Like it or not, Easter is part of western culture. It’s easy not to like this particular holiday because of how it has been co-opted by the dominant paradigm to become almost indistinguishable from its origins. There is enough to like, however, to consider reclaiming this coming Sunday on your own terms.
Astrologers can find something to like about Easter because of how its date is determined. Basically, it’s the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox.
This year, because a Libra Full Moon took place on March 23 (less than four days after the Sun entered Aries to precipitate the vernal equinox on March 19 or 20, depending on your time zone), Easter is coming earlier than usual. Since the Full Moon this week was also a lunar eclipse, there is reason to look more closely at whatever comes with the territory.
After all, eclipses do serve to emphasize things, if nothing else. This year, Easter is undeniably one of those things.
Another thing to like about Easter is how its theme embraces optimism. For many of us, the personal experience goes back to childhood contemplations of how it was paradoxical to call the Friday before Easter “good,” when you consider what is purported to have happened on that day nearly two thousand years ago.
Furthering the paradox to our times, optimism has been co-opted in much the same way Easter has. The phenomenon goes back to the Great Bad Actor: Ronald Reagan. Either Reagan or (more likely) one of his neo-conservative puppet masters hit on the idea of staking out optimism as their own. Even as transparently disingenuous as that strategy was, it worked well enough.
Ever since Reagan, both authentically progressive political movements and politicians have had to labor (whether rightly or wrongly) with the albatross of cynicism around their necks. Now that the neo-conservatives have finally soiled their own nest enough to reveal themselves for what they are, optimism is ripe for reclaiming, just like Easter.
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Hence, in a very real sense, you are living at a time when your culture and civilization are ripe for re-definition. That’s a big deal. As with most big things, it’s probably best to start small — with yourself.
Remember that the roots of both the word “Easter” and its associated practices predate Peeps and even Christianity. Long before marshmallow and chocolate, there was the mystery represented by real, everyday eggs. Way back before a corporate church there was an observation that life on Earth continuously (and miraculously) renews. Predating even that corrupt fascist enterprise known as the Roman Empire, people noticed that bunny rabbits as a (loosely defined) species managed to survive extensive predation by reproducing like, well… bunnies.
So take a cue from the astrology that is currently presenting our times in bold-faced italics. Reclaim optimism from those who have hidden their agenda behind it. Then, go further. Do as children have already been doing for so long. Dispense with the manipulative façade of doctrine and cut to the chase of sweet things by reclaiming Easter on your own terms, to be celebrated in your own way. This could indeed be the start of something big. And to think that it could begin with you is to be thinking more clearly than perhaps ever before.
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Ah, yes, Easter. It has to be the most confusing of the holidays celebrated by our culture. How puzzled must children be, especially those who have no idea where real eggs come from, & they see an odd juxtaposition of rabbits & (chocolate) eggs….or baby chicks & real eggs…
Then there’s the religious part, which confounded me decades ago, during my brief attempt at piously pursuing whatever born-again meant. The historical account made no sense to me, except as another way to add more layers of existential guilt to the burdens of a sensitive, introspective child who had no one who would talk about it all.
That said, Easter has become for me another occasion for celebrating spring & the awakening of Earth after her winter rest. Indoor seedlings are sprouting, the sun grows warmer & higher, & my farm friends have broody hens wanting to hatch chicks – all good, & all miraculous in their way.
As you noted, Len, the timing of Easter is dependent upon the Sun/Moon cycle, which has always been a point of delight for me when I encounter those who are sure that anything involving “the stars” (such as astrology) must be god-less & therefore feared. They can’t see the contradiction.
“….your culture and civilization are ripe for re-definition”. Yes!
I believe change IS afoot, & it happens one heart & mind at a time.
Bette: Thank you for adding your own personal history and perspective to the mix. It’s an honor to know my service here in addressing the issue has indeed resonated for you.
Profoundly simple in expressing Truth and possibility, Len. Thank you.
Kyra: You are very welcome. Looking forward to your comments in the future.
Peel away all the incense and gold :), and it’s all about rebirth — and who can’t get into some of that?? each day is a great opportunity to celebrate such an event, hell, each moment is really the same. So, in my mind eggs are about birth, right?? whatever the color.
As for Good Friday … I’m with you on that, Len. Not what anyone of us would consider “good” per se, but that ultimately we surrender to what IS and move beyond. Perhaps a bit “tortured” in my reasoning, but .. there you are.
Happy New Day, all !!
mm.
Mary: Thank you for sharing the resulting profundity of perspective derived from your own encounters with life. Specifically, please know that your idea of each moment being “really the same” and every day (for all practical reasons) being an opportunity to celebrate a continuum is something that I do agree with you on most enthusiastically.
