The Passion...

Today marks the first full moon following the Spring Equinox, and for Christians around the world it marks that fateful day that Jesus the Nazarene was crucified for his beliefs. On this day the passion was his, and his alone, for there was no Christian Church nor even a single 'Christian' to mourn the passing of one man. He never knew as he hung there dying, that his passing would be noted two thousand years later across a world; that his passion would inspire millions just as the passion of the Buddha had done.

OK, I am not a Christian; just as I am not a Buddhist, Jainist, Muslim or Jew. However, I do appreciate passion, I do marvel at how the actions and beliefs of one man or woman can stir a nation or peoples into action. I adore the 'myth' that passion itself can instill within a culture, a passion so strong it can elevate or corrupt by design.

Martin Luther King had his Passion, and it needed him to die for it to go out into the wider world. His passion required his self sacrifice for there to be a mixed race president in power today. Similarly, the passions of Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy meant they would die for their beliefs so that others might be inspired.

In every culture, every faith, every walk of life there are those who manifest their passion so strongly it will cause a reaction. To die for ones beliefs is part and parcel of the heroic myth even for the likes of Bouddica Queen of the Iceni, Arthur Pendragon or Horus; and it is interesting that the passion of these myths means the individual never truly dies but instead remains 'in the wings' ready to return.

My reason for writing this wasn't as a poorly portrayed history lesson, no; it was more to do with the 'passion' itself, the sense of 'rightness' that can manifest so strongly in someone that they lay down their life for its instigation.

In my life I have met people with this kind of passion, some of them I would rate as mentally ill; but that would only be a personal judgement that had no actual validity, for who am I to say what is true?

We can all lay claim to passion in our beliefs, but how many would truly die for them; not quickly but in slow torture. At what point are your beliefs perishable?

As we pagans tuck into our Easter eggs and shield our eyes from the Christians and their 'mock pagan' celebrations, we miss a fundamental lesson of life; one that is echoed within myths of all faiths around the world. The myth of the Sun God and his resurrection, but most importantly the Passion of Conviction of ones faith to the point of self destruction; and beyond that into an awakening of Spirit to a higher plane.

Do not forget that within each and every one of us there is a moment, maybe yet to come, when we as Spirit will caste ourselves into the fires of our own Passion, where we will hang lonely and deserted upon the cross of our own making and may well scream to the endless night 'my Goddess, why have you forsaken me'.

If the Passion teaches you anything it should be this; do not be smug or complacent in your beliefs. Study and understand what you 'are' and what you will 'become'; know it with such a strength that should it become your Passion then you know in you heart that you will lay down your friends, your family and your life for that Truth.

I am a pagan.

I see the Truth of Spirit in many faiths irrespective of the edifice that purports to control that truth. I understand that each of us must go through our own Passion at some time, and we will do it alone and afraid only because you cannot test something by loving it.

Today, I respect the truth of one mans passion and I hope when it is my turn that I can be as brave in my belief.

Happy Easter

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