EASTER HAS VERY DEEP ROOTS….beyond the ones we’ve been handed by christianity

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Jesus and MM (Mary Magdalene)…they hold special places in my heart AND I understand and have researched the bedrock of pagan traditions that the patriarchal trope of Christianity built their foundations upon…

Before women were subjegated to mere accompaniments to the pursuits of man…

Before we were simply wives to breed a family for our husbands, take orders, and simply exists to produce offspring…

Before we were told to shut the fuck up, obey, and keep our legs closed and our pleasure turned off…

We were wild holy embodiments of the Goddess, walking and singing on this beautiful Earth. AND we can be that today. 

Easter has deep roots and traditions that stem back to the days of Pagan traditions, pagan meaning people’s who celebrated the magic of the earth and HER abundance, fertility and providership.

The Earth and Her Wisdom is what Pagans celebrated and revered. They celebrated and honoured her green lush leaves, her dark rich soils, and crafted very special gatherings, so that she would have her cup filled so as to return a bountiful harvest. 

If you look deeper into where the newer roots of Easter stem from you’ll discover that most countries in Europe derived the name of Easter from the Jewish festival of Passover. Yet Easter, in our English-speaking neighbor countries (think Germany, England etc) Easter was watered down from the pagan Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, who was a goddess of spring and renewal. 

She’s also known as Ostara, ancient Germanic goddess of the spring, whose name evolved over the course of time (and for those who love to delve deep, you can read more here). 

Eggs and rabbits were celebrated as symbols of abundance, where eggs were a symbol of new life (and rabbits well…fcking like rabbits metaphor anyone = fertility, new life, and the general mating cycles of nature). This is why Eastern Europe countries like my own Ukrainian roots whose cultural craft of pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) were crafted over Easter (and we can see their influence in our own North American rituals of easter egg dying here). 

The Sumerians, who are considered one of the world’s oldest civilizations (located in modern southern Iraq), documented the earliest traditions of celebrating the turning of the seasons through their story of Inanna’s Descent into the underworld (a story that predates Jesus and his resurrection some 2,000 years prior).

Inanna was said to descend into the Underworld and was killed before being brought to back to life, and it is considered one of the oldest myths around resurrection and rebirth focused on Spring. 

What makes Easter such an interesting ‘holiday’ is that it falls on a different time each year, as it follows the cycles of the moon (a very pagan thing to do right?), and falls on a Sunday following the first full moon after Spring equinox.

A restoration of the remembrance that Jesus was a reminder for man to be kind and compassionate towards one another. 

And Mary Magdalene, Saint, Priestess and Goddess Embodied, was her to remind us of our inextricable connection and relationship to the earth and her wisdom. 

Any Religion that doesn’t honour and revere the Great Shakina, and honour the Earth Mother is a cult devoted to False Ego Consciousness…. A king stripped of his Queen. 

Jesus and Osiris.

Mary + Isis.

It’s in holy communion of Soul + Body, Father Sky, Lover/Mother Earth, Yin/Yang, where we find a sacred peace within ourselves and new way of honouring life and her cycles. All can co-exist together – in honouring and support of one another…to be Heaven Embodied on Earth.  

As we celebrate Easter (and approach April 22nd, Earth Day), I invite you to reconsider your own relationship to the seasons and cycles in your life, of death and renewal, resurrection and reclamation.