Red and White = Earth and Light
I am writing this at the special time between Christmas (and Solstice) and New Year’s Eve. Effectively it is the 12 days of Christmas, and I am reflecting on the magnificence of the juxtaposition of red and white that makes up the popular outfit of Father Christmas/Santa Claus.
There seems to be a lot of misunderstandings about this archetypal character, and just how important red and white is to his outfit.
Firstly I want to clear up a not commonly known fact that Father Christmas, and Santa Claus, although now very much merged into one figure, actually have different origins. Father Christmas is of British origin, whereas Santa Claus is an American amalgamation of Father Christmas, Sinterklass from Holland, and others.
I am very familiar with Sinterklaas because I am half Dutch, on my mother’s side, and went to Holland a few weeks ago, as I try to every year to celebrate his festival on 4th-5th December, with my family.
Make no mistake Sinterklass has always worn red and white, and adorns a long white beard.
This idea that Coca Cola invented the current image of Santa Claus is an urban myth. Yes Coca Cola have used his image extensively in marketing around the world, and continue to do so to this day. I’m sure this has had the effect of speading Santa Claus to the world where previously countries had there own version like Father Christmas here in Great Britain, and Pere Noel in France…but they didn’t invent his image, and certainly not the necessary use of the colours of red and white in his depiction. Much older pictures of Santa can be found of him in this image before Coca Cola. In fact it seems probable that Coca Cola chose the colours red and white because they knew of its power, they knew, unconsciously or consciously of its importance…
Why is this important?
Because Christmas is a Yuletide celebration, of a time from the Solstice through to the 25th December, when the Earth in relation to the Sun is constant. The days stay the same length, this is why it is a time of peace on Earth, because of this cosmic balance. The veil is thin at this liminal time, and that means Heaven and Earth are vibrating together so that a portal opens up between them. This portal within time and space points to a timeless and infinite experience of transcendence, which is at the very heart of the human spirit’s impulse to extract meaning from life. This union which all Yoga, Alchemy and ancient wisdom tradition point to is always symbolised by red and white…right across the world, through the ages.
Red is the lowest, densest, vibration of light and therefore represents matter, the physical world that is the Earth, whereas White represents the pure, luminosity of the Spiritual dimension (Heaven).
Father Christmas/Santa Claus represent the personification of this union that happens at the Winter Solstice, and the wisdom that comes from aligning ourselves with this potential portal.
Then on Christmas Day, the Sun is reborn. Jesus and other Solar Deities symbolises this, such as Dionysus and Mithras, who were all born on this day, known in ancient pre-Christian times as Saturnalia. The days start getting longer, the light is returning…rejoice!
We gladly receive the divine presence of the Lord, and the magical presents of Father Christmas. Both characters are real because we make them real by believing in them. Any thought we entertain becomes real, it becomes a reality. A shared thought form like Jesus and Father Christmas are embued with immense power, due to the collective belief of millions, if not billions of people. But more importantly than that, they are archetypal, and therefore have a longevity that will endure, in one form or another, if not ensure belief.
We could also juxtapose red and gold, which is the whole reason regal paraphanalia is always red and gold, to symbolise Royalty as a symbol of divine rule on Earth, to act as an intermediary between Heaven and Earth. This is why I see Royalty as being important…as a symbol, not for control, but for us all to aspire to.
Red, Gold and Green is also used at Christmas, and the inclusion of green here is to illustrate that green is nature, life exists between heaven and earth. Trees, plants and all vegetation so often are green, which is amazing, as it stands exactly on the middle spectrum of light. Green is our heart chakra. Green is life. Green is love.
If you want to know God, ask a tree, then find God in your own heart.
So go out there and begin to notice how often red and white are used together, and ask is this simply for ascetics, or did the creator know something…does the image you are looking at hold some deeper meaning…a key to unlock the illusory door of separation between you and…YOU, as divine splendour!
This is why the St George’s flag is red and white, and why St George is the most used patent saint in the world, because we all long for this union, to merge lower, wilder impulses (Dragon) with our higher aspect (Knight and Saint George). We see the red (dragon), white and green in the Welsh flag, we see red and white spiralling outside every barber around the world, to show us that the hair is the place where we receive celestial energy into our bodies. It goes on and on, Carl Jung was obsessed with the use of red and white across cultures form Medieval European Alchemy to Tibetan Buddhism.
It is also the reason my Sleeping Serpent logo is red, and white 😉
sleeping_serpent
So…look around…question your experience…and look deeper, and embrace the union of red, and white…the symbols are all around, but ultimately we must ride the transcendent nature of symbolism to the Truth of oneness in our own heart. x
