Okay,
So I'm going to share a curiosity,
Not a belief,
Not a conclusion,
Just a curiosity for us to contemplate.
So for a long time I've been interested in archetypes,
Not as ideas that we choose,
But patterns that already live inside us.
And I was influenced years ago by the work of Carolyn Mies,
Who talks about archetypes as universal forces,
As energies,
As role stories,
These things that show up across cultures,
Religions,
And time,
And even live within us.
And so quietly,
Privately,
I've spent some time sitting with some of those archetypes within myself over the years.
Some were surprising,
Some were uncomfortable,
Some showed me exactly where they were formed.
And this is the work that Mies encourages.
And that experience changed how I see symbols.
Because once you've encountered something like that internally,
You stop seeing symbols as just beliefs,
And you start seeing them as living patterns of consciousness.
Which brings me to Jesus.
So every year I hang a Jesus stocking on my fireplace for the Christmas holiday.
And when my kids were little,
We wrote letters to Jesus and filled His stocking.
And people sometimes assume they know exactly what that means about what I believe.
And in all fairness,
Those beliefs have changed since that stocking first became a ritual for my family.
Because the truth is,
I'm not sure I now believe in Jesus strictly as the Christian doctrine that presents Him.
The idea of the literal Son of God and the way that I once believed,
I'm not sure that I believe that now.
I used to consider myself a Christian,
And then I wasn't anymore,
And then I went in almost the opposite direction,
And that journey continues to evolve.
So what if Jesus isn't only a doctrine?
What if Jesus is also,
Or possible even only,
An archetype,
A pattern,
A symbol of radical love,
Self-sacrifice,
Compassion,
Death and rebirth,
Transcendence of the ego,
Embodiment of divine consciousness in human form?
This isn't new.
Obviously,
This idea isn't new.
There's other ideas out there like this.
Psychology,
Mythology,
And various studies have explored this for decades,
Especially through thinkers like Carl Jung,
Who spoke about Christ as a symbol of the self,
The integration of the human and the divine within the psyche.
And seen this way,
Jesus isn't diminished.
He's actually expanded.
So just like the vampire archetype,
Which isn't about literal things,
It's actually about energy,
Shadow self,
Survival,
Trauma,
Desire,
Power,
And where those patterns originate in us.
Because often those archetypes are even formed within us in response to an event,
To survive,
To protect.
Or there's even a symbol like Santa,
Since many just celebrated Christmas,
That represents the generous parts of the self.
We are a mix of many different aspects represented by those archetypes.
And I've sat with both the divine,
The generous,
And the compassionate in myself,
As well as that vampire.
And that work is powerful because symbols are not small,
They're enormous.
And here's the part that I want to say gently because I know some people may feel some of these concepts are sacrilegious.
I often get comments saying Jesus is the only way or that some concepts are dangerous or wrong.
Which,
By the way,
The discussion about concepts is never about saying one way is the way.
It's a conversation,
An exploration into possibility.
It's not about replacing anyone's faith.
It's about making room.
Making room for multiple lenses,
Multiple truths,
Multiple ways of understanding reality.
Because the moment that any one of us says that we have all the answers,
Whether that's spiritually,
Scientifically,
Or philosophically,
We've stopped being curious.
And curiosity is where our wisdom lives.
My own life has been a long arc of devotion,
Rebellion,
Skepticism,
Mysticism,
Grounding,
Being ungrounded,
And then a return.
And that's not confusion,
That's curiosity and an open mind.
And I think that journey exists in all of us.
When we either allow or explore symbols like Jesus or any powerful figure,
And we allow them to be explored as archetypes,
We don't lose meaning,
We gain depth.
We gain compassion for each other's paths,
And we create a richer,
More spacious world,
One where belief doesn't have to be defended,
Only explored.
And I'm not asking anyone to agree,
I'm just inviting curiosity if you are open to it,
If you so feel called to it.
Because truth isn't fragile.
If it's real,
It can actually withstand the exploration.
