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A spiritual interpretation of the Bible demands that the meaning of every figure, type, parable and symbol must be in harmony with the fundamental principles of Being. – Charles Fillmore

• MARY – Divine Feminine, Love & Intuition. through a life of devotion, we deepen our faith and prepare ourselves for higher life – a pure and receptive consciousness.
• VIRGIN – Literal: in an unmarried state, untouched by man; Metaphysical: virgin in mind and heart, pure and uncorrupted, sensitive to Spirit, a “God is the only reality” consciousness. A higher state of mind, one that knows I am one with the I AM.
• ANGEL – (the Annunciation) – messenger from God – a Divine Idea, divine guidance and inspiration – ‘You will conceive and give birth to the Son of God’ : We have the potential to understand and express our Christ nature.
• JOSEPH – Divine Masculine – Divine Understanding, Wisdom, Strength, Will (our executive faculty)Initially planned to divorce her quietly. (Mt. 1.19) We come upon this new information of the indwelling Christ and led by human nature do not understand and want to dismiss the idea. Joseph chose to protect the child/Mary. Our “Joseph consciousness” must protect the divine idea of the Christ within – to be its champion and nurture our new spiritual awareness by understanding its nature and purpose – its importance to our very being.
• BETHLEHEM – “house of bread” (Heb.), divine substance, the spiritual essence that underlies all manifest form.
• The soul (Mary) heavily charged with the divine idea, had to be unified with substance before there could be a manifestation.
• NO ROOM IN THE INN – symbolizes both the human worldly habitat and human interest that has no place for spiritual things. Awakening of our God Self can’t take place in the busyness of the mind, The birth had to be brought about in simplicity and quietness, symbolized by the cave where animals are kept.
  SWADDLING CLOTHS – confinement to the limitations of the physical nature of this first emanation of divine life. A period of immaturity; Christ expression must begin in human form until we grow in stature and strength, awareness of our true nature. The higher self or Christ of God will take possession of the new organism when it has reached maturity.
• MANGER – The human consciousness where the idea of the Christ is born.
• ANIMALS – the natural thought process of human consciousness
• SHEPHERDS – To prepare for the awakening of our Christ consciousness, we should watch our thoughts and protect them against the invasion of the senses from the destructive side as represented by shepherds watching the flocks by night. As we watch our thoughts, protecting them from ego’s darkness, we make way for great illumination of truth. The first to pay homage to the infant King. Represent those who have faith in God. When we are obedient to the revelation (represented by angels) and put forth effort to “see this thing that has happened” (Lk. 2.15) we find that the Christ is no longer a hope but a reality. As we praise God for His life, we see it manifested in our midst every day.
• “going to Bethlehem to see this thing” – the endeavor to make substantial (Bethlehem) in mind the true concept (divine idea/angels) of the Christ.
• ANGELS APPEARING TO SHEPHERDS – God –inspired call to seek a new, deeper understanding
• The first message of the Christ Spirit is one of reassurance and a call to courageous faith: “Be not afraid.” This is necessary because the way of the Christ is new to each individual who decides to follow it, and he must be ready to give up the old, easy, familiar way of the sense consciousness, and gladly and eagerly strike out in the opposite, untried direction.
• MARY KEPT ALL THESE THINGS and PONDERED THEM IN HER HEART (LK. 2.19) – In the depths of our being, the expression of divine life is sacred and not to be discussed promiscuously. We meditate on it, guard it and revere it.
• STAR OF BETHLEHEM – The symbol for inner guidance that leads us toward our divine potential.
• WISE MEN – the accumulated wisdom and experience of man, the collective consciousness of all knowledge, talent, insights, and skills gathered throughout all lifetimes which we don’t retain on a conscious level. As we awaken to the Christ within, this wisdom comes forth from “within” (the East) to support our growth and fullest expression of our divine potential.
• GIFTS – Inner resources of Spirit flowing from the Christ Mind
• GOLD – A consciousness of the omnipresent richness of Divine Substance, the riches of Spirit
• FRANKINCENSE – (Webster-“A fragrant gum resin”). Represents in man the transmutation of the material consciousness into the spiritual; the beauty of Spirit;
• MYRRH – the eternity of Spirit, an emblem of the Resurrection, an ointment of love.
  HEROD – Sense consciousness / human ego. The ruling will of the physical ego. It fears the loss of power at the arrival of this Higher Power and seeks ways to kill it. Our ego sends all kinds of thoughts to undo the existence of this new identity. It ever seeks to destroy that which is spiritual, because it sees in the things of Spirit a power that threatens its rule.
