Lighting our 2nd Advent Candle, the Bethlehem Candle, the Candle of Peace.
Reading about creating a Jesse Tree (what is this?) & its history.
And more.

Today – December 10, 2023, Sunday. Day of rest & contemplation of the week that has past & the week yet to be.
It’s Gemini moon today –
Gemini shares this & that information that is most interesting.

Lighting our Advent candles each day & night.
Lighting our 2nd candle tonight on our Advent wreath.
Lighting the 4th candle on our Mennorah.
The Light leads us on our goal to the Winter Solstice.
Tonight at the sighting of the first star, we light our 2nd Advent candle, the Bethlehem candle, the candle of Peace.

About December & Advent – the Journey
The Jesse Tree (what is that?)
December is the first month of the year where there a silence seems to be descending. Most of December is in the sign of Sagittarius (till December 21st). One of the main qualities of Sag IS silence.
For some, in the outer world of nature, December feels bleak. December’s landscape (in most places in the northern hemisphere except southern California) of brown on brown sets the tone of bareness.
December is the first month where a real silence settles in nature. The leaves have fallen; the devas are quiet, most animals have gone into hibernation; many birds have migrated south. Cole winds whip through the ice-bare trees. The long winter nights diminishes the the light of day. We are aware of a silence and darkness that begs to be filled.

Filled with what? What do we fill this outer bleakness with?

This is where our Advent wreaths and candles come in, our Hanukkah menorah with its eight candles and our Christmas trees filled with lights. Bringing into our homes from the outside greed cedar, pine, juniper, fir branches, entwining them w/ tiny lights, to enliven and enlighten our nights. They give us hope in this encroaching darkness.

The Jesse Tree (Jesus’s Family Tree)
There is something that many churches create called a Jesse Tree. The Advent tradition of the Jesse Tree has Gospel readings that takes us through the history of salvation of humanity over eons & eons of time – in the readings we see vivid accounts of what we see today in our world – that of greed, evil, control, lies, immorality, debauchery, family betrayal, fratricide, incest, wars, horrific sieges, oppression, idolatry, deceit. Informing humanity there is nothing new under the Sun. Over & over we read the stories of humanity longing for help, an intercession, assistance and salvation from the oppressors.

Journey Through Stories
The Advent season is a set of days & weeks before Winter Solstice in which we go back in history & learn more about what occurred in earlier times. (Note, it is perfect that this year, Advent occurs in a Mercury retrograde both in Sag (travelers with a goal) & in Capricorn (Initiation on the mountaintop).
Advent offers us a time to pause, bids us to a state of quiet contemplation, to silence ourselves, ponder life (its births & deaths & even our end of life, as it is the end of the year before Winter Solstice & the new Light begins),and reflect on the cause of the hatred, cruelty, evil that runs roughshod over the world. Do we know why this is occurring? Where would we find the answers? Do we understand the Kali Yuga?

Advent is a time for recollection, prayer and reflection, a time of understanding the “Forces of Light do in the end overcome the forces of darkness.” And to choose which side we actually stand on. Not a philosophical side between the darkness & light and not in between either.

In Advent we prepare for the 12 days of Christmas, not just one day. During Advent should we prepare by reading the bible we will encounter the following –

If we’re wondering where God is in personal tragedy or social chaos, we see that the Jews would understandably have been asking the same thing after they were taken out of Egypt (Taurus Age) and walked in the desert for forty years (purification of the life wave) before entering Canaan. Afterwards the Jewish people were scattered throughout the known world (experiencing the Holocaust & now the present day evils).

Even after they returned to Jerusalem, they were conquered again and again, crushed under Roman occupation.
In the bible, the Psalms and prophets of the daily Mass readings echo again and again the longing for help, salvation and peace, with the certitude that human affairs are broken beyond repair and that only God alone can save us.

The Advent prayers and chants give us a voice, a prayer in our hearts where we can….
1. wrestle with God like Jacob,
2. appeal to God like Jeremiah.
3. The “O Antiphons” offer us a haunting yet beautiful retreat for the final eight days of the season, calling out for God – “O Wisdom,” “O Key of David” – like a watchman waiting for the dawn.
4. The Office of Readings for December 20 gives us St. Bernard’s brilliant account of the Annunciation (announcing to Mary, reminding her she was to be the mother of the holy child) – we, like Gabriel, are painstakingly leaning forward with all of creation awaiting Mary’s reply. We as humanity are silently asking for Mary’s help in this dark time of humanity evolution.

We light our candles each evening & ask for help from the Great Ones to “Lead us O Lords, from darkness to Light; from the unreal to the Real, from death to Immortality, and from chaos to Beauty.”

The Jesse Tree
(a gesture of love & learning, especially for the children)
The Jesse Tree is a journey through Advent, journeying through the bible stories of Jesus’s family tree. Each day of Advent, we read a Bible story about someone on Jesus’s family tree and hang an ornament symbolizing the story on what is called the Jesse Tree. As we decorate our tree, we slowly learn about Jesus, about spiritual history & see how God prepared for Jesus to become the Christ & why His birth affects everyone throughout the generations & Ages. generations.

Where does Jesse Tree come from?
The Jesse Tree tradition is rooted in the old Testament of Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot shall come out from the seed of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” Jesse was the father of David, Israel’s greatest king. And Jesus is descended from the line of David. Jesus is the branch God promised would grow from Jesse’s family tree. Each symbol represents a story from within this family tree and a step toward the birth of the Holy Child in Bethlehemt, the holy chld, Jesus, who was later overshadowed by the Christ, Archangel from Sirius (another story).

Here is a great site & source for more information on Advent, the Jesse Tree, the Bible, customs around the world for Christmas, & much more. I will be referring to it daily. love, Risa

https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/jesse-trees