A Beastly Christmas

December 3, 2006

Samuel: Hello, dears.

Hello, Samuel.

S: What a pleasure. So how are you?

Good.

S: And when you say “good,” is that the polite thing to say, and you don’t even really have to think about it. Or is it really good.

Good.

S: Aye, a little of all. A little of all. Well, this is one of the more fun nights, I hope—is this red string? Yes, good. All right—because it’s the introduction to what would appear in this place the season of gold. And just for reminder’s sake, what is all of the gold for?

Christmas.

The season of giving.

S: And all of that sounds really good, but I should probably be a little more clear. What is the gold in here for? Why is it only gold? I will tell you, it is sympathetic magic, so that you will know. Bonnie.

Does it have to do with silver kind of representing the goddess, intuitive energy, and the gold the outward expression, the masculine.

S: That’s a whole lot of that in there. Is it that you’ve done it for so many years now, you don’t really remember what it is about?

Right.

S: You know there are some things you should not ask.

You are in the beginning stages of the December events preparations in here, and the December events preparations are about the Festival of Light—you remember what the Festival of Light is about?

Yes.

S: That would be . . . ?

The solstice.

Light.

S: Light. Right. Good. Good. There so far. The sun, aye. Or New Year’s Eve, and what is New Year’s Eve?

It’s mass consciousness recognizing a new beginning, or ending and new beginning.

S: So, Oma, are you getting knocked out of a job these day? Well, she gets to be a dog, but I’m not sure that you’re not doing more guiding of her.

New Year’s Eve is about a new beginning, just as Festival of Light is about a new beginning. Of course, Festival of Light is sort of a grouping, a conglomeration of light events across the world, and within all of those light events there is the actual winter solstice itself. The winter solstice is that time in which, all of a sudden, from that point on, something miraculous is going to happen. What would that be?

More light.

S: More and more light coming into the world. It’s sort of like the birthday of summer. Aye. When you’ve got the most full time of the sun. Well, it’s sort of like it’s a wee baby there at January first, and it grows and grows. Colleen’s got it. Just ask her, she’s got it just fine.

So in the realm of all things airy-fairy and odd, keeping you slightly off-balance and hopefully opening you to a few more perspectives of things that the world can offer, so you are surrounded by the magic of sun, among other things, including a new beginning, be it a year on your calendar, or a year on my calendar—either way, it’s a time of manifestation.

What do you want to bring into your life? What do you want to leave out of your life? What do you need to be the best you? What would make things easier?

Manifestation is—as Bonnie was referencing—something you do in the world, something solid, and because of that masculine or god focus. Now that really isn’t where I’m going tonight. It was just coming through and being rather drenched in gold, because gold is also very typical for this season because of the things that you started out mentioning, such as the holidays and the giving of gifts and the recognition of love. And that’s sort of what I’m going to be talking about tonight.

This is why Oma is so excited: because tonight I’m going to be telling a Christmas story. Now you know I don’t do Christmas stories very often.

Just at Christmas-time.

S: Just at Christmas-time, because there’s so many interesting holidays that you have going on throughout this particular season, that it seems sort of sad to limit it to one or two of them. But looking across this room, it looks as though it’s going to be pretty easy. You’re all celebrants of Christmas, for the most part, or at least you were at one point. And I think that’s the direction I want to go with tonight. But the direction that I’m going is about—just a moment—Stuart, do you know what this is?

I don’t remember. I have a vague memory.

S: It’s a beastly Christmas.

Okay.

S: Tonight I’m going to talk about a beastly Christmas. Now, some of you had a rather beastly day. Some of you have had a rather beastly life. And I’m going to talk about a beastly Christmas. Now, anybody already got me figured out?

I might, but I don’t know. I’m going to wait to see.

S: Chicken.

Donkeys.

Animals.

S: Yes. Christmas from the animal’s point of view. That would be why Oma is so happy, because Oma knows that this story should be told. But, you know, the rules of this particular story are that I don’t do all of the teaching of it no matter which version of the December event stories. You, for several reasons, are going to be teaching it as much as I’m going to be making use of what you are teaching.

