Frankincense and Myrrh - The Gift from the Magi

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The Gifts from the MagiAn Ancient Mystery

of

Frankincense and Myrrh

Christoph Streicher, Ph.D.

Amrita Aromatherapy, Inc.

The Story(Excerpts from Matthew 2:1-11)

1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea behold, wise men, astrologers, from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, 2Where is He Who has been born King of the Jews?For we have seen His star in the east at its rising and have come to worship Him.

9…they went their way, and behold, the star which had been seen in the east in its rising went before them until it came and stood over the place where the young child was.

10When they saw the star, they were thrilled with ecstatic joy.

11And on going into the house, they saw the Child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him. Then opening their treasure bags, they presented to Him gifts – gold and frankincense and myrrh.

This is how the story goes.Many of us are familiar with this story. We heard it for the first time as children.

If you haven’t heard it, perhaps it is because you come from a different religious background.

I enjoy reading scriptures from other religions. You might enjoy reading this story.

But this story is completely out of context. It is basically unbelievable, and does not fit the culture into which Christ was born.

Whenever you read something in ancient literature that does not seem to make sense, most likely there is a very profound meaning to it.

What struck me when I read the story again a few years back, is the 2000 years before the birth of Christ, since the time of Moses, Israel had the task and the mission to establish monotheism.

The old Testament is about the elected people, the chosen people who have their own, one God.

And then along came the astrologers.

It seems to me the Old Testament is

about asserting Monotheism over the

Polytheistic beliefs that coexisted with

Monotheism in the people of Israel for a

number of centuries.

The whole history of the Old Testament is about asserting Monotheism over the Polytheistic beliefs which coexisted in the people of Israel for many centuries.

Monotheism, by nature is completely different from the other religions of that time, which were all Polytheistic.

You read over and over in the Old Testament that there was a tendency for the Polytheistic religions to take over.

Finally, by the birth of Christ, Monotheism was well established. The astrologers from the East arrived out of nowhere and they were welcomed even though they related to gods like Mars, Venus and Jupiter.

The standard of the Jewish culture at that time was that one does not talk to non Jewish neighboring tribes.

A Jewish person would have said, “Who do

you think you are? Go back where you came

from.”

But instead they are called wise men – an

absolute conundrum.

So why is this story about

gold, Frankincense and Myrrh in the

New Testament, and what does this have to

do with aromatherapy?

Polytheistic religions like that of the Greeks have a whole assembly of Gods: Zeus with his thunderbolt, Poseidon, Demeter, and so on.

In this kind of world view, everything has its own spirit: the wind, the ocean and the earth.

Each particular aspect of nature has its own being.

Each form and character are different as they take on attributes of the sun, the earth, thunder or forest.

In this particular world view, God is in

everything. God assumes different forms

and appears under

various names and intentions, with

different personalities and genders.

There are even good and evil gods.

The whole variety we see in

nature is reflected in beings who

represent the different qualities of nature.

By contrast, all monotheistic religions

talk about singularity. Monotheistic

religions say the spirit is out there

somewhere, far and remote, like the

cloud that guided the people of

Israel through the desert.

It is the oneness, and it doesn’t have

anything to do with what we know as

the world of appearances.

It’s interesting to look at the

characteristics of these two

different approaches. There are

remarkable differences both at the

surface level and in the deeper aspects.

For example, Monotheistic religions

that promote this concept of

singularity always have a founder,

a charismatic personality who

embodies its spirit.

Monotheistic religions are

exclusive: “This is the truth, and

this always will be the truth, and

basically everyone has to follow it

and believe it.”

In contrast, the polytheistic religions accept there are natural differences.

In varying climates and regions there may be different gods.

The Greeks had no problem that the Egyptians had a somewhat different mythology.

The New Testament story tells of

wise men, representing Polytheism,

who traveled from the East to worship

Jesus, who was born into a Monotheistic

tradition.

When we look closer, we see that these two

different concepts originated in very different

geographical conditions. Monotheistic

religions come from the desert, all of them,

without exception.

When the people of Israel left Egypt, Moses had to keep them 40 years in the desert to ingrain monotheism in them.

Later on these 40 years were reduced to 40 days. Elijah spent 40 days in the desert before he took on his life’s mission.

Jesus spent 40 days in the desert before he took on his life’s mission.

Mohammed spent a considerable amount of time in the desert.

Polytheistic religions come from the forest,

because in the forest the forces of nature

are very tangible.

These religions originate from humans

relating to nature in a mythological way.

So we have these two different

concepts:

On one side there is the desert, the Spirit, the

singularity that is considered pure Spirit.

And on the other side, we are talking about

nature as experienced in the forest.

It could be said that Spirit is the masculine energy and Nature the feminine.

With masculine and feminine we don’t mean man and woman;

I am referring to the masculine and feminine in each of us.

Nature’s direction is descending.

