The Resurrection of the Light at Easter

The Easter celebration in which we work with Easter eggs is actually one of the most ancient pagan ceremonies that there is. The egg holds many, many levels of symbolism. The egg itself is all potentiality. It holds within it the germ of everything that could be, and everything that will be. Its spherical shape is the circle of life. And the germ in the center is actually the point of life. It is the point of God/Goddess made manifest. For the symbol of the Creator oftentimes is shown in the symbol of the circle with the point in the center. In every cosmology, in every tradition, the egg has always held a very sacred place, a place of recognition, down from the macrocosm to the microcosm. In the Hindu tradition Brahma, the Creator of all that is, is born out of the universal egg, the mundane egg. On the individual level, the outer shell of the egg is seen as our personality and the germ inside is our soul, our light, our spirit that longs to be free. And it is in breaking through that shell that our spirit expresses that life. In ancient traditions the egg was given as a recognition, an honoring, similar to saying Namaste, I recognize the life in you, I recognize the potential in you and I extend to you the blessings that your potential would be made manifest. For when you consider the egg, it carries both the aspects of magnetism as well as the aspect of electrical fire. What is inside, the germ as it were, is magnetism; it is latent potentiality. All that is needed in order for an egg to manifest and express the life within in its multitude of diversity, is heat, which comes from the source of light. The egg is undivided, but when it breaks open, symbolically and from a Pythagorean understanding, you have two halves. Those of you who have been working with me know that we have worked with the Tetractys, which is the One, which seeks to know itself and divides itself into two, but it is still the One. And then you have the triangular force of three, and what do we know of that? All creation comes through that force of three. So the egg itself also carries the numerical understanding of creation, of manifestation, of all that is.

Our holiday of Easter was actually at one time celebrated three days after the Spring Equinox, with the Spring Equinox falling on March 21^st or22^nd when the sun is in Aries. Eastre was the name of a Teutonic fertility goddess, a slightly different spelling of the word, but that is the origin of the name Easter. It was recognized that this later became associated with 3 days underground, and it is said that Yeshua went underground and then emerged. And it was also associated with the tradition, the understanding, that at the Equinox the Solar God, who had emerged out of the birth that came at the Winter Solstice, came forth into its full form of adulthood, as it were, called forth in the capacity to bring forth manifested life, and it would join in union with the Lunar Goddess. So we have the sun and the moon, and they would spend 3 days in their act of joining. Then they would emerge on March 25^th and originally and for hundreds of years that was when Easter or resurrection was celebrated in the early Christian church. It was in this emerging that there had been a successful union of the magnetic and electrical potential that then allowed life to continue.

Because humans are what they are, not only did March 25^th end up being a celebratory time, but there were quite a few fights that were picked between those who celebrated it from the understanding of the early Christian standpoint, and those who celebrated from the pagan standpoint. When the Nicene Council got together in 325 BCE they decided to put an end to that kind of nonsense. They changed it to a floating holiday so that it would fall two weeks after the full Moon of the Vernal Equinox. But it still held the intention in the original understanding of the power of resurrection, because resurrection is life renewing itself. It is the promise of everlasting Life and everlasting Light.

From an initiatory standpoint the cycle is that we are as one who is dead until there is the birth of Christ in the cave within, and that occurs at the Winter Solstice. But when that light emerges, breaks through, is proclaimed, when it arises out of us and takes its rightful place and we identify with it, then that is the rite of the Vernal Equinox.

From a Theosophical standpoint as well as in the view of others, it is said that for most of humanity at this time of development there has been the successful birth of the Christ Light; that this light has indeed taken its rightful place within the body of humanity. But what we are challenged with now is to resurrect that light, to let that light arise and break forth through the shell of our personality. Humanity must be resurrected in the Light, identify with it, proclaim themselves as embodying the Christ Light, and be resurrected. And in that resurrection we are then a source of Life.

Very closely associated with the symbolism of the promise and all-potential of the egg is also what we see before us, the four Holy Creatures[i]. You will see these Beings, these Entities, this consciousness, express itself in all traditions. Qabbalistically we know them as the Winged Human placed here in the East, the Winged Lion in the South, the Eagle in the West, and the Winged Bull in the North. In truth, that is an outer expression, but we are really talking about a consciousness and we are also talking about a movement of consciousness. One of the aspects of these Beings as regents is what is called the Maharajahs, the four Great Kings. In my research I also found that they are associated with both the Cherubim and the Seraphim, and there is some confusion around this. So it seems, from my reading, that those two Dominions cross.

We tend to look at the Four Holy Creatures and see them in relationship to the four elements, and certainly that is part of the expression of their energy. But what are the four elements? Are they not the manifestation of life? These consciousnesses hold the four cardinal points, which are also four doorways. They are gateways to both inner and outer space, inner space being all potential, primordial substance, and outer space being the expression of that primordial substance as directed by the four Regents that hold these four points. These great consciousnesses, these great streams of energy, are the manifestation of fohat, cosmic energy, which if we are relating it to the egg would be the germ in the center, and in their expressions of this they serve very closely in relationship to karma. There’s that word again, oh my! But if there's no karma, there's no life. Unique concept isn’t it, because what is the point of life? What is the call of life? If life is the expression of the Divine knowing itself as the Divine, then what is karma but the capacity to achieve gnosis? So these four great Beings are deeply, profoundly associated with karma. They are also very definitely an aspect of protection. In ceremony we call to these Holy Four for their power of protection, for the fulfillment of a higher law, which is the fulfillment of the law of life, of karma, and also because they are doorways, and through these doorways the lineage moves in that is in service to that particular ceremony.