So first, let’s do just a little bit of backdrop, and that backdrop should be, Why do I think talking to you, a bunch of westerners who are fairly comfortable people, why do I need to talk to you about something that you have been dealing with in one way or another since you were just a small child?

Well, so we can see another perspective about it.

S: Hopefully, yes.

And seeing another perspective of that could, hopefully, help us to enlarge our perspective in other areas of our lives.

S: I like that. Works for me.

Because we’ve experienced it and dealt with it for so many years, some of us tend to get a little jaded, and it’s just one more thing to celebrate. By seeing a different perspective, it reminds us of the other perspectives we’ve experienced, and brings life back into it on a much more whole level than without it, focusing on it.

S: Gosh. I’d do it more often if it could do that! That’s good.

But as you know and you’ve talked about this before, as gift-giving and loving as the holidays are ideally supposed to be, that many of us think of the holidays also as a time of stress, and sometimes hurt and even sorrow.

S: That’s true.

And having another perspective that can lighten that up or ease that can be helpful.

S: And part of what I’m going to talk to you about tonight is how to tie yourself up and get over some of those things.

Christmas is convenient because it is one of your world’s power days. Now, why would it be a power day? Now, you pretty well know that Jesus was not born on December twenty-fifth. That’s out in the world now right? Everybody pretty much knows that one. Darn. But it is yet a day that has been chosen as a convenient one to celebrate the birth of the sun, conveniently around the time of the birth of the Son, and there is a story that goes with that birth. And in past discussions at Christmas, I have talked about that story. It begins with a young woman—many of you can relate to a young woman, yes? You can remember back that far maybe. Something like that—who was minding her own business, trying to get some rest. And into her night comes this dream maybe of a great angel who fills up the room with light and glory and says, “You are going to be known throughout the world because you are going to be the vessel through which God is going to allow into this world the Kind, the Perfected One, the Glory of Glories, and Son of God. And she said, “I don’t think so!” And as the story progresses, she says something to her fiancé to the effect of, “I had this really weird dream last night.” Now, of course, that’s an absolute Guardian trademark phrase. “I had the weirdest dream last night. What do you think this means? I was lying in bed, just trying to rest, and all of a sudden there was a great being in the room. Ah, space people. I told you, and there it is.” Well I suppose it would be rather alien, but fortunately that alien chose to take on the form that Mary’s particular religion allowed was possible to be called, instead of Martian, angel. “And that angel said to me [that] I’m wonderful, and I’m going to do some remarkable things. And that I’m here with a particular purpose. And that I was going to have a baby.”

All right now, we’ll keep going through, because this really isn’t the story I’m telling tonight. So Joseph says, “You’re right. That was a pretty weird dream. It’s pretty impossible, maybe.”

I didn’t do it.

S: And maybe we should get married sooner. They hand-fasted effectually, more or less, and immediately about that time it became needful to take a journey where?

To Bethlehem.

S: Because?

The census and taxes.

S: And Bethlehem was sort of like the county seat, the state capital, something like that.

The line of David.

S: As a part of the prophesy that the child would come from the line of David out of Bethlehem.

Well Jesus is born in a barn, like many of your mothers said people would say happened to you. “What, were you born in a barn?”

Frequently so.

S: Said it often did she? Sorry. So you see, there’s a lot of good people born in barns.

And somewhere along the line the angel showed up again. Were the shepherds dreaming or were they just working? Or maybe there’s not a lot of difference between the two of those—when you’re a shepherd anyway. Watching their flocks by night, and the skies light up, and the word comes through that something remarkable has been born, and go on down and see this birth that is going to have an effect on your life. Check it out. See what you think. Go tell others, once you’ve figured it out.

Meanwhile, at another part of the ranch there are astronomers saying, “Look at that sucker in the sky! Where did that come from?” I assure you they did not say that. “Let us go, because this is portentous of some remarkably, incredible happening and let’s find out what it is. And if it has anything to do with a birth of a new king, as all of that configuration in the heavens would say it means”—you see what I’m doing is I’m looking at the configuration in the heavens up here.

A blinding light.

S: Well, no, it’s just sort of like a little sky up there with all the little stars. “This configuration up in the heavens. So maybe we should bring a few gifts with us. What might be appropriate? Oh, I’ve got an idea. How about death gifts?”

