Equinox. Equal Night. Equal parts of dark and light.It's funny, isn't it? How religious holidays are centered around the geological turnings of the Solstices and Equinoxes...regardless of when the celebrated events may or may not have happened? We're still pagans at heart. Always will be. It's in our DNA. The force and power and feeling of these times are...well...sacred. Take Easter. The bizarre formula for figuring out when Easter falls has always amazed me. The first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox. Weird, isn't it? I mean, if it was an actual event, it would've had a date. Wouldn't it? And even though time was reckoned differently then, it should still be convertible into the current calendar. December 25th is a date. So what gives? Is it that important for it to fall always on a Sunday? I don't know, but I suspect that, yes, that's exactly what it's about. Another one of the Church's control issues.
But the Christian god is not the first one to die and be resurrected. It's actually been a very common theme among male gods. In fact, they liked it so much they got in the habit of doing it every year. Every winter they died and every spring they were re-born. Lots of them, in lots of different places, with lots of different names. Like clockwork. Like the crops, actually, and the birth of baby animals. Except they weren't gods so much as consorts of the Great Goddess. It's all about sex and fecundity and fertility and renewal and the cycles of life. The name Easter comes from Estrus. Which means being in heat. All those rabbits? Well, you know what they're doing! Look at how many there are! The thing about the Christian god is he's the first one to do it once and call it quits. He put an end to all that foolishness.
Well, he didn't put an end to it, the Church did. He was certainly not the first, or the last person to die for the sins of others. There have been millions. Billions. And every single one of them was an opportunity for humanity to redeem itself. But it hasn't. Partly...but not entirely...because of the Church's usurpation of all things even remotely related to redemption and salvation. They own it. Or they think they do. It can only come via them. It's pretty awful how a committee of jealous old coots can claim exclusive rights to the life and work of somebody...like that, somebody so incredibly great. They could never be like him. Ever. So they murder, oppress and exploit in his name and tell themselves they're doing god's work. They're the money lenders he whipped out of the temple. And they're the ones that killed him. The Church. They love to blame it on the Jews, for an excuse to hate them, but he was a Jew. His own people abused him then and his own people are abusing him now.
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” How many of us can say that? The Inquisitors, Hitler, George W. Bush. Can we implore the great spirit within us to forgive them? They knew not what they did...are doing. That's hard. Seemingly impossible. Yet something to be thought about and practiced all year long...not just during the Equinox.
For now, maybe it's enough to take joy in the renewal of life, to revel in the joys of Spring, the crocuses bursting up through the ground, the rising of the sap in our hearts and the feeling that it's not so bleak after all. It feels so good, like waking up, like life can finally begin again. That's what Spring is about. Renewal. And that, Dear Reader, is the precursor to Forgiveness.
Anne has finished her first novel and is busy peddling it to agents and publishers. She can be found wandering the streets of Crestone, CO and hanging out in Internet cafes. Contact her at annepyterek@gmail.com
