It's Time To End Crucifixion Consciousness
A Note To The Modern Version Of The Roman Empire On Easter Sunday.
Photo by Manuel Guerrero on Unsplash
What a week this has been in the Felliniesque circus that passes for media and politics, both globally, and in the United States.
The advent of Springtime and its traditional affiliated religious holidays are supposed to represent resurrection, light, hope, and love, reflecting the literal renewal of life.
The implication is that the resurrection is ultimate defiance, and by Jesus’ refusal to succumb to the fear of death, a spark of God fills all of humankind with hope, unity, and love for their fellow man.
That hope and ideal have always been tempered for me by the strange dichotomy offered by traditional religious institutions between crucifixion and resurrection, which is, specifically, that in emphasizing death, pain, and suffering, the ritual of the crucifixion is equally important.
That crucifixion is, in effect, a death ritual that has been projected onto global human consciousness for hundreds of years. Whether we realize it or not, ritual energy, in the simple recognition and strict observance of religious Holy Days like “Good Friday” (“Good” meaning Holy in this context) has elevated a single event to oppressive reality in collective human consciousness.
To quote the writer Kathleen McGowan:
“I believe the events of Good Friday have scarred us for eternity. The Crucifixion inflicted a deep wound within our humanity, carrying a daunting message that says “The good guys don’t always win.” We aren’t entitled to our happy ending and are meant to suffer. Tragedy and sacrifice is our lot, and we must accept it. Traditional religion insists that we welcome it and embrace it.
I believe that this deep spiritual wounding needs to be addressed. Maybe, if we all recognize it and work on it together, it can even be healed. I believe that it is meant to be healed, and perhaps that is controversial in traditional Christian circles.
I call it “Crucifixion Consciousness.”
Many of us live in the shadow of fear and worry, secretly waiting for the other shoe to drop. I have seen this so many times with people on a spiritual path. No matter how optimistic, positive, spiritual, Present-in-the-Now we try to be, there is that voice in the back of our minds, whether we hear it literally or feel it intuitively, that says, “Even Jesus couldn’t win this one. Just when we are about to create Heaven on Earth, it all goes very, very wrong.” The events of Good Friday have programmed us to expect that we cannot succeed on our highest spiritual paths, and have programmed us to accept struggle, pain and even martyrdom as part of the package.
If you are a rabble-rouser, a radical with new ideas, dismissive of the earthly power of empire as Jesus was to Caesar and The Romans, and even to the Pharisees, who implemented strict religious laws for every moment of day-to-day living, a horrible fate awaits you: a painful slow public death.
To keep the energy, or “Crucifixion Consciousness” of the ritual recharged, we have been imprinted over thousands of years with paintings, sculptures, and figurines of Christ on the cross in every conceivable variation from the extravagantly ornate to the hideously cheap. The wider the distribution, and the longer the time, the deeper the imprint.
This particular Easter Sunday, the light of resurrection is currently overshadowed by the horror of genocide, a criminal atrocity being actively financed and perpetuated by the United States and Israel. The most vulnerable and innocent, women, children, and even the able-bodied can’t fight against the imbalance, US-supplied bombs are obliterating entire city blocks. Consider the fact that, according to Substack writer and statistician Stephen Semler:
“The heaviest bombs the US dropped on ISIS in Mosul was 500 pounds. Biden is again giving Israel 2,000-pound bombs to drop on Palestinian civilians.”
The propaganda arms of the modern-day Roman empire, like a dark octopus with multiple arms, normalize this ongoing horror through the thoughtless and unempathetic broadcasts’ of legacy and social media feeds. Speaking of Christianity, the last Christian community in Gaza is currently on the verge of extinction. Crucifixion energy manifested again.
“For the first time in its history, Gaza’s Christian community is under threat of extinction.
Gaza is home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, dating back to the first century, and the third oldest church in the world. Despite constant threats to survival, the community has persisted for two millennia.
But now, extinction may be unavoidable this time due to Israel’s indiscriminate war and imposed famine, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza. There are only about 800 Christians left in Gaza.
The Western world, which often champions the rights of the religious minorities in the region, is eerily silent.