That’s always appropriate.

S: Always appropriate to bring to a birth. “Here. Just in case you need it, here is your embalming spices. Don’t want you to smell too bad, you know.”

The child’s born. The kings come. The shepherds watch. The baby grows up. Now doesn’t that feel like your Christmas story? Does it seem like what your season is when you walk right out the door and you are immediately assaulted with shoppers? Yes, and you’re able to have that worshipful end of the year, that contemplative time that’s going to allow you to prepare for the new and release the old. Or are you instead thinking things like . . .

Traffic.

S: Traffic. Gifts. Mailing them out. Dealing with crowds. Wrapping them up.

Spending too much money.

S: Spending too much money. Which part of the Christmas story is that, other than paying taxes? And that’s why so much of the power of the season is diffused. What’s left of the power of the season, however, is an interesting joy, a kindness, a sense of love. And I will go back to that, because that’s where this comes in.

Remember the basics of the Christmas story, then let’s give it a twist. All right? The first thing that I need you to do is take your head off, and instead of having your very adult, “I am a very good spiritual person” head, I want you to put on your four-year-old head, or your head-year-old head, or the child that loved the magic of it all. Put that head on. Some of you never lost that head, did you? And that’s good. Because this particular story has to do with what the animals did to bring about the birth of Jesus.

One upon a time, in a land where all creatures were recognized as powerful, and wise, and magical in every possible way, a call went out.

We need to have music with this. We need to have [imitates a trumpet fanfare] trumpets. Is that trumpets?

And drums.

S: And drums. No, not drums. Not looking for drum. I think trumpet. Give me that trumpet. [Audience trumpeting] Perfect. Real Perfect. That’s impressive.

A call went out—-[audience makes fanfare] I like that—to gather to this place—let’s see—to gather to the seat of magic for this land. And all of the animals came, and as they were waiting, they saw in the sky a great light. And they all started huddling closer, and you could hear the murmur of many, many animal voices saying in their own language, “What’s happening? What’s happening? I think we’ve got a visitor coming. Do you think it’s another one of those lizards?” Just a joke, sorry. “What could it be? Could it be Dorothy? The good witch? Maybe finally that fairy godmother that everybody’s been waiting on?” And the light, the beautiful blinding light, comes down, and it never does actually morph into a physical body. The light is just so bright and blinding, and out of it comes a voice that says, “I need a few volunteers. You see, there’s some really important work coming up. That planet that I’m so fond of is about to hit a time of transition, and this is a transition a bit different than most. At this transition Avataric force is going to come into form in that world, and at one of the times and one of the places that that happens, you are going to be needed to help make it happen.”

One donkey leans over to the other and says, “Are you hearing voices? I’m hearing voices, but it just sounds stupid to me. It’s saying something like ‘Go to the planet.’ Why would we ever do that? Everybody knows that all of the animal force on that planet is not equal, and is in fact enslaved. Why would we go there?”

The dog looks back and says, “Will you shut up? I’m trying to hear.” The camels say, “Quiet! Quiet! Let the speaker be heard.”

Now you’ve got your child head on here, so you see this great light, and the voice comes through and it says, “You will be needed to bring into this world this new kind of power. Will you go?”

Well now, you know the animals, they’re not stupid. And very quickly they were able to put together, “Go to earth. Be enslaved. Be less than equal, but on a mission for good.” Needless to say, most of them just very slowly started backing up. “You go!” “You go1” “I’m out of here.” And there was indeed only a few who said, “I’ll do it.”

And one of those who said, “I will do it,” was the donkey. Now, you know that back then donkey wasn’t a word. The donkey that Joseph had, don’t you know that that donkey probably felt like for most of its life, “I’m not like all of these other donkeys. These donkeys, they’re just not aware at all. I’m not certain that any of them have any kind of sense of something greater. I’m here to do something special. I am a Guardian donkey”—do you know how much I want to say, “A Guardian ass”? “And I know that the time is going to come when I’m not going to have to just simply be the beast of burden around here, but I hope I’m able to figure out when it’s going to happen that I can then do my special, magical thing, and have all of my powers come back, and then everybody will know how special I am. And I’ll see that light thing again, and it will speak, and I’ll hear, and I’ll know that I did what I was supposed to do, and everything’s going to be okay. When do you think that’s going to happen?”

