January 2005
Growing up in a non-liturgical church, as I did, I was not taught about the tradition of January 6 being the celebration of the arrival of the Wise Men at the stable. I assumed they arrived on Christmas Eve, as they usually did in Sunday School plays. But, when I became interested in the liturgical “church year” I learned of this wonderful time of “Epiphany.”
Most of us know the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” which is of English origin. The twelve days of Christmas begin on December 25 and end on January 5, with this being celebrated by some as Twelfth Night. Three Kings Day or Epiphany is then observed on January 6. (Actually, there is no place in scripture that says there were three kings, only that kings arrived bearing three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh.)
Those Wise Men, however many there were, came to Bethlehem, seeking the child. They had traveled far with a destination in mind. They were not seeking just any child. They were seeking the child that was foretold in the prophecies of their scriptures and the stars. It was a star that guided them and a dream that warned them about the intent of Herod to kill the child. As a result of this dream, the gospel of Matthew tells us, they “went home another way.” I like to think these simple words not only mean they took a route that was different from the one that brought them there, but that they were different, changed in some important way. That’s what epiphanies do… they change us in some important way.
Webster defines “epiphany” as “an intuitive grasp of reality through something that is often simple and striking.” In other words, a major “aha.” Myrtle Fillmore experienced an epiphany when she heard a healer from Chicago say, “You are a child of God. Therefore, you do not inherit sickness.” To say that she “went home another way” is to put it mildly. I experienced an epiphany on an October afternoon in Ohio when I attended a poetry workshop at a Quaker college. On a table of periodicals that were representative of the poetry “market,” I picked up a Unity magazine and “went home another way.”
An epiphany is a moment of finding and finding is preceded by seeking. The seeking may be conscious or unconscious, but on some level, we are ready. We express this polarity when we say, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Seeking implies finding and finding implies seeking. The Christmas spiritual “Go Tell It On The Mountain” has a verse that says, “When I was a seeker, I sought both night and day. I asked the Lord to help and he showed me the way!” Aha!
I think most of us like the idea of being a seeker, of being on a quest. We don’t like the idea of finding quite as well. Seeking sounds like adventure, being free with unlimited horizons. Finding sounds like a dead end with boundaries on all sides. But when we realize there are two kinds of seeking, we can more readily embrace the idea of finding. The first level of seeking is what I call “horizontal seeking.” It takes us from place to place like a bee sampling the nectar of many flowers. Horizontal seeking is necessary, but when it becomes a way of life, it keeps us nibbling appetizers when a seven course banquet is awaiting us.
Whether we are seeking a partner, a purpose, or a pathway, we must move beyond the horizontal search if we are to find fulfillment. This leads us to vertical seeking… allowing ourselves to intuitively resonate to something found on the horizontal path and then to deepen our search about that found thing.
When Myrtle Fillmore had her epiphany in Kansas City, it was not the end for her. It was the beginning. It took two years for her to understand and demonstrate what it had taken mere minutes to hear. And for the remaining forty plus years of her life, she continued the seeking and finding that made her a wise woman and a guiding light in the lives of so many.
My jottings this month are written as an invitation to you and to me, as wise men and women of today, to open ourselves to the journey of seeking and finding that leads to the peace we seek for ourselves and our world.
Seeking what is true,
I follow my guiding star
And find my way home.
Happy New Year!
Most of us know the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” which is of English origin. The twelve days of Christmas begin on December 25 and end on January 5, with this being celebrated by some as Twelfth Night. Three Kings Day or Epiphany is then observed on January 6. (Actually, there is no place in scripture that says there were three kings, only that kings arrived bearing three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh.)
Those Wise Men, however many there were, came to Bethlehem, seeking the child. They had traveled far with a destination in mind. They were not seeking just any child. They were seeking the child that was foretold in the prophecies of their scriptures and the stars. It was a star that guided them and a dream that warned them about the intent of Herod to kill the child. As a result of this dream, the gospel of Matthew tells us, they “went home another way.” I like to think these simple words not only mean they took a route that was different from the one that brought them there, but that they were different, changed in some important way. That’s what epiphanies do… they change us in some important way.
Webster defines “epiphany” as “an intuitive grasp of reality through something that is often simple and striking.” In other words, a major “aha.” Myrtle Fillmore experienced an epiphany when she heard a healer from Chicago say, “You are a child of God. Therefore, you do not inherit sickness.” To say that she “went home another way” is to put it mildly. I experienced an epiphany on an October afternoon in Ohio when I attended a poetry workshop at a Quaker college. On a table of periodicals that were representative of the poetry “market,” I picked up a Unity magazine and “went home another way.”
An epiphany is a moment of finding and finding is preceded by seeking. The seeking may be conscious or unconscious, but on some level, we are ready. We express this polarity when we say, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Seeking implies finding and finding implies seeking. The Christmas spiritual “Go Tell It On The Mountain” has a verse that says, “When I was a seeker, I sought both night and day. I asked the Lord to help and he showed me the way!” Aha!
I think most of us like the idea of being a seeker, of being on a quest. We don’t like the idea of finding quite as well. Seeking sounds like adventure, being free with unlimited horizons. Finding sounds like a dead end with boundaries on all sides. But when we realize there are two kinds of seeking, we can more readily embrace the idea of finding. The first level of seeking is what I call “horizontal seeking.” It takes us from place to place like a bee sampling the nectar of many flowers. Horizontal seeking is necessary, but when it becomes a way of life, it keeps us nibbling appetizers when a seven course banquet is awaiting us.
Whether we are seeking a partner, a purpose, or a pathway, we must move beyond the horizontal search if we are to find fulfillment. This leads us to vertical seeking… allowing ourselves to intuitively resonate to something found on the horizontal path and then to deepen our search about that found thing.
When Myrtle Fillmore had her epiphany in Kansas City, it was not the end for her. It was the beginning. It took two years for her to understand and demonstrate what it had taken mere minutes to hear. And for the remaining forty plus years of her life, she continued the seeking and finding that made her a wise woman and a guiding light in the lives of so many.
My jottings this month are written as an invitation to you and to me, as wise men and women of today, to open ourselves to the journey of seeking and finding that leads to the peace we seek for ourselves and our world.
Seeking what is true,
I follow my guiding star
And find my way home.
Happy New Year!
<< Home