Easter — Death and Resurrection, Radical Rituals for Radical Times

In the Christian cultural context I grew up in, and in much of the Western World, Easter stands for Bunnies and Eggs, Jesus dying on the Cross, and his consequent resurrection.

This year, Easter is different around the world.

We live in radical times, with radical measures.

In such times, it is good to take a moment and go back to the roots — after all, radical stems from Latin radix, which does indeed mean root.

That Easter is happening at the current time is in many ways very appropriate for the situation. After all, it is a mythology of transformation: of dying of the old and emerging of the new.

Origins of Easter

The Christian church chose to overlay its festivities and mythology on much older pagan traditions. Christian Easter was first celebrated in the 2nd century with varying dates among different sects, and the early Church decided officially in the Council of Nicaea in 325 that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox.

Both the equinox and the moon are also important aspects of earlier celebrations that occurred during that time, those, the church wanted to usurp to implant their new mythology.

Oriented on nature and her natural cycles of birth and death (as in the seasons), early celebrations were in honor of archetypal Goddesses. The root of “Easter” points to Eostre, or Eostrae, or Ostara the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility, which we find among Phoenicians as Astarte, and before that as Ishtar, a much earlier powerful Mesopotamian goddess, one of the first deities for which we have written evidence. She was also identified as Inanna the ancient Sumerian goddess of love, sensuality, fertility, procreation, and also of justice and war. She also corresponds to the Egyptian Goddess Unut and Isis (the Egyptian story of Osiris foreshadowing also Jesus’ mythology), and the Greek Goddess Aphrodite, later Venus in Roman mythology.

It is not by chance, that a spring ritual to celebrate life would be dedicated to:

a) a female goddess, a woman, since they are living more directly in cycles than men do, especially biologically, and give birth to new life

b) associated with the full moon — in itself waxing and waning representing death and rebirth and the constant transformation of nature

c) fertility — everything flourishes in spring, budding and flowering everywhere, and even most animals and humans start having “spring feelings”

That is where the Easter Bunny comes in

The hare was associated with several of these Goddess avatars. In part because hares eat at night (thus lunar), and in part due to their proverbial proclivity for procreation. There were also earlier animistic cults around the hare as a symbol for fertility that all found their way into the constantly evolving cultural-religious narratives of humanity.

Which came first: The Hare or the Egg?

Another symbol strongly associated with Easter and these Goddesses is that of the egg. Several world myths talk of the birth of life as stemming from a cosmic or world egg laid by some creator god(s). Aphrodite, like her son Eros, is said to have been born out of an egg. Considering ovarian activity, we are all born from eggs, from a mother Goddess — and will never solve what came first, the human or the egg.

Deeper Symbolism of “Egg”

Eggs stand for breaking through the shell of limitation, for life escaping from darkness and limitation. Similar to how a seed has to crack its shell in spring, we are also invited to crack through the shells of limitation that winter — or our past — have put on us into, and stretch ourselves into spring and growth — even if it hurst sometimes.

Talking about stretching…

A third strong symbol associated with Easter, is, at least in Christian mythology, that of the crucifixion. There is a ton of inherent deep symbolism in that, from the number of wounds Jesus received on the cross itself as the unfolded cube of 3D reality on which we are being “stretched” as spiritual beings. That is a story for some other time. Let’s go one step further for now.

Hanged Man on the Cross

Related to the crucifixion in the esoteric traditions is the archetype of the Hanged Man, specifically in the Tarot (which through its trump cards represents many human archetypal experiences).

Among others, it stands for old structures that got us here (incubated us as in the egg), but do not serve us any longer (the shell now restricts us).

Appropriate for our times, the hanged man in its negative form stands for delays, resistance, stalling, indecision. It also represent pause, surrender, letting go and adopting new perspectives — the other side of our current experience.

Unlike Jesus in most depictions, the hanged man in the Tarot is hanging upside-down as a symbol for someone who views the world from a different perspective. Although being hung like that is surely not comfortable, his expression is calm and serene. He has made peace with the situation, and in the least has found his center, so that he can come from a place of choice — no matter what the circumstances might be. He has a halo around his head, symbolizing new insight, awareness and enlightenment. While one foot is restricted, the other remains free and forms a triangle — exemplifying both his ability to adapt, as well as his rational (3rd chakra Apollonian) mind. The Hanged Man is the card of ultimate surrender, of being suspended in time, and of a chosen “giving of self” in sacrifice and homage to a greater good.