Joseph walked out of his house, and he looked over into the barn—sort of—and he said, “Gosh, I’ve got to get Mary—you know her name wasn’t really Mary. That has also been changed for your sensibilities—I’ve got to get Mary out with me across the—you might say country, but it’s more like across the county—to get those taxes paid. It’s a three-day trip. What’s one of the sturdiest out there?”

The donkeys are listening. One of them starts sort of limping around the lean-to. “I’m sick! I cannot do it. I’m sick!” Of course in donkey language, that doesn’t sound quite like “I’m sick,” it sounds more like [braying] “I’m seeeeek.” Don’t you think? [Braying again] “Can’t doooo it.” But there’s one donkey that’s just sort of quietly twiddling its hooves. It’s right there—should have said something, don’t you think, how special that one is—just minding its own business, munching at the grain. [Oma barking] Chasing its tail—I forgot that part, you’re right—and Joseph goes over, saddles it up—saddles it up? None of the pictures ever have saddles—saddles it up, and lets it out.

The donkey, of course, is saying, “When am I ever going to be able to do something special? All I ever get to do is haul people around. This isn’t a whole lot of fun, and I know that I’m such a remarkable donkey, and I’ve got something so special to do. When am I ever going to be able to do it? When will everybody realize what a good ass I am?” which is different . . . never mind.

And the donkey patiently waits, and out comes Mary from the house, and Joseph does what he can to help her get up. Now, how many of you in here have been pregnant? If you’re right upon delivery, what do you think a three-day trip on no-matter-how-special-a-donkey-you’ve-got is going to be? Do you think that’s going to be comfortable at all?

No.

S: And what do you think about the poor donkey? It’s got a two-in-one going there. Heavy, yes. But, you know, one of the marvelous things about a donkey is that they are so focused, they are constantly thinking good thoughts, and speaking to the planet every step of their little donkey way so that every step is sure . . . all right, maybe that’s not what they’re thinking, but they have a very broad back. They can go quite far on a few bits of grain. Let’s see, maybe three days per bucket, something like that—no, not quite that much. I was trying to make a joke to do with gasoline and cars but don’t have enough knowledge there to do it, so that one got left out. All right. So, do not take so much food, are able pretty much to scavenge if they must, and they don’t fall over every little bit of rock in the path. Now, let’s say that again. They don’t stumble on every little bit of rock in the path.

All right, Oma likes you. That’s a good sign. “Play with me! This is my story!” We haven’t gotten to the shepherds yet. though. have we?

So, I’m going to pick up the pace here a bit. All right. So Mary gets that lift up. Starts on the road. Now, in probably most stories—maybe there aren’t very many stories like this one—Mary sits on the donkey, and the donkey is infused with light, and it knows immediately, “I am doing what I have come here to do. This is a holy work I am doing. I am a donkey temple making it possible for this being of light to come into the world.” But for our donkey it was more like, “All right. Get yourself shifted. It’d be a lot better if you could get yourself comfortable. I’ve got to get going here. Do we have to stop again?” And step by step by step, that donkey went across the county.

In the other end of the story, Mary and Joseph arrive in the City of David. They start looking for a place to stay. They weren’t able to afford the cushy accommodations, and so they used the—typical of the time—the stable for a place to rest, and don’t you know Mary goes into labor. That’s darned inconvenient. Now Joseph’s going to have to pay for two instead of just one extra. But while they are sharing that stable with a few other passengers—who are getting the show of their life. don’t you know—there are a few other animals in the barn. Now, what kind of animals do you keep in a barn?

Cows.

S: You’ve got the cows. And what are the cows good for?

Milk.

S: But you know we’re talking a land that’s not so good with cows, and cows and horses are actually very rare in most lives. What you’ve got are goats, and sheep—absolutely sheep. You’ve got pigs, but you’ve got to remember that in a lot of cases, you’ve got people who are not able to eat pig, that they are unclean and you cannot be around them. And so Mary and Joseph would never choose to sleep where the pigs are kept. So in this particular case, the good pig is not going to be a part of the story.

Really what you’ve got are goats, and more goats because they are kept for milk. Anybody here ever milked a goat? Have you now?

