The Gnostics did not honour customs in the intended way, they interpreted events marking festivals,ceremonies and public mysteries in terms of an archaic historia; the notion of Emanation as not only the manner in which the universe came into being, but as the nature of all relationships and processes found within it. The Chief mystery of Gnosticism revolves around The Man, the arche-anthropos, it is the model upon which the Image is based, thus Man goes through three refractions, or conceptions, before he actually becomes what we with our category mean in modern time – an example of this can be found in

The Apocryphon of John:

“And he (The Chief Archon) said to the authorities which attend him, ‘Come, let us create a man according to the image of God and according to our likeness, that his image may become a light for us.’ And they created by means of their respective powers in correspondence with the characteristics which were given. And each authority supplied a characteristic in the form of the image which he had seen in its natural (form). He created a being according to the likeness of the first, perfect Man. And they said, ‘Let us call him Adam, that his name may become a power of light for us.’

“And the powers began: the first one, goodness, created a bone-soul; and the second, foreknowledge, created a sinew-soul; the third, divinity, created a flesh-soul; and the fourth, the lordship, created a marrow-soul; the fifth, kingdom created a blood-soul; the sixth, envy, created a skin-soul; the seventh, understanding, created a hair-soul. And the multitude of the angels attended him and they received from the powers the seven substances of the natural (form) in order to create the proportions of the limbs and the proportion of the rump and the proper working together of each of the parts.”

Thus the second image were generated by the collective of archons, the Creative angels to which the early gnostics Satornil and Menander refered, The first being the inspiration from which the negation of Yaltabaoth`s boast “I am God and There is No One beside me”, came,

“You are in error, Saklas for ‘The Man exists and the son of Man.'”.

Portraying the son of Man, the archons were exhausted, more ire they begot in themselves when Sophia had let a light of intelligence incarnate into the astral/subtle anatomy they had created.

Further in the Apocryphon of John:

“And when the mother wanted to retrieve the power which she had given to the chief archon, she petitioned the Mother-Father of the All, who is most merciful. He sent, by means of the holy decree, the five lights down upon the place of the angels of the chief archon. They advised him that they should bring forth the power of the mother. And they said to Yaltabaoth, ‘Blow into his face something of your spirit and his body will arise.’ And he blew into his face the spirit which is the power of his mother; he did not know (this), for he exists in ignorance. And the power of the mother went out of Yaltabaoth into the natural body, which they had fashioned after the image of the one who exists from the beginning. The body moved and gained strength, and it was luminous.”

Not only were the anatomy informed by the power which had dislodged in the Chief Archon when he thus blew into Adam`s face , but we find

“And the man came forth because of the shadow of the light which is in him. And his thinking was superior to all those who had made him. When they looked up, they saw that his thinking was superior. And they took counsel with the whole array of archons and angels. They took fire and earth and water and mixed them together with the four fiery winds. And they wrought them together and caused a great disturbance. And they brought him (Adam) into the shadow of death, in order that they might form (him) again from earth and water and fire and the spirit which originates in matter, which is the ignorance of darkness and desire, and their counterfeit spirit. This is the tomb of the newly-formed body with which the robbers had clothed the man, the bond of forgetfulness; and he became a mortal man. This is the first one who came down, and the first separation. But the Epinoia of the light which was in him, she is the one who was to awaken his thinking. ”

The newly-fashioned mold of the already created man – becomes the third form, which would be father and mother of the generations.

Why bring this up?

This season, according to mainstream, so-called Historic Christianity, is the advent of the light into the world, the birth of the god-man – the most important event, overshaddowing with great passion the great event of Easter which has become a stumblingblock to a Christian culture informed and twisted out of true by the reformation and renaissance humanism, augustinian utilitarianism and similar diseases.

The Gospel of John tells an alternative “conception of the Logos” which informs us that each human being is the place wherein such birth takes place.

The Gospel of Phillip says of the event:

“Indeed, one must utter a mystery. The Father of everything united with the virgin who came down, and a fire shone for him on that day. He appeared in the great bridal chamber. Therefore his body came into being on that very day. It left the bridal chamber as one who came into being from the bridegroom and the bride. So Jesus established everything in it through these. It is fitting for each of the disciples to enter into his rest.

Adam came into being from two virgins, from the Spirit and from the virgin earth. Christ therefore, was born from a virgin to rectify the Fall which occurred in the beginning.”

Although the traditions we see today of Christmas is entirely secular, even those which displays the mannerisms of religiousity – we might with good conscience participate at a watchful distance to the interpretations, perhaps grasping the meaning which inspired them.