Feast of the Most Holy Theophany

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

-Journey of the Magi
T.S. Eliot

No one believes in forgiveness, not really. Many of us don't really believe in the phrase "I'm sorry". We have a hard time believing in really starting again. We have given up on evolution and no longer are convinced of revolution. We are jaded, not like adults, but like fourteen year olds with no hope of ever seeing prom. We stay stuck. We stay in the same place. We can't accept the phrase "I'm sorry" because often as not we can't really stand to say it. Mercy is not coming because mercy is not asked for and, often as not, it isn't given. We like the phrases, "we're the good guys. I'm a good guy." To admit that we aren't that great can be a bit much. And so the idea that there was a time when a man in camel hair came to the River Jordan and told people to repent is beyond our imagining. To see ourselves as the desperate people repenting, getting ready for a new age, is even more unbelievable. But this is the Feast of Theophany. Theophany is the second feast of Epiphany and we are told that once upon a time it was the original Christmas, the first Epiphany. At Christmas, shepherds come to see the baby Jesus and on Epiphany, the Magi, but today the Baby, grown into a man, comes to where the people are with the same aspirations as the people, a new beginning, an ending of the old, a commitment to a new path. This is the transition of celebrating evergreen and punch and too much cake to celebrating a commitment to life itself, and the day I celebrate entering the Young Tradition.

Initiation, a promise, is only as good as the commitment that follows. To be committed to a thing,a way of life, is difficult. To keep on doing is no joke. The Great Work, can be a hard work, a continuing resolution to keep going, to put aside what has been and walk ahead to what will be. This resolution is beyond black robes and candles. It requires everything, all the devotion of any monk or any nun. It tests us. all belief does, for belief is rare and dedication is rarer.

Today I went to pluck a wand from the thorn tree on the island where my nemeton stands. It has been raining for days and the river getting higher and higher is now nearly flooding its banks. By the time I am able to get to the isle it is nearly night and by the left over day I can see what a rushing river is, what a baptism can be. Baptism was not only symbolic of new life, This is the same river where one of my beloved dead, an eighteen year old freshmen fell and ended his life, and one misstep would have brought me the same fate. On the Eve of Theophany we remember commitment, we remember the true magic and power of putting away and picking up, and we die a little to be born a little.