The question we have today, Q’uo, is about the meaning of Christmas in our world. Please tell us about the spiritual principles involved in living a life that follows in the footsteps of Jesus; specifically, about living from the heart, living in love. And since this is a season of giving, also please mention the principles about giving with love or giving from the heart.

(Carla channeling)

We are those of the principle known to you as Q’uo. Greetings in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator, in whose service we come to you this day and always. It is our great pleasure to share this time with you and to be called to be part of your meditation and your circle of seeking. Thank you for this privilege and honor. It is always a wonderful experience to be part of this beautiful array of energies as you combine in one circle to seek the truth, and we are honored.

We are happy to speak with you concerning the Christmas season and the issues of living in the way of Jesus the Christ, and giving as the season seems to request that one does with the kind of love that the one known as Jesus the Christ would have.

As always, we would ask that each of you use your discrimination in listening to our thoughts. Follow and use the thoughts that seem resonant and good to you. If a thought does not seem resonant to you, please leave it behind. We do not expect to hit the target of your own personal needs with each and every thought that we share. We thank you for this consideration.

We wish to say to the one known as R that the part of the principle of Q’uo which is speaking through this instrument this evening is the Brothers and Sisters of the Hatonn group. The subject is unconditional love, which is this entity’s native vibration. Consequently, we shall express through the one known as Hatonn this evening.

Winter comes upon the planet in the geographical area in which you live in much the same way as night follows day. It is an inevitable and worthy part of the cycle of life. And yet the loss of the light is a powerful catalyst for those souls who dwell within the more dimly lit wintertime. The long, slow periods of darkness in winter seem very dark indeed and that light which succeeds in shining through the storms of winter is ofttimes pale and wan, for the sun is farther away.

This creates within the third-density entity an inevitable response. In some cases, if an entity is close to the physical death, the lack of light will encourage an entity to move through the gateway into the larger life. The darkness of winter claims many who would perhaps live through the summer and yet because it is winter there is a natural tendency to rest, relax and seek that gateway to larger life. It is a powerful catalyst and we would not wish to belittle those who find themselves distressed at the chill and darkness of this season of the year.

Yet, of course, it is at this very season that the light is desired the most, yearned for and prayed for the most and awaited with the most eagerness. In just such a way does all negative catalyst bring the seeking soul to the point of realizing and expressing the yearning, the hungering, and the thirsting for light, truth and love. It is a natural response to this lack of light to band together and to create a special day, a day that flies in the face of darkness, a day of rejoicing and extra light, a day of abundance of food and drink and generosity of person to person.

And so it has been since long before the one known as Jesus the Christ walked your Earth and took part in this season of darkness. Yet it was the genius of the human spirit that caused the taking of the natural and non-religious observance of the winter solstice and the turning of it into a holy day or a holiday. Indeed, the one known as Jesus the Christ was born in the summertime. Yet it is psychologically right for third density that the birth of this entity was placed in the very heart of the winter’s darkness. So, let us look at this moment when light comes into the darkness.

Firstly, we would suggest that each of you is that element which is light born into darkness. Whatever your natural day of birth, you share the birthday of Jesus the Christ in terms of what some among you would call the time of being born again. You are each the infant Jesus the Christ, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the rough manger which holds the hay for the cows to eat.

You are also the blessed Virgin Mary who nurtures this tiny child, this point of brilliant light within the darkness of human experience. And you are Joseph, tolerant, patient and supportive, ready to work as a carpenter to support his wife, the nurturer, and his child, the Christ, the principle of love. And you are the shepherds who come in wonder and awe to lay down their shepherds’ crooks and kneel at the feet of Mary, gazing with wonder at this precious, precious infant.

And there is a portion of you, deep within your soul, which has never been separated from the one infinite Creator in any wise. That portion of you is the angels, singing, “Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! Glory and peace.”

It is a poignant moment. And it says a good deal about the human condition. It evokes, as the one known as Jim said to this instrument recently, contemplation of the nature of relationships. For the one known as Jesus, this precious point of light coming into the world, could not have survived infanthood had it not been for the web of relationships he had with his parents and with the owner of the inn that allowed Mary a place to rest her head on the night of his birth, while the shepherds flocked to that manger and formed a deep relationship with this infant.

In the gladsome and free times of summer, with its limitless light, so it seems, the importance of the support and love of that web of support that is called the family and those special relationships that are called friendships do not seem so urgent a matter. The winter night is far more revealing of the importance of these relationships of soul to soul, heart to heart and hand to hand.

Therefore, and quite justly, it is often a time for families to join together to renew old ties, share memories of times long past, and experience the somewhat surrealistic and eerie feeling of time falling away and one’s childhood seeming to come back to one, as one experiences these old, old relationships with much shared history that are true of the birth family of mother and child, sister and brother.

It is also a time when it seems appropriate to many to open their hearts in generosity to their friends and celebrate the precious gift of mutual support and encouragement.

