owldeath

Santa Claus: A Phenomenological Perspective.

Introduction

Space and time, not being themselves objective entities or fields of experience but rather, the manner in which we constitute the world - how creatures such as ourselves make sense of it, leads us to enquire how objects, experiences, entities etc, exist in themselves independently of our spatio-temporal projections. However the thinking which attempts to think objects in their concrete entirety, that is, as an idea that can be fully 'reached around' and thought through, analysed, can clearly not have access to this type of knowledge projecting as it does, the filters of what we call space and time onto any given idea or object. Therefore reality in itself is not to be understood by representational thinking that secures objects for manipulation. And yet, being a part of this unified, infinite, non-deconstructed reality that exists prior to the projections of the limited human intellect we must in some manner have access to this transcendental reality through ways other than representational thinking. Meditative thinking addresses the opening and the light that we are in the world before the manipulation of the concrete mind and it is through this altered state of consciousness that the transcendental realm is disclosed to us; having impressed its conditions upon the mind we necessarily generate a reflection of this reality in terms of space and time and this is the birth of the great symbolic myths throughout the ages - not as a definition of reality but as a symbolic reflection of a transcendental truth for which our faculties are ordinarily incapable of doing justice. And one such myth is that of Santa Claus.

The exposition of the structure of Santa-Claus-in-the-world.

Santa Claus is the representative of the spirit of good will, but not good will as ordinarily understood - this a good will that is the manifestation of the transcendental unity of apperception which, beyond constiuting the unity that is the sense of individuality, represents the essential oneness of all life in its transcendent form. Commonly we trace the evidence of this through the presence of love, charity, compassion and good will to all men (and women), all of which are symbols of the underlying unity of life and its attempted expression through humanity. Therefore Santa Claus exists in the hearts of every person who demonstrates selflessness and giving at the time of year when the energy of of good will sweeps across the world in the festival of christmas. Crucially this is not to be understood as a glib acknowledgement of a certain pattern of human behaviour for as we have seen the figure of Santa Claus is generated from a greater perspective of reality than that available to the type of thinking that secures spatio-temporal knowledge (human knowledge). Therefore we may say that Santa Claus is MORE real than what we know in the world in terms of space and time, pervading as powerfully as he does, an entire season of our calendar as well as being, in himself (beyond our transcendental projections) the unity that binds our universe together.
It is through this agency, in the ability to work through people who wish to express good will at christmas time, that the observation made by many at this time of year regarding the impossibility of present delivery (latest estimations include the need to travel at 650 miles per second using 3.6 million reindeer pulling over half a million tonnes of presents) is refuted, for Santa Claus is not bound by space and time and can simultaneously and instantaneously manifest anywhere. As it is only in the world that we can perceive the actions of the merry fellow we can attempt to discern the symbolic message of his presence amongst and within us in the rituals and idiosyncracies of the festival.

1. Santa's climbing down the chimney symbolises the descent of his spirit into our world, indeed into our very living rooms, into the warmth of the hearth and the fire of our love and compassion for friends and family. The soot is the darkness hid within the human heart that shies away from the essence of christmas (as represented by Scrooge and his peice of coal in the popular christmas story) and through which the presence of the light of love and goodwill must pass and overcome if it is to achieve the delivery of its gifts.
2. The wrapped presents are a symbol of the journey that each human soul who would bear the gifts of Santa must undertake in order to reveal the hidden beauty of the christmas message. For we must all unfold the truth of christmas from within and learn to attain that inner peace and meditative disposition that comes from the unshackling of our inner identities from the raging snowstorm that batters at the door. Only in this manner is the message of christmas truly delivered.
3. It is also a sign of the delicacy of good will in the world in that the present must be wrapped securely before its journey to the recipient lest the glare of the world that would snatch greedily and nosily at the naked, material object, betray the true content of the gift and its hidden, personal message of good will.
4. We leave out mince pies and brandy to our idol and in truth they are consumed by him when, the next morning, we guzzle the brandy and scoff the pies in his name and sing merry christmas as we feast on the bounty of his limitless generosity.
5. A cracker is pulled which manifests the explosion of Santa onto the scene at christmas time as the spark of himself within us rejoices and toasts the reunion of brothers and sisters across the land as we are each crowned the king or queen of the feast of Being.
6. The Christmas tree is the tree of life of which we may all taste the secret fruit (the wrapped presents gathered beneath it) when the time comes when it is no longer forbidden and the essence of christmas is disclosed. Under the star of unity the 'angel of the presents' watches over, waiting to reveal her inner splendour as we catch the eye of a grateful relative and the love streams forth, vivifying the gathering with the energy of the hidden unity of life that has waited until this moment to reveal itself through every selfless participant in this great festival of unity.
7. The drunkenness, gorging, and fiery encounters that manifest later in the day are the reactions to an overstimulation of the Santa Claus within us that is frankly inevitable when we limit his manifestation to one day of the year in this, the greatest of celebrations.
6. The character of the embodiment of Santa Claus is an amalgamation from many traditions, and his descent from the North Pole with his flying red nosed reindeer possibly brings us closest to the original disclosure of this famous entity for an ancient Shamanic ritual whereby reindeer were made to consume the notorious red and white, hallucinogenic, fly agaric toadstool whose urine was then drunk by the leading Shamen, hails from the northen regions of Lapland. In a trance-like state the Shamen then transcend space and time and were said to be able to retrieve information from the spirit world. We can only guess at the many ways in which this tradition interacted with the christian story, st nicholoas, the green man, and various scattered pagan beliefs to produce what we have today but we can see that the synthetic phenomenon that we today call christmas contains in its essence altered states of consciousness, the spirit of good will and an abundance of symbolic references all embodied within the big white bearded, red suited drunk we designate Father Christmas or Santa Claus.

Therefore look beyond the symbol to what is symbolised therein for this happy chappy is but the lowest end of a continuum within the echelons of being that both interpenetrates and goes way beyond the sphere of human perception. We can trace his transcendent activity in the symbols and rituals of Christmas but the flipside of these perceptions are hidden in the mystery and light of Being itself. Perhaps the only manner in which to gain a real vision of this great entity is to once again take up the apparatus through which his original disclosure was manifest - and drink from the magical reindeer potion.

Conclusion: Santa Claus is alive and kicking, retaining all his attributes, as it is not Santa that is limited by the constraints of space and time but rather, it is we who are limited by our understanding.

Harmon

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