Resurrection: returning to console those left behind
When someone dies, who is left behind? Do the dying leave behind the living as they transform from those who are not yet ready to pass on to the next level? Or, do we as the living leave the dead in the past as we move forward through the gateway of time?
In any case, death represents transformation. The Christian Bible’s story of Christ’s Resurrection is perhaps it’s best example of a figure negotiating spiritual change. Christ first ascends to a higher spiritual level through death. He then returns to Earth to, among other things, eat meat. And who can blame him?
But he also returned with a powerful message of consolation: Peace be unto you.
In this way, we can relate to an emotional impulse in the Christ-figure’s action. When we change as people, and depart from a world that is no longer right for us, that we have outgrown, how we wish to share our notes of transformation with those from the old world! How separation highlights our love and allows us to forget the debilitating restriction we felt. It’s like the hermit crab who outgrows a shell and stands naked upon the sand. The vulnerability of being without protection invites us to retreat to the old shell that is no longer a fit.
For those who seek to serve mankind as creative artists, or in any other sensitive capacity, the desire to reach back to nurture those from whom we departed is strong.
But transformation is a time for personal discovery, for the new life of spring. It is a time to disrobe old patterns in order to integrate new ones. It can be a solitary experience in many ways, discovering oneself in a new world, the way Christ must have truly found himself upon his arrival in Paradise.
In this advancement, the old world concepts must be set aside so that we can fully feel the new energies at this higher rung of the ladder. As we undergo change, it it is our job to remain full in our new world while refusing old energies seeking to re-attach. We cannot return to an outgrown body, as Christ was able to do. Our new language will no longer translate.
Instead, we must accept the challenge of growth and channel the new energies that emerge with the spring, remaining alone in the delicate light of loss, self-nurturing and possibility of a new self through transformation.