Aries-Easter: The Heart of Lockdown – Three Days in the Tomb

Sun Exalted in Aries: (The Sun at His Eastern Gate, William Blake, 1816)

“Easter as a time of death and resurrection to Eternal Life – is a perfect time to reflect upon death as we sit out the “three days in the tomb” – a microcosm of several months of global lock-down.”

This essay explores the correspondences between Easter 2020 – and the ancient mysteries of Easter, three days in the tomb, initiation – and those universal identities that all aspire to emulate: Jesus and The Christ.

The esoteric interpretation of Easter is profound, especially at Easter 2020 when celebrations have been banned or severely curtailed – for perhaps the first time since this festival first began regularly, half way through the second century AD.

The key factor to remember is that the One known as the Master Jesus, died upon the cross at the so-called Crucifixion – the fourth initiation or the Great Renunciation. For the last three years of his life, Jesus “loaned” his body to that Being known as The Christ – and to be “overshadowed” by Him.

To understand this process, occult students have to familiarise themselves with the Science of Initiation, a sub-science of Esoteric Astrology. All humans on the road to Liberation (another name for the Crucifixion initiation), go through minor and major initiations, or successive expansions of consciousness and awakening – over many lifetimes.

The Baptism of Jesus was symbolic of the 2^nd initiation, and the Transfiguration the 3^rd degree initiation – both of which were recapitulations of stages achieved in previous lives, in preparation for that life where Jesus took the 4^th degree. The following life as Apollonius of Tyana, He became a 5^th degree initiate, or a Master of Wisdom.

These are important facts to understand at this point in planetary history, as the Masters of Wisdom are poised to return amongst Humanity again. This current global crisis is part of a mass purification process that is preparing millions of people to “reverse the wheel” and take the First Initiation – the awakening of soul consciousness or, a recognition of the Christ love principle.

The gradual approach of the Great White Brotherhood into direct human interaction, is partly the reason why there is currently so much conflict and chaos – on this planet of pain and suffering, so unique in this solar system. Their highly refined emanations are invoking the coarser frequencies of the status quo to raise its game – to arise from the tomb of materialism.

As the Masters overshadow Humanity as a whole, so The Christ overshadowed Jesus in the last three years of his life. Jesus literally “stepped aside” as part of a pre-ordained agreement:

“When a messenger of the Great [White] Lodge needs a vehicle through which to express Himself, and cannot use a physical body Himself, owing to the rarity of its substance, He will utilise the body of a disciple. We have an instance of this in the manner the Christ used the body of the initiate Jesus, taking possession of it at the time of the Baptism. [Three years before Jesus’ crucifixion and death.]

Again when a message has to be given out to the world during some recurring cycle, a disciple of high position in a Master’s group will appear in physical incarnation, and be “overshadowed” or “inspired” (in the technically occult sense) by some teacher greater than he.”1

What occurred during those three days in the tomb? This three-day period is similar to Paul’s blinding on the road to Damascus or Jonah in the belly of the whale, but at a more advanced stage. Jesus had left the body and was not about to reanimate it. The unity of Christ-Jesus “descended into hell and taught the spirits in prison”, as relayed in the Bible – the “hell” of materialism and the physical plane; the darkness that veils yet greater glories.

Signs of Christ (Nicholas Roerich)

As a very dim reflection of this event, Easter affords not only the opportunity for Humanity to reflect deeply upon that Great Sacrifice of Christ the Redeemer, but for each individual to peer into the abyss of their own hells; to face the Demon of the Dweller, to review unflinchingly what lays or lurks unredeemed – thereby aspiring to reach, “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”.

The Christ as avatar for the Piscean Age will, as the Head of the Hierarchy, make another (unprecedented) reappearance as Avatar for the Aquarian Age, due to “unfinished business” in Palestine 2,000 years ago. Bear in mind that it is the Office of the Christ which is held for certain cycles of time.

