Despite the many questions as to the legitimacy of this holiday, there are words attributed to Jesus that still have deep meaning on an esoteric level; particularly those from the gnostic or Essene writings.

• “Be calm, be loving unto others, be gentle, be peaceful, be merciful, give tithes, help the poor and sick and distressed, be devoted to Deity, be righteous, be good that ye may receive the Mysteries of the Light and go on high into the Light Land.”

• “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you. “

• They said to Him: “Shall we then, being children, enter the Kingdom?” Jesus said to them: “When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner and the above as the below, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, then you shall enter the kingdom.”

• “Even the least among you can do all that I have done, and greater things.”

• “Souls are poured from one into another of different kinds of bodies of the world.”

• “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”

Image from Zeitgeist Movie. Christians believe that their symbolic image of the cross derives from the crucifixion, but in fact the symbol of the cross has been around for thousands of years. The Zeitgeist movie makes a case for the derivation of the cross symbol from the cardinal cross of the zodiacal chart which celebrates the solstices and equinoxes. In any event, the cross was the symbol for the ancient Babylonian Sun God and came down through the Egyptians in the form of the Ankh, the cross topped by a circle.

Where religions are cults of personality and impose power over others, the ancient roots of spirituality empower the individual and encourage a personal knowledge of truth. As we celebrate the winter holidays, let us remember the words that open up the inner doorways and bring us into the light!