From "When the Sun Moves Northward”

Today we’ll revisit why Easter is so important. For those who haven’t seen it before, what you’ll read today is from When the Sun Moves Northward by Mabel Collins, who also gave us Light On the Path, Through the Gates of Gold, and Idyll of the White Lotus. These works are major source material, and important for any who would "lift the bar from the Gates of Gold" and claim their true Spiritual Estate, consciously being fully human and fully Divine.

When The Sun Moves Northward illustrates the symbolic parallels in the year cycle and the life of all truth seeking Souls. In the interests of global harmony, when you see the title "The Christ" if you are so inclined please feel free to substitute "World Teacher," "Bodhisattva," "Imam Madhi," "Krishna," “Kristos,” "Avalokiteshvara," "Maitreya," “Anointed One,” "Messiah," or any other term used to describe this Great Being. Of course, this piece is taken from the Christian tradition, but it's really more about the life of all disciples of the World Teacher than it is about any religion.

Here I’ll note that the story of birth, enlightenment, crucifixion, and resurrection seems to be a common theme in more than a couple of ancient religions, so we can assume it’s a universal theme in the lives of all disciples of the World Teacher, regardless of which religious form it takes. And if this is truly a universal, then we can also assume that we also walk the walk of countless predecessors on the Path to The Way, the Truth, and The Light.

Easter has been a special feast time since ancient days. It’s a great time to remember that we are already blossoming into our Spiritual Self, even when we think we’re not. It’s a great time to remember that we are Love itself, Eternal and Radiant. It’s transformation time!

Happy Easter! For your enjoyment and consideration, Ms. Mabel Collins and the timeless work, When the Sun Moves Northward. Here’s a piece from Chapter IX, dealing with the Mystery of the Crucifixion and Resurrection:

With April comes the glorious idea of resurrection. The disciple leaves the dim and sad places in which he has been keeping vigil, and moves into the splendor... The Easter season is the ecstasy of the year, culminating in the great Feast of Resurrection, celebrated throughout Christendom on Easter Day. Then follows the purely spiritual and occult vigil of transmutation, after which the disciple, retaining firmly the place he has reached while the sun moved northward, repeats and recites the lessons he has learned, resolutely aiming at being born into a still higher state of spiritual life when again the birth month is reached.

The Easter season perpetually illustrates and commemorates that freedom which will be obtained by man at the end of his pilgrimage, when he has acquired all the knowledge to be obtained by human experience, and has cast off the last vesture or sheath of the spirit. When that freedom is obtained, the spirit will have finally left the Tomb - risen from the grave - and matter will know it no more.

At the commencement of this great Feast of Resurrection, the Hall of Learning is full of life and activity. The Teachers await their disciples, looking with hope for those whom they have prepared, trusting they will have the courage to embark on this great enterprise.

This is no longer any warfare on that battle-field where the Arjuna of the Bhagavad Gita fights his lower nature and his evil passions. That battle has long since been fought and won by the disciple who is strong enough to enter upon the Easter feast, and take his place in the Hall of Learning.

This wonderful palace of wisdom was built, and is preserved in the ethereal space that is within reach of the spirits of men, by the initiates who are followers of the Christ, and remain near the world of men to teach and help them. All are bidden to come here, all are helped to enter; but only a few are able to do so. Those who can pass through the doors at this season feel the divine airs, and become aware of the Great Presences....

The whole object of the preparation and suffering lies in this miracle of transformation and transmutation. Here is the supreme mystery to be entered into by the disciple while he remains man. Destroy no thing, but make all things good, all things beautiful, all things desirable.

Remember that hate is the destroyer, love the creator and builder. Take death and make it life, as you take evil and make it good. The divine cannot be tarnished by evil any more than gold can suffer by contact with fire. Spirit can no more become matter than water can become one with fire. Gold is purified by burning, and the divine does but throw aside all that is not absolutely itself.

As it passes through the fiery ordeal, Spirit, when it identifies itself with matter, sweeps it away as water obliterates fire. It must long to become one with the fire, before the miracle can be accomplished. The spiritual part of the man must so recognize the darkness and death of the physical, must so completely and willingly enter into it and transform it, the inevitable ill, into a thing desirable, that it shall dissolve away, and vanish in its character and quality as that which is ill or evil.

So, in entering the Tomb, the Christ of the world, the Buddha of the world, the Krishna of the world, destroys the Tomb itself. His supreme spirituality is stronger than that which would hold or bind him, and his supreme Love changes its nature into that which does not hold or bind.

It is useless to attempt to understand the true meaning of resurrection until the previous ceremonies have not only been entered into, and fully understood, but their ordeals endured. In this manner, the story of the year follows the story of the life of the ego, the "one who walks." Until the winter is experienced and endured, the green leaves do not come. Until the lessons of human life have been learned, that which lies beyond it is unapproachable....

Those who have passed through the Easter Ceremony once can never hurt or kill or give pain anymore; and with each season that they pass through it, do they penetrate more and more fully into its glorious depths; they grow in strength, and become vital and irresistible forces in the world....

In the deep place of the animal soul is darkness; it is conscious only of material things, of passions and desires. There is no knowledge in it, even of the phenomena of earth life, save by the help of the senses....

But it is in this deep place of the soul that the spirit sits shrouded, and it is here that is the quick spring of love and life eternal. Here, within every man, is the Tomb, the place of darkness where the miracle takes place, from which the spirit rises, in which the spring of life and love bursts forth. Taste of this spring, bathe in it, asking no questions, but simply drinking of it, and the hunger for knowledge and longing for light will pass away. These desires of the spirit, which fill it with restless craving, will pass away, because illumination will have been attained.

The water of life will so gush forth that you must give of it to others, and in so doing, an unutterable joy will arise within you. You have now all that you need and more; enough for others; enough for the whole world. You have achieved the miracle of the resurrection, you have made the greenness spring forth within yourself; and in so doing, you are making the earth green about you, and bringing the joy of new life upon the world.

In the school of love there is a pledge to be taken at the very door, before you can enter. This pledge, already taken in the ordeal of the Feast of Love, must be said in the heart of the disciple at the Easter Feast.

"I will Love."

You no longer desire love, or ask love, or look for love. You give it.

When the Sun Moves Northward"

The ancient symbol of the cross shows the joining of Spirit and Matter through overcoming the limitations of each. That's what we celebrate this time each year. Love is greater than separateness. Love is greater than fear. Love is greater than death.