After Birth: Easter Monday. More reflections on the Mystery of Golgotha

As Above So Below.

Man as World Being. We can perceive man as a waking, dreaming, sleeping being: thinking, feeling, willing. Incarnated as a shadow of his spirit self; with thoughts and sympathies/antipathies and moral impulse

Religion has turned to dogma, on the one hand, or personal beliefs, on the other. One could also try to be more scientific about it. In an imaginative way. Art meets science. Philosophy meets intuition.

Another way to read the Gospels and the Mystery of Golgotha is to read it as a Book of Nature; turn to Nature and discover the portal that she is to the spirit of Man. Man is spirit revealed in the flesh. The Gospels my be considered spirit revealed in writing.

With the help of spiritual science (Anthroposophy) we can decode nature to give us a new alphabet which corresponds with the scriptural writings and shows the Christ Consciousness in the context of the Elements.

Natural Christology

It may be surprising - or even downright weird - to hear that the story of the Crucifixion, of death and sorrow, can thus be transposed onto the birthing process. I found it makes an interestinig exercise to try and follow this through.

Christ Conceived, Gestated and Delivered to Earth

There is a Wisdom behind the creation of the organism of Man which we can decypher and transpose onto the myths from all ages. Likewise the Mystery of Golgotha has a natural science to it that we can analyse methodically. We might liken the physical life of the Christ to the fetus of Man. Thus the Christ is conceived in the Baptism (the holy spirit enters the mortal Nazarene); the gestation lasts 3 1/3 years; the death of Jesus on the Cross is the birth of Christ’s life on Earth, which lasts 40 days up until the Ascension.

Birth in the human being is a tricky affair, with a couple of critical manoeuvers (twists and turns) to be made for a delivery to be successful. The infant ready to be born has to slot into the pelvis sideways to accommodate its oval head, and then turn 90 degrees back again to exit the almendorla vulva. See how this draws a cross. This brings to mind the two other crosses we naturally draw with our bodies: two other static and permanent crosses formed by the relationship of the skull-shoulder and the hollow pelvis and the exit/entrance of the urital-genital region. May we note the three crosses on the hill of Golgotha.

It is not about finding a Truth here, but about listening to the composition of man's essence and following its lyrical flow into and out of the body. It's a meandering. A spring walk I am taking you on.

33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. (John 19: 33-34; NIV)

Waves of Motion

The contractions of a birth come in waves. The tissue which has expanded gradually over 9 months to contain, now contracts to expell. First the motion dilates then it pushes out. The after-birth is the beginning of a total concentration of the hollow space.

The breaking of the waters (amniotic fluid) announces the great event: which is not dissimilar to mountains moving, or an earthquake (described to have taken place shortly after the last breath of the mortal Jesus). In any case, it is a fairly dramatic event, with little room for error (child or maternal mortality at the time of birth is a remarkably high risk for man as compared to other animals).

The intake of light is simultaneous with that of air for the newly born. While the child breathes her first breath, the birth comes to a close with the expulsion of the placenta. This stage can be found in the blood which flows after Longinus, the Roman with the lance, spears the right flank of Christ (piercing the liver) - instead of breaking his legs, customary before leaving the crucified one for dead (just incase he wasn't and might walk away....you never know...).

This is emphasised in John - our most esoteric evangelist - to point to the guiding force which means to have the etheric water + blood coctail of the Christ flow into the earth, to redeem it. This is the most sacred, merciful moment of the entire Golgotha Event, not often observed in the Christian religion and hard to credit in any modern science as a mysterious but meaningful metaphor. Often it is deemed they were aiming for the heart to ensure certain death, but your average Roman Joe would have been easily confused about its location. You know: your left, my right, where is the heart exactly, anyway...?).

• May we also note, at this stage, that respectively, the etheric elements of earth, water, air and fire have been passed through as stages of birth (from the coarse more binding element to the more spiritual and volatile one).

Midwives

The pangs of birth are the call to sisterhood. Prior, in preparation, look at the brothers who become helpers of the sisters: Judas, Pilate, Kaiphas, Longinus all have a part to play; as much as John and the three Marys (the Madonna, Kleophas’s wife and Mary Magdalene) beneath the Cross. At the (spiritual)birth of Christ, however, it is the women only who first welcome the risen one: Mary Magdalene in the garden, Johanna, Mary mother of James, Salome, and the other Maria. The birth process is a feminine affair.

The Christ Consciousness is a reawakening of the Sophia Force. This is not about building a matriarchy on earth, or giving the women power. It is about each human being understanding and fully respecting their feminine (yin) side.

Credits:

• Golgotha by Leo Klein
• photo with table from "Anthroposophische Medizin" by Friedwart Husemann, Verlag am Goetheanum, 2009.