Reflections on Easter

Reflections On Easter

The highest and most important of all Christian Festivals is Easter. Did you know that its date depends on the Moon, a full Moon to be precise? This year 2016 Easter falls on 27th March, whereas in the year 2011 it took place on 24th April, in 2010 on 4th April, in 2009 on 12th April and in 2008 very early indeed on 23rd March. If you have ever wondered, like I used to do, why the Easter dates should fluctuate so wildly, you may find the result of my investigations into this matter of interest.

It is a well-known fact by now that the event Christianity commemorates as Easter was originally a celebration that honoured the resurrection of all nature. Its date was based on astrological calculations. With the appearance of Christianity this feast was adopted as Easter and a biblical event into the church’s calendars. One cannot help wondering how much our modern day church fathers are aware that the date for their Easter festivities to this day is based on astrology/astronomy, which in the olden days still were one.

A long time ago, to be precise in the year 325 AD, the tenderly guiding hand of the Unseen, who on all levels of life cares and provides for every need of our whole world and all its inhabitants, plant, animal and human alike, steered the members of the Church Council of Nicaea into an important decision. At one of their meetings the Church fathers decreed that Easter should from then onwards be celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full Moon after the vernal equinox. Should the full moon occur on a Sunday, Easter would have to wait until the following Sunday. That is why to this day the date of Easter can fluctuate so wildly.

Clearly, the underlying reason for coming to this decision is an astrological one. The timing of Easter was simply taken over from the pagan traditions. They were ever more forcefully suppressed by the followers of the Christian faith, when this belief system spread. In the same way many of the ancient pagan customs were gradually integrated into the new faith and re-appeared, only thinly disguised, in its celebrations.

The vernal equinox is the event that marks the Sun’s entry into Aries. Its date fluctuates slightly from year to year. A full Moon is visible in the sky each time the Sun and the Moon are in exact opposition to each other. At Easter the two signs of the zodiac involved are cardinal Aries, the point of all new beginnings, and cardinal Libra, the sign of marriage and partnerships. The spring equinox brings us the renewal of the marriage vows between Heaven and Earth, so that new life may spring forth on all its levels. Let me illustrate how the Easter date is calculated with an example. In the year 2008 the first full Moon after the equinox took place on Friday the 21st March. Easter therefore had to be celebrated as early as the 23rd March. All very simple, don’t you think?

Ah, as ever there’s more to this than meets the eye. It is remarkable that each time the Sun moves into one of the cardinal signs is marked by a special event, either an equinox or a solstice which calls for a special celebration, whose origins are lost in the mists of time. Somehow humankind has always known, in the earliest stages of our colonisation of planet Earth we probably merely sensed instinctively that Cardinal energy brings to our world some kind of a new beginning, when a fresh outburst of creative ideas from the highest levels of life flow into our race’s consciousness. It is more than likely that you and I spent quite a few of our past lifetimes in some of the pagan traditions. If that were not the case, we would hardly be interested in matters like this one. So, shall we continue with our investigations?

We probably took part in rituals of worship that celebrated the Sun’s entry into Aries as the rebirth of the Sun for our world. Worshipping the Sun and the elements was all humankind knew in those days. Anything of a higher nature would have been impossible for us to grasp so early on. What a long way we and our world have come since then! Now that at last we are learning to look beyond the end of our noses and deeper into what happened and why, it can be recognised that everything that took place in our world, even in ancient times, invariably had hidden esoteric meanings and was of great significance.

With this understanding it comes clear why the most important focal point of all earthly acts of worship has always been the Sun, who in the olden days was celebrated as the giver and source of all life. Over the ages, this theme remained unchanged. It was just that, as our race slowly progressed into a greater comprehension of spiritual ideas, the symbol given by the wise ones in charge of us on the Highest levels for this provider of life became a different one. God’s truth is unchangeable. It’s just that from time to time the name and description of a concept has to alter, so that we can grasp its meaning better, although the underlying truth remains unchanged. That is why God’s truth, which from the very beginning of Earth life has been with us, is that the Sun in the sky above us is a physical manifestation and at the same time a symbol of the Great Light, the Universal Christ, the only born Son/Daughter of the Great Father/Mother of all life. How wonderful that all the ancient rituals and ceremonies that are still known to our world already contained this message in seed form!

