https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=L5ORNdBd0Rw
Hello everybody. So today I want to talk to you about the Christmas tree. We often hear from neo-pagans and from people who want to attack Christianity that the Christmas tree is a pagan ritual. And we hear that not just for the Christmas tree but all kinds of Christian traditions of how their origins is ultimately pagan. And for some reason this is meant to discredit, it’s meant to show how, you know, it can’t have the meaning that Christians bring it to. So I thought that we’re looking at the Christmas tree would be a good way to understand not only the tree itself and its relation to Christmas but also the manner in which symbolism happens. This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world. So like me you’ve probably heard several times this notion that so many of our Christian traditions including the Christmas tree has a pagan origin. Either that or they’ll say that it’s recent, that it’s not very ancient, it doesn’t really matter. All of these are strategies to somehow, you know, get some attention for discrediting the Christian tradition. But what’s important to understand if you look at it in the right way is that the mechanical reasons why a tradition becomes important. Sometimes it matters, sometimes there’s a reason why we, it’s important to track, let’s say, the historical or let’s say mechanical way in which something comes into our lives. But sometimes it isn’t. What’s important is rather, you can, you know what, you can almost see it in a Darwinian sense. So imagine it this way. Imagine that the world, imagine that people have all these different variations on how to do things. You know, even in terms of the Christmas tree, you know, there are all these different types of Christmas trees. There, you know, every Christmas tree is different and it’s the same for all these different traditions we use to celebrate Christmas or to celebrate anything. That there are, there are all these different variations and possibilities of what can happen. Now what’s important is not so much that variation. Yes, that’s important, but what’s mostly important is understanding what is it that selects. That is, there are all these different traditions that pagans had before Christians. Why is it that Christianity selected some of these traditions rather than others? And that’s a template for all of how things work in general. That is, the reason why we do certain things, what’s important is not so much, let’s say for example someone will say, you know, it’s silly that we clink glasses together because what that comes from is in the Middle Ages they used to do that so that, you know, the alcohol would mix together and if you’re trying to poison someone, you know, it, we’d all poison each other. So it was a way to make sure we’re not poisoning each other. And you think, you know, and then they’ll say, well it’s silly that we would do that today because, you know, look at how dumb, you know, this, the origin of it is. But the reality is, is that there are all, there were plenty of other traditions like that in that time but for some reason that tradition survived until now. It was selected to continue on and what, and the reason is because it fits in with a pattern. And so it fits in with the pattern of coming together. It’s not, it’s not very hard to understand. We all are drinking different things and we bring them all together. We put them together, we touch them together to show that we’re in relationship, that we’re in communion. Then we bring them back to drink, you know. It’s like, it’s a, let’s say it’s a, it’s a very elaborate version of a hug or a kiss where you come together with the person in front of you to show your solidarity and then you, you, you go back on your own. And so what’s important is rather to understand the reason why things are selected and in that reason that’s where we can see the pattern. And in the Christmas tree what we can see is that the pattern of the Christmas tree, like so many of the things that I’m trying to tell you about, is basically a representation. It’s a, it’s a manifestation of the pattern of reality itself. So let’s look at the Christmas tree and, and hopefully you’ll be able to see what I mean when I say that. Now like I said there are plenty of different versions of Christmas tree. If you go online all you have to do is write Christmas tree into Google get thousands and thousands of images of Christmas trees and they’re all different but they all have something which makes us recognize that they are a Christmas tree. Not one thing, there are several things which come together into a pattern which help us recognize that it’s a Christmas tree and not something else. Okay, now what are those elements? First of all they’re the fact that the tree itself has to be a pine tree or a fir or a spruce or something that is that is conical, that is a triangle. Okay, other trees won’t do so much. So most Christmas trees most of the time they are, obviously there are always exceptions but a pattern has exceptions in its peripheries. It will be a kind of triangle. So it’s like a pyramid, okay? And so already you can start to understand what it is that this Christmas tree is about. So what’s at the top of the Christmas tree? We put either a star or an angel. Okay, now a star and an angel actually are pretty much the same thing. Even in the Old Testament for example the word for star, the word for angel, and the word for king for example, all are either the same word or are in the same family of words because they are principalities. They are the chiefs, the