Stars As Guiding Lights
A Metaphysical Interpretation of Matt. 2:1-6
The Story of Jesus' Soul Evolution
An unpublished manuscript written by Charles Fillmore in 1947
Pages 84-89
Text
Matt. 2:1-6. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, Wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we saw his star in the east, and are come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written through the prophet,
“And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah,
Art in no wise least among the princes of Judah:
For out of thee shall come forth a governor,
Who shall be shepherd of my people Israel.”
Interpretation
The new man is called “Jesus” whose name means the same as the name “Jehovah,” the I AM, the supreme will.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea. Bethlehem means “house of bread,” or the abiding-place of substance, and Judaea means “praise,” or spiritual recognition. The tribe of Judah is symbolical of the aggregation of thoughts that acknowledges spiritual things as the one and only reality; thus the substance of which the Jesus man is born in us must be spiritual in its character.
When sense consciousness (Herod) rules, it dominates all intellectual, as well as ecclesiastical thoughts, These thoughts symbolise the chief priests and scribes of the people, all of which on this plane go to make up the intellectual man.
The Wise Men from the East symbolize the stored-up resources of the soul which rise to the surface when the soul is stirred by a great spiritual revelation. In scriptural symbology East always maans the within. The coming of tho Wise Men signifies that from the regions of the interior wisdom come thoughts of reverence for the holy life that has begun its growth in the consciousness.
When the Jesus ego first appears in the subconsciousness it is a mere spack of light, a “Star in the east.” The star symbolizes intuition; the wise men were guided by intuition. Stars represent subjective and not fully understood guiding lights. They represent the inner realms of consciousness that, like books of life, have kept the records of past lives and held them in reserve for the great day when the soul would receive the supreme ego, Jesus. The star that pointed the way for the wise men was also in the East, and it typifies man’s inner conviction of his divine sonship.