It’s all about birth and death and which came first — the bunny or the egg. Seems like the resurrection theme is hard to miss when you look outside and the greenies are budding and blooming a welcome to the sun, especially here in Southern MO, where winter is dressed in shades of gray and white. Those early Christians were pretty smart to tie their Easter story to the pagan cycles.
Thank you, Len, for rounding off the sharp corners for us. May the bunny bless us all with renewed enthusiasm and bright beginnings.
nicely put, Judith … len & co.
happy easter,
m.
Jude: Please accept my thanks in turn for being among the best blessings Planet Waves has to offer.
Easter always felt like rebirth to me, Len. Not too sure what it feels like this year, but honoring cycles is always an apt tradition.
May your bunnies propagate freely!
aWord: Speaking of blessings, you are also also among the living, breathing blessings for whom i am most thankful. Thank you for your comment here today.
“This could indeed be the start of something big. And to think that it could begin with you is to be thinking more clearly than perhaps ever before.”
Powerful! Thank you Len!
Priya: You are most welcome. Among the most powerful things in fact is you. If my service here helped in some small way to awaken that power, it will be me thanking you many times over.
Thank you Len. Bunnies are the Easter symbol I most treasure from my youth. They do of course symbolize procreation to the adult world, but a child sees only their cute little wiggly noses and the feel of the softest fur imaginable. Their ability to hop, much as the squirrels do, is delightful to watch even as an adult who has abandoned much of the magical world of childhood.
Rabbits also are represented in the world of Sabian Symbols. For Scorpio 23 (or 22+ Scorpio) they play a remarkable role: A RABBIT METAMORPHOSES INTO A NATURE SPIRIT
Dane Rudhyar’s keynote for this degree’s symbol is The Raising Of Animal Drives To A Higher Level
He explains that “nature spirits” are a symbol of a “transmutation of the generative power into a more ethereal and subtle form of potency” which reminds me of Eric’s article entitled What’s That Sound” wherein he associates the symbolism of Mars as the sexual procreative drive with the divine experience of spirituality. That matches Rudhyar’s interpretation of Scorpio 23 where he says: “Thus the symbol refers to the transmutation of the generative power into a more ethereal and subtle form of potency.”
Could it be then that consciously or otherwise, the Bunny at Easter Time is not only a delight for small children but also for their world weary parents and grandparents as well? Seen as a resurrection of youthful desires but transformed into the bliss of spiritual visions for the future of their kind, the coming Mars retrograde, as Eric suggests, could be a rejuvenation of the human spirit.
The cycle between transiting Mercury and Mars began with an opposition to transiting Pluto last summer and if that isn’t a call for transformation then what is?
On Saturday, March 5, 2016, trans. Mercury at 29+ Aquarius squared trans. Mars at 29+ Scorpio, then quick as a bunny they followed it with a trine on March 24th, with Mercury at 5+ Aries and Mars at 5+ Sagittarius.
Then (because trans. Mercury stations retrograde in April and then direct again in May) Mercury in Taurus and Mars in Scorpio will make a 2nd square in June of this year, simultaneous with the square between Saturn in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces, which will be followed immediately with a trine between Jupiter in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn. This brief but potent exchange of energies symbolized by these transiting planets is only a small part of a constant and ongoing transformative process we humans and the planet we live on and all the bunnies and trees and bees and birds on it are going through.
For that alone I will be watching the world when transiting Mars retrogrades back to one degree shy of the bunny degree of 22+ Scorpio and stations direct at 23+ Scorpio on June 29th. The Sabian Symbol for that degree (as found in Dane Rudhyar’s book An Astrological Mandala) is:
AFTER HAVING HEARD AN INSPIRED INDIVIDUAL DELIVER HIS “SERMON ON THE MOUNT,” CROWDS ARE RETURNING HOME.
Rudhyer says of this symbol that it “may lead to a sense of oppression by the normal realities of existence, or else the soul that has been illuminated may retain enough of that light to transfigure every daily situation. This is the great CHALLENGE TO TRANSFORMATION.”
blessings be
Well, Mercury and Mars won’t be making a 2nd square as I wrote above but an opposition in June. duh./be
Another reason to pay attention to when Mars stations direct at 23+ Scorpio is that, in the U.S., we will be voting for our choice of which person will be the next President on Nov. 8th, and Mercury will be at 23+ Scorpio (recalling the Mars-Mercury conjunction opposite Pluto) that day. Perhaps someone’s words will reach many of us on or around June 29th that will affect how we vote on November 8th.
be
Barbara: Apologies for not replying over the weekend. Seasonal allergies have had my eyes swollen and so on. For that reason (and so I can go get some medicine at long last) please accept my thanks for your brilliant observations regarding currently resonant degree and Sabian symbol. Once again, you are not only on to something, you are elegantly elucidating its pertinence for us all.