Astrologer Laura Craig

The Dying and Rising God

Easter 2020

Mythology, religion and cosmology are replete with stories of a deity who suffers death, descends to the underworld, and then returns reborn. Inanna, Osiris, Tammuz, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, the Green Man, Persephone, Jesus Christ are some of their names. As long as humans have been self-aware and observant of the forces of nature, and conceived of these stories to mirror them, we have seen the cycle of life as an ineffable but profoundly hopeful thing. It naturally follows that our gods would reflect our awareness of this eternal sine wave. 

“Hope springs eternal.” “Tomorrow is another day.” “Life goes on.” “April, Come She Will.” “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” We have many sayings that speak to this universal truth. 

To study astrology is to study cycles and light. As an inextricable part of the microcosm and the macrocosm, the human unconscious recognizes that life is dependent on the relationship between the light and the dark, and on the cycle of birth, death and renewal. Like a bicycle that only balances as long as it’s in motion, we are all bound to the perpetually spiraling wheel of time. Stop moving and we all fall down.

Whether you see Easter as a lunar holiday—a symbol of earthly renewal and fertility, or as a religious holy day—a symbol of divine resurrection, both imply rebirth. Today, let us honor the old parts of ourselves, the things we’ve lost or left behind, that were themselves new once. And let us find hope in the things in our lives and in ourselves that are growing, emerging and coming to life; and be proud of how far we’ve come. 

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