The lecture below was given by Martinus at Christmas in 1941 during the Second World War. Its content is, however, still relevant today. The original Danish was recorded in shorthand and reconstructed.

People have one of two different attitudes to Christmas, which we are about to celebrate again, namely a materialistic attitude and a religious one. Christmas has lost its inspirational value for modern, intellectually developed Man. Modern Man regards Christmas as a feast that has outlived its usefulness, and strives to get away from it. For the religious person, however, Christmas is rooted in a profound belief in the Christmas gospel, a feast to which it looks forward from the bottom of its heart.

This example or model manifests the cosmic principles in a form in which the ordinary human being can grasp them. Gradually, as evolution proceeds, people will gain a greater and greater ability to see the light for themselves, the light that they first became familiar with through the symbols. Such is also the case with the Christmas gospel. It was not merely a matter of Christ being born; thousands upon thousands of children are born. People celebrate Christmas in order to express their longing for light, their belief in and their never-extinguished hope for a time quite different to the one we are now experiencing. In their hearts people have long since acknowledged that life consists of giving, not of taking. And we see too how Christmas have become a time for presents. Everywhere we see people rushing around with packages; they have all a deep need to express the humane aspect of themselves by giving presents. And we see how the law of fate here works almost immediately. We cannot receive a gift without feeling a deep longing to give a gift in return. The most profound nature of this principle of giving is noble; it has merely to be developed in all the other areas of life.

When celebrating Christmas was established a star became its main symbol. This star symbolises the innermost kernel of the Christmas gospel. There may well have been a particularly clear, bright star in the sky around the time of Jesus' birth but that is of no importance for us. What is important is that at this feast we meet a direct manifestation of people's longing for another form of life than the usual one. The light in question in thus not external in nature but, on the contrary, internal. The model for this light is Jesus of Nazareth. His birth gave rise to the events that, more than anything else, became the factor stimulating the transformation of the human being, and thereby of society, from animal primitivity to the civilisation that we know today.

Through the cycle within the great section of evolution that I call a "spiral" we can follow the evolution of light. At the same time as this we can follow another principle that degenerates and disappears. This principle is at its peak at the moment. This peak is experienced as everything that we know by the name of war in all its various aspects. The relationship between these two great principles that we know as light and darkness are now of such a nature that we can see that waging war is really no longer in harmony with the inner world of the terrestrial human being. People no longer fight for the sake of the fight itself. When so many people today are to be found on the battlefields of the world one must not believe that it is because these people want to be there. They are not there out of interest in darkness but because they believe that their presence there promotes the peace that is the innermost essence of Christmas.

When analysed cosmically Christmas is the very incarnation of the real human kingdom's form of existence here on Earth, that form of consciousness with which the living being, in the light of the cosmic analyses, sees that everything is very good. Everyone is heading for this form of consciousness. When people deny light in the form that Christianity preaches it, it is in reality merely the form that they object to. If they had anything against the content they would be followers of their own downfall, a state that has nothing to do with normality. Since all normal human beings are counting on light it is in reality more widespread than most people imagine. Everyone looks forward to "Christmas" as a light that is to come, but every individual has those ideas about this light that best fit his or her ideals.

This whole atmosphere has to develop and gain far greater power than is the case now. A great obstacle to this is that aspect of terrestrial human beings' mind which is still in harmony with the principles of the animal kingdom. This obstacle has to be removed, and it is this removal that we experience as "Doomsday". This "day" has always been described as the antithesis of Christmas, and this has never been seen more clearly than in our own day where we experience the contrasts more strongly than any generation has previously. But the closer darkness comes, the more clearly shines the light. Today everyone can see how wonderful life would have been if mankind had had another attitude than that which led to the war. But people's attitude - even if the majority perhaps now see that it was wrong - was all the same a link in that evolution which was to lead them forward to the total experience of light. Society, as well as the individual human being, must act as its reason dictates. If the way of acting is wrong this will give rise to the friction that leads to the material of experience on which a new mode of existence can be built. In this way wisdom is created. Wisdom is light, and light is the gospel of Christmas.