Descending means being grounded, having

earth connections, living with earth, living

with nature, being guided by the different

forces of nature.

On the other side, the search for Spirit is

ascending.

It is the search for clarity, wholeness,

connectedness with oneness.

Monotheistic Polytheistic

Desert ForestSingularity-pure Spirit NaturePurusha PrakritiMasculine FeminineAscending energy Descending energyClarity MysteryWants to be right Wants to be happyThe High Priest The ShamanWestern Medical Science Herbalism, Aromatherapy

All our Western traditions come out of

monotheism.

Plato and Aristotle are completely on the

side of singularity.

Western medical science, with its emphasis

on isolating single chemicals, is definitely in

line with this tradition.

On the other hand is the tradition of

herbalism, where the picking of leaves is

decided based on the phases of the moon,

where illnesses are considered

misalignments with the soul, and where bad

luck is a consequence of misalignment with

the gods.

Sometimes these two harmonize and

sometimes they clash. The clash

between the completely male-dominated

church and the witches who were burned at

the stake is such an example.

The witches had their way of creating health.

This clash was not all that different from

the conflict between Western medicine and

alternative medicine these days.

When we keep this background in mind, we

are in a better position to understand the

underlying beliefs and different positions

people take, even if they themselves are not

aware of their position.

Let’s go back to the desert for a moment.

Have you ever meditated in the desert?

It’s amazing what meditations are like there,

how silent, how undisturbed you are.

The experience of such meditations may

culminate at a certain point in the experience

of what some people call the inner fire.

It is symbolized in many of the mythologies

as the heatless, smokeless fire.

Remember the burning bush?

No, not our previous president.

It was Moses’ immediate experience of God

in the desert.

Remember the Pentecost event?

Forty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit in the

form of flames descended on the apostles’

heads.

There is this element of heat and fire in the

desert. It is as simple as that.

The desert cultures an inner

experience symbolized by fire.

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In the New Testament, Jesus was asked “What about the witches?”

He replied, “the fire will purify them”.

Some people felt justified to put them on the stake, but the idea was that the inner fire would purify them, that nothing is as purifying as that inner experience, symbolized by the smokeless, heatless fire.

Frankincense, like Myrrh, grows in the desert.

Bedouins go into the desert and make cuts into these bushes. The bush may not have seen water for a year, but whatever liquid or humidity is remaining runs out and then dries.

These resins contain an extremely concentrated form of that inner heat, which cultures the singularity of consciousness.

That quality of singularity of consciousness

in Frankincense and Myrrh is the most

concentrated form of the quality of the

desert.

They culture the experience of the inner

fire, the experience of pure spirit.

This is where the ancient story reveals its mystery.

The Astrologers bring the symbols of oneness and wholeness to the future exponent of Monotheism.

In turn, they are welcomed and acknowledged. Not only do two cultures meet but also two completely different world views.

This meeting point sets the stage for Christianity to unfold.

Both Judaism and Islam have held it against Christianity that the teaching of the Holy Trinity is actually a departure from Monotheism.

I think they are certainly right. Here the ground has been laid for the union of two extremely different spiritual approaches.

Aromatherapy, as an off-shoot of herbalism,

has Polytheistic origins.

Examples of aromatherapy companies with

names that reflect those origins are

Woodspirits, Gaia Herbs, 3 Goddesses, Apollo

Day Spa, Athena Aromatherapy, Earth

Wisdom and Shakti’s Enterprise.

But Frankincense and Myrrh oil coming from

the desert are now part of any aromatherapy

collection.

Why are Frankincense and Myrrh used by an

herbal tradition?

I believe the answer lies in the

understanding of our current times.

Two profoundly different paradigms are

coming together to form a new

understanding of life.

Just as alternative healing is gradually being

recognized by Western medicine, so is a new

spiritual understanding dawning, one that

generates a holistic awareness of

both traditions.

What happened more than 2,000 years ago

appears like a promise to unite cultures and

philosophies and to bridge deep

spiritual differences.

Some decades later, Christ will tell the

story of the Compassionate Samaritan

(Luke 10:33), pointing out, that a non-

Jew can be a good person.

It seems that the promise is being

fulfilled in our time.

Aromatherapy is but one example

of this union of opposite values.

This spiritual union, presented 2,000 years ago as an idea and direction in which human development could go, is now becoming a reality in such completeness and profundity as never before.

My definition of aromatherapy is to create physical, emotional, social and spiritual well-being.

Frankincense and Myrrh are very purifying. They have many applications for physical health, but the most profound aspect of these oils is not their healing properties but their impact on human consciousness.

A much more complete lecture on this topic,

“Aromatherapy and Higher States

of Awareness”,

is available on CD.

To learn more about the uses of essential oils and the values of aromatherapy, visit

amrita.net

Or email us anytime at info@amrita.net

Thanks, Christoph Streicher, Ph.D.