The Blue Goat, or the Year of the Lord’s Grace? (Rudīte Losāne)
Every metaphor we use has its own meaning. For example – the year of the blue goat. We cannot, after all, read into this metaphor something that is not connected with the blue goat. But what is a blue goat? I dare to assert that the great majority of us do not know such a little creature, except that here in Latvia the local dairy goat is familiar. And there are probably also few people who are well acquainted with the Chinese practice of reckoning time, which is connected with the lunar cycle that comprises 12 lunar years, and in this cycle each year corresponds to its own animal, which, according to Chinese belief, determines a person’s fate and character.
So those who are interested can only go looking for what the Chinese say, because in their culture 2015 will be the year of the blue wooden goat, or the year of the sheep (the sheep is a close relative of the goat). A person living in our latitudes can rack their brains thinking about and searching for the understanding of this metaphor and its application to their own life in the new year. But astrologers have already managed, under the sign of the blue wooden goat, to predict almost everything that will happen to our country, government, parties and every individual in 2015.
But alongside this understanding of the new year, which has become popular in Latvia, there is another one. It seems significant to me that the reckoning of years is traditionally based on the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, with which our era begins. Even historians, when speaking of some event in our era, not infrequently write – such and such a year after Christ. Anno Domini (Lat.) – the year of the Lord, or, abbreviated, A.D. In the tradition of the Christian church, when greeting the faithful in the new year, it is said: A blessed, for example, 2015th year of the Lord’s grace!
And is that not more understandable when living in the European cultural space? Not only more understandable, but this way of reckoning the years gives each coming year a far more hopeful perspective. By perceiving each new calendar year as a year after the birth of Christ, we bring into the reckoning of time the spiritual dimension that is spoken of so much and so warmly at Christmas. We bring in an understanding of linear time, which means that time is not like a circular motion around the face of a clock, or around the circle of the signs of the zodiac, the “circle of beasts,” but like a path that leads somewhere, leads out and leads away.
The metaphor of the path has been known in many cultures since ancient times. And it is interpreted in various ways.
For example, the labyrinth as a path that symbolizes the course of a person’s life. We can apply this each to our own personal life as well. In the practice of Eastern meditation, the labyrinth symbolizes the path to a person’s inner center, in which, uniting with themselves, they return to the world already in a transformed form. In Christianity the labyrinth is a metaphor for the spiritual path, which is in deep connection with Christ, who says: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He leads us out of circling around our Ego, out of circling among the signs of the zodiac, uniting us with Himself and transforming us into spiritual beings, into homo Spiritus. And that means that our character and our life’s path or fate are no longer determined by the position of the heavenly luminaries, or by the character traits of some animal, but by our relationship with God.
Spiritually, a path is direction and development. If entering the new year is for us like a path that leads and leads out, and if this walking takes place under the sign of God’s grace, that means that each coming year will be full of hope and gain for us. Whatever events may await us, we are aware that we are in development. For God’s grace is no longer a metaphor, but is the real, creative action of God in our lives. God’s grace means His guidance, His help and His protection, which, in the time allotted to us here on earth, allow us to overcome various crises and grow spiritually. Going further along the labyrinth of our life together with God, our path will be purposeful and meaningful. Entering the new year, it will no longer seem important what, for example, the blue wooden goat promises, but much more important will be God’s promises.
May we succeed in living a blessed and good 2015th year after Christ!
A happy 2015th year of the Lord’s grace!
Photo: Αγγελιοφόρος, http://www.mikresagelies.gr (11.04.2014)