The one known as Jim also suggested to this instrument that this is a good time to reflect upon each relationship, asking the self if there is any way in which the self has flinched away from intimacy and the positive nature of each relationship; asking the self, “Could I see anything in which I perhaps failed to express the depths of my appreciation and love for the other entity?”

This is, indeed, that moment in the seasons of the year’s cycle where it is especially appropriate to create expressions of apology and forgiveness; apology to those whom you perhaps feel that in your own judgment you held back from offering all of your love. And likewise it is a time to think of those who may have, in your own judgment, done that same thing to you and to offer up a complete and total forgiveness and a reestablishment of that intimacy, as if that flaw that you see has been completely healed.

The nature of unconditional love dwells not only in the one known as Jesus the Christ but in Carla the Christ, in C the Christ, in R the Christ, in S the Christ, in P the Christ and in everyone, the Christ.

The Christ does not come into your world in strength. The Christ does not come into your world in power. The Christ does not come into your world in riches. Indeed, the infant soul comes into the world helpless. With infinite love it gazes with its infant eyes upon a world lost to darkness, despair, disappointment and grief. And it looks upon that lost world with eyes of unconditional love. That light that cannot be put out. That unconditional, everlasting, eternal love gazes from the eyes of a child who cannot speak; who cannot take care of himself; who is in every way needy.

My beloved friends, so are you needy. Your infant soul gazes upon a lost world also, that interior world of your own suffering. It is helpless to speak to it. It is helpless to act. It can only gaze upon you with eyes of unconditional love. And so we would ask you at this time to look deeply within your own self at that infant soul within you that is so beautiful and so pure. Let your heart melt and open and enfold that infant soul of yours as if your love were swaddling clothes.

Pick up that child and rock it and hold it to your bosom and feed it your attention. What does your soul need to grow strong? What shall you offer this infant within you? A baby needs attention. A baby needs support. A baby needs care. And so we would suggest to you, dear ones, to enter into that stable of your soul and dedicate yourself, not for one moment but for all of your incarnation, to nurturing and taking care of that soul within you that is seeking to gain in strength; that is seeking to thrive and find the life in which it may become more and more able to express in ways more understandable than the silence of a baby.

What is it to be a soul dwelling in the darkness of a physical body? What kind of care does that infant soul need? We would ask that you turn your body into a temple, that you fill it with light, feed it the food that makes it be its lightest, offer it the studies and the thoughts that bring it light, and offer that soul the attention that it needs by remembering to embrace that soul nature that is your very heart, not just on a holy day or on a Sunday, but on every day and in every moment of your year and of your life.

For in truth, you are far more the essence of the Christ than you are the essence of the temple which is your body, your personality, and your outer self. Christmas gives you a chance to move through all of the darknesses of self to find, sturdy and strong and ever living, that consciousness of unconditional love that lives at the heart of yourself and is your true essence.

The one known as R asked about the principles involved in giving, and giving with love and from the heart. We would speak to that as well.

This instrument has often noted the mechanical nature of much of the customary habits of people with regard to the conventional ways of expressing friendship or relationship in general, not only at Christmas time. There is a principle of reciprocity. And one can feel very trapped by this principle of reciprocity. For if one goes to a party, then one is expected to hold a party and invite the ones who gave you a party. And so one becomes locked into an endless cycle of giving a party and attending a party, giving a party and attending a party, until one becomes heartily tired of having parties.

Much of this mechanical nature has spilled over into that special season of Yuletide and certainly each of those to whom we speak is aware of the pressure upon each entity to think of appropriate gifts for those whom it holds dear and to purchase them or make them and offer them. Naturally, just as inviting someone to a party is not toxic, deciding to give a present is not toxic either. It is, in fact, an expression of joy, gratitude and thanksgiving that is full of the love and the light of the one infinite Creator.

Blessed indeed is that entity who refuses to be swayed from that intention to express true feelings by the generosity of gifts. This instrument, for instance, truly enjoys giving and receiving gifts, yet it would not occur to this instrument to offer gifts from duty, and we see that as a virtue within this particular soul. Its honesty can be seen to be a rudeness by those who feel that entities should give mechanically and in reciprocity to those who give to them, or give because of a certain relationship even if there is no love there or regard.

What we would suggest, in order to uphold the principle of unconditional love, is that, before writing down the gift list of those to whom you wish to give gifts, you enter into prayer and ask for the gift of sincerity as well as the gift of generosity. Allow yourself the luxury of giving only from the heart, as the one known as R said, only from the depths of a sincerely felt love and never from a duty or from the mechanical routines of a society that does not overly prize honesty and sincerity and genuineness.

We would ask you to be authentic in those gifts that you do give. And as you give the gift, again, pray over that gift, imbuing it with your love, your affection, your appreciation and your gratitude for the gift of relationship. That is how the gift gives to you. For love is reflected in love and that which is given in love blesses you a hundred times over.

