The Miracles of Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas is well-known for his miracles. Healing and helping, saving and restoring human souls and bodies.

Three small children were gleaning in the fields. As they worked and played, they wandered off into the town. Walking about and exploring, the children forgot the time.

When it was late and the sun going down, the children were hungry, tired and lost. They came to a lighted butcher’s shop, knocked and said, “We are lost and hungry. May we eat and sleep?” “Oh, yes,” came the reply, “do come in.”

As they enter, the butcher takes a sharp knife, cuts them up, and puts them in a large salting tub. Seven years pass.

A knock comes on the door. Bishop Saint Nicholas appears, saying to the evil butcher, “Open your large salting tub!” The saint puts his hand on the tub and, appealing to God, says, “Rise up, children.” The little children awake and stand up. Their families joyfully welcome them home.

Ever since St. Nicholas has been the patron and protector of children.

The legend of healing and restoring the bodies of the 3 children after being cut by the Evil butcher is very common in the Western Europe. The parable by Peter Dunov of saint Nicholas, putting together all pieces of 3 cut children, is popular in Bulgaria, Eastern Europe. In my eyes this parable brings additional context to the events, described in the Western legend.

Saint Nicholas doesn’t eat cream

A cleric loved to eat cream, but his wife loved to eat cream even more, so until he was still intending to taste it, his wife got ahead with eating it. Whole 30 years he alone prepared the yogurt, but when it was ready, his wife always managed to eat the cream. Until he decided to bring the pot with yogurt to the church and locked it inside. However, his wife managed to find it even there, she gathered the cream and for covering her acts, she painted with cream the mustaches of saint Nicholas, to look like as if he ate the cream. The cleric came back, looked for the milk, found it, but the cream was missing. He looked around, saw on the mustaches of saint Nicholas traces of cream.

“Ah – he said, - I didn’t see it coming from you, saint Nicholas! Whole 30 years I am at your service, and you ate my cream! I would not serve you anymore.”

He fleeted into the world, intending to feed and eat cream, free from his wife and saint Nicholas. But saint Nicholas decided to teach him a lesson and walked after him, as an old man, and asked him:

“Son, where is you’re going?”

He told his story

“I used to be a cleric, but I loved eating cream. My wife used to eat my cream and I hid the pot in the church, but in my absence saint Nicholas ate it, that’s why I renounced my service to him and I escaped even from him.”

“Well, such things happen sometimes, humans are full of sins” – said the old man.

He went after him. They approached a village. The old man told him:

“Stay with me in this village.”

They went into a house. Saint Nicholas asked:

“Do you have a sick child?”

“We have one.”

He entered inside, examined the child, asked for a small bathtub and warm water and started to wash the child. As he washed it, he cut it into pieces: his abdomen, legs, took out its eyes, cut the ears – generally speaking, he cut the child as a surgeon. After that he took each piece of child’s body, and put it into its place. The child resurrected and lived at once. The cleric, as he was watching all this, he thought:” Here is a very easy job for me, I could do it myself and I could easily earn for cream.” On the next day he told the old man:

“Old man, stay here, I have some business to do, so I will leave you here for a while.”

He wanted to go to another village, to practice healing by himself, and so to earn for some cream. Saint Nicholas told him:

“Ok, son, whenever you find yourself in trouble, call me and I will come.”

They separated and the cleric went into another village. He entered the house and asked.

“Do you have a sick child?”

“We have one.”

He entered inside and started to heal the child in the way, he saw the old man does. He cut the child in pieces, he put them together and waited for the child to resurrect. He waited, but the parts didn’t stick together, the child didn’t live. He found himself in trouble and soon he called saint Nicholas. The old man came, put the parts together, resurrected him and said to the cleric:

“You must have known that saint Nicholas doesn’t eat cream."

About the children in the parable nothing is said – if they were only little ones or grown-up students, metaphorically or literally drugged, robbed, and murdered. The have been mentioned only as hungry, tired, lost, later sick, meaning children in great suffering and trouble. Both versions are possible, because even grown-up humans usually like being called children – rainbow children, Aquarius children, Crystal children, Indigo children, Z-generation children, X-generation children and so on. Which is very related to Pisces Archetype’s expression – playful boys and girls, swimming in an ocean of profound visions and divine reflections. The delusional Sagittarius loves to tell stories about some distant merciful places, where anything beautiful surrounds and touches softly one’s skin. In reality, more precisely one’s skin is living and touching the kindness of planet Earth, the unique balanced fire, earth, air and water World (Capricorn). The Sabian Symbol of Capricorn 14'00" – 15'00" ” Many toys in children’s hospital” explains the kindness, the abundance, the grace we all have been given. Among the 12 Zodiac signs, the mutable ones (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) are very related to the lies. But also related to sharing new information, important changes. The Gemini and their Ruler Mercury want to be known as little children, who love to demonstrate the magic of mind trickeries with their audience. The solution here is one person’s child identification to communicate to another person’s child identification, and one’s person’s adult identification – to another person’s adult identification. In this sense the legend of saint Nicholas is completing the Gemini’s challenge for balancing duality, hence it could be useful, on one hand, to any child, and on the other, to any adult. The children feel like participating and meeting friends in this innocent adventure: children, as they are, were playing in the fields, but got into troubles. Luckily, because of all being nice, in the happy ending the little ones have been saved and healed. The adults recognize fellow adults in uncertain and hostile world with worries and custody for themselves and their children, problems and traps for everyone everywhere as in their everyday life… which are very Virgo characteristics. Actually, Mercury rules this sign; an earth sign, also a mutable one, as well ruled as Gemini. The endless complaining of the Virgo cannot be trusted – the world (Capricorn) is not that chaotic and cold. Don’t worry, be happy 😊

