Solstice, Hanukkah, Advent—Great Comings & Certain Tensions

The word Advent means Coming. Advent is a time of waiting for a great Coming. 

Even before Christians used the term in reference to the Coming of the birth of Jesus, indigenous cultures eagerly awaited the Solstice season when the darkest day of the year—December 21—would yield to a turnaround with the sun emerging more fully, come December 22 and onwards. 

Cosmology and the wonder of the changing seasons was celebrated with its reminder of how farming and healthy crops necessary for survival was integral to the reasons for celebrating. With longer days comes basic hope for fuller harvests. Pagans and later Christians were attuned to uniting Father Sky to Mother Earth, and vice versa. 

The Newgrange monument in Ireland (that is older than the pyramids) and Stonehenge in England were amazing architectural achievements, that pre-historic people erected as centers for rituals that acknowledged how the very survival of communities depended on significant passages of the sun and the seasons.

Cosmological awareness was a survival mechanism. Thus, rituals. Can the new cosmology also gift us with an awareness and rituals that in turn bring about human survival today?

Dropping the birthday of Jesus into this age-old awareness was made official by Pope Julius, around the year 350. This declaration of the birth of Jesus on December 25th coincided with the Emperor Constantine’s conversion and his efforts to make the empire Christian. So a price was paid for this timing of Christmas and Empire. 

Pope Julius was not unaware of the Hanukkah season, or of the solstice event and celebrations. Both honor light in a time of darkness. And Hanukkah’s miracle of light story involves liberation from oppression, and has a political dimension to it. Ritual is both cosmological and political and carries a tension between them.

Rabbi Cat Zavis of Beyt Tikkun in Berkeley recently spoke about Chanukah 2024: Chanukah is for everyone—and this year, it feels especially resonant.

As we reflect on a year filled with liberation struggles, spiritual seeking, and challenges to justice and peace, Chanukah offers a unique opportunity for connection and reflection. This holiday, rooted in the story of a Jewish national liberation struggle, carries lessons that speak powerfully to our times.

While the Maccabean revolt is remembered for its fight against oppression, it also reminds us of the dangers of violence and chauvinist nationalism. The rabbinic tradition reframed Chanukah as a holiday of spiritual renewal concerned about the dangers of revolutionary challenges to the oppression of empires. As we celebrate, we aim to uplift the spirit of liberation while exploring nonviolent paths to freedom.*  

To be continued.

*See rabbi@beyttikkun.org.

See Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.

And Fox, “Father Sky: The Cosmos Lives!” and “Sacred Marriages: The Sacred Marriage of Masculine and Feminine” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 3-18, 221-248.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.

Banner Image: Antiochus’ decree to the Jews, which led to the Maccabees’ rebellion to preserve Jewish religion and culture. Painting by Wojciech Stattler, from the National Museum in Kraków. Wikimedia Commons. 

Queries for Contemplation

Do you recognize liberating and political dimensions to this season as does Rabbi Cat Zavis? And mixed messages regarding the official declaration of Christmas by Pope Julius at the time Christianity emerged from being oppressed by an empire, to becoming an empire? And the power of a new cosmology to assist the survival of humanity and the planet today?

Recommended Reading

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance

In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
 “This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God