Contrariwise, that which is given in the emptiness of custom and habit has a blessing neither for the giver nor for the receiver. There is an energy to the gift that is given well that can be felt by that one who opens the gift, and it makes of any tiny gift a wonderful, abundant present. That which is given without love, on the other hand, remains a thing, an object, that which is not imbued with the spirit.

In the round robin before this channeling, the one known as R asked if it would be all right to ask this particular question because he had so appreciated the work of the one known as Aaron, who makes it a habit at Christmastime to share stories about an incarnation in which he was associated with the one known as Jesus.

As this instrument observed at this time, we cannot do that, for we have not shared any incarnations with any of those upon your planet. Yet, we can share that in every civilization, wherever hearts beat and hopes are high, there lives the personification of unconditional love in one savior or another, one hero or another, one saint or another. And those Christs and heroes and saints are you and I and everyone. Each shall have his moments throughout the long journey back to the one infinite Creator of realizing the self as the Christ, not in any egoistical way but in the sense of giving over the life completely to unconditional love and finding at last the source of all hunger and thirst being filled by embracing the consciousness of unconditional love.

Each of you is on a journey toward that identity and that nature. And you shall not find that identity and that nature by tossing away that which you are at this very moment for something better. Nay, my friends, you are, now, all that you need to be. You are perfect. You may not see as of yet that you are the Christ child, that you are spirit, that you are unconditional love. Yet we say to you that you may trust and rely upon the fact that this is the essence of all of you and each of you, every single one of you.

You may be in prison and have done terrible things. You may be on the road hungry and in despair. You may be angry or hurting or separated from that feeling of love by one thing or another. And yet we say to you that you are the Christ. You are, in your essence, unconditional love. And your journey as a spirit within incarnation may be described as a journey towards that realization and then towards the expressing of that realization when it has become your gift to yourself.

We would at this time ask if there is a follow-up to this question. We are those of Q’uo.

I’d like to make an observation and then ask Q’uo to comment. I have been thinking about gifts as Q’uo was speaking, and to me, and I think to others who listen to Confederation entities, it seems a kind of a gift that entities would come and try to speak to us in a way that is uplifting and inspiring. So I always think about giving thanks. Yet I also remember that Confederation entities see that as a service. I want to ask Q’uo if they would like to comment on how they see the appreciation that those who listen give to messages of inspiration.

We are those of Q’uo, and believe we understand your query, my brother.

Indeed, you are correct in that we consider it a privilege to be asked to share our opinions, because we have chosen as our way of service to others to share our thoughts when asked. May we say that your appreciation is a great gift to us. We do not know when we speak as to whether we will hit the mark.

We feel into the vibrations of your particular circle and the dynamics of all of those that happen to be listening to our words and we find various points and various layers of meaning, all of which are sincerely and genuinely requested by the various persons in the circle of seeking.

We are also limited by the fact that we must speak to the least aware of those within the circle, so that we do not leave any behind. And so we create concepts and share them with this instrument, who then shares them with you. And we do not know whether we have hit the mark at all.

So, when we find entities responding to our words in a positive way, it is as though we were bathed in your love. And we are very happy and joyful that we have succeeded in doing that which we hoped to do. It is a joy to have not only attempted to be of service but to have the impression that we have succeeded, at least in part, in sharing our love and our light in ways that are helpful to you and form a resource for your further spiritual endeavors.

Perhaps we should say that we feel as if we were being swaddled in your love and understanding and it feels very, very good.

May we answer you further, my brother?

Thank you, Q’uo. I think you hit the mark far more often than you imagine!

We are those of Q’uo, and we thank you for that comment, my brother. May it be true now and ever when you call for us and request our presence.

May we ask if there is another query of this group at this time. We are those of Q’uo.

[Long pause.]

We are those of Q’uo, and we have indeed satisfied the questions of those present at this time. May we thank you for the present of asking us to be with you and to share our opinions with you. You are a blessing to us, indeed! And we always stand in awe of the beauty of your hopes and your vibrations as you create together this sacred space and fill it with your request for the truth, for love and for light.

May you go well, my friends in this Christmas season. May you go well, my friends, through that which buffets the soul at a time when there is tenderness and affection in the air and yet so very, very many are focused upon other things.

Let it not dismay you, let it not distress you. Go deep! Dive into the heart of yourself and of the souls about you, seeing in them not those insincerities and thoughtlessnesses that so often pervade this winter solstice season. Do not let the darkness in yourself or in others keep you from the gladsome light of new life, new growth, new truth, and new light. Let it be summer in your heart. And that light which you are shall make your environment radiant! And light shall abound.

We leave you in the love and the light of the one infinite Creator. We are known to you as the principle of Q’uo and to each of you we say, adonai, adonai. Love, light, power and peace. We are those of Q’uo.