About the evil butcher in my opinion, he is this particular desperate cleric. He was dying for tasting some cream. Even less pleasant than dying the cleric experiences the abstinence/ hangover of the lack of sweet fruits (cream) of the previous age (times), meaning the times (his wife and) he most probably has been enjoying the taste and the abundance of cream. In Peter Dunov’s story the cleric has been serving for 30 years to saint Nicholas and no cream for him (hungry and tired), and thanks to the addition of the Western story, I realized, that therefore he followed (got lost inside) the evil impulses and became the first sick child identity in Peter Dunov’s background of this legend. The miracles of saint Nicholas have actually cleaned and saved the beliefs of the cleric: 1) from the challenges of the mutable signs; 2) from the evil inclinations of hunger (abstinence), tiredness (worries), dissociative disorder (fears); 3) from adult identification as the bad guy (butcher or innkeeper in this legend). And so, all parts of the first child have been cut and put into its places. The purity in cleric’s impulses has been restored – his initial adult form and purpose have been resurrected as well – a cleric in service to saint Nicholas.

… Since Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius are before Capricorn, and Pisces is the only mutable sign beyond, Pisces has the honor to tell the news, that Life inside and beyond the world/ winter/ Capricorn is possible and even beautiful. In other words, the mainstream Sagittarius used to say: “Brace yourselves – Winter is coming”. The educated, the true Sagittarius knows, that no matter of the expected coldness in the near future, spring would warm the Earth again, that the life would restore its colors and charms. Just as Gahl Sasson revealed Sagittarius’ best abilities for predictions. Since now the South Node is in Sagittarius, it is the perfect moment to take off from true hunger, tiredness and dissociative disorders and to head to cleaned truth about unknown and inconceivable events, divine and infinite worlds (Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces). … Like Zeus (Jupiter), who led the Greek Gods out of the body of Chronos (Saturn)… Pisces is living not in illusions, in some far, far, far away cold icy palace alone, but in the cozy abundant place of the Capricorn, where all stones (points of view) became diamonds, together with the best friend ever – the Aquarius - and the views are astonishing...

About the sickness of the children, it is very possible to suffer from contemporary problems with addictions, deep fears, namely paranoia and obsessions, anxiety and worry. These mental illnesses are caused not only from difficult life, but also from alcohol and substances misuse. Maybe humans shaded their soul and body with dirt, which they couldn’t recycle and this made them sick in a certain way. Maybe this dirt changed us and sent us far away from our essence and from the idea of the creation. Like taking more credits, than in reality one could cash. Which leads to distortions in one’s Fire element. In this context my friend from university Ayten told me the story about the magical night of Qadr. Here is what she said:

“The Prophet (I presume she implies Mohammad, the Muslim prophet) – peace of his spirit, went to pray for an answer – which is the night – hour and day, on which all prayer would be fulfilled. He received an answer. He went out of the mosque to share with his fellow humans the news. But what he saw – two drunkards fighting over an insignificant thing. And said: “This is a sign not to give you the exact time and hour. You don’t deserve it. But still among you there are believers – only for them I say – the night Qadr and the nights around this date – pray a lot, because destinies could be changed.” If one is a believer, a sign comes to prompt when exactly to pray, but if no sign comes – you better pray on the Qadr night itself. The Arabs have another calendar with numbers, that’s why according to our calendar this date is different every year. For 2020 it was 19th of May.”

… for 2021 – 8th of May.

Believe it or not, but the very comments of Peter Dunov about the parable “Saint Nicholas doesn’t eat cream” are strongly related to not fulfilled desires.

“And we, the contemporary humans, are from those, who want from God this or that and when He doesn’t give it to us, we give up our beliefs and say: “I don’t believe in anything anymore, I give up on God, everything in this world in monkey business.” No, this is delusion. Which the right thing? There is something right in this world. There is a deep belief in every soul. It is the belief of God’s Kingdom.”