Enlightenment
The festival of Easter is in fact pagan in origin and has nothing to do with Jesus. The festival pre-dates Jesus and has its origins in Mesopotamia (circa 4500 BCE or likely earlier) with the worship of the goddess Ishtar, the goddess of divine law, political power, war, love, sensuality, fertility, and procreation.
Observe the similarity between the words “Ishtar” and “Easter”.
The goddess Ishtar was known by different names across the ancient Middle East, including Athtar in Arabia, Ashtarte in Babylonia, and Astarte (and Ashtoreth) by the Canaanites and Hebrews in the Levant. In later times, under paganism in the West, the name of the goddess was rendered as Asteron (Old Saxon), Ostara (Old German), Eostre (Anglo Saxon), and Eastre (Old English). In all cases, the themes of light, fertility, birth, rebirth and renewal were associated with the goddess, and the festival was celebrated in the Spring (Northern hemisphere), when there was ample evidence of renewal, life, and light after the bleak Winter. The hare / rabbit (“bunny”) – a prolific breeder – and the egg – a sign of life – became prominent symbols associated with the Easter goddess.
In the Northern hemisphere, the Spring equinox occurs in March, typically around the twentieth day of the month. The Spring equinox marks the first day of Spring, which is celebrated on the pagan calendar as “Ostara” (aka “Easter”), a time marking the coming of Spring and fertility of the land. By giving chocolate symbols of bunnies and eggs at Easter (an innocuous act that glosses over the seriousness and reality of what Easter is), we commemorate Ostara and the Easter goddess Ishtar rather than remembering the God-conscious reason for this time.
Amongst God-conscious people, the real spiritual reason for this annual event is to remember what happened to one of the most astonishing humans to ever walk this planet: Jesus of Nazareth.
I am not even going to venture into the “Christ” aspect of Jesus because his name was not “Jesus Christ”. If we follow the Jewish tradition in antiquity, Jesus’s name was likely to have been “Jesus Ben Joseph”, which means “Jesus, son or descendent of Joseph”. However, zealots – those who had fanatical zeal on a topic (especially of politics and / or religion) – decided that a messiah (one anointed as a liberator or saviour of people, particularly a persecuted group of “chosen” people) was prophesied to come to the earth in order to save the Isra-El-ites, a race chosen by “god” himself.
The word “messiah” originated in ancient Abrahamic dogma and referred to an “anointed one”. Later, in Greek and Latin, the term for “anointed one” became “Khristos” and “Christus” respectively. As people regarded Jesus as a messiah who was sent to save the Isra-El-ites from their long history of persecution under many different cultures, particularly the Babylonians and then the Romans, Jesus eventually became labelled as “Jesus Christ”. Then, as people never bothered to reflect on history and reality, “Jesus Christ” or “Jesus, the anointed one of God, and the messiah who was sent to save all Christians” became embedded in the dogma of the Christian church led by the Church of Rome established in the second century CE and which reigned supreme until at least the start of the Protestant Reformation in 1517 CE.
The political and religious dogma of the Roman Catholic church completely distorted who Jesus was (and is). Before the Roman Catholic church there were the Jews, who consisted of multiple groups including the Sicarii zealots, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Eessenes. The Jews were essentially all divided on who and what Jesus was sent to do. In fact, it was the Pharisees and Sadducees who rejected Jesus as a messiah and demanded his execution at the hands of the Roman authorities of that time. As the Jews and the Roman Catholic church have no real appreciation of who Jesus was, I reject anything that superimposes a “messianic” dogma onto Jesus.
We know from Biblical accounts, and history (as well as astronomical observations), that Jesus was sentenced and crucified around the Jewish festival of Passover, which is believed to have occurred on 3 April 33 CE. The Gospel of Matthew (Matt 26: 1-2) gives us this:
Jesus had now finished all he wanted to say, and he told his disciples, “It will be Passover, as you know, in two days' time, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified”.
Now here’s something interesting: the Biblical Book of Exodus (Exodus 12: 1-14) relates a time when, during a festival that came to be known as Passover, the Isra-El-ite God commanded the Isra-El-ites (via Moses) to slaughter a lamb and mark their doorposts and lintels with its blood, then cook and eat the lamb in a specific way. On the night of that festival, the Isra-El-ite God sent an “Angel of Death” to kill all the firstborn in Egypt (as punishment to the gods of Egypt). But when the “Angel” saw the lamb blood on the doorframes of the Isra-El-ites, the “Angel” was instructed to pass over those houses and spare their firstborn “chosen-by-God”.
Unfortunately, the Church decided to merge the execution of Jesus with the festival of Passover. I suspect it was to give credence to the religious dogma that Jesus (the “Lamb”) was slaughtered to save us (the “Isra-El-ites”) from our sins (the “punishment of God”). In my opinion this contrivance is wholly incorrect and deliberately misleading. Passover, Ostara (Easter), and the death and resurrection of Jesus are all separate events that should remain separate. Merging them into a single event labelled as “Easter” corrupts and dilutes everything and leads to an event where we do not truly know what or why we are “celebrating”.
It’s absurd that we should “celebrate” the unjust sentencing, cruel torture, and excruciating execution of an innocent human known as Jesus. It’s absurd that we should connect our celebrations to a Passover festival that has nothing to do with Jesus. It’s absurd that we should associate our celebration with the Pagan worship of the goddess Ishtar in thanks for her fertility and blessing of the land in Spring.
It’s no secret that spiritual enlightenment is greatly lacking in our world today. Many people do not care for it and, in so doing, make themselves ignorant to spiritual history and meaning. So be it!
I choose to have soul consciousness and spiritual awareness with the goal of becoming enlightened before I die and depart from this rotten earth forever. As I wait for my departure, I will, every year, remember (and not celebrate) the unjust and brutal murder of Jesus. I will do it, not because I have a macabre and vengeful fascination with the event, but because it demonstrates a miracle of miracles.
A human known as Jesus (born to human parents Joseph and Mary) lived on the earth as a human and endured hardship, suffering, and death just as any other human. The miracle that occurred for human Jesus (while he grew up and before he died) is that he became soul conscious and spiritually enlightened via the spirit of the ONE true God – he became so enlightened during his living years that he integrated with the ONE. That enlightenment enabled Jesus to endure the injustice, torture, and execution that was laid upon him. That enlightenment gave Jesus the ability to endure death for three days. That enlightenment enabled Jesus to re-enter his body and resurrect after being dead for three days. Here is the real miracle: humans can transcend death and integrate with the ONE true God if they achieve soul consciousness and enlightenment before they die. Jesus showed this to be possible.
Image: Rainbows at sunset, Victoria, Australia. Copyright - Michael Beaton
I posted this picture because it captures multiple important elements. The earth (representing us humans) is bathed in a glow (representing the spiritual light of the ONE). There is a gate in the foreground, partially obscured by darkness (representing our choice to enter the spiritual light of the ONE and thereby receive enlightenment). The rainbow lies between the earth and "heaven" and, due to its immaterial nature, transcends the "vault" in which earth and heaven exist (the rainbow represents the "waters of light" - the enlightened spirits - that exist with the ONE). This was taken on Resurrection Sunday - 20 April 2025.
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