The word epiphany literally means manifestation. But not exactly in the 21st-century use of it. Manifestation in this sense means “things that appear.” Things that present themselves before us, anticipating our attention, positioning themselves for it, believing in our ability to recognize that a sign post with instructions has just popped up out of the ground, seemingly from nowhere. A gift has arrived like an Amazon package on your porch that you didn’t remember ordering. Joy to the world.
The level at which our sense of intuition is firmly grounded determines our ability to connect with the things that manifest before us. They can be people, found objects, surprising insights. Suddenly appearing in the form of an abundant blessing. Do you see them when they appear? That’s the challenge. That is literally the practice.
Jan. 6 every year is the beginning, in the Christian world, of a season known as Epihanytide. It lasts until the beginning of Lent in February.
In Christian scripture, it is the time following the Magi’s presentation of themselves and their gifts to the Christ child, thus beginning a period of acknowledgement and celebration of his manifestation. It was as if the Magi’s manifestation in the Christ child’s life was the world’s acknowledgement of his social emergence into the world. By birth he manifested on the planet, by the Magi’s acknowledgement he manifested into the world. Later, by trial in the wilderness, he manifested into his ministry.
Christianity, however, is not the only tradition to have overlaid this time with a tradition intended for the receiving of gifts, abundance and blessing. During the festival of Aeon in Alexandria, in ancient Egypt, for instance, pagans celebrated the birth of the god Aeon who was born from the virgin goddess Kore on the night of Jan. 5-6. Rituals included an all-night vigil where a wooden image of Aeon, marked with golden crosses, was carried around a temple. Early Christians in Egypt likely established Epiphany on this date to provide an “orthodox interpretation” to these existing celebrations. Also, Jan. 6 served as the date for the winter solstice in Egypt and Arabia. This “rebirth of the sun” celebrated the triumph of light over winter darkness.
Jan. 6 was also associated with the Greek god Dionysus. Tradition claimed that on this night, certain springs or rivers (like the Nile) would miraculously turn water into wine. Likely influencing the narrative elements of the Wedding at Cana miracle in Christian Epiphany liturgy, where Jesus turned water into wine.
But perhaps most meaningfully, is the underpinning reason why this time of year is celebrated and honored throughout the length of human history in its various traditions and religions. Our solar system is not perfectly circular. Many orbits, including Earth’s, are elliptical, rather than a perfectly circular one that maintains an even distance from the Sun. And the sun is not in the exact center of our mostly oval-shaped orbit either.
We make a slight slingshot around the Sun each year. Which means that, annually, we are sometimes closer, and sometimes farther away at a variance of roughly 3 million miles. Every year at this time, the Earth is at its closest point to the sun. It is a period of time referred to as the perehelion. Our greatest gift in the solar system is at this exact moment as close to us as it will ever come.
The source of all life on this planet is in its epiphany phase to us, a point of maximal solar energy, symbolically and literally representing the sun’s strength returning to us. There is even something to be recognized in the fact that it is not the Sun that moves Itself closer to the Earth, but rather, it is we who are the one that approaches.
During this sacred time, regardless of your faith or belief, take note that our closeness to Source during these days is relevant. It is intrinsic to all humanity. It connects with us on the level of mind that conceives of religions in the first place, just to give voice and form to the impulses of our hearts. Pay attention to what the closeness of the Sun draws up in you right now. For you are born from It. And It is nearby. Calling to you. The divine manifestation is truly here.
Wil Darcangelo, M.Div., is an ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister of the First Church of Lancaster at the Bulfinch Meetinghouse in Massachusetts, progressive theologian and essayist on optimistic spirituality in the Information Age. Follow him on Substack, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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