Easter Once Again

I have posted the following Easter comment on American Thinker:

Roman Catholicism, the original "universal" Christianity, appropriated many popular beliefs of earlier, so-called "pagan" religions, which were clasped tightly and unquestioningly by their followers in happy obedience to long, long tradition -- the colored eggs and new, green grass filled baskets of Easter, for example.

This was done to enable the swift acceptance of Christianity by the "pagans" who preceded it. They didn't call themselves that (hence the quotation marks around the name); the common-folk followers of the "pagan" religions simply called themselves the followers of one or another god or goddess, while the initiates, learned in the wider tradition, knew they were followers of the truly ancient "mysteries", or "wisdom" traditions -- handed down, it was averred, from the very "Beginning".

Easter predates Christianity, by many thousands of years. (I and I alone, could tell you just how many years, but you would have to read the whole book I wrote, "The End of the Mystery", to really accept it.) It was, and remains, an integral part of the original "Wisdom Tradition". The resurrection of Christ is tied to Easter because of that far longer tradition.

In fact, a host of other once-famous "saviors", "healers" and "Sons of God", in earlier religions, who all died and were resurrected, preceded Jesus -- whose name, by the way, MEANS "savior" and "healer", so it was a title, in that far longer religious tradition, more than just a name. Jesus was "born at Christmastime" because that was when those earlier "saviors" were born, all in accordance with the ancient wisdom tradition. And he died and rose again at Easter, for the same reason.

Easter was the most ancient celebration of the spring equinox -- the beginning of spring each year, around March 21 -- when the Sun itself "rose again" (every year), above the celestial equator, and Spring (when the Sun "springs" above the celestial equator) came once again to renew all life.

Christmas was originally the celebration of the winter solstice, around December 21 each year, when the Sun is at its furthest distance below the celestial equator, and starts back "up" (hence, the "New Year").

The "Resurrection of the Son of God" commemorates -- to any initiate of the eternal "wisdom tradition" -- the rising of the Sun, each year, above the celestial equator. And that, in turn, commemorates the higher truth, of the renewal of the spirit of Earthbound man, reflected in the new life around him.

All of that does not mean Jesus did not die on the cross, nor that he did not "rise again" (although the latter is highly unlikely, because it was after all a sacred myth, endlessly repeated, far before his time). But his story was meant to be just a template for all men, all Earthbound souls; that they -- we -- all rise again, after death in this life, to a greater, eternal life, in a higher reality known as the Spirit.

What happens after that depends, the ancient traditions all tell, upon how much we have learned here.

The Wisdom tradition is independent of the story of Jesus of Nazareth; his story merely follows that tradition. It is his TEACHINGS, not the stories told about him, that truly define him. In the end, we are all doomed, all promised, to be the resurrected Christ. That is what all Earthbound souls find so nearly impossible to believe, unless they can first accept it for ONE, like Jesus. Love him for what he taught, and meant to so many, and you can do it.

The Easter Egg Hunt is really a happy enactment of seeking and finding the spirit, the higher self -- to the initiate in the mysteries, that is.