heads, the summits of a hierarchy of manifestation. Okay, for people who are interested in that you can look at my video on principalities. I’ve done a few to help you understand how that works. And so it can be an actual physical person, a king, can act as a principality, but a principality either above the king or you know there at the top can also be something which is invisible, a hidden, a hidden, and even in the king the fact that we recognize the king as the principality of a country is hidden in the king because he’s just another regular person. There’s something hidden which makes him the point of that hierarchy. And the tree itself as a pyramid becomes the hierarchy itself. And the reason why it’s a pyramid is obviously makes sense. You have one at the top and then it goes all the way down to many. Okay, that’s a basic idea of a pyramid. And it can be, it could be a tree or it could be a mountain. I’ve told you it could be other things as well but I showed you in my video on the how the mountain of paradise with the tree at the top could be seen as either just a tree or for example in the story of Moses could just be seen as just a mountain. Going up the mountain and encountering you know the head of this whole thing, encountering the principle which holds it all together. And so that’s what the angel or the star are at the top of the tree. Now around the tree there are these these these ribbons that go around the tree. And what are these ribbons? They’re the same thing as they’re the periphery of the wheel you could say. They’re the turning wheel that goes around the hierarchy. You could see it as the snake which goes up the tree. You could see it in other relationships as for example these the ribbons that go around the maypole. It could just be circumambulation in general. You know religious circumambulation like a procession which goes around the city. A procession which goes around the town. And so this is this coil, the snake that goes up the tree all around it. Now in the tree itself we have lights. Not just lights but also ornaments. And these ornaments are precious things. They’re meant to represent these precious balls or these precious objects. These golden objects, shiny things that are all into the tree. And so a glorified version of reality. We’re looking at you know all the mysteries of reality shown to us in this Christmas tree. Because as I’ve tried to explain to you before, for something to exist, for something to to to be able to appear on the you know phenomenological horizon. That is that you suffer something for you to be able to see that something is real. That something exists. It has to have that hidden spark. It has to have that hidden purpose. That hidden identity which brings it together into one. And so these lights in the tree are basically an image of how reality lays itself out. And how hidden in the hierarchy are all these different little lights. These logi. These smaller principalities, smaller essences which are hidden in manifestation. Hidden in the world. And so you see the the hierarchy itself as being full of light. The light that comes from above is now filling up the entire tree and showing us the gems in the world. And so then at the bottom of the tree what do we usually have? We put the gifts. Now what’s important with the gifts is to understand that the gifts are wrapped. The gifts are hidden. And that’s really the most important part. Because even in a little bit not that long ago, just one generation ago, my father for example, at Christmas they could get either a gift or they could get just a chunk of coal. And so the idea is you know depending on if you’re good or bad, the gift could either be something positive or negative. But now we’ve only kept the positive. But we can still understand this idea that you don’t know what’s there. It’s potentiality. It’s Schrodinger’s box. If the cat is could be alive or could be dead. We’re looking at the potentiality of reality. It’s not revealed yet. And then hidden in this potentiality are the gifts. And so the gifts are just like the lights in the tree for example. They are these hidden precious things which are in potentiality. The treasure that’s hidden in the unknown. You can see that the treasure that’s guarded by a dragon. Or the idea of in the Bible for example we have Saint Peter who goes to the shore and finds a golden piece in the mouth of a fish. But also the fish itself which is the symbol of Christianity, early Christians, represents exactly that. So imagine there’s this water of death. This chaotic water. And then in the water you find these sparkling things, these sparkling living things. These things that are useful inside the chaos. So you can fish and you can bring out of this death and out of this chaos things which are useful. Things which are precious. And so that is really this idea of the gifts at the bottom of the world if you will. And so I know some of you might doubt that this is what it’s referring to but a good way to understand that that is indeed what we’re dealing with is to remember other traditions of Christmas. Once again where usually do we hide the gifts? We put them under the tree but there’s another place where we put them right? We put them in the socks. Put them in the stockings. And so at the bottom of a sock we will hide a precious thing. In the old times they would usually hide an orange. You know we have this story of Saint Nicholas who hides a golden ball at the bottom of a sock. And so this golden ball which is hidden at the bottom of phenomenological reality. I don’t I really struggle to imagine a better way to