An impulse of light greater than any before in the history of the earth is sweeping the world. It shines with tremendous force from the centre of the milky way. The milky way system is a gigantic organism in which the individual solar systems are organs that get their power and energy from this centre in the organism in precisely the same way as our organs are supplied with power from the centre in our organism that we call our I. This wave of energy from the centre of the milky way contains all the power necessary to lead people forward to the experience of the real human kingdom. That fact that there is war now is due to this world impulse. When such an impulse begins working it causes an enormous movement. Various thoughts are weighed against each other. That is how it is on Earth today. We see a lot of thoughts about creating light being weighed against other thoughts that promote the same. From this follows war, but in its most profound analysis war is merely accelerated development with the purpose of bringing about clarification.

You will experience the same if you become angry and jealous. Here war is raging within yourselves. While you do not have very much influence on what is happening today out in the world, you have a very great influence on your daily way of thinking and acting. What you experience in the way of disappointment and adversity is given to you as training material for your spirit. Without adversity no ennobling would take place neither on a small or a large scale. People have now to understand that it is not enough to merely believe in the light as the truth. Through these difficult times people will gain knowledge of the law of fate. People must learn to understand that it is not enough to think, one also has to think in the right way.

Since Christmas expresses precisely a brilliant spiritual light you will see that you cannot be interested in my work without being in harmony with the innermost essence of Christmas. It is true that war would be an education for you too without my work, but since, through my work, you learn to understand the causes of war and likewise attain far greater insight into what war leads to, you will, when the turmoil of war has quietened down, see that much of what is today desperate darkness and hopelessness has already been revealed to you as a brilliant light. Where others see only proof that God does not exist you now see in the same things absolute proof of his existence. You have the great privilege of living right in the middle of the centre for the new world impulse, since this impulse is affecting Denmark and is emanating from Denmark over the entire world. This impulse will protect us. When the war is over and you can follow its course to its end you will see how the Nordic countries, in comparison to the other countries of the world, have been treated leniently. It is true that we have experienced heavy repercussions, but no one can honestly deny that we have come through these heavy years more lightly than other nations. This must not lead you to believe that the Danes are completely evolved - they are certainly not. But the Danes are no longer a warring nation, and that in itself is a very great step forward. The Danes are a peaceful people, and their peaceful attitude is an enormous protection. But in many other areas this people has many things to learn.

The terrible darkness that today dominates the world has thus as its mission the creation of a longing for the opposite of this darkness in the individual's mind. As far as you are concerned this longing for light has today given rise to the fact that you are now pursuing a study that gives you access to a definition of this light in clear rows of thought that your intelligence can perceive. You are now permitted to experience this light, not as organ music and hymn singing, but as realistic facts. It is really only you that has access to this today, but this will not continue to be the case. As the war gradually heads for its own destruction these thoughts will spread out over the earth and the war will experience its own death throes, indeed, it will in a way commit suicide. The more it flares up, the more furiously it rages and the closer it is to its own conclusion. Therein lies its suicide. You who today are fighting one another have in reality the same ideals behind your fight; everyone is longing for a world in which the generations will not be armed against one another. Everyone is longing for global peace. In the light of this longing they will find one another, and, when this has happened, the light of Christmas will shine on the entire planet, and a new heaven and a new earth will be born. It is not within my powers to tell you how many years this will take but it will not be as many as you fear. You have to understand, however, that evolution towards a higher society will take place gradually. There are still many errors that have to be corrected, but evolution will progress rapidly. An entirely new administration of resources and far greater freedom between nations will arise. A continually growing technical evolution will permit an international life together of dimensions that are difficult for you to imagine today.

