Spring Bloodroot Moon
It is, astonishing as it is to me, Easter. In days past this was an important, the important, moment in the year. The annual celebration of the resurrection of the God who died. Now it’s another day in a 365 day a year celebration of the earth that lives.
Were Christianity a dead religion, we might look at this day with mythic interest, a holy day reminding each of us that the divine within us, the sacred trust given to us all with the breath of life, might seem to die, but will always rise up victorious. In ancient days that was what the peoples of Western Europe believed. But, of course, Christianity is still much alive and spread out now far beyond its Middle Eastern and European concentrations.
Life triumphing over death is a powerful message, perhaps the most powerful message humanity delivers. Osiris. The early Chinese emperors. Even Orpheus and Eurydice, Demeter and Persephone. It’s a story that needs to be out there, available as a hope, a promise. Whether the matter goes beyond mythic power into the ontological? Doesn’t seem likely, but then…
As pesach and Easter come in these months when the season of renewal approaches, so do Chinese new year and the former European Lady Day new years, their vitality meshes well with the orbit of the earth and the power of the vegetative world to bring us hope after the fallow seasons. This is enough for many of us, but if you require the extra hope that it means something more, well, I hope you had a happy, glorious Easter.
