The true meaning of Christmas

European pagan festivals continued to be celebrated throughout Europe well into the Christian era. Often they were rebranded as festivals dedicated to Saints or to Yahweh. Other times, their pagan spiritual meaning was lost and they merely became a sort of local folk curiosity. Among the originally pagan festivals that became Christianized and were not reduced to mere folklore, is Christmas.

December 25th was also the new year's celebration once upon a time. This date was not picked arbitrarily, but referred to a very precise cosmic event; namely that of winter solstice. This festival had what can be considered a 'solar' meaning. This festival, this tradition has been with us since the dawn of humanity, since the dawn of the first Aryan civilisation in the North Pole*. In ancient Rome, December the 25th was the day of the Invincible Sun or Natalis solis invicti, and it also marked the beginning of a new yearly cycle. We must also state, however, that although this is the continuation of a more ancient Aryan tradition, in imperial Rome it was the consequence of a rediscovery of a kind.

While Sol-worship did exist in Rome during the Republican Era, the deity was not widely worshiped. The December festival was Saturnalia which, although associated with the beginning of a reversal and New Cycle, was not associated with a celestial deity such as the Sun, but with Saturn, a chthonic deity*. For now it suffices to say that December 25th as the day of the Unconquerable Sun became official in Rome during the Reign of Emperor Aurelian in the 3rd Century AD. 

It used to be argued that worship of Sol Invictus in this era was due to some sort of influence Aurelian had from the degenerate Emperor of Syrian origin Elgabalus, but closer studies have shown that Sol-worship was popularized due to Mithras-worship, and that Sol Invictus and the 'original' Sol may have been one and the same deity.

One may argue that Mithras-worship is as 'Oriental' and foreign to the European people as Elgabalus' cult - and believe me when I say that European pagans are perfectly justified in being skeptical of forms of spirituality stemming from the Middle East - but the Orient of Antiquity was somewhat different from the Islamic Orient of today, as it was more complex, where chthonic or otherwise Middle Eastern and Semitic forms of spirituality were interwoven with Persian-Aryan-Mazdean forms of spirituality. Mithras-worship belongs to the latter category. It was an initiatic spirituality, popular among higher ranked soldiers of the Roman Army. The rites of initiation in this cult intended to 'make' the initiate more like Mithras, as in, giving him solar, heroic, virile qualities.

It is said that darkness lasts for a period of six months in the North Pole, but this is not quite true. Total darkness lasts for aproximately two months, and during the other four months, you cannot see the sun itself, but the rays still partially illuminate the world. The climax of the darkness is on the day of solstice. To the Germanic people, still living far to the North, and somewhat more in tune with the Arctic rhythm, Yule - their equivalent of Saturnalia and Natalis Solis Invicti - lasts two months, namely December and January, the polar months where one is in complete darkness. However, the peak of darkness lasts but a day, and after that, the world gets brighter and brighter, signalling a renewal, a rebirth.

The theme of rebirth is twofold. First, it is the rebirth of the Sun and of the forces of light it represents, always vanquishing the inferior forces of the dark earth, chaos and darkness. Secondly, this rebirth is also an inner one. Just like the sun starts to rise and to vanquish the dark forces, so too must the human vanquish the dark forces within him. It is only by doing so that the human may eventually transcend to the superhuman. This inner heroic virility is also present in the Mithraic cults which we mentioned above.

Now I would like to analyze certain Christmas-related symbols which seem arbitrary and even childish, but indeed hold hidden meanings. At first, it is the Christmas tree. The tree is an evergreen - either pine or fir - meaning the leaves do not fall and die in the winter season. It is a symbol of the tree of life, the Axis Mundi, Axis of the World. The lights and decorations in the tree, today merely a plaything for children, represent the solar force which lights up the Axis Mundi at the winter solstice. Even the gifts, also a mere childish thing in this age, have symbolism, as they represent the gift of life. Overall, December 25th's celebration is not ecclesiastical, but heroic and solar. 

*the Polar origin of the Aryans/Hyperboreans and what celestial and chthonic deities are will be expanded upon in future articles