Easter Full Moon and its pagan roots
Today marks the full moon and the Easter weekend. It’s late this year but is always the Sunday after the first full moon after the March 21 Equinox. So this Sunday is the one after the full moon of today. The date corresponds with The Hebrew Passover on the lunar calendar but is also known to have pagan origins.
Easter is named after the Saxon goddess of Spring named Eastra. It was a time of offering sacrifices to the goddess for a bountiful Spring ahead. By the eighth century the Anglo-Saxons had adopted the name for the Hebrew Passover. The Christians were known to adopt traditional pagan festival dates and incorporate them into their tradition to make it easier for the people to assimilate the new religion of the state. Curiously, from a mythical point of view, the death and resurrection of Christ almost mirrors the myth of Spring renewal after the deathly Winter for the agriculturalists of the day. It symbolizes something much like Christmas, the return of the Sun.
According to scholars the Easter story is also linked back to the Sumerian legend of Damuzi (Tammuz) and his wife Inanna (Ishtar), in the epic tale “The Descent of Inanna” found on cuneiform tablets going back to 2100 BCE.
“When Tammuz dies, Ishtar is grief–stricken and follows him to the underworld. In the underworld, she enters through seven gates, and her worldly attire is removed. "Naked and bowed low" she is judged, killed, and then hung on display. In her absence, the earth loses its fertility, crops cease to grow and animals stop reproducing. Unless something is done, all life on earth will end.
After Inanna has been missing for three days her assistant goes to other gods for help. Finally one of them Enki, creates two creatures who carry the plant of life and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkling them on Inanna and Damuzi, resurrecting them, and giving them the power to return to the earth as the light of the sun for six months.”
This is the mythic tale of the cycles of Winter and Spring, death and rebirth.
Curiously the goddess Inanna is also known in other cultures as Astarte, or Aphrodite or Venus. Apparently in the 4th century, when the new Christian religion identified the exact place where the empty tomb of Jesus had been, it turned out to be the spot where a temple of Aphrodite stood. The temple was torn down and the famous church of the Holy Sepulchre (tomb) was built, which is now amazingly the holiest church in the Christian world.
The dying and resurrected god has for eons been in various religions and cultures as the symbol of the cycles of the seasons and the astronomical timing of that annual cycle. Among these stories are prevailing themes of fertility, conception, renewal, descent into darkness, and the triumph of light over darkness or good over evil, according to some scholars, such as Dr. Tony Nugent, teacher of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University. Easter was officially formalized by Emperor Constantine, who earlier had converted his empire to Christianity, at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.
Being named after the fertility goddess Oestre, the festival adopted the fertility symbols of the rabbit and the egg from her. In Germanic mythology, it is said that Ostara healed a wounded bird she found in the woods by changing it into a hare. Still partially a bird, the hare showed its gratitude to the goddess by laying eggs as gifts. Curiously in ancient Egypt, an egg symbolised the sun, while for the Babylonians, the egg represents the hatching of the Venus (Morning Star Lucifer perhaps) Ishtar, who fell from heaven to the Euphrates. The symbol of the bunny bringing eggs on Easter was first recorded that we know of around the sixteenth century in Germany and was popularized by German emigrants to America.
Moving on from the mythic origins of Easter, we can look at the astrological symbolism behind the Full Moon now over Easter 2019. It falls on the last degree of Libra today in the Tropical Western zodiac. It signifies a favourable time for social gatherings and socializing in general. The conjunction with minor asteroid Hybris calls for compassion and humility to counter the pride symbolically associated with its namesake Hubris the goddess of pride. Aim to remove ego and arrogance and thereby allow your relationships to grow over this Easter full moon today.
Consider too that the Sun is conjunct Uranus in the heavens and the zodiac today, with the moon directly opposite as is natural in a full moon. As a result the theme of excitement and rebellious freedom may inspire the urge to breakout of any routines or restrictions, so make an effort to allow some room for something different or a bit of a change in your Easter now. Be a catalyst for positive change otherwise the mood of the day may force some sudden, unexpected change on you and your plans.
Be flexible and accommodating in your relationships now. The theme of compassion is a healthy one to cultivate. That and humility are classic qualities of spiritual progress on the path of consciousness which may be on the minds of all of us this weekend, regardless of culture or background. Either way, may you celebrate the Passover full moon this weekend with a bumper harvest of gains wherever you may find yourself.
Refs: https://astrologyking.com/full-moon-april-2019/
https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/ancient-pagan-origins-easter-001571
The pagan roots of Easter - Heather McDougall
Ancient Sumerian Origins of the Easter Story – by Valerie Tarico
History of Easter: Exploring the Ancient Origins of the Modern Holiday – by Shawna Burreson
The Origins of Easter – by Ross Abasolo
How I love this post of yours!
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Thanks we are like-minded.
That was very interesting write-up. I read something similar about SunDay and it roots in paganism.
Thanks @bluemist it seems like much of our western religious practice is from older cultures.
Too many stop at the door of their religion being the right one! Mankind has altered the name of periods, most are linked to pagan belief going back way further in history to what is taught of late.
Nice insight over this period Julian.
Good post, but I think it would be truer to say that Christian leaders co-opted pagan rituals in order to sell the new religion of the state to the people of the Roman empire, who were well grounded into their pagan rituals and beliefs. It's a terrible testimony of the church, in my opinion. Constantine may have simply been playing politics, realizing this upstart religion was gaining new converts faster than the Roman empire could spread, so, instead of fighting them, or persecuting them, let's make their religion the religion of the state, then we can slowly paganize them without them knowing it. I don't know if that was his intent or not, but it worked. Later, the emperor Julian would attempt to take Rome back to its pagan roots, unsuccessfully.
While the rituals of the pagan religions were incorporated into Christian worship, the belief systems--the core of the religions themselves--are worlds apart. Christian philosophy and ethics is rooted in Judaism, which was adamantly not pagan.
I love how so many Christian traditions are really just Pagan traditions in disguise. Religion really seems like it's all one thing - only separated by a bunch of different names.
#powerhousecreatives