So, what does all that mean for you?

While all this might seem like esoteric babbel or at best ancient history, this transformation and its elements can serve as guides for how to deal with this current situation and with a world of VUCA.

What you can practically do is to celebrate death today, let yourself be “dead” until Sunday, then celebrate your rebirth.

Good Friday Death ritual

Death is about letting go of the past, letting go of all that doesn’t serve you any longer. Letting go of what used to be “normal”, of what used to be part of your identity, of who you defined yourself to be.

Think of all the things that were restrictive for you (imagine that egg shell). Maybe your home, your partnership or other relationships, your job, your last level of self-worth, your ideas of self-worth, your ideas of who you were or “should” be.

Create a ritual to let go (choose any one or a combination of the below items, or — even better — make up your own):

• Fire — Write a list of mistakes you made in life, what relationships you screwed up, your shortcomings and weaknesses, what moments marked you and became your scars. Then create a solemn ritual and burn the list.
• Water — Take a special ritualistic bath (best in complete darkness or with only a small candle). Dissolve. Think of your old self and how it is being “washed away”, how it is dissolving and drowning into nothingness.
• Air — Write your obituary. Who have been so far. If you died today, what would people have to say about you?
• Earth — Change something about your physical self, your hair, of facial hair if you have it, throw out some old clothes, rearrange your furniture

Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself.

(can’t really say it often enough — all life is innocently exploring its purpose)

Allow the process of letting go of the past.

All of your life so far has happened, so you can be here and now.

Let go of what has been, so that you can become something new.

The in-between

Get comfortable with not knowing, with patience, with curiosity about what might want to emerge, but what you don’t need to know yet.

Spend the next days in as much silence as possible.

Allow yourself to simply be.

Let the past continue to come up and let it go each time.

Let your old self rot, disassociating from it as you would from a dead corpse that no longer has the person or life inside of it that it once was.

If you are more actively inclined, clean your house and prepare the place to welcome resurrection.

Resurrection ritual

Resurrecting is the core of life. In the symbiotic web of relationships that makes up life, everything that dies becomes something new. Every leaf on a tree that dies and falls becomes nourishment for millions of organisms, ultimately perpetuating the cycle of life.

Just like so much in nature dies in fall and seemingly comes to a halt in winter, spring is about celebrating resurrection.

Spring is about celebrating life, resilience, continuance.

Spend time envisioning the new, envisioning the future as such, and who you could become. Embrace the emergence of your new self and celebrate. Make a feast, dance, sing, laugh, be silly. Allow yourself to fully welcome the new you.

Create a ritual to welcome the new (choose any one or a combination of the below items, or — even better — make up your own):

• Fire — Light a new ritualistic candle and send it your wishes, use your hearth and cook up an abundant feast for yourself or loved ones.
• Water — Get drunk, on wine, poetry, whatever, dissolve and let go.
• Air — Write your obituary again, this time assuming you will live for several more decades. What all could you have created by the time you die?
• Earth — What new choices would the new you make? What new habits could you start? What would be new ways to be you. Write yourself a list of affirmations and put them on your bathroom mirror, your home office setup, or somewhere else where you can see them frequently.

Be kind to yourself.

Transformation is a process. It hurts. It brings up all the things we don’t want to look at. It brings up fear of the unknown. It creates tension between the old and the new. As you begin to connect to your next version of self, you might also notice how far away that next iteration might seem. Don’t let yourself be discouraged by that.

Evolution, and life as such, is a continuous process.

Trust it.

Orient yourself on the light and keep growing.

You are life.

Happy Easter!

[It’s a beautiful day in Berlin, and I am going for a walk in the graveyard now to celebrate the sun of reason shining light on death.]

The future belongs to those who create it. That is why I serve as a culture catalyst and planetary strategist for visionary leaders. Through my work with LUMAN and other projects, I provide frameworks and operating metaphors to support leaders around the world in their individual evolution and in growing innovation capacity in their teams and organizations — all with the aim of a planetary society. I have worked with startups, NGOs and with global Fortune 500 organizations in a variety of industries around the world. More at http://philiphorvath.com.