The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Norsemen and Scandinavians worshiped the Egg. Norsemen exchanged coloured eggs, at the time of the vernal equinox, in commemoration of goddess Ostara. Hindus believe that the Mundane Egg, in which Brahma gestated, broke its shell in spring. Thus, the symbol of the egg is a universal symbol. The word Easter closely resembles names of different Pagan goddesses—Ishtar, Ostara, and the Greek Astarte. Goddess Ostara of the Northland was worshipped as a beautiful Queen of the Spring-time, and from Ostara, our word Easter comes. The story goes that when Ostara first came to earth, at the very beginning of the world, she noticed how dark and cold everything seemed. She knew that life in everything was sleeping for a while, till it was time to wake again. Then she realized that she was sent on earth to wake things up. Easter celebrates the awakening of life from its winter sleep.
The ancients celebrated 21st March, the day of the Vernal Equinox, as the birthday of the world. In the fourth century, Easter was fixed as the first Sunday—following the first full-moon day—after the vernal equinox. During the spring festival the ancients celebrated the renewal of nature, as the Christians celebrate on Easter Sunday the resurrection of Christ—the rising of the Christ from the dead. After crucifixion, the body of Christ was taken down from the cross, wrapped in a linen sheet and placed in a tomb dug out of solid rock and a stone was rolled against the entrance. This was on a Friday, now called "Good Friday." Three days later, on Sunday, people saw that the door of the tomb had burst open and the body was missing. The story goes that subsequently Jesus appeared before his disciples.
The Bible says, "Jesus rose from the dead." Theosophy teaches that he rose in his finer body or Mayavi rupa. Resurrection conveys that everything does not end with the death of the physical body and that there is no such thing as death for the Soul—IT always is.
To appreciate the inner significance of Easter, we must understand the symbology of the egg, the crucifixion, the resurrection and the Christ.
Man has never been without a friend, i.e., the Elder Brothers or adepts who help mankind. Jesus was an adept. Like Jesus, Krishna and Buddha too died on the cross. The Cross represents the "Tree of Life." "Tree" is a symbol of sacred and secret knowledge. "Tree" also stands for various Initiates. Realizing the unity of all, these adepts and Initiates identify themselves with humanity and hence are able to take upon themselves part of the karma of suffering humanity. Taken literally, the whole of the life of Jesus, up to his crucifixion, shows this great sacrifice which the spiritual beings make, in order to help humanity.
But Christ is also the Divine Principle in each one of us. H.P.B. writes: "Christ—the true esoteric SAVIOUR—is no man, but the DIVINE PRINCIPLE in every human being." (The Esoteric Character of the Gospels)
Christ is not the only Son of God; we are all sons of God in our divine nature. But unfortunately this divine nature, though all-powerful on its own plane, is quite powerless on our plane. Every time we refuse to listen to our divine nature—the Christ within—we crucify the Christ. So it is not the personality which suffers but the innocent Christos within us. Every time we want our will to prevail over Divine Will, there is a minor crucifixion. But, every crucifixion must be followed by Resurrection. Thus:
He who strives to resurrect the Spirit crucified in him by his own terrestrial passions, and buried deep in the "sepulchre" of his sinful flesh; he who has the strength to roll back the stone of matter from the door of his own inner sanctuary, he has the risen Christ in him. The "Son of Man" is no child of the bond-woman—flesh, but verily of the free-woman—Spirit, the child of man's own deeds and the fruit of his own spiritual labour. (H.P.B. Series No. 7, pp. 4-5)
To resurrect the Christ we have crucified, we must allow divine nature to control the terrestrial nature, and thus raise ourselves to the spiritual level. Spiritual life has been defined as conscious existence in spirit while we are in this body. Spirit is eternal and we need to become aware of it. Our knowledge of matter has become instinctive, but not so our knowledge of spirit. When that happens we will resurrect into spiritual life.
To accomplish this resurrection, mind must be trained to co-operate with the spirit. We must be bold and frank enough to own up our misdeeds, our vices, and our defects.
What is spiritual rebirth? H.P.B. explains that a man striving after spiritual perfection must have three births: (1) physical, from his mortal parents; (2) spiritual through Initiation; and (3) his final birth into the world of spirit—at death. (Isis, II, 565)
H.P.B. points out the difference between the words, "Chrestian" and "Christian," thus:
Chrestos means certainly more than merely "a good" and "excellent man," while "Christos" was never applied to any one living man, but to every Initiate at the moment of his second birth and resurrection. He who finds Christos within himself and recognizes the latter as his only "way," becomes a follower and an Apostle of Christ, though he may have never been baptised, nor even have met a Christian, still less call himself one. (H.P.B. Series No. 7, p. 13)
H.P.B. observes that Jesus was a Chrestos, "as undeniably as that he never was entitled to the appellation of Christos, during his life-time and before his last trial." The Glossary explains that Chrestos means a disciple on probation—a candidate for hierophantship. When he had attained to this through initiation, long trials and suffering, and had been "annointed," i.e., "rubbed with oil," as were the initiates—as the last touch of ritualistic observance—then his name was changed into "Christos," the "purified," in the esoteric language.