represent the bottom of phenomenological reality than the bottom of a sock. Because that’s where your feet touch the the ground. The earth. And so and once again this idea of putting an orange or a gift in a sock it used to be that we would all we could maybe put a piece of coal there as well to kind of remind you that you’ve been naughty. And so that is basically the the kind of structure. Now in order to kind of to understand the whole thing and how the gifts are also at the bottom of the tree or the golden ball is hidden at the bottom of the sock you also have to remember that Christmas is the solstice. And so it is the low that it is when the Sun is going down. So every day the days get shorter and shorter until the solstice. And then at the solstice the days start to get longer. And so you can imagine that the day is going down down down. We’re going down into darkness. We’re descending into death. We’re descending into the lowest place. And the question is what’s gonna happen? Is it just gonna keep going? Is we’re just gonna be overwhelmed by darkness? But no, in that lowest place you have this hidden thing. You have this golden ball at the bottom of the the pond. You know the in the story of the the the prince princess and the frog. You have this golden ball at the bottom of the pond or these golden ball at the bottom of a sock. You know or the gifts hidden under the tree hidden in the in being hidden in their wrappings. And so the Sun goes all the way down and then it starts to to come back up. So you can see that at this time other traditions have similar feasts as well. The Jews in December celebrate Hanukkah. And so in Hanukkah it’s the same story. You have the the Seleucids who are attacking Israel and you know it’s dire and everything’s you know they have nothing left. And then they have this one last little jar of oil. And they you know they pour the oil into the into a lamp and miraculously this lamp you know continues on doesn’t doesn’t never goes out. And so this idea of this lamp that doesn’t go out in the darkest time or in the you know in the place where the Sun is going down is to help you understand the the way that reality works. In order for you to perceive anything like I said there has to be a hidden light. The world is never completely empty of meaning. This notion for example that we find of total depravity that that the world is completely lost and that that you know you know that human beings are completely fallen and there’s nothing left in them is impossible. Because if that were true they’d be not they wouldn’t exist. In order for something to exist there has to be hidden even if it’s completely you know solid even if it’s completely hidden in darkness there has to be a spark just for things to exist. A spark of meaning okay. Now all right so we’ve done all of this going down and there are other stories that Christ talks about this this kind of hidden thing in the you know that the pearl in the field there are many images of that as well. There’s also the story of Elisha and the widow. It’s a very similar story than the one that you find for example for the the Maccabean revolt. You have this notion of a time where there’s no food you know and there’s a drought and everybody’s dying of hunger and there’s this widow who who has a last one last jar of oil and she’s like this is it I’m gonna die and Elisha tells her to go to the jar of oil and when she goes the jar of oil never runs out. So this idea that that the jar of oil and oil is similar even to fire because it’s a glistening liquid it reflects you know it’s like that’s what they use to anoint kings and so it’s like this this kind of light that comes down and a solid light that comes down and so the oil is just just doesn’t never completely runs out and you can see that Elisha also resurrects the son of a widow and so this resurrection of the son of the widow and also the oil that that doesn’t run out is the same as this little light this little flicker at Hanukkah that doesn’t doesn’t go out and it’s the same as the Sun which goes down at the solstice and then you know starts to come back out again out of this kind of secret dark place okay now a lot of you will a lot of you will will wonder you know what does this have to do with Christmas because I haven’t gotten to Christmas yet well there are a few things the first thing to remember about the Christmas story is that the Christmas story is exactly that descent you have to understand the aspect of the killing of the innocents is a very important part of Christmas King Herod in looking for Christ trying to find this Messiah started to kill the the newborns in Bethlehem so I had to kill the the newborns and so in this time of death and this time of ravage where all the the seeds you know all the lights are going out there is this one light that survives this one child which survives and will then grow to become the new principality of a new hierarchy of a new world that will lay itself out a new Sun that will rise up to its zenith and then and then rule the rule the phenomenological world all right and so that’s part of the and it’s the same with the story of Moses as well you know the the the Pharaoh decides to kill all the Hebrew children and so he’s killing all these Hebrew children but there’s one child who survives and then he’s you know he’s not represented as like let’s say a shining light at the bottom of water but he’s represented as this seed which floats on the on the on the waters which is hidden in the seed and floats on the water so it’s the same it’s the same symbolism as the others now in order to kind of cinch