Hunting by Starlight

The Church in South Africa celebrated the solemnity of the Epiphany on Sunday.  The traditional date is, of course, the 6^th of January, but local Bishops Conferences can decide that the festival is celebrated on the Sunday that falls between 2 and 8 January.  Such is the case here.

The Epiphany commemorates primarily the visitation of the Magi, as well as the baptism of Christ in the Jordan and the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana.  All three events are regarded as manifestations of the divinity of Christ.  The latter events are mentioned in the Liturgy of the Hours, while the Mass of the day is focused on the visit of the Magi.

The Three Wise Men - artist unknown

The Three Wise Men have always been one of my favourite parts of the Christmas story.  I’ve loved those mysterious figures for as long as I can remember (and having been raised in a Christian family, that has been pretty much all my life long).  The more I’ve learned and prayed, the more I love the feast.

Going back about twenty-six years, I can remember our pre-school class having to perform a Nativity play for our parents.  I was indignant (as indignant as a four-year-old can be, at any rate) at having been chosen to be one of the shepherds.  I did not want to be a shepherd!  I wanted to be a Wise Man!  I suspect the desire has never left me – perhaps my entire quest in this life is still to be ranked among the Magi!

For a long time, I believed every detail of the story to be literally true.  Now, it doesn’t have to be literally true (in my mind, anyway) to still be wonderful and to contain Truth that is even more wonderful than historical fact.  Oh, I’d love for it to have really happened.  Maybe it did happen – the truth is often stranger than fiction, and how often hasn’t the impossible proved to be possible?

Having heard the Gospel portion being read again, I was struck by the verse that says that the sight of the star filled the Magi with delight, and entering the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they did him homage (cf Matthew 2:10-11).  It was the “filled with delight” that struck me.  How wonderful!  

The Star of Bethlehem - Edward Burne Jones

I could be very wicked and say dat dey were filled wit de light of de star, but that’s not what I’m going for.  ‘Delight’ isn’t a word we use often in its truest sense.  I had a vivid mental image of these three men in their traditional depiction, eyes twinkling, faces wrinkled up into the broadest smiles, giving way to joyous awe.  To me, that’s the spirit of Christmas right there.  Nevermind what the supermarkets and bland greeting cards tell you.

Twelfth Night is the eve of the feast of the Epiphany.  I suspect that the term’s most familiar to people because of the eponymous Shakespearean comedy, but it is much older than the Bard.  He wrote it as entertainment for the festival which marks the end of the twelve days of Christmas (and, no, it doesn’t have very much to do with partridges in pear trees or five gold rings).

In Craft terms, Twelfth Night commemorates the Wild Hunt.  A legend that has persisted across Northern and Western Europe, it has seen varied forms. 

Wild Hunt - artist unknown

Shani Oates describes it wonderfully in her book Tubelo’s Green Fire, writing that “it evolved from possible vision questing of Paleolithic hunters, progressing through myths of the ‘Faerie Rade’ and its commemorative ancestral trains, merging culturally with Nordic gatherings of slain warriors led by the powerful Odin and Frau Gaude.  Northern traditions of spirit flight enriched the blend before the scaremongering of the superstitious Middle Ages demonized the process.  Ghosts and shades of evil-doers became the next form of the Wild Hunt, rampaging and terrorizing the countryside…  The once shining cavalcade of airy spirits in both ‘Celtic’ and Teutonic lore bear the torch of illumination – the light in the dark and wisdom of ages.” (cf The Wild Hunt, Tubelo’s Green Fire by Shani Oates. Mandrake Press)

Wodan's wilde Jagd - F. W. Heine

My celebration of the Epiphany now is also a celebration of the Wild Hunt.  I see camels and dromedaries among the fiery three-legged horses and hounds!  The journey is one toward the manifestation of Divinity; an encounter with the Light of Gnosis that will fill us with delight.

While the Magi followed the star, they did not seek the star itself.  They sought a much greater light.  After doing him homage, they offered the child gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Gifts which an ancient hymn tells us are endowed with mystic meaning: “incense doth the God disclose, gold the King of Kings proclaimeth, myrrh a future tomb foreshows.”

There also sprang up the custom of blessing chalk on the Epiphany and using the traditional names of the Magi in the blessing of houses.  In Christian folklore, the Magi are named Caspar, Melchior and Balthazzar.  After the chalk had been blessed, the initials of the Wise Men were inscribed on the doors of houses as C+M+B, understood to mean Christus Mansionem Benedicat – May Christ bless this house. 

The Church sees in the visit of the Wise Men all the nations of the earth streaming toward the Lord made manifest in the flesh.  The theme of light is carried beautifully through the liturgy of the day.

These themes are not so far removed from the Wild Hunt.  Here we may see the psychopomp leading souls to their place of rest.  We may see those spirits who bestow boons and blessings upon the living.  We may see ourselves in the Magi who hunted for the infant ‘King of the Jews’ as we ourselves ‘pursue God’.  We may see in the Magi and their star those who bear the torch of illumination, guiding us ever deeper into the Light of Gnosis.

The Gifts of the Magi