy of the whole world, that which I have written is consummated concerning the operations of the Sun”.
In the nativity there are 3 wise men who follow the stars to find the newborn Messiah, see a correspondence? These wise men rode camels through the desert, the camel is the totem of the Hebrew letter Gimel 3 (Kabbalah). Upon the Kabbalistic Tree of Life Gimel is the path from Kether, Godhead to Tipareth the Sun/Son. Gimel is the card of the High Priestess, the Goddess Sophia, of the wisdom. The 3 wise men follow the stars of the heavens, the high Priestess is the Moon, the reflection of the Sun in the night sky, the psyche.
Eve was created from Adam’s rib; a rib is in the shape of a crested Moon. It was Eve who tempted Adam to eat the forbidden fruit that the serpent said would make one wise knowing good and evil.
The High Priestess sits between 2 pillars holding a scroll of the law or Torah. Her gown flows the waters of life, rev 22;17 “The Spirit and the bride say, “come.” Let anyone who hears this, “come.” Let anyone who is thirsty, come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the waters of life freely”. Rev 22, “He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb”.
I call the High Priestess the Tao, the way.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the WAY and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.
Let me simplify this symbology, these waters can be considered the influx of Gnosis or enlightened mind, it is between duality. To enter these flowing waters one must surrender, you cannot swim against the flow of things. The wise followed the stars, the lights that appear in the night mind, the inner world. It is this journey that takes one to the place where the Messiah is born.
Hidden from the authority of the world, in a barn, in a manger, the house of the animal, your BODY. Born of a virgin, a place no man has entered. The state of meditation (Samadhi) it is here in the still virginal state that the light appears, I am, that I am, Ehieh Asher Ehieh was Moses revelation. Not I am man, woman, a doctor, a builder or even a carpenter, but I am, I exist without all of the beliefs and attachments. I am is a dot within the all that is, its centre, its Sun, it is aware yet it is attached to no thing, yet ‘not one thing in your life can exist without you’. All things in your life are only in your life because of you. You are none of those things, none of those events but for you they do not exist without you.
Born of the virgin where nothing of man’s world has been. “Be in the world but not of it”.
I am THAT I am, Ehieh Asher Ehieh, all 3 words start with Aleph 1, the in and out-breath, life and death. 111 = 3.
The kabbalah of the sounds of Aleph is 111, A 1, L 30, Ph 80 = 111. Aum is spelt in Hebrew Aleph 1, Ayin 70, Mem 40 = 111. Aleph ‘the breath of God’ enters Ayin ‘the eye of individual existence’, ‘the illuminating principle behind the command go forth and multiply’ and is born from the waters of life 
Mem. Say MMM your mouth is closed ‘silence’, meditation. Existence is born. AUM, I AUM, I am.
Merry Christ-mass! You are your own savoir. What can you save yourself from?
Paul Tisdell
December 2024