The Symbolic Meaning of the Resurrection

On Easter, the day the Christian religion celebrates the resurrection of god, I find myself pondering the meaning of this archetypal event. For believing Christians it most fundamentally represents the conquest of mortality, but I think it has other meanings as well.  Its concurrence with the springtime rebirth of nature aligns the event with ancient celebrations of fertility, and we have remnants of these celebrations in the ubiquitous eggs and bunny rabbits of Easter Sunday. Even the word Easter has fertility associations; the encyclopedia Britannica quotes the 8^th c. Venerable Bede as saying that the day was named for “Eostre, or Eostrae, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility.” 

Yet for me the concept of resurrection has a meaning that is not tied to a particular wish (to defeat death) or time of year (spring). For me its most profound meaning is found in the ups and downs of life. There are times when I feel defeated, burned out, used up, finished. And then, a sort of miracle happens: in some mysterious way my spirit resurrects; I can go on; I have new life. So, I offer to you the idea of your perpetual resurrection, here, in this life.

The Symbolic Meaning of Easter

Just as we have personal dreams, religious myths embody group dreams or shared symbolic content, what Jung calls the collective unconscious. Looking at Easter from this point of view, I see a marvelous tangle of meaning: the one I’ll focus on here is how we participate psychically in the myth of resurrection. First there is the sacrificial death, symbolizing the death of my individual, potentially antisocial desires for the greater good of the group. As I contemplate the god dying for the good of the group, I participate by sacrificing some of my selfishness for the good of others.  Once I’ve acknowledged the “bad” parts of myself, symbolized by the god going down into hell, I’m ready for resurrection as  purified and perfected (or at least somewhat improved) member of society.

At its most primitive level, this yearly resurrection coincides with the rebirth of nature in the northern hemisphere. Ancient fertility rites lie not too deeply below the many-layered observance. Participating in the fertility of nature gives me food, or sustenance, and, with our own propagation, carries the life force forward. At the spiritual level, the myth celebrates our human attainment of consciousness: we have transcended our animal nature and been reborn into a higher, godlike, level of awareness.