3) Son vs. Sun
Because of my major in college (Theatre) and my long term job (Bookseller) I have met a lot of people from various spiritual backgrounds, and I love that. I find the quest for humanity to find the divine fascinating, especially when so much of our beliefs have roots in similar ideas and concepts. For this blog I'm using the Pagan recognition of The Vernal Equinox. The Vernal Equinox is a day of recognizing the returning of the sun after a long cold and dark Winter. It's the return of the light, of warmth, of hope. A time of renewal and rebirth.
The Winter Solstice (Jeopardy trivia: the Julian Calendar places the Winter Solstice on Dec. 25th...talk amongst yourselves) is recognized to be the darkest part of the year. Since the Summer there has been a slow dying of life. The earth has been rotating toward a time where all of it's creatures will face extreme hardship. The light is being overshadowed by darkness, animals are preparing to hide away from the cruel conditions to come and those that have been proactive have been preparing themselves for this time by gathering supplies and creating shelter for themselves. On the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, the power of this event is given it's due and people gather to light fires to chase away the dark. But the next morning begins a slow awakening, a gradual return to light and life. By the time the Vernal Equinox comes, flowers are generally blooming, animals have come out of their burrows, and the whole of nature is preparing to come together and create new life. Even those of us who follow a Gregorian Calendar recognize this time by setting our clocks ahead so that there is more light in our day. We welcome the return of the sun.
Is it any wonder that this would be the time of year that we would celebrate a rebirth and welcome a return of The Son? I know that the events of the Crucifixion and Resurrection always coincide with Passover. The timing (unlike Jesus' birth) is not really up for dispute, it's recorded that they were celebrating Passover, but it's times like this that I recognize how ingenious God is. Worship of nature has been going on for much longer than any Monotheistic belief, but even those of us who worship one God still give homage to the earth at times. Here is a perfect example of how God used the simplicity of human understanding toward getting his point across. At least this is my interpretation of it.
First you take a time of reflection on life being passed over by death. Like the bleak winter where nature hides away, so too did the Jews during their slavery in Moses' time. For a time they burrowed into their homes and waited for the bleak hand of death to pass over them. Jesus and his Disciples were observing these days as well when he was taken captive. So now The Son has been taken and shuttered away. For those who followed him there is a gradual darkness descending. A time of unknown hardship is ahead. The Bible says that at the time Jesus is taken, they scattered and I imagine most ran to ground. To hide, to burrow in.
What was it like for them? This time of encroaching dark? To not know when The Son would be released, if ever. Then they discover that not only will he not be returned, but he has been abused, mocked, beaten and sentenced to death. How many of them showed up to watch as The Son was slowly dying? To see the eclipse of his light as death stole over him? For those agonizing hours, who stood to watch the pain and suffering this man endured? What fears and bleak wonderings were going through their minds? Here was, what they thought, a Messiah. Here was the man who supposed to lead a rebellion against their oppressors (namely the Roman Empire) nailed to wood, bleeding and broken. Just a man after all. A mother's son, like they all were. Did the light die for them in that moment? The shining rays of hope, did they dim and darken, did a Winter of the soul take place. Did parts of them whither and die, like the trees, like the grass, in those moments of separation from The Son? When he died, when they buried that shining hope in linens and placed it in a tomb, did they see a total eclipse? Did they see the victory of darkness? Did they think, in that moment, as we might all do in the midst of the bleakest winter, that light would never return. That darkness had won. That spring and it's warming glow would never come? What must that have been like?
Then, in the midst of this dark, at this point where it seemed that there would never be light and warmth again, comes word. The Son is not shut away any longer. The wraps that had enshrouded him have fallen away and the light is on the move again. Did a slow thawing take place then? Did those whithered and weary souls begin a slow ascension from their burrows of hiding? As word spread did the ice of despair begin to melt into tears of joy and the dry hard ground begin to soften and open itself for the planting season?
The Son returned to them. He came and showed himself in his glorious shining. For some it took time for the hope to take root. The light was so dazzling they could only blink at it and wonder if it was just a waking dream. Others immediately rejoiced until all saw that the light had returned to the world. Then this light, The Son, ascends back to the Heavens. The center of the universe that was forming outward from it, to sit in the center, while all these newly forming bodies of a different creation were forming.....I think I'm getting a bit too carried away with my symbolism here. Sorry, am trying to return to reality now....give me a moment. Sometime the spirit catches you, right?
I think I'll have to end this here. I'm a bit too overcome at the moment and need some time to reflect. Sorry if this got a little out of hand.
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