In the declining days of the Roman Empire, to keep crowds distracted, the empire executed “Bread And Circuses” :
“Rome's rulers deliberately kept the populace in a complacent and inert state by continually plying them with handouts of free food and lavish, violent shows. This concept is usually expressed in shorthand by the expression "bread and circuses," or occasionally in the original Latin version, panem et circenses. Jan 3, 2022
If the karmic cycle of death and rebirth is remotely true, America has become a negative manifestation of the Roman Empire’s lust for power, to be held on to by any means necessary, and Israel has absorbed the dark energy of the Germans, who followed Hitler’s dictates with horrifyingly productive results.
Arguably, an imprint of Crucifixion energy manifested and re-personified.
Speaking of Bread and Circuses, if there were ever a case for it in the modern day, it would be the degrading spectacle of watching politics dumbed down as a clownish entertainment spectacle. Television character actor and talk show host Stephen Colbert, likely on instructions from his corporate masters at CBS Television, was relegated to hosting an elite event in New York City, the modern-day incarnation of the city of Rome.
Colbert, and two former Presidents, Clinton and Obama, spent an hour or so testifying to the solid leadership and future vision of current President Joe Biden. At one point they all donned aviator sunglasses, a ritual in and of itself, that is supposed to legitimize the cartoon persona character created by someone in the Biden campaign months ago, “Dark Brandon.” More circuses are, sadly, inevitable. Even the promo poster screams Circus by implication and design. P.T. Barnum would approve of the expert hucksterism applied here.
The circuses were further amplified by celebrities Queen Latifah and Lizzo, who were there, presumably, to add an air of youthful energy (relative to the archaic Biden) and pop star gloss, so the elite attendees could feel good about defense industry investments and ignore the war-mongering and genocide that is the current and future legacy of the Biden administration.
“Nothing Will Fundamentally Change,” Biden promised to an elitist group of donors in 2020, and that is certainly one promise he has kept faithfully.
The Bread and Circuses television media breathlessly, as they have for years, enthusiastically and excitedly hyped the potential cash donations that would “break records,” all implying that if the plebians just put on their pair of aviator shades, or pour a shot to toast Biden with Dark Brandon coffee mugs, they could vicariously participate in an event in which the plebians were not invited, but infiltrated anyway. Simply listening to the forced, upbeat, positive PR spun by the media puppets on CNN brings home how detached and delusional we have become as a collective.
The bad news for the modern-day version of the Roman Empire is that people of conscience are defying the fear of potential crucifixion, denying a media-scripted version of reality that pretends all is well if we simply go to the polls.
It’s a welcome denial of Crucifixion Energy.
It’s also a denial of patriarchy, “old white men” deciding the fate of and ruling over half of humanity. It’s an angry, unpleasant sort of energy, but for any objective observer, it was a long time coming and deserved in light of current events. One young lady when asked why she would not vote for Buiden shouted back “Because I hate old white men!”
It’s not just the protestors either.
In at least the second instance of public resignation, I’m aware of, a State Department official named Anelle Sheline publicly stated that she could no longer stay silent in the face of US support for genocide. It should be noted that, on informing her colleagues of the decision:
“By resigning publicly, I am saddened by the knowledge that I likely foreclose a future at the State Department. I had not initially planned a public resignation. Because my time at State had been so short — I was hired on a two-year contract — I did not think I mattered enough to announce my resignation publicly. However, when I started to tell colleagues of my decision to resign, the response I heard repeatedly was, “Please speak for us.”
Across the federal government, employees like me have tried for months to influence policy, both internally and, when that failed, publicly. My colleagues and I watched in horror as this administration delivered thousands of precision-guided munitions, bombs, small arms and other lethal aid to Israel and authorized thousands more, even bypassing Congress to do so. We are appalled by the administration’s flagrant disregard for American laws that prohibit the US from providing assistance to foreign militaries that engage in gross human rights violations or that restrict the delivery of humanitarian aid.”
The protests, if you believe in hope and light on Easter are an important first step in denying the Crucifixion energy of the empire.
Crucifixion consciousness can only be sustained by turning our backs collectively on the terrorizing and starvation of innocent men, women, and children, there is no excuse not to raise our voices in protest in whatever way is possible within our power.
We can no longer deny this.
Thanks to each of you for your support and blessings to you in whatever way you celebrate life.