The goddess Eostre

Easter is not a Christian word. It is a Springtime festival named for the Saxon Goddess, Eostre, or Ostara. The sacred month of this Goddess was the Moon of Eostre. And we still even use the menstrual calendar of the Goddess to set the date, the first Sunday after the first full moon, after the Spring equinox.

Easter as the Goddess of the Spring, evolved from worship of her as the Goddess of the dawn. Three thousand years before Jesus was even born, poetic and pious Hindus kindled their morning fires, made their morning sacrifices, and sang their morning song of praise to the Goddess of the dawn in ancient India. Many scholars consider the “hymn to the dawn” as among the finest of the Vedas. They praised and adored this Goddess, reborn in beauty, in every dawn, coming with radiant face to drive away the darkness and arouse all creatures to the joys of another day. And so today, 5000 years later, we still have our Easter, Goddess of the dawn, and sunrise services in every village and hamlet, waiting for the Eastern sky to come alive with the presence of this glorious Goddess, robed in gold and purple and radiant with beauty as she rises to wake the world and call all to their morning worship.

The image of a god being withdrawn from a tomb during this season of the Goddess is thousands of years older than the Jesus stories. It is a universal mythological theme, as Joseph Campbell and other scholars have brought to our attention.

Other resurrected gods of that period before Jesus were Attis and Mithra, sacrificed at the Spring equinox, and then rising and ascending to heaven. Other gods of that period who were eaten in the form of bread or wafers included Adonis and Dionysus, among many others, especially the Egyptian Osiris, whom the Egyptians called “the good shepherd,” “the Lord of Lords,” the King of Kings,” “the resurrection and the life.” Osiris was only one of many god-men who suffered, died, rose again and lived eternally in heaven. Human beings believed in resurrection and eternal life after death at least 150,000 years before Jesus was ever born. This sharing of iconic stories is called “mythological diffusion.” Read more

A five pound box of chocolates

Dr. Paul Scherer, a distinguished Lutheran and Professor of Homiletics (preaching) at Princeton made the observation that the majority of Easter sermons as given by most ministers left him with exactly the same feeling as if he had just been fed a five pound box of chocolates all at one sitting. He wrote: “preachers with their clichés and platitudes overload religion and Christianity at Easter.” For the next three Sundays we are going to be buried in Jesus talk, fantasy, folklore and mythology. For balance it is good to keep it all in perspective.

Resurrected gods are a universal theme in mythology. Attis and Mithra, sacrificed at the spring equinox and then rising and ascending to heaven. Other gods who were eaten in the form of bread or wafers included Adonis and Dionysus among many others, especially the Egyptian Osiris, whom the Egyptians called “the good shepherd,” “the Lord of Lords,” “the King of Kings,” “the resurrection and the Life.” Osiris was just one of many god-men who suffered, died, rose again from the dead and lived eternally in heaven. The image of a god buried in a tomb, being withdrawn and said to live again, is thousands of years older than the Jesus stories. It was, and is, a theme found everywhere. It is called “mythological diffusion” or “mythological continuity.” All of this is nothing new to serious students of religious history. As Carl Jung writes: “The Osiris myth was clearly superseded by the Christ myth. This is one of the finest examples of mythological continuity. The Osiris myth is the beautiful trinity of Isis and Horus, and lasted for 4500 years in Egypt. Even 500 years after the death of Jesus, Christians still worshiped in Alexandria before statues of the virgin mother, Isis, suckling her divine child in a stable.”

Humans have believed in life after death for at least 150,000 years, maybe much longer. In prehistoric times, the Neanderthal people deliberately buried their dead with flowers and artifacts. In biblical times the Pharisees believed in resurrection long before either the birth or the death of Jesus.

The words of many of the world’s most respected and distinguished scholars can save us from drowning in clichés and platitudes and childish religious pablum in this season.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD: known as the “Great Dane” and still studied in every major university and theological seminaries that are independent of Christian financial support. He put it bluntly: “Gangs of swindlers have taken forcible possession of the firm of Jesus Christ and have done a flourishing business under the name of Christianity. The whole thing is what is known in criminal cases as forgery. The typical sermon about this Jesus is not only pure twaddle, but worse than that, total dishonesty. Christianity is played every Sunday. Artists in dramatic costumes and robes make their appearance in artistic buildings and now, dramatically play Christianity, or in short, play comedy.”

ALBERT SCHWEITZER whose “Quest of the Historical Jesus” is still recognized as the classic, wrote: “Jesus claimed none of the things that the church and clergy have claimed for him.” When asked by Norman Cousins, “do you think anyone has ever lived who was as good as Jesus?” Schweitzer replied: “MILLIONS.” Read more

Earth Day: A love affair with nature

” …we have come to know what it means to be custodians of the future of the Earth – to know that unless we care, unless we check the rapacious exploitations of our Earth and protect it, we are endangering the future of our children and our children’s children. We did not know this before, except in little pieces. People knew that they had to take care of their own … but it was not until we saw the picture of the Earth, from the Moon, that we realized how small and how helpless this planet is – something that we must hold in our arms and care for.”

Margaret Mead

Earth Day is fast approaching on April 22. And for some strange cosmic reason, it is always “nature” that fills me with the most poetic love.

I realize that the writers and thinkers, the philosophers and mystics, who have most inspired me have been those who brought me closer to nature and the natural world. Thomas Paine wrote “men and books lie… only Nature never lies.” And so it is. I have absorbed the thoughts of Annie Dillard… Loren Eiseley… Lauren van der Post… Goethe on “nature”… and Joseph Wood Krutch among many other men and women who have reminded me that I am a part of the natural world and the animal kingdom as Homo sapiens, but so human an animal.

I will never forget how Joseph Wood Krutch came into my life. It was in the basement of the library at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I lived in veterans student housing on the campus. We were in tornado alley, as they called it then…and still do. It was a night when we were surrounded by tornados. The sirens screamed and everyone went to the basement of the library. I grabbed a new book on the way out of my apartment. It was “The Voice of the Desert” by Joseph Wood Krutch. When the “all clear” finally came, I had read the entire book. I knew that I had discovered a most brilliant observer of the natural world and our place in it. How well I remember to this day one chapter on the “Yucca and the Moth.” It is nature’s most perfect symbiotic relationship. The Yucca and the moth, Pronuba yuccasella, live for each other. Neither could survive without the other. As I am writing these words, I look out of my study doors at the spectacular creamy white blossoms of the Yucca in my yard and I thank the moth who made all of this beauty possible. If you would like to read the insights of this man I would suggest you start with “The Twelve Seasons.” A sample: “No government subsidized commission of engineers or physicists can create a worm.”

It is in the early morning hours when my mind/spirit/soul best absorbs the truth and the beauty of these insights into the natural world where truth is to be found. It has always been my favorite time of the day. It is the time of day that can distinguish coarseness from a divine refinement. It is the time of day when a person can look deeply into himself, or herself, and see things and not be fooled. It is the time of day when your vision is clear and the direction of your energies comes into focus. Values and priorities become sharper, issues more clear, right decisions more obvious, and the day begins on a high and noble plane. You are in harmony with yourself and the world. Read more

Next Page »