In a way, crucifixion and resurrection reflect the initiation ceremonies practised by the ancient Egyptians and other early civilizations. These initiations took place in the crypts, caves, temples, and pyramids where the neophyte underwent a series of physical and psychological trials through which he proved his strength and readiness for spiritual rebirth. The symbol of the cross and the crucified man have deep significance. Thus:
The initiated adept, who had successfully passed through all the trials, was attached, not nailed, but simply tied on the couch in the form of a tau(in Egypt)...plunged in a deep sleep. He was allowed to remain in this state for three days and three nights, during which time his Spiritual Ego was said to confabulate with the "gods," descend into Hades, Amenti, or Patala (according to the country)...his body remaining all the time in the temple crypt or subterranean cave. In Egypt, it was placed in the Sarcophagus in the King's Chamber of the Pyramid of Cheops, and carried during the night of the approaching third day to the entrance of a gallery, where at a certain hour the beams of the rising Sun struck full on the face of the entranced candidate, who awoke to be initiated by Osiris, and Thoth the God of Wisdom. (S.D., II, 558)The primordial system, the double glyph that underlies the idea of the Cross, is not "of human invention," for Cosmic ideation and the Spiritual representation of the divine Ego-man are at its basis. Later, it expanded in the beautiful idea adopted by and represented in the Mysteries, that of regenerated man, the mortal, who, by crucifying the man of flesh and his passions on the Procrustean bed of torture, became reborn as an Immortal. Leaving the body, the animal-man, behind him, tied on the Cross of Initiation like an empty chrysalis, the Ego Soul became as free as a butterfly. (S.D., II, 561-62)
In the imagery of chrysalis and butterfly, chrysalis means cocoon. When a pupa breaks the cocoon—built by its own saliva—it comes out as a completely transformed thing, i.e., a butterfly. We build our cocoon of flesh, matter, desires and vices. We must break the cocoon, and come out as a butterfly—the wings of which denote freedom.
Egg symbolizes immortality. The hen lays an egg and from the egg comes the chick, which grows into another hen. An egg is potentially capable of giving birth to a chick. But in its exterior, such potentiality is not evident. Man, too, is capable of becoming a God, but matter is like the shell of an egg. The chick has to break it. We have to transcend the limitations of matter to be reborn. Interestingly, in Sanskrit, Dwija means twice-born and it is also the name given to all oviparous animals and birds. The "laying of the egg" marks the first birth, and when the chick comes out by breaking open the shell, it marks the second birth.
In Letters That Have Helped Me, Jasper Niemand mentions "the sheaths of the heart," which man has to break one by one. Man himself prevents his coming into direct communication with Divine nature. He has to refine and disperse the lower self. "Each man has a different mode of doing this, but each who advances at all finds that with every new period of his inner life a new self rises before him. Looking back over a group of weeks or months, he is amazed to see what manner of man he was then, and smiles that pitying smile which we bestow upon the faded letters of our youth." But there are some that are not strong enough to come out of the rut. They have to struggle hard to break that heavy obstacle which resists all change.
In the Puranic allegory, Viswakarman's daughter Sanjana (spiritual consciousness), who was the wife of Surya the sun, complained to her father of the too great effulgence of her husband. Viswakarman, the divine carpenter, crucified the sun on his lathe and cut away eighth part of his rays—creating round him a dark aureole. After that, Surya looked as though he had been crowned with dark thorns and he became "Vikarttana," one who was shorn of his effulgence. Vikarttana is the type of the initiated neophyte. All these names were given to candidates who were going through trials of initiation. The candidate for initiation personifies the sun, who has to kill all his fiery passions and wear a crown of thorns, before he can rise into new life and be reborn.
It refers to the process in Initiation, wherein the candidate was made to look deep into his consciousness and face the whole of his lower nature without getting disturbed. Candidates were literally made to sit, all alone, in a dark room. By cutting off the sun's rays, Viswakarman created similar darkness. This is equivalent to descent into lower worlds or Hades, wherein the candidate touches the lowest levels of his consciousness. After facing and purifying it, he rises with fully purified consciousness.But there are a series of initiations in the life of a disciple, till he comes to the stage of final Initiation, when he comes face to face with the Dhyani Buddha, the head of the hierarchy to which he belongs.
Spiritual rebirth or resurrection "is the spiritual birthright of every human being endowed with soul and spirit, whatever his religion may be. Such individual is a Christ-man." (H.P.B. Series No. 7, p. 12)
With love and passion,
Amrriees Siman
