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The Resurrection of Our Lord, According to Saint Mark

At that time, Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought sweet spices, that coming, they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they come to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: "Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" And looking, they saw the stone rolled back. For it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe: and they were astonished. Who saith to them: "Be not affrighted. you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen: he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee. There you shall see him, as he told you."

A Meditation on Easter

Our story began on Christmas Eve with a census. "In those days, Caesar Augustus ordered a census of the entire world."

A census, let us recall, had a very specific meaning in ancient times; it was no mere bureaucratic exercise. At the census, which took place every year, or every four or seven years, every member of a given city would gather outside its walls to be counted by the censor. They would then make attonement to the God who ruled that city for the sins of its members.

At Christmas, we have a census of the entire world: Thus we see that the story that begins is a story of atonement to a god, and that God is the god of the entire world-- what the ancient Platonists called the "proximate Demiurgus of the Cosmos." That is to say, the creator.

Our story continues with Jesus's baptism, which is to say, his initiation into the ancient current of power carried by John the Baptist, who tells us "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Or, to say it more currently: Change your nous, for the kingdom of God is within you.

Jesus, revealed as the living incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, then begins his ministry, teaching the people of Israel the Great Way of changing the nous.

On Holy Thursday, we come to the Paschal Supper. Here several things happen. A meal is shared. The meal commemorates the passover meal, in which the door of every Jewish household is marked by the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Thus we know that we are about to encounter a sacrifice, and this will be the reverse of the previous passover: Now, the Firstborn will be sacrificed, and will be the lamb, and his blood will stain the door.

"This is my flesh," he tells his disciples, "and this is my blood," distributing bread and wine among them. "It will be poured out for you and for many for forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me."

In a garden, he prays. He knows what is to come. Can it be averted? If it were possible, he asks, let this cup pass from me: "But Thy will, not mine, be done."

The cup does not pass. He is arrested. Beaten, scourged, crowned with thorns. And he is sentenced to be crucified at Golgotha, the Place of the Skull.

Now, let us remember what in earlier and wiser times was known to all. The cross on which he was crucified was made from the wood of the Tree of Life itself. And the Place of the Skull is the resting place of our first parents; the skull is Adam's skull.

Now, of the three members of the soul, the nous is the highest, and its place in the subtle anatomy is in the skull. Here at the Place of the Skull, He dies upon the Tree of Life.

He descends into Hell. And there he comes in triumph; the Gate of Hell is broken, and its inmates are released.

"Take up your cross and follow me," He tells us. By sacrifice, bind yourself to the Tree of Life. Descend from the Nous in your head to the Passions burning in the hellfire of your belly, and release the energy and the will that you have bound up there in the following of earthly things. Do this, die to this world, and you will be reborn, even as He is reborn.

Thank you to everyone who has followed this blog over the last few years, and a blessed Easter to one and all!

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