While most of what I have told you here concerns society, I would like to finish by showing you that the individual is not dependent on the growth of society as a whole. It is in the hands of the individual to liberate itself from the fight that is going on around it. If you create neutrality within yourselves and by means of your will practise seeing things in an impartial light, your mind will be far more harmonious than is perhaps now the case. I myself experience living daily life in a light that makes it possible for me to understand everyone. This experience of mine will gradually be attained by everyone. This state in which the consciousness is adjusted so as to be in harmony with the law of existence is called cosmic consciousness, a state of consciousness that everyone will reach. Since it is so strongly desired there are people who seek to attain it by artificial means, through various exercises and so on, but this can lead to terrible states, so I cannot recommend this. On the other hand there is a road to cosmic consciousness that you ought to follow. It goes via a natural appropriation of the knowledge on which this state of consciousness depends. It is true that these analyses can be difficult or hard to grasp, but through this indirect experience of the spiritual states you will gradually be prepared for the direct experience. If one receives these energies directly without having organs that are developed for the purpose, one can easily meet with the terrible anguish of mental illness. But if one prepares oneself to acquire the ability to forgive, to never be offended and hot-tempered then one will begin to get some of the strength that one needs in order to be able to tolerate the influx of these high energies into one's brain. But the more of these energies that flow into your consciousness the more dangerous it is for you be hot-tempered. Many people have become mentally ill by coming into contact with these energies too early. Others have become fanatics with violent desires to assert themselves and a raging intolerance of others. Still others have got into states in which the spiritual energies have completely taken control at the expense of the material energies, and they live in imaginary states that make them quite unfit for life here. The fact that there are such dangerous pitfalls connected to these high energies is the very reason why I have made it a principle to teach exclusively the only natural way to this high consciousness, the training of oneself to love one's neighbour, which is the foundation of the real human kingdom.

You can practise creating the real Christmas within you by among things keeping your thoughts going in the right direction. At first you will not be able to avoid being irritated, but these simply must not become visible to others. If you become irritated write down the thoughts that are controlling you on a piece of paper and do not read it until you have regained your calm. The same is true when you are writing a letter. No one ought to send a letter that is written in a state of anger. Let such a letter lie. It is always healthy afterwards to see how abnormal one is when one is angry. Anger and mental instability are natural only when the predator is face to face with his prey; in the human being it is an abnormal state. Explosion is justified only where it is a vital necessity, as it is in the world of the predator.

Some people feel that if they do not get roast goose on Christmas Day then their Christmas is ruined. This is an expression of the old Christmas spirit, which one ought to get away from as quickly as possible. Making one's happiness depend on such primitive, physical things is expressive only of an undeveloped character. No one can destroy my Christmas spirit; it is permanent. There is no difference between my spirits at Christmas and at the other seasons. When one has cosmic consciousness one is in a state where one's joy is invulnerable. The true Christmas spirit is a state in which one is far above material phenomena. What makes the terrestrial human being's life so difficult is that it to far too great an extent attaches its consciousness to purely material things or finds itself in marriages where it is likewise far too tightly bound by ideas about ownership. Happiness must not be depend on the belief that one owns the person that one has tied oneself to; on the contrary it is true here more than anywhere else that happiness can grow only in freedom.

If people were to try seriously to think about how much of what they do is determined by consideration for themselves most of them would be appalled. For by far the majority of people neighbourly love is still only something that they long to experience but that they themselves have not had the courage to practise. It is this state one must get away from. It is impossible to reach a higher world without unselfishness. One must practise being open for those in one's surroundings and one must learn to understand that no one can be otherwise than they are at the moment. The world is at any time absolutely perfect in its relationship to the mankind that lives in it. But it will be different in the future just as we too will be different. And here the human being with a deeper understanding of life has a great mission. The advanced human being is the Christmas messenger to people. To the same extent as you begin to understand the brilliant logic with which life is organised, your fundamental character will begin to express the light that the feast of Christmas preaches.