* * *
Everything is magical but also,
somehow, seemingly ordinary.
*Mooji. Vaster Than Sky, Greater Than Space.
When a Christian clergy, my congregations and I celebrated what in the Christian faith is called Epiphany. In our liturgy, Epiphany was a day, Epiphany Sunday, for celebrating the manifestation of Jesus (a Jew) to the Gentiles (all non-Jews) ~ this implying the unity appearing in the appearing of this child. The story of the magi, apparently Persian astrologers, visiting the boy Jesus, is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. Often this is associated, wrongly, with the nativity, or birth, of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. So, in many nativities and Christmas celebrations, we see the magi and the shepherds with the baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Yet, the magi would not have been at the birth, only later.
Then, likewise, we celebrated Epiphany as a season in the Christian year, beginning yearly January 6, ending Ash Wednesday, with the beginning of Lent.
Such days and seasons are a formalization of what is already in our daily lives and in nature. This does not mean such rites and rituals are not helpful to many, or that they are somehow unnatural or wrong. What this does mean is we can formalize how nature and daily life embody living Truth and, thereby, lose awareness in everyday life of how immediate, present, and living are what these religious celebrations point to. The means of Truth are always potential means for disconnection from Truth, yet, thankfully, they can be reminders, as well.
* * *
Epiphany means, from Greek, "to reveal." All nature reveals the Sacred, you and I are revelations of that Sacredness.
Some persons say, such as, "He had an epiphany," which means a sudden insight. This is not what we mean by epiphany. Epiphany is not something we have, or get, even be it a wonderful insight. Epiphany is life revealing itself, the Holy appearing. Recall the citation below, from yesterday, as speaking of this appearing, or manifesting.
If we live in the now, in
union with the moment,
Holy Action manifests itself.
Ilie Cioara. Life Is Eternal Newness.
* * *
Today, I drove to the Kennebec River, and looking down on the icy waters, I took the photograph that opens this presentation. I entitled it "Epiphany in winter attire," for the scene represents to me the ritual of life, of nature, how Life is revealed and in diverse garb ~ the closing photograph shows another garb. Another day, the river scene would look different. Epiphany is always in-change. No one could ever again take a photo of what I did today, for nothing remains the same. Even looking at our lives, our bodies, what we think, we only see change. Our body, for example, is not what it was or will be. Our bodies, as our lives and thoughts, are Holy Action manifesting. An aged body is no less an epiphany than the body of the infant, for example; both are sacredness happening, both are revelations. While we may mourn beside a corpse and celebrate beside a new infant, both are in-change, both revelations of Glory. Both glorious, in different ways.
So, after the photo, I wrote the following poem, knowing there is and cannot be a concluding answer to what the Mystery is and that is appearing. Any answer, thankfully, leads onward deeper into the bright darkness of not-knowing. We, then, learn to reverence and enjoy, and wonder, not wanting to know, relishing the questions and, finally, relaxing quietly in the Silence, free of words about Life, in-love-with-Life. Here, we bask in the perfume of Silence, and silence becomes worship.
And, if someone were to say, "And, Brian, okay, but what does that mean?" My reply, "I don't know." I smile and laugh, sitting here in a chair musing on that "I don't know." The smiling, the laughing, Holy Action manifesting.
epiphany
"manifestation"
moment-to-moment
everything
a witness to something More
but
no one can say
Who or What
that Something is
dressing up
in the myriad forms
that both
reveal and conceal
like our being born
in a cosmic game of hide-and-seek
enticing, seducing
ever right here, and out-of-reach
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Fall~the colors of change." Flickr.
*(C) Copyright 2018. Brian K. Wilcox. Move cursor over photos for more details.
