Spiritual Transformation of the Easter Ritual
All great wisdom traditions have a story of spiritual transformation. We see that these stories are important psychological experiences. They all reflect a descent followed by emergence. The themes around Good Friday and the crucifixion are particularly relevant to the individuation process: the life long journey towards psychological wholeness and to live the Self’s experiment in life.
Christian Myth
In the Christian Myth, Good Friday marks Jesus’s crucifixion and the beginning of the three days of waiting for the resurrection on Easter Sunday. The symbols of the cross and the waiting 3 days are found in many other myths and fairy tales. The central theme of which reflect the psychological experience of the death of something in order that something else can rise. Three days is symbolic of the night sea journey with its themes of descent and return. In these journeys, a part of the ego’s energy retreats from daily life for inner exploration to find the truth of the soul.
For Carl Jung and Jungian Analyst, Edward Edinger, the crucifixion and the cross are the psychological experience of that moment when the divine and the ego are locked in a tension of the opposites. Both are on the cross. Both must sacrifice something for transformation to occur. The Self / the Divine must come down from heaven and become conscious in the individual as life energy. The ego must sacrifice the inflated notion that it is the master of its own house and serve the larger call of individuation. The drama of the crucifixion is symbolically a fundamental experience of the individuation process.
This process is described by Edward Edinger in Ego and Archetype ” This state is a transition period. It is the limbo of despair following the death of an old life orientation and preceding the birth of a new one. Jesus’ resurrection symbolizes the birth of a more comprehensive personality which can result from the conscious acceptance of the crucifixion ordeal” p 150.
Resurrection after a period of waiting
The period of waiting can be incredibly challenging for our egos. The resulting discomfort of letting an old way of being die on Good Friday, through the vigil of Holy Saturday while we wait for the resurrection on Easter Sunday, can seduce us into a false action. For true transformation to occur, we must surrender to the mystery, hold the tension of not knowing, and allow life to have its own timing.
April 2017
Christina Becker