Illumination of the Cross
Written August 2003
I have for several years now, been struggling with the notion of why Jesus died on the cross and why Christians seem to go into raptures when they talk about ‘Jesus’ sacrifice for having died for their sins’. There is obviously something they understand that I do not, something in their experience that provides them with an appreciation that remains just beyond my grasp.
During the first years of my life, up until 1994 in fact, I was bored with religion and only attended church for weddings and funerals. Although ostensibly ‘Church of England’ (just a title we used to put on forms), my parents rarely attended church themselves so I was fortunate that they never forced me down that path. To this I will be eternally grateful.
This lack of ‘brainwashing’ has allowed me to move in very different circles, providing me with opportunities to look at many diverse sources of inspiration, taking some ideas from here and some from there.
My resulting freedom allowed me to view all religions with a discerning eye, not getting captured by the rightness or wrongness of any one in particular. However, from this point in my life, I have reached the conclusion that all religions, as they are presented to us today, are more about the love of power rather than the power of love. They are about hiding things, secreting documents and books away in archives, that contain information that they consider opposes their doctrines and dogmas. Each religion has no room for any other who has differing views to the views contained in their ‘book’.
Post 1994, I chose to see the world under a wonderful new light and with transformed eyes that had been prompted by the events during that year. No longer did I see life as a series of difficult situations that must be fought and circumvented by any means necessary. My eyes had been opened to see a new world full of wondrous experiences - experiences that ultimately helped me to discover and forge new resources within. Going through, I realised, is definitely better and more rewarding than going around.
During this process of transformation, I turned not to religion but to spirituality. Spirituality is a way of life, an experience, rather than a doctrine or dogma handed down by others that we must adhere to and a series of penances if we don’t.
Under spirituality, we are given the freedom to be ourselves, to be all that we can be, to find that which is our essence. Under religion, we are forced down a particular road, bounded by fences of belief and of dogma, to sacrifice our uniqueness in order to be in service to others.
To be fully in service to others, one must first be all that one can be, with nothing left out or hidden just because society dictates that we must be a particular way or that we must follow a particular set of rules.
We must find ourselves, our true selves, then we can present that as an example for others to follow. If we offer our true nature, others will see this in us and realise that they too can be their true selves. Teaching by example rather than by diktat is a more effective tool as this results in acceptance and cooperation rather than apathy, belligerence and antagonism.
Through the years since 1994, I found the discussions I had with Christians more and more frustrating as I could still not ally my own beliefs to that of theirs. I understood the words but not the meaning.
Certain aspects still remained tantalisingly beyond my grasp, like the death on the cross and that sin thing. There was obviously a key piece of the puzzle still missing for me. I had to find that piece. I needed to find a way of relating it to my particular beliefs, to understand it from my perspective and from my perception of spirituality.
I have learned during my travels on the spiritual path, that all people have gifts of healing. Some people realise they have these gifts and some do not, only to awaken them during their twilight years.
Healers are gentle people. They have traits such as understanding, sympathy, empathy and compassion. Some healers also have the ability to tune directly into the client’s Higher Self and download relevant information about the session, thereby circumventing the need for words to describe the problem. An infinitely more efficient approach. Those that choose to train as therapists generally have some or all of the above.
Those that train learn one very important fact. They must protect themselves energetically. An energetic barrier must be erected around them in order to prevent their own issues from invading the client’s space, and also to prevent the client’s problems from invading their space. It is all too easy to absorb other peoples ‘stuff’ thinking it is your own.
For those of us, trained or untrained, and who are particularly open, it is even more essential to protect ourselves energetically. Someone, who by thought or deed, can attack us psychically trying to divert us from our path. This is invariably done unconsciously by the person, but can be done consciously by those with adequate knowledge.
There are enlightened ones who emanate an incredible light and are evolved to a very high degree. They are those who have reached a point of balance and of understanding and are those who teach by example. They have the ability to absorb and transmute energies residing in others that no longer serves that person’s highest good. It is always energy that the person is unable to release for themselves.
The illumination of the title is mine. I am now able to understand from my spiritual perspective, why Jesus chose to experience the cross. Jesus was undoubtedly one of these enlightened being’s able to absorb and transmute energies. For me, this also explains the miracles that Jesus chose to perform. The cross itself was the means Jesus chose to transmute energies not of just individuals but for the whole of humanity.
As for that sin thing - I’m still working on that one.
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