The
Christmas story tells of Mary, being great with child, on her way with her espoused
husband to Bethlehem. But, as the evening set in, they could not find place in the inn.
Taking the story literally, with our Western ideas about comfort and hospitality as
background, we might feel some irritation towards the innkeeper – who, seemingly
without batting an eyelid, turns away this very pregnant woman, indirectly forcing her to
take refuge in a stable on this cold winter’s night. Perhaps this irritation makes us
miss exactly the image that the story is trying to portray. Without these details the tale
certainly would have been a very different one.
Perhaps we could view the inn as an image of earthly comfort – warmth, food and a
bed, for example. That there was no room for them in the inn shows us that in all
likelihood the Christmas story is not at all about history. In fact, by using the inn as
symbol for worldly comforts, it shows us that the story is not in the least about mundane
matters, but entirely about that that occurs in the stable. Bethlehem, the house of bread,
becomes in this sense the symbol of the human body and the inn is symbolical of the
stomach, or the solar plexus. The child Jesus cannot be born here – Jesus, the then
still-to-become instrument of the Christ.
The first glow of the imminent dawn commences in the heart –call it the awakening
of the heart chakra if you will- and the heart is symbolised by the stable (or the cave,
in other nativity stories). The word Advent means the coming, and this does not
make of the Nativity the end of the story, but only the beginning. It is the onset of the
journey of the kundalini –the so-called serpent fire- a power that in first instance
is still slumbering and has, through correct application, shot through the lower chakras
to now fully awaken the heart chakra. That the inn is full might just indicate that the
solar plexus chakra is already fully empowered and that it is necessary to pass on towards
the stable, the heart. The path will lead us on to the full awakening of the throat chakra
(Baptism of our Lord). It follows on to the Ajna centre on the forehead (Transfiguration
of our Lord) until we reach Golgotha -the place of the skull- at Easter, or the full
awakening of the crown chakra, the true Crown of Thorns. It is only then that the Christ
power –a power hidden within every human- is fully operative. Only then can we say
that the individual has become entirely human.
That there is no room in the inn tries to tell us, that especially during the winter
season when bodily warmth is so desirable, that we need to look into our hearts to find
the hidden Light shining in every creature. If we manage to find this Light, then will we
be able to sing with the angel host: Peace on Earth, to men of good will.
