We are the Magi Now
“Wise Women Also Came” by Jan Richardson
Last March I started my first ministry as a congregational pastor.
Though I was ordained 6 years ago, and started my training over 13 years ago, it was only last year that I was finally hired in a church…of sorts. You see, in addition to this clairvoyant ministry, I’m also the pastor of a senior living community.
My congregants are the residents of a facility that includes nursing care, rehab suites, dementia and alzheimer’s units, and assisted living. I joke that despite my best efforts, I ended up with a congregation after all.
On paper I was hired as the Director of Spiritual Services. In practice, I’m the in-home pastor for over 350 residents and staff.
When I first started I spoke with an activity aide and asked her why she worked here. She said “I’m totally in love with the residents. It’s all about them.” I thought that was a sweet sentiment but never imagined it could be true for me.
9 months later, I am totally in love with each and every resident here. I love the way each standardized room can be personalized with a family quilt, grandchildren’s art, and many strange knick knacks that survived all the way to the nursing home.
I love seeing people in all kinds of mental, physical, and emotional states making a way for themselves despite all odds.
The folks recovering from strokes, those with degenerative genetic diseases, those who have just given up, those who have been abandoned, those who get visits every day, those who simply had no place else to go.
All of them here; playing bingo, painting little pumpkins, watching old black and white westerns day after day and - here’s where I come in - coming to church and bible study every week to sing and pray as best they’re able.
Need some direction in your life task work (aka. your job!)? Book a Clairvoyant Counseling call to find clarity for next steps.
Before working here, I only read the flashy, exciting scripture.
But being in charge of running both a weekly worship and Bible study has forced me to read quite a bit more of the scriptures than I ever wanted to. The result has been astounding.
First, I sincerely CANNOT believe that Christ said and did all the things recorded in scripture and we still have the kind of brutal oppressive christianitites we have today. Like, people have you even read this stuff?!
But I won’t drag us into that rabbit hole today.
The other amazing thing about actually reading through the scriptures is discovering all the little white lies that I was never aware of before. Which leads me to the point of this article.
Folks, I just discovered last week that the Magi came after Christ was born. Like, months after.
Not only that, but they stirred up a bit of a political scandal when they came. As the story goes in Luke, these Wise men from the East (Persia? Babylon?) came in their finest, bearing royal gifts meant only for royal babies, asking about a freaking king who would lead the nation of Israel.
Why was this scandalous? Because they were asking the current king - Herod, a man known for resorting to violent means to protect his power - if he knew where to find this rightful king of the weak and terrified populace of Israel.
This is kind of like someone going to the POTUS’s office and asking if he’s heard about the new US POTUS of the undocumented, migrant strawberry pickers and could he kindly direct them where to deliver their gifts of an audience with EU leaders, a UN chairmanship, and 523 electoral votes in the next election.
Herod runs a play called “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” and gets the MAGA priests and lobbyists (Pharisees and Saducees) involved and thus all of Jerusalem is mightily stirred up.
Predictably, Herod schemes to have the babe destroyed. What babe? The babe with the power. The wise men find the infant Christ but then, wisely, return home by another route.
Need a new relationship with scripture? Book a Clairvoyant Counseling call and let’s clear some old religious programming.
My preaching teachers taught me to ask, “Who am I in this Scripture?”
I have at times been the Pharisee; the religious expert drunk on power and blind to the real presence of God. I have also been a Saducee; a scholar so dedicated to enforcing the laws of ancient texts that I couldn’t see real life happening in front of me.
And I have surely been Herod; someone so scared of losing what tenuous power I have that I was willing to kill even babies rather than have a drop of humilty.
But as I read the Epiphany story this year I thought perhaps God is now calling us to be the Magi.
We are currently living in a world totally gripped by a brutal, karmic, life-devastating colonization playing out most obviously in the genocide in Gaza but by no means ending there.
The ancient Greek word epiphania from which we get this post-Christmas season’s name - Epiphany - was used to describe the sudden and powerful manifestation of a god, in this case Christ. It has escaped exactly no one’s attention that the Gaza genocide is the place where a VERY POWERFUL epiphany once occured.
From that epiphany emerged an enlightened avatar who preached the basileia - the imminent/already Kin-dom of God - which you yourself could discover if you were willing to pass through the veil of the apokálypsis. That’s right, the Apocalypse otherwise known as the great unveiling.
And what is this Kin-dom that is unveiled?
The astounding reality that we are all one; that what we do to our brothers and sisters we do to ourselves. And why would someone not want to see that? Because we do horrifying things to each other and the pain of facing that goes beyond words, time, and space. If we truly saw, it would change everything.
Now I just crammed 10 years worth of PhD level Christian theology and Buddhist philosophy into three short paragraphs but here’s what I’m thinking.
We are the Magi now; the ones called to tell the ruling tyrants that we have seen the star of a new king.
We, each one of us, is called to carry our most precious gifts through dangerous lands, into dangerous temples and courts, and proclaim that we will only follow the king to come.
We are called to seek the most tender, vulnerable, and at-risk people and proclaim them the greatest among us instead of the least.
We are called to use all our wisdom, planning, and strategy to keep each other alive under a global empire that kills children for sport.
We are the Magi now; us teachers of children, medicine people for the sick, ministers of the nursing homes, lovers of the land, authors and writers of the truth, therapists to the spiritually wounded, and artists and healers of all kinds.
May you answer the call in your soul’s perfect way with courage, wisdom, and the strength of God always at your back.
In Spirit and Power,
Cindy
WORKSHOP ON SUNDAY!
Foundations of Energetic Hygiene and Boundaries
Tula Hot Yoga in Denver 2pm
As we are called to our holy work of being the Magi it is essential that our physical/emotional/mental/spiritual energetics are strong and bright. So may of us are waking up to the reality that this is an energy world and we are part of it.
But so few of us have ever had any training on how to protect, balance, and empower our own energy. As human beings - i.e. creatures that love to explore each other’s energy - it is so important to be conscious of what’s happening with those energetic systems.
Come join us for this 1-hour workshop to learn the foundations of energetic hygiene. We’ll cover:
The foundations of healthy aura layers and the outer covering
Using astral roses and spirit allies for protection, permissions, and dealing with energy headed your way
Becoming conscious of when others’ energy is in your space (or you’re in their’s)
How to set spiritual rules for the rooms you’re in
Respectfully inviting others’ energy to join you in a good way
Working with spirit allies for protection and energetic support
Physical shamanic tools for holding your spac
Working with my dear friends, the Christ and Mary Magdalene, for becoming a healing presence and walking blessing as the best protection of all
And more!
See you there, Magi!
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Artwork? Top image is “Wise Women Also Came” by Jan Richardson. Second image is by Anastasia Tsvetkova;