Temptation of Jesus (Nicholas Roerich). “Satan” (material lower mind) and the trials for the Third Initiation, The Transfiguration.

The Master Jesus is now a 6^th degree initiate or Chohan (custodian) of the sixth ray force – Devotion and Idealism. Master Jesus works with all the other Masters within the greater Ashram of the Christ – that great exemplar of the 2^nd ray of Love Wisdom who works closely with the Buddha and the Lord of the World every year at the Taurus-Wesak Festival.

“It was the Master Jesus who “died” and entered into the tomb, thus climaxing His long series of incarnations and ending—by destruction—the hold of matter on the spirit; through the tomb He passed into the Hierarchy, and the destiny of the Christian Church was committed to Him; that destiny still lies in His hands.

But in the Gospel story, it is the Christ Who is indicated as appearing after the resurrection and not the Master Jesus, except in the one brief episode wherein He appeared to Mary, weeping outside the door of the sepulchre.”2

The Christ therefore assumed his role as Head of the Hierarchy at this time, embodying the love principle of divinity and at the same time, anchoring the first thread of Shamballa force:

“In the triumph of the Crucifixion or (as it is more accurately called in the East) the Great Renunciation, Christ, for the first time, anchored on earth a tenuous thread of the divine Will, as it issued from the Father’s House (Shamballa), passed into the understanding custody of the Kingdom of God, and through the medium of the Christ was brought to the attention of mankind.

Through the instrumentality of certain great Sons of God the three divine aspects or characteristics of the divine Trinity—will, love and intelligence—have become a part of human thinking and aspiration. Christians are apt to forget that the crisis in the final hours of the Christ was not in those spent upon the Cross, but during those spent in the Garden of Gethsemane, when His will—in agony and almost despair—was submerged in that of the Father. “Father,” He said, “not my will but Thine be done.” (Luke XXII. 42.)”3

Garden of Gethsemane (Rembrandt)

The agony of Gethsemane was also the agony of the Christ-Jesus “thrice denied before the cock crow” – by his sleeping disciples during his long dark night of the soul. Here is not only a rich allegory for the vast difference in consciousness, but also how those closest co-workers can falter, betray, “fall asleep at the wheel” so to speak – through their own egoistic self-absorption and separativeness:

“Something new, yet planned for from the very depth of time, happened then in that quiet garden; Christ, representing mankind, anchored or established the Father’s will on earth and made it possible for intelligent humanity to carry it out.

… Today, because of what Christ did in His moment of crisis hundreds of years ago, humanity can add its efforts to the working out of that Plan. The will-to-good of the Father’s House can become the goodwill of the Kingdom of God and be transformed into right human relations by intelligent humanity.

Thus the direct line or thread of God’s will reaches now from the highest place to the lowest point and can, in due time, become a cable of ascension for the sons of men and of descent for the loving, living spirit of God.

I would have you forget distance, remoteness and vagueness and realise that I am talking of exact and literal happenings on our planet. I am dealing with recognitions and occurrences and with factual events which are the conscious possession of many. The Christ of history and the Christ in the human heart are planetary facts.”4

Issa and the Skull of the Giant (Nicholas Roerich)

The combined influence of Christ and Jesus was the triumph over death, for which a great existential fear has been created by the materialistic forces, since ancient Atlantis. This theme is most apposite – in this era of coronavirus and its generated fear that has been the real “virus”:

“The fear of death is one of the great abnormalities or distortions of divine truth for which the Lords of Cosmic Evil are responsible. When in early Atlantean times they emerged from the place where they had been confined, and forced temporarily the retirement of the Great White Lodge to subjective levels, their first great act of distortion was to implant in human beings fear, beginning with the fear of death. From that time on, men have laid the emphasis upon death and not life, and have been ridden by fear all their days.”5

Humanity is now in its most critical period of history, truly facing its Dweller and entering a dark night of the soul. Pluto in Capricorn, the Lord of the Underworld – is starkly revealing to Humanity the mess it has created – and at the same time, the obvious solutions that must follow.