I used to have a lot of them.

S: It’s a trick, isn’t it?

Yes. Most definitely.

S: Like donkeys, goats are amazing creatures. They don’t require a whole lot of special food to keep going. They are able to maintain their pace over a long period of time. They don’t require special care. And all of these things are proof that there’s no such thing as a Guardian goat. Right?

So the goats in this particular place are being kept in order for their milk to be made into cheese, but what does that mean is going on—maybe I should say that differently—what would also be around if you have goats giving milk.

Kids.

S: Baby goats. Right. So what you have is a sort of a semi-barn, mainly open. It has a lot of grain storage, but up high. Why would that be?

[ . . . ]

S: You have goats, and more goats, and then a few more goats. You might also have a couple of dogs. [To Oma] This is your turn now. You might have a couple of dogs, because every business, particularly this kind of business, would need dogs not only in the barn, but for what other purpose?

To guard.

S: To guard and to guide, which is what dogs do, right? [Imitating Oma] “I’m sorry I got so excited. I’m just laying here being really, really nice right now.”

They guard. They guide. They guide the sheep and the goats. They guard the property. And something else about them is they really can go a long way without a whole lot of special care. They’re pretty clear about what they’re there to do. In fact, one might say it was instinctual.

Amidst these goats, and amidst these dogs, there was a goat and there was dog that said, “I’m so bored. I have come here to do something special. I told that light. Me. I did, I told the light, ‘All right, I’ll go.’ Boy, was that stupid. All I have done is be around these stupid herd animals. They just have no idea what I am. They don’t understand me. I go off into the fields, and I start looking at the beauty of this amazing world, and what are they doing? Munching on the grass. And the sheep, they’re even worse. Now and again I try to get a conversation going with that shepherd. All it does is go ‘woof, woof, woof.’ I am just so put upon here. I think that I should turn my volunteer badge in, and just go back. This is slavery. It’s much too great a sacrifice for the little bit of fun that’s available here.”

The dog is sitting proudly watching everything. Dogs are very focused. They don’t think while they’re watching. As the other dog trots by, the first dog says, “Something’s happening. I’m not real sure what it is, but I can tell, something’s happening.” The other dog looks up and says, “That female in season again?” First dog says, “What have I gotten myself into? I am surrounded by idiots. I cannot believe that a dog that served the animal king for so long and volunteered for this mission could be here in this hot, flea-ridden land, just doing nothing. But I just have this feeling that something’s starting to happen, and I don’t know what it is, and clearly the dogs are no help. And I cannot imagine talking to the goats. The goats, they just speak a whole different language, and it’s not possible that there could be anything sacred around the goats. And what about that new donkey that came in? Maybe I should go over and check it out just to see.”

And just to speed up the story a little more and pretend that the wise men really did come at the birth of Jesus—which, of course, you also know they did not do, don’t you?—loping around the stable, looking around in that interested sort of way, and you know truly upsetting Mary and Joseph, because camels and pigs have the same sort of taboos, the camel looks around. Now, anybody know what a camel would sound like? If no one knows, I could make it up, all right?

Well, you’re doing so well.

S: Well, most people would say that a camel sounds sort of like a bleating anything, but what you are most likely to hear a camel do is something more like this [hisses].

They like spitting.

S: Yes, I protected you from that. So the camel looks in, [hisses], and says, “Anything of interest going on here?” [Hisses again] The goats back away. The dog moves out of the way, because camels are not nice.

[ . . . ]

S: Not to other camels they don’t. The camel says, “Ahem, it looks like just a bunch of low-lifes in here. There’s just a bunch of stinky old goats, a couple of donkeys. I don’t think any of them have had kings riding on their back. Being the vehicle for a king is pretty special—[hisses] but you almost got it that time. The camel backs away, and about that time, a few sheep start wandering in—we’ve about got them all now, don’t we?—a few sheep start wandering in. [In a bleating voice] “What’s going on.” That sounded more like a goat. Can you give me a sheep? “Whaaaaat is goooing on?” I think most sheep would be ashamed to hear that. And sheep, tending to be herd animals, were asking that of each other. “What’s going on? Is everything all right? Everything looks okay here. Does it to you? It does to me. I think everything’s all right. Do you think everything’s all right? I think it’s okay.” The goat has suddenly figured out what it’s here to do. Make the sheep shut up.

