The Christmas festival is generally held to remind us of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can read about how an emperor wanted to make a census of the civilised world of that time, and that, for this reason, Joseph and Mary, like so many others, had to make their way to Bethlehem to be counted. We can go on to read about how they had to find accommodation in a stable as there was no room for them anywhere else. All the inns were full. And we go on to read how Mary gave birth to the world redeemer here, and how the angels showed themselves to the shepherds in the fields and proclaimed the great message: "for unto you is born this day a saviour" and concludes with the words: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men". And around this biblical account millions and millions of human beings have, over the centuries, held a festival around the time of midwinter. It has been a source of joy and encouragement in this dark, cold time of the year. In the idea of this holy and wonderful midwinter festival there has been an extraordinarily great inspiration of love. In fact, this inspiration is so great that for a period of a few days it can even give rise to a minor dress rehearsal for the kingdom of heaven or the human kingdom that is to come. There is surely no one who was born into a normal home with good parents in the Christian world religion in our northern latitudes who does not have bright memories of Christmas Eve. And is it not so that on this evening one can sense a super terrestrial atmosphere of light? Is it not a tradition that on this evening human beings should not go cold and hungry, should not be homeless and abandoned? Have we not seen examples of the atmosphere of this evening bringing about a cease-fire in the trenches during the first world war? Is not Christmas Eve a great, bright memory that all Christian human beings have in common?

And nevertheless, it has now become modern for a great many human beings to look down on this bright festival of gifts, friendship and forgiveness, because one considers the account on which it is based to be naivety and superstition. But I am sure that these human beings, at any rate the first generation, who in their childhood have only a bright memory of Christmas, would feel a lack or a tug at their heart at the thought of making Christmas Eve into a commonplace, everyday evening. In fact, it would be so strong that they would enforce another festival, a kind of substitute for Christmas. The fact is that the basic principle of Christmas is far more deeply rooted in human beings and existence than in merely the handed down account of the birth of Jesus. Christmas is an atmosphere that will become more and more prevalent in the human being's psyche, since it is the product of the principle of creation that has transformed the Earth from a glowing mass of fire into the current beautiful, glorious, sun-bathed world for intellectual beings. It is in itself something that absolutely cannot be stopped. To try to eradicate the basic principle of the Christmas atmosphere in the human being is the same as trying to extinguish the sun. Consequently the more loudly one talks about Christmas being the product of superstition and naivety, the more one reveals oneself as being an apostle of superstition and naivety. It is true that the actual physical account of the birth of the child in Bethlehem, and of the shepherds in the fields who saw the angels and who heard the Christmas message, will lose its power, but the light and joy that is expressed through the account will endure for ever, for it is nothing other than the divine will and purpose of all evolution in the world.

The principle of Christmas is, in its simplest form, the same as the coveted "light in the darkness", the coveted warmth in the cold, the coveted peace amidst discord, the strongly longed-for love amidst the hatred. The Christmas gospel is not merely something narrated by mesocosmic beings, even though they are also seen as angels. The principle of Christmas is not something invented by human beings. It is the speech of the universe itself. Is it not this very principle that, in the form of the stars in the sky, shines to us on a cold, dark, winter night? Thousands of suns are sending their light through our eyes and right into our consciousness. From the dark night sky are shining thousands of stars. They are not shining so much, but enough for us to be able to see that space is endless, enough for us to be able to see that the jet-black, ice-cold space is filled with shining, warmth-giving suns. It is a speech that cannot be shaken. Just think, if there was no night, we would never ever discover space itself, we would not be able to see the divine grandeur, the wonderful psychic power that holds our own planet, as well as all the other planets, floating freely through space. We would not be able to overcome the superstition that the Earth is borne by or has to rest on something physical. We now know that no heavenly body whatsoever is borne by something physically visible; it is on the contrary borne by a higher psychic power that is organised as a cycle. And by virtue of this cycle it is possible for the living being to experience light in the darkness, warmth in the coldness, peace in the discord and the kingdom of heaven after hell, that is to say, an existence of light after an existence of darkness. As we can see, the star-lit night sky is the page on which the Christmas gospel is eternally written and will eternally radiate. Every single star is therefore an absolute, true Christmas star. The universe is the eternal, real and true Christmas tree. Each and every one of its stars is a Christmas candle.

