The Magic, Miracles and Joy of an Artist: Epiphany

Friday, January 6, 2017

Epiphany

January 6 ~ The Epiphany

The ancient Christian feast day is significant as a celebration of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.

The Twelfth Night (Epiphany) also marks a visit to the baby Jesus by the Magi (The Three Kings or Wise Men). According to the Gospel of Matthew, the three kings found baby Jesus by following a star across the desert to Bethlehem.

The three kings ~ Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar ~ followed the star of Bethlehem to meet the baby Jesus. According to Matthew 2:11, they offered symbolic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The gifts were symbolic of the importance of Jesus' birth: GOLD representing his royal standing, FRANKINCENSE his divine birth, and MYRRH his mortality.

During the medieval period, Christmas was celebrated from the twelve days starting Christmas Eve (December 24) until the Epiphany. Even up until the 19th century, January 6 was as big a celebration as Christmas Day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Good explanation. Your sister; January 6, 2017 at 4:39 PM

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come!

I AM A "SEARCHER"

"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it be to share our laughter. We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves."

~ James Kavanaugh

I am THE LOVERS Tarot Card

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse. THE LOVERS represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made. Originally, this card was just called LOVE. And that's acually more apt than "LOVERS." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that you have or will come across a person, a career, challenge, or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.