The Old and the New

 

The new year is often pictured as a baby which has arrived as the old year, pictured as an old man, is getting ready to leave the scene.  Here is an example I found on-line by Sydney Levine[1]:

The implication in this is that something old must pass away i.e. die, to enable something new to be born. 

A week ago, we celebrated the baptism of Jesus Christ.  The concept of Chirstian baptism, modelled by Jesus’ baptism, captures just this idea – when you are baptised, your old life dies and you are reborn as a new person.   Jesus was given a full emersion baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist as described in the Gospel of Mark 1: 9-11:

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

Dying to the old way of life and making room for something new to be born can occur in dreams.  Someone or something dies.  This is symbolic of something in the dreamer’s life dying to enable something new in the dreamer’s psyche to be born.

I believe that this is a principle in human life.  If something new, a new way of being and living is to be born in you, you must allow something in you, some old way of being and living must die.  This is reflected in the cultural practice of making New Year’s resolutions.  These, of course, are honoured more in the breach and in the observance fairly soon after they are made on January 1^st.  I believe that this is because, deep down we do not seriously want the old way of being to die.  We hang on to our old ways because they are familiar and we won’t actually let the old way die.  This is often not a conscious decision.  This as with many things in our lives is done unconsciously.

---

[1] https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.sydneysbuzz.com%2Fout-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-43597b072775&psig=AOvVaw0NX_OmvbDNadnmKuwWb-iO&ust=1705418636630000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=2ahUKEwi468DR2d-DAxWAK1kFHU7YBxgQr4kDegQIARBy