But in order to make the principle of Christmas even more alive and real, we are also allowed to see certain of the universe's Christmas candles or Christmas stars in close-up. We have therefore in the dark night sky a moon. Here it is so close that we can see with our physical eyes that it is a freely floating globe, borne aloft by psychic laws and forces. Here for the first time we can see a globe with mountains and valleys, ravines and chasms similar to those found on our own globe. And with the help of the view of the moon, our understanding is stimulated showing us that our own world is similarly a freely floating globe in space borne by invisible or psychic forces. The star-lit night sky is therefore the Christmas gospel's open book. It is in the darkness of the night that we gain the deepest insight into the structure of the universe.

And in order that we can in reality be entirely consummate in our knowledge of the very mission, structure and mode of operation of the Christmas stars, we have also been allowed to see one of the brightest and warmth-giving stars in an appropriate close-up, namely our own sun. It is in itself a source of light. It does not contain any particular shadow. It radiates its energy out to all and everything. It gives out its light, its warmth and its energy unconditionally. It does not demand anything in particular in advance. It has no favourites. It shines to an equal degree on the evil and the good, on the just and the unjust. And is it not just as if here the divine revelation of the light, the Christmas gospel, culminates? The greatest source of energy within our domain in the universe shows us that it exists only in order to send Christmas gifts to all and everything, totally unconditionally and altruistically. And when we realise how necessary for our own existence its structure is, we will then have seen that this is the most perfect form of manifestation of energy. If the sun were merely to reduce its light, the character of our lives would immediately be far inferior and poorer. The nature of our planet would immediately change. It would become a cold and deserted planet with only primitive life or no organic life at all. The beautiful, sun-drenched continents and gardens, the green fields and woods, the brightly-coloured carpets of flowers, the wonderful natural scenery with red morning and evening skies, the blue sky with its cloud formations, mountains with eternal snow and the golden glow on alpine peaks, yes, everything that we today call beautiful, glorious and divine would not exist were it not for the sun unconditionally, and without a shadow, casting its rays in all directions, in and out over all and everything. Is it not the very culmination of the divine revelation of the Christmas gospel, which through the light of the sun and the glistening of the stars, resounds through the universe and echoes in the words of the world redeemer: "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. That is the fulfilment of all the laws." Can any being here to a higher degree be one with the eternal Father?

The Christmas speech of the universe is so strong that it can gradually fill the living being's entire soul or psyche so that it itself reaches the point where it radiates the revelation of the universe through its own speech and way of being. And this process of making the living being radiant, a sun or a star, is the purpose of the universe. And every living being that in this way has become a radiant sun or star is therefore the same as "the human being in God's image". The Christmas star and "the human being in God's image" are therefore one and the same thing. And since being a sun or a Christmas star is therefore life's greatest provisional goal for the terrestrial human being, there is nothing surprising in the fact that every year at midwinter or at the time of darkness, the cycle seems to mobilise the Christmas energies that are fermenting in the human being's psyche and have allowed it to be a tradition and a joy to be good, to give gifts and to show warmth and love to others. It is not just the custom or the done thing but it is, on the contrary, nothing less than the Christmas speech of the universe itself that is resounding through the tormented terrestrial human beings' dark mental night sky. To resist the principle of Christmas will therefore be hopelessly foolish and naive. But on the contrary, to shift one's gaze towards the sun and the stars and to make these into a model for one's own light, for one's own exercising of will and way of being, is to give the greatest Christmas gift one can possibly give to one's neighbour. For no gift, no light and no love can be greater than to give one's life to save others. Only such a being is peace and thereby the fulfilment of the universe's eternal Christmas message. And only through such a being will Christmas resound with the true sound of angels: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men".