The dog sits up straight at this point and says, “Sheep. Hmmm. Let me go get you into a little place over here. It’s very special. It’s meant just for sheep. Come this way. Come this way. There you go. There you go. Right there. Come on! Come on! This is a good place. Go there! Go there!” Except for this one sheep that won’t quite follow the herd, and is sort of wandering around in the stable, “What’s going on?”

And it sees the dog herding the sheep over that way, and it goes up to one of the donkeys and it says, “Baa,”—what you thought [sic], I told you that they can’t hear each other. And the donkey says,—and I have a real devil, a real devil in me that wants to say, “And that’s where the story ends,” because if this was a group of Guardians in this world, preparing the way, for a whole lot of stories that would be exactly where it ends.

“I’m here to do something special. I can tell. I know that there’s something I’m here to do but, good grief, I’ve just got to do this plodding, day-to-day grind that’s killing me! I’m going to live and die and never do the incredible work I have come here to do. Because most of them are happy to say, “I’m associated with the King. You’re not nearly as good as I am, because I’m friends with the death purveyor. I’m royalty. I’m really special.” Or the one that says, “I just have a sense that something’s happening. I don’t really know what it is. Anybody got any ideas? What should we do? Will you shut up!” But I don’t want the story to end there. But it could.

I’m going to take it to another step, and that step requires these [holds up red strings]. This might be harder than I want it to be. Paula, and Jim, and Mike, would you come here please? Thank you, love. You’re as handy as ever. Would you please—you’re going to need to pass them around to make sure everybody has some. And if for some interesting reason there is not quite enough, which is always possible . . .

There’s one right here.

S: . . . we’ll see what we can do to keep making them, but come up with a version for it. So there are some should be longer than others, because some of you have a larger wrist, and some of you have very small wrists. After doing this for this many years I’m getting it figured out, you think? So if yours is a small one, just look around for somebody with a long one, if that’s what you need, or the other way about.

What all of those sacred volunteers that chose to come into this world to help bring about the remarkable new power into the world had in common was something that gets very misunderstood in this world, something that has gone from an act of power to something that represents punishment. What they all had in common was that they sacrificed. And, indeed, the whole Christmas story is about sacrifice. It’s about making that choice to come down in a world and work, and work, and work, knowing in your heart that you volunteered for this, knowing that something great is happening, but you’re not sure what, or when, or how, and sacrificing the being together on an equal level, sharing everything—language, hearts—in that perfect kind of life before volunteering. It’s about sacrifice, and now that sacrifice is something like sacrificing your income so that you can buy pretty baubles, presents, good will, all those things that you buy this time of year. Now the sacrifice, “Well, it’s that time of year that we’ve got to be really nice to one another, and so I will let that car go ahead in front of me without saying what I usually do. And I won’t let my hands dance while I’m saying it either.” And the whole idea of sacrifice is made barren.

I’m asking you, if you wish, that you let that cord remind you why you sacrifice, rather than what you’ve sacrificed. That it remind you of what you have instead of this season’s focus on what you don’t have. That it remind you that sometimes when you are in the middle of doing what you do every day, you can be used to make a miracle happen, and that you might be sacrificing the knowledge of that, and simply be a part of that.

You see in this story those incredible Guardian animals were just doing what they do. And yet they are a part of a story that every one of you knows, immortalized of sorts for being themselves. They sacrificed the wings, the halo, the “ooooh” factor of life, but I wonder, did it mean they weren’t doing what they were here to do?

This holiday season remember that you can’t mess this up. Frankly, as long as you’re here, you’re not powerful enough to not do what you volunteered for. Maybe this holiday season you can sacrifice the martyr in you, and allow that the most powerful thing you can do is maybe to be a comfortable ride for someone else, a steady and sure giver doing what you need to do every day, making the world a little better in your little corner of it, sacrificing the ego.

Now, isn’t that an interesting way to bring new light into the world? This beastly Christmas is about sacrificing the remarkable and living through the mundane. Try it.

Glochanumora. Do it again. Again and again.