This week, hundreds of millions of Western Christians around the world are celebrating Holy Week in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Next week, Orthodox Christians around the world will do the same. However, we in the Second Advent Church Community observe Easter as a fixed date – April 18 – each year according to the solar, not lunar, calendar. And, of course, in Cosolargy we do not recognize the resurrection of the physical body, only the resurrection of the reborn spiritual or Light Body.
In English, the word “Easter” comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre, which can be traced to an important goddess called Hausos. The goddess comes from the proto-Indo European religion, and she is the Goddess of the Dawn. Her name was reconstructed as Ausos, and in India she’s referred to Usas; in Greek Eos; and in Latin Aurora.
The name was derived from the root “To Shine,” thus, translating to “The Shining One.” The English word “East” is derived from this word, also the Latin “Aurum” meaning gold. The dawn goddess was also the Goddess of Spring. In the Anglo-Saxon world, also in the Germanic world, this time – this Easter or Eostre – was called “Eosturmonath” – or “Easter Month” – which was celebrated for the entire month of April. The Goddess of Spring was involved in the mythology of the Indo-European new year when the Dawn Goddess was liberated by God from imprisonment. She is known in the Rigveda as Indra and in ancient Greek mythology as Dionysus. So we see that it is a very important time of the year.
But how do we in the Second Advent/Cosolargy Community reconcile ourselves with this ancient observance? How do we – who do not accept the physical resurrection of the body – harmonize ourselves with this “holy week” which emphasizes the pain, sorrow and suffering of Jesus? How do we – who do not teach that he was the sacrificial Passover lamb, an offering acceptable to God whose blood is shed daily on the alters of churches around the world everywhere and that the shedding of his blood, however ritualistically, was an atonement for the sins of the world— come to terms with this notion? How do we come to terms with those many, many millions of people who do? And, how do we – who reject that Christ’s crucifixion was “good” or that it was the Will of God, holding instead that it was the murder of a Son of Light by the civil and religious authorities of the day – how do we bring that in to accord with our own teaching and theology?
We do so by emphasizing what we know to be Christ’s true message: First, that we are all endowed by the Creator of our Spiritual Beings with an eternal and immortal Soul, if we but cause that divine generative force – Christ or the Word – to penetrate into that spiritual womb. Second, that once we consent to the Word of God – the Logos – being allowed to impregnate our Spirit, that Spirit becomes animated by the Thought and Will of God the Father and becomes a living, breathing, conscious Soul, able to reason on heavenly things. Third, that once imbued with Christ Consciousness, the Soul, released from the cycle of generated existence, recalls and remembers its history and origin and consciouslyparticipates in the Worlds of Light, continually partaking of a divine Communion.
This was the message of Christ Jesus. This is what was symbolized by the Last Supper – the act of the reborn, conscious Soul partaking of the True Communion, feeding off the Word of God – the Bread from Heaven – and drinking from the Cup filled with God’s Living Water – which is Divine Light. And this is also the message of the Messianic Church of the Second Advent. The beauty of it all is that it can be done in the here and now – that our spiritual immortality and divinity can be realized while we exist in this world. And if that is accomplished, one has received the gift of the resurrection – not as something abstract to wonder about after death, but something one can experience and participate in while one lives in this world. But – and this may be the most difficult of lessons: is to learn to accomplish our spiritual quest in the way that Jesus exemplified it – with peace, love and joy.
I will continue on this theme over the next few weeks as we approach True Easter on April 18th. In the meantime, I wish you a very happy Eosturmonath.