World Wars I & II saw the destruction of much planetary evil, through Pluto’s “exorcism”. Pluto was “discovered” in 1930 – in between those wars in the sign of Cancer, opposite where it is now in Capricorn 2020. The Pluto discovery horoscope sees this planet in harmonious aspect to the moon in Scorpio, the sign it rules and which represents Humanity trapped in the underworld – those prisoners who eventually escape.

When the Masters and Christ return, they may be in male or female bodies, dressed in anything from business suits to a hippy’s attire!

Back then a group of evil men precipitated the World Wars through their deliberate choices over “prolonged cycles of purely material selfishness”. Since that period however, the “door where evil dwells” has drifted from its “firmly sealed” position to ajar – and that same group has re-established and consolidated their power in the world, through rampant and “refined” materialism.

Such is the impasse that Humanity faces today, where those material forces have been in control of an “undeclared world war III” in recent decades. A great stand-off against this group is now arising during the 2020 crisis – on the eve of 2025, the date where Hierarchy will decide at its once-in-a-century conclave, the timing of Their Reappearance:

“… a situation can be brought about which will permit the return of the Christ into objective relation with mankind, and which will enable Him to set about His task of resurrecting the human spirit, out of the tomb of materialism into the clear light of spiritual perception. For this, all men must work.”6

Has that “situation” now emerged, that will “permit the return of the Christ into objective relation with mankind”? Is this the beginning of the process that will culminate sometime after 2025, or have Hierarchy changed their plans and are blind-siding everyone with an earlier-than-anticipated Reappearance? All disciples on the planet must be prepared “as if” either of these scenarios is true – and for which “all [wo]men must work”.

The drastic changes that have occurred during lock-down are impressive – no air or noise pollution, people learning to meditate or using their time constructively – to reflect upon the past and build a new future. This is the true time of emergence from the tomb of darkness into the light. Humanity’s resurrection at Easter is a faint reflection of the Christ’s resurrection:

“The story of the resurrection in which the Master Jesus arose out of the tomb; the chains of death could not hold Him. At that time of His “rising,” a far more important event took place and the Christ passed through the seventh Initiation of Resurrection and returned back to His original state of Being—to remain there throughout all the eternities.

This is the true and final resurrection. The Son of God has found His way back to the Father and to His originating Source, that state of Existence to which we have given the name Shamballa.”7

Easter as a time of death and resurrection to Eternal Life – is a perfect time to reflect upon death as we sit out the “three days in the tomb” – a microcosm of several months of global lock-down. We die in each succeeding incarnation. We discard the physical body, then the astral and mental bodies in the after death state – only to create new ones in other incarnations, as we seek to perfect those vehicles by raising them to more refined states of matter.

Mother of the World (Nicholas Roerich)

Then a stage is reached where there is the death of desire and its transformation into aspiration. In later incarnations the death of the personality occurs, the repudiation and renunciation of the separative ego and the material world. (The 3^rd degree.) Finally there is the destruction of the causal or soul body at the 4^th initiation, the Renunciation or Liberation. It is only because Humanity loves unduly the material, that it fears death.

“Each death prepares the way for a greater loveliness and livingness, and each death prefaces resurrection in some form or another until we come to this final resurrection and into the position of final attainment.

Symbolically, nature is ever portraying to us the essential facts in the annual progress of the four seasons, in the cycles of light and dark and in the wonder of the emergence of beauty or colour or useful function out of a seed which has struggled—because of its inherent life—into the light of the sun.”8

This last phrase, “struggled … into the light of the sun” is gloriously relevant for Aries and Easter – where the Sun is exalted, the exalted Christ consciousness within all hearts.

Phillip Lindsay © 2020.
See also another recent essay: Spiritual Opportunity for Humanity in 2020: Pluto-Jupiter.

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