Everything in the Gospels is symbolic, and there is an extremely profound meaning hidden in the account of Jesus’ birth in a manger, but not many people have ever suspected this. You will certainly understand where in your body the manger can be found if you remember my lectures about the hara centre, when I explained the role this centre could play in the spiritual life of an initiate who had learned to work with it.

Although the name hara, ‘belly’, would seem to indicate that this centre, which is a few centimetres below the navel, is best known to the Japanese, in fact it has always been known to initiates. This is the centre Jesus was referring to when he said, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ The ‘belly’ is the hara centre, and the manger in which Christ will be born is there, between the ox and the donkey, that is to say, between the liver and the spleen.

You think that anything to do with the belly and entrails is rather disgusting, but the fact is that the Lord has chosen that area for the perpetuation of the human race. And it is here, too, that disciples must give birth to the new consciousness: the infant Christ.

Nothing is more vitally important than to work to bring about the birth of the divine Child within you. When this happens, heaven and earth break out in joyful song; from the four corners of the world, all those who have seen the birth of a new light come to visit you and bring gifts.

Of course, there will also be a Herod (there always are a few Herods!) who will be enraged to learn of the birth of Jesus and, with the intention of killing him, But, fortunately, there are also angels who will come and warn you as they warned Joseph: ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’

The wise men also received a divine warning not to return to Herod, and they departed to their own country by another way. And this means that all those who approach Jesus, those who approach the Christ principle, will never again be able to tread the paths they trod before; they will have to go another way.

You hadn’t thought about that, had you? It is all so profound; so mysterious! I find it all truly extraordinary and, believe me, I am inventing nothing. I am simply handing on to you the knowledge that I have received.

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
Izvor 209, Christmas and Easter in the Initiatic Tradition,