Anybody who knows me, or anybody who has read my first post on this blog, knows that while I was raised Catholic, I very quickly challenged the teachings of the church and instead conducted my own life long inquiry into the big questions like, “where did we come from?” and, “what is the meaning of life?” As another Christmas season is upon us, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of my findings with the world.

When we look at the Christmas icons and symbols used in the modern day, it is fitting that they have very little to do with the biblical protagonist known as Jesus Christ. Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, and the Yule log each have about as much to do with story of Christ as does the actual date of December 25th, the birth of God’s “son” and the Three Kings.

Santa Claus, in the form that we know him to take today, was originally designed to be a marketing mascot for Coca-Cola almost a century ago. While there are many pagan deity origin theories that claim to be responsible for the introduction of Santa Claus into the modern winter tradition, my favorite is a more mortal and terrestrial practice involving Siberian shamans who delivered hallucinogenic mushrooms to villagers during the winter solstice.

First, the medicine man would find and pick the red and white Amanita muscaria mushrooms growing on the forest floor near the base of the trees, which explains the placement of our wrapped Christmas gifts today. Then, as he moved around the forest collecting more specimens, the shaman would stick them, stem first, into the branches and needles of a central tree where they would sit to dry before eventually being collected and placed into his sack. The mushroom caps would be oriented outwards, appearing as spherical orbs, similar to our glass globe Christmas tree ornaments! When the snow would pile up in front of the door to the yurt, a primitive residential dwelling native to the region, the shaman would enter through the hole in the top of the structure designed to allow smoke to escape from the warming fire inside. Even the red and white robe that is synonymous with Santa Claus is said to be worn by these arctic fungal pharmacists in a show of reverence to their great gift of nature. At least this explains Santa’s “trip” with the “flying reindeer” and Rudolph’s red nose!

The “Yule” log and the “Yule”-tide greeting is a clue that reveals the Celtic pagan origins of the celebration known by the same name that was centered around the winter solstice. It wouldn’t be the only time that the church has adopted pagan iconography to help convert indigenous peoples into devout adherents. Look no further then the solar significance of the circle embedded within the sign of Christ’s crucifixion found on the Celtic cross. The “Madonna and Child” symbolism is just another example that we’ll see repeated as we move further south geographically to what is commonly referred to as the cradle of civilization, the ancient middle east.

The Babylonians, inhabitants of the land of Sumer in Mesopotamia, known today as Iraq, celebrated the birth of Tammuz, the son of Nimrod from the mother Semiramis on December 25th. This same trinity has parallel story elements to the Egyptian pantheon of Horus, born to father Osiris and mother Isis a well as the Hindu “Son of God” Krishna was also born from the father Vishnu and virgin mother Devaki. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia during this time of year by engaging in seven days of partying followed by gift giving.

Anybody who does even an introductory study of ancient civilizations will find that, long before the age when Jesus supposedly lived, there had been numerous stories of a “son” of God, being born to a virgin mother, on or around the date of December 25th, who would later perform miracles. The more likely explanation is that, in man’s quest to understand his existence, he has constantly tried to personify the nature around him by ascribing an anthropomorphic human framework to the objects that make up his perceivable reality. All stories of the mythical “Gods” can be more accurately described as Astrotheology: the worship of celestial, or heavenly bodies such as the planets, the moon and the stars.

With this understanding and by integrating the history of cultures that predate Christianity we can piece together a more complete picture of the origins of our most beloved Christmas tradition. To the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, the sun would appear to be reaching the lowest point in the horizon along its daily travel across the sky as the calendar approached the winter solstice. After maintaining that same low point for three days, the arc of the sun’s travel across the sky would finally start to ascend again on December 25th, leading to increasingly longer and warmer days as the spring season approached. Thus, the birth of the “Son (sun)!” The Three Kings who followed the star in the East to greet the new born baby Jesus were merely the alignment of the three starts in the “belt” of the constellation of Orion aligned with the bright star Sirius as they can be seen during this time of year in the night’s sky.

The bible actually warns it’s followers not to focus on certain dates or times but if the case I present here isn’t proof enough that the holiday of Christmas has nothing to do with Christ, let’s look at the latest deceptions that have been integrated into the annual tradition. We all grew up mindlessly chanting the line in the seemingly innocuous Christmas carol, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” about him knowing when we were sleeping and knowing when we were awake but there’s an even more sinister plot afoot in modern households that can be found lurking in the bedrooms of today’s children. The Elf on the Shelf is the latest craze in surveillance propaganda. It’s a children’s book that includes an elf doll which is intended to be posed and moved by parents in the middle of the night while the child sleeps. This only serves to further the conditioning of the world’s youth to accept the constant spying by our governments which will normalize the invasion of our privacy and ultimately lead to the abolishment of our right to due process.

Religion is for people who either don’t know how, or who can’t be bothered, to think for themselves. Whether we raise our children to speak the false language of authority through the misguided story of the sun personified as a man or by the introduction of Santa’s spies, we are raising a generation of beings that will believe that one person has the ability to be superior to, and therefore rule over, another being. Combine that with a tradition that today largely involves gathering together in celebration around a table of needlessly slaughtered animals and It’s no wonder that we have endless wars and suffering on this planet. To be clear, I’m not an atheist, I’m actually agnostic and I consider myself to be extremely spiritual. I recognize that God exists all around us, both in the energy that drives the sciences of this reality and also within the soul of each and every living thing on this plane of existence. This year I urge everyone to break free from the logical fallacies of tradition, learn how to think critically for yourselves, question authority and teach those around you to exercise moral consistency in a life of service to others, both man and animal.

Quit your cult today!

-Sean Galt