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Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. It takes place the third day after his crucifixion.
The universal symbol for Easter is the egg, which coincidentally, is also one of the symbols used for the holiday of Passover.
There are a number of commonly held misconceptions regarding Easter, and as we unlock the inner meaning of this holiday here, these misconceptions will become apparent.
THE MYSTICAL PREMISE OF EASTER:
It is only when the body (i.e. the lower self) dies (becomes passive) that the Christ within us is able to appear.
‘Christ’ is a term that was created by the early Christian School to signify the awakened soul.
In other traditions, the words YHWH or Krishna express the same meaning as Christ.
The crucifixion is not something which happens only once in our life.
The lower self must die each time we promote the presence of the divinity, or the Christ within us.
If given the chance, the lower self would suppress the appearance of the Higher Self each time the inner chamber of the heart attempted to promote presence.
The following verse is from the gospel of Luke. The background is that Jesus is talking to his disciples. He has just shared with them the parable of a thief entering the house of a good man to rob him.
“And this know that if the good man (i.e., the steward) of the house (the lower self) had known what hour the thief (the lower part within us that steals presence) would come, he would have watched (promoted presence) and not have allowed his house to be broken through.”
The crucifixion:
Whenever the lower self is controlled by the steward so that divine presence may manifest, the lower self feels like it is dying.
And yet, this is the suffering that the lower self must face each time we are able to generate the emotional strength to promote presence.
The resurrection:
To mystics, the resurrection of Jesus is not the resurrection of a body, but rather of the soul. It signifies the awakening and the reappearance of new spiritual life (the egg).
Easter, then, commemorates the resurrection of the soul which emerges following the crucifixion of the lower self.
This resurrection is not a once in a lifetime event, but rather, occurs each time we successfully promote the presence of the soul.
The same is true of the crucifixion.
The crucifixion does not refer to the ultimate death of the physical body. Rather, it signifies a temporary death of the manifestations of the lower self, which is the prerequisite for the coming of the inner Christ.
The death of the lower self is temporary because there are very few men or women walking the planet today who are capable of promoting presence each moment of their lives without falling back to sleep. Therefore, the victory over death (imagination/spiritual sleep) is for most of us only a temporary one.
Once we fall back into a spiritual sleep in which the lower self (also known as the devil or Satan) again rules over our existence, we must begin the process of crucifixion and resurrection all over again.
EPILOGUE
Presently, armed with this new understanding of Easter, we are able to more deeply penetrate the teaching from the gospel of John that we must die to be born.
Here is Jesus speaking:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit (spiritual Wisdom) he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (the divine presence of the soul.)
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
MAY WE ALL CELEBRATE EASTER IN THIS VERY MOMENT