We have been called in our Pathworking today to work with these Holy Four, these four Maharajahs, as we move into the Equinox energy that is approaching. In the center of the sanctuary we have a chalice, and at its base are the four Archangels, the Regents that hold the four directions. Within the chalice are waters which carry the Star Essences from the five pole stars, and at its base is fluid collected from a birch tree. During the last ice storm one of the birch trees on the grounds received some damage. The birch is a sacred tree associated with the Axis Mundi, the Vertical Ray; and what was happening was that the waters of life were streaming out of this wound, and they formed stalactites, icicles, that flowed down from the tree. We collected some of this liquid, and we have been called to place it here below this chalice, as a symbol of the wounded Grail King, from which the life force is flowing out.

For those who know the Grail quest, Percival was on a quest for the Holy Grail when he went into the castle of the wounded King. He saw that this King had a wounding in his thigh, and it appeared that he was bleeding to death; the life force was bleeding out of him. Percival was faced with the dilemma of how to address the king, and how to address the wound. To achieve the Grail the correct initiatory action was to step beyond his sense of self-identity, his own need, and honor the king. And part of where we are being called today is to the Royal Kingship, which does not refer to one person. It is the calling forth again to the Light in all of humanity, that we would break out of the shell of our judgments, of our hatreds, of our sense of separation; that we would break forth and identify with the Light, become the Light in the interconnectedness of all Light; to proclaim the Grail, and claim the Grail, not for ourselves, because the Grail cannot be proclaimed for one. It can only be proclaimed for all. And so these symbolic waters of this sacred tree that is bleeding the waters of life out of the wound, as it is held in the Axis Mundi, held beneath this Grail which is holding the Pole Stars, surrounded by these Holy Four, and before us is a symbol of all potentiality[ii]. And the lotus[iii] is where it was said that Brahma was birthed forth as an egg in which was held all aspects of the solar system. We do not have to look far to see the expression of karma, individually, nationally, globally. Karma is written in the Book of Life by the Lipika Lords who record every moment, every act, every deed, every thought, every feeling. So in any given moment karma is moving and changing in accordance with the laws of life.

Pathworking

We cannot direct karma for I would never pretend that I could, nor would I ever invite you to do so, but it is our intention in this Pathworking to add our light, our love, our intention of will-to-good, so that the wounded King may be healed, and take its rightful place in Kingship.

(The group chants: Holy, Holy, Holy. There is the sound of a bell ringing as the chanting continues; the bell stops and the chant increases in energy, volume, tempo until it gradually quiets and ends)

Aeptha: Let the Christ within become the Christ throughout. Let the Light break through and shine, radiating out points of light. Let the shell of outer identification break and be dissolved, and the glory and the fire and the beauty of this radiant light shine forth. Our light is growing stronger, its brightness radiates, it sends a beacon above, and below. Hail to thee Four Great Kings. Hail to thee the Maharajahs.

Feel the blood that flows through you, the royal kingship, let the Wounded King be healed, let the Kingship come and the Kingdom be restored. And the great mysteries of the sound of silence, all potentiality, hear us Oh Great Mother, hear our call that the seed, the germ will express itself as love, as light, as healing, as resurrection. North and South, East and West, above and below, and all around. Hear our prayer.

"O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is discord, harmony.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sorrow, joy.

Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life."

Aeptha: Love renews all things, love heals all things, love restores all things, love is never ending, it never dies and it never leaves. But we have the choice to love, every moment we have a choice. Do we choose to fully participate in love, be the lovers of the Divine, to be the lovers of life, to be a source, a wellspring of that love? For we are all being called to be the Grail bearers, and to be the healers, for I know we have all been the Wounded King, but we are no longer wounded unless we choose to see ourselves that way, unless we choose to see others that way. Let us every moment see through the eyes of love, let us choose every moment to be the source of Light, let us choose every moment, let us choose – in consciousness.

I would invite us to take this moment, for I know we are attuned to the Great Ones that are with us, and let their love touch those places now that may still be in pain, in doubt, in fear, so that we as we go forth from this Temple, we go forth the resurrected ones.

There is a mystery in that the Four are in truth the Seven. I would invite you now to be aware of the wheels of light that you call your chakras, the seven Wheels of Light, for the Four are also wheels, they are Ezekiel’s Wheels, and they are the Seven. And so as you attune to the seven Wheels, to your seven chakras, feel their rotation, as they are harmonized and attuned to the cycle of life and death, for they are in truth one and the same, and they are growing stronger, and they are joining a vertical ray, a vertical ray of the Seven, below your feet and above your head extending the Rainbow Bridge.

And so with a new beginning, a new life, we go forth and we walk gently upon the earth, warmed by the sun, sustained by the waters. And we will release these waters[v] into the flowing waters, and they will flow back to the oceans and to the waters of life with our prayers and our blessings. And the water below that has been healed[vi] will be returned back to the Earth to move through the ley lines, to bring healing to the Earth itself and all of her glory.

[i] Statues of the four Holy Creatures on an altar in the center of the sanctuary.

[ii] Refers to the eggs on the east altar.

[iii] Refers to the lotus candle on the east altar.

[iv] From the CD City of Hymns by Tom Kenyon.

[v] The star essence water in the chalice.

[vi] The waters from the wounded tree.