• BIRTH OF THE CHRIST – The birth of the Christ takes place in the individual soul when the soul awakens to a realization of the truth that life is spiritual, not material.
• CHRIST – The Christ is the perfect-idea divine man in the absolute that God created and is the real self of all humankind. The Spirit of God, individually expressing fully through the life of Jesus and through every life awakened to the Divine within. Christ is the only begotten Son of God, or the one complete idea of perfect man in Divine Mind. Christ existed long before Jesus and is the embodiment of all divine ideas, such as intelligence, life, love, substance, and strength. In the architect’s mind there may be one masterpiece, but that masterpiece is the sum of all the beautiful ideas that have come to his mind. This Christ, or perfect-man idea existing eternally in Divine Mind, is the true, spiritual, higher self of every individual. Each of us has within him the Christ, just as Jesus had, and we must look within to recognize and realize our sonship, our divine origin and birth, even as He did. By continually unifying ourselves with the Highest by our thoughts and words, we too shall become sons of God, manifest.
• JESUS CHRIST is this Christ-self brought forth into perfect EXPRESSION and MANIFESTATION.
• JESUS is the name that represents an individual expression of the Christ idea.
• Jesus, awakened to his divine nature, took steps in consciousness in order to express outwardly what he had obtained within. These steps are shown by his teachings, healings, his acts of love and his final overcoming of death
• Jesus Christ educated His followers to discern the real human. He taught that there is a power in humankind that gives them authority over the things of the world. This principle is the higher self, the spiritual human, the Christ. If we would succeed we must bring forth the principle; it gives dominion and mastery.
• CHRIST IN YOU, YOUR HOPE OF GLORY (Col. 1.27) Christ abides in each person as our potential perfection. This real self is “closer than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.” It is the Kingdom of God in each person. Spiritual perception reveals to us that we are not persons, but factors in the cosmic mind. Reveal yourself to yourself by affirming, “I am the Christ, son of the living God.” Look at yourself not as flesh and blood, but as Spirit. Jesus Christ affirmed His true self and the Father acknowledged Him. The reason for the limited comprehension and power of the ordinary man is found in the fact that he sees the world about him as under material law, and agreeing with it he makes himself part of it. We’ve identified with the Adam man long enough. We have called ourself “dust” and have reaped the consequences. Let us call ourself Christ and attain perfection. Let us follow Jesus and produce the perfect character. By seeing our perfection in mind we shall project it into visibility…not from the vanity of the ego but the wisdom of Divine Mind. We are exhorted to “have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” which implies that all may demonstrate as He did. To make this attainment requires careful training of the thoughts. The mind that was in Christ Jesus was the mind of God, so we know that we must be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect. This seems an almost superhuman attainment, and so it is. The human has to be put away and the divine established in its place. All our thoughts must harmonize with the spiritual Christ center before we can bring into expression the divine consciousness.
  
• EXERCISE

1. Choose 3 symbols from the biblical story that have special meaning to you and describe how they apply to your own spiritual
   journey of awakening to the Christ within.
2. Write a metaphysical interpretation of Christmas using some of the symbols discussed from the traditional Christmas story.
   Include some practical ways to live this new meaning of Christmas.

Resources:

• The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary; The Revealing Word – Charles Fillmore.
• Your Hope of Glory – Elizabeth Sand
• Turner. The Birth of Jesus Lecture by Ed Rabel – truthunity.net

The Biblical Christmas Story
MARY & THE ANNUNCIATION

Luke 1:26 The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be
barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

JOSEPH

Matt 1.18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child
conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,

THE BIRTH

Luke 2:1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

THE SHEPHERDS

Luke 2.8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in
a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this,
they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

HEROD & THE WISEMEN

Matt. 2:1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of
Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6 “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ” 7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.