Let us turn to astrology to help us understand that truly for all earthlings Easter is the most sacred time of the year. This has nothing – and yet, in a way everything – to do with Christianity. What I mean is a much higher and elevated version of the Christianity that our world has known, up to now. Although many to this day are as yet unaware of the true meaning of their celebrations, they are taking part in a great Cosmic event, in which every lifeform on all life’s levels throughout the whole of Creation is involved. Our Creator has wisely provided that in Aries the Sun should be in its exaltation, so that as it moves through this sign the life force pours particularly powerfully into all life, not only that of the Earth. Our Sun is but one of the many outer physical and spiritual manifestations of the Universal Christ Spirit’s energies that are constantly flowing from the highest levels into all life, including that of the Earth, to support and maintain it.

The vernal equinox marks the points when, on the physical level of the life on our planet, the strength of the Sun is at its greatest in the Northern hemisphere and at its lowest in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa. Yet, there is no need to suspect that one part could be receiving preferential treatment. Because of our oneness on the inner level, everybody constantly receives the Sun’s blessings, wherever they may be. After the gradual slowing down of the life force on our planet during the autumn and winter months in the Northern hemisphere, spring is the time of year designed to help all growing things of the Earth to forge ahead with great vigour. The Southern part of our globe has to wait its turn for this to happen until six months later.

The words Easter and its German equivalent Ostern have their origin in Ēostre or Ostara, Old English: Ēastre, Northumbrian dialect Ēostre; Old High German: Ôstara, is a Germanic divinity who, by way of the Germanic month bearing her name, Northumbrian: Ēosturmōnaþ; West Saxon: Ēastermōnaþ; Old High German: Ôstarmânoth, is the namesake of the festival of Easter. Ēostre is attested by the Venerable Bede c.673-735, English theologian and historian, who in his eighth century work ‘The Reckoning of Time’ states that during Ēosturmōnaþ, the equivalent of April, the pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in Eostre’s honor, but that this tradition had died out by his time. It was replaced by the Christian Paschal month, a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

By way of linguistic reconstruction, the matter of a goddess called Austrō in the Proto-Germanic language has been examined in detail since the foundation of Germanic philology in the 19th century by scholar Jacob Grimm and others. As the Germanic languages descend from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), linguists have traced the name to a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn Hewsṓs (Ausṓs), from which descends the Common Germanic divinity from whom Ēostre and Ostara are held to descend. Scholars have linked the goddess’ name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names in England, over 150 2nd century BCE matronae Austriahenae – inscriptions discovered in Germany, and have debated whether or not Eostre is an invention of Bede’s. Theories connecting Ēostre with records of Germanic Easter customs, including hares and eggs, have been proposed. Ēostre and Ostara are sometimes referenced in modern popular culture and are venerated in some forms of Germanic neopaganism.

The three videos below are about the origins of the religions of our world. It is not hard to see from them that the Jesus legend is but a new version and a re-interpretation of an ancient myth that has been with our race for a very long time.

• Video 1
• Video 2
• Video 3

Part 2

The ancient Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris reinterpreted and retold in the Jesus legend.

• ‘The Christian Adoption of Egyptian Iconography, Symbolism And Myth’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM9-8qj_Js8

(Please copy and paste the above links into your browser.)

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The Full Moon

What has the full Moon to do with the things I told you about in the previous the previous chapter? And why does it have to be the first full Moon after the Equinox? Physically as well as spiritually, each full Moon reflects the maximum amount of the Sun’s light onto the Earth. Esoterically, light is God’s wisdom and knowledge that brings increased understanding to humankind.