all of this for you last week I put out a video to show you the symbolism of the Nativity icon and so let’s look at that let’s look at that icon again now look at the icon of the Nativity what is its major form what’s its major shape it’s a mountain and so this mountain is this pyramid it’s this hierarchy you can see it go up you know small at the top large at the base what’s at the top of the mountain a star and angels okay like I said those two things are very close to each other in terms of of their meaning now now this ray of light goes down it’s coming down from the principality coming down from the top and moving down into what’s not the bottom of the tree or the bottom of the mountain but rather is this dark place of death inside the mountain notice that inside the cave it’s completely black and so it is this place of total darkness this place also of animals this place of a this low place of death you know and the the the manger is an animal food trough and it’s also represented as a sarcophagus so it really is this place of death but in this place of death that’s where we find the seed that’s where we find this spark this this divine spark which is hidden and will then grow to become you know the new principality and so you see it of course in the story of Christ it is a cosmic it is the cosmic version of this it is that it is the version which shows us the the the let’s say the the hidden seed of the entire world that is he is the logos of all creation the source of all creation but at smaller levels we can see how this manifests itself can manifest itself at smaller on smaller scales for all of reality that’s just how reality works um and so like I said like I’ve told you other times before you know you it’s it’s it’s that’s something that we encounter all the times we imagine once again a fruit that drops from the tree starts to decompose starts to become death itself and and to become just dirt but hidden in that process there’s that seed that’s there and you can’t see it at first because it’s it’s a it’s a baby it’s a to seed without body it’s this spark and then slowly the process inverts itself and the seed begins to feed on the potentiality feed on the earth and grow so that you see this new plant come up just like the switch of the Sun at the end of the solstice is invisible you can’t see it you don’t realize at first that the days are going getting longer and then they start to to grow grow grow and like I’ve told you before that’s why we have theophany you know at the end of the Christmas cycle to kind of it’s like this realization that yes the sun you know this this hidden Emmanuel this God in us God with us is now showing itself is starting to appear in in the world just like the days are getting longer in the year as well so I hope that brings it kind of all together for you and helps you understand especially like I said that it doesn’t often it doesn’t matter what the mechanical cause the you know the historical or pseudo historical origins of something is what’s important is the fact that it has been selected it has been retained and it comes together and participates in the the the message or the let’s say the reality that we inhabit now it doesn’t mean that some of these things don’t get pruned off or come back come join themselves and get pruned off again that’s fine especially in these less important things like a Christmas tree obviously is not like the the Creed or like you know the crucifix it’s a it’s a peripheral tradition but you can still show us just how it it continues to participate in this symbolic process so first of all I had promised you a video on Gremlins and it is coming but I just wanted to do this because I’ve been thinking about it and I thought you would find it interesting to to hear about the subject today I think it’s playing I’m recording this at 12 so I think it’s playing live now you can check it out when I put out the video Akira the Don who is the official musician DJ of the intellectual dark web I guess he he’s putting out a Christmas album today and it’s he told me that I am going to be one of the people quoted in his meaning wave Christmas and so he’s going to take clips from my Santa video and put them inside this big mix and I’m really excited to hear what he comes up with and a little bit scared at the same time because I saw that he’s got me out there with Alan Watts and Jocko Willings and of course Jordan Peterson and so it’ll be exciting to to discover what exactly how exactly is going to fit me into all of this stuff so so that’s happening and also I told you once before that I’m working on a graphic novel with my brother Mets here and also Korn Nielsen who is an artist so we started putting out promotional art oh you know on the graphic novel we finished thumb nailing the first book and so we’re gonna start to we want to thumbnail the whole story which is gonna be like four parts probably but we finished them nailing the first book we’re gonna start to do some actual drawing and and so Korn made a really cool poster that will help you kind of understand I’ll let you follow me on social media to to get the details of that but let you see what let you discover what the subject of our graphic novel is going to be so so I’ll see you soon guys and thanks for your support if you enjoyed this content and our exploration of symbolism get involved I love to read your insights and questions in the comment section you can also share this video on social media to your friends and if you can please consider supporting us financially through patreon or PayPal you’ll find those links in the description below