Astrologically, the Moon is the symbol of our soul and its earthly personality with its many and varied experiences, through which we all have to learn and grow. Thus, our soul – the Moon – slowly gathers light, i.e. knowledge and wisdom from the Sun – our Highest Spirit Self – that disperses the darkness of our earthly self’s ignorance. When we share our learning with those around us and so lighten up their darkness, God’s eternal wisdom and truth through us enters some more into our world and in this way grows ever more powerful. The soul is the memory bank in which every bit of knowledge our earthly selves gather is stored.

One Moon cycle takes approx. twenty-nine and a half days and when the Sun and the Moon are in opposition to each other in the sky, a full Moon illuminates our world at night. This is always a very special time for giving thanks for everything that is and ever has been in our lives. It is also a time for finding enlightenment. Now, this does not usually happen through majestic earth-shattering and world-changing flashes of inspiration, like the Buddha is said to have received.

But if you watch out around the time of the full Moon in future, you may notice that you are gradually finding a greater understanding of difficult life situations and relationships. Insights may come to you that will somehow make them more bearable and it is possible to help things along a bit. If there are things in your life that are puzzling you, maybe have been doing for a long time, turn to your inner teacher, the Moon, the Universe – whichever appeals to you most – and ask your questions. The answers are sure to come, sometimes when you least expect them. To show your readiness to receive them, make sure to set aside regular quiet times for quiet reflections, contemplations and meditations.

Because of the extra mighty outflow of the blessing and healing power of the Cosmic Christ around Easter, it makes a great deal of sense to place its celebrations as closely as possible to the full Moon after the vernal equinox. And as in a physical and spiritual sense the full Moon reflects a maximum amount light of the Sun onto the Earth, humankind’s celebrations of all times have always ensured that it is received as fully as possible. Thus, the love of the Sun, who all along has stood for the Son, who in the Christian tradition became known as the only born Son of God, has gradually come increasingly alive in our world. Over the ages, it has been reborn in ever more earthly hearts that, one way or another, were being prepared by the celebrations of whatever faith they may have confessed to and followed, during any one of their many lifetimes.

I find it astonishing how the ancients, just the same as the early Christians, fixed the date of Easter and celebrated it, each tradition in its own style, without having a clue of the higher meaning of their ceremonies that to this day may still be hidden to a great many of its followers. And isn’t it amazing how thorugh the ages humankind was always guided into doing the right things? For example, that we celebrated Easter in spite of not knowing that in truth we were taking part in a great Cosmic event, to which the Universe invites all who understand and are thus ready to consciously take part in the festivities, if they so wish. And what would you say if I told you that most of the insights I am sharing here with you came to me around the time of the full Moon before the vernal equinox? Here the Sun and Moon are in opposition in the signs Pisces, ruled by Neptune, the enlightener, and Virgo, the healing and teaching sign of the zodiac, ruled by Mercury, the messenger of the Gods.

Some of the ancient pagan rituals and ceremonies date back to the earliest human settlements on the Earth and are still known and practised to this day. Carrying them forward into Christianity and continuing with them, in a somewhat changed format, ensured an uninterrupted flow of the great festival’s true purpose. These blessings of the Universal Christ have always taken place and will continue for as long as there is any need for them anywhere. It is astonishing to be able to see now how all this went on behind the scenes, unencumbered by any of the beliefs that are by now wildly outdated, which at any given time our world was desperately trying to cling on to.

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Easter Hymn

Awake, O wintry Earth.
Fling off thy sadness.
Fair spring flowers, laugh forth
And share with us
Thy ancient gladness.

Thomas Blackburn
Edited by Aquarius

Each time the Sun enters into Aries
On the day of the vernal equinox,
The uprushing fountain of life
Brings us a joyous period of
Rebirth and regeneration of all life
Mother Earth’s is holding in her loving embrace.

This is the event our world has always celebrated
At Easter and I wish that for you and your loved ones
This year’s will be the happiest one ever.
To help bringing this about,
Extra special blessings are flowing your way
That are filled with the love and warmth
Of the Highest realms of life.

Happy Easter to the worldwide circle of
My spiritual family and friends.
With love and light,
Aquarius

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