The Resurrection Shuffle




It’s Easter and my mind naturally turns to the story we all associate with this time of year – crucifixion and resurrection. The fabulous twist is, of course, to look at it from a spiritual standpoint rather than a religious view, finding the deeper meaning beyond the dogma. Such a potent tale should never go to waste.

Just like any good piece of theatre, this is a three-act play: first the crucifixion or death-like experience, then the symbolic three days, and finally the resurrection and return to life in a new form. Notice that Jesus did not go back to business as usual after the crucifixion. He returned to the world in a different way. The Easter story is a metaphor for how we deal with crisis in our lives and how willing we are to learn from it. Do we just hang about on the cross, getting stuck on what happened to us? Do we look beyond the experience and begin to integrate it and open to its deeper meaning in our symbolic three days? Finally, do we take what we have learned and rise again, changed and ultimately stronger from what we have endured?

Crucifixions come in all shapes and sizes in modern life. For some of us it’s chronic illness, for others the loss of loved ones or jobs, missed opportunities or the breakdown of relationships with friends, family or lovers. At the risk of mixing my metaphors, I consider the big challenges in life to be shamanic tests – opportunities to find strength and resources deep within ourselves by facing trials or traumas. Much as I adore the new-age concept of learning through joy, it’s painfully obvious that most of us have such an inner level of inertia that we wouldn’t shift out of an uncomfortable situation unless we were dynamited out of it. That’s where life kindly obliges with the crucifixion process.

If you’re willing to see whatever you encounter as an opportunity to reveal something deeper about yourself, then any crucifixion experience can be moved through more gracefully, making sure that you garner the gifts along the way. Without that perspective, it’s very easy to stay stuck in the pain of the experience, unable to move forward. That’s not to say that everything magically becomes easier, only that it’s an awful lot more bearable to negotiate the darkness if you have faith that there’s a treasure to be found in it.

Staying stuck in the story is the first trapdoor in the early stages. Initially, we’re in shock when something challenging hits us with the force of an oncoming truck. Then come the huge range of emotions – everything from denial to anger and despair – and it’s vital that we feel these authentically and don’t try to repress them. That’s all par for the course. The pitfall is the very seductive trap of getting stuck in the story of what happened to us and being so identified with it that we permanently cast ourselves in the role of martyr, reliving the story over and over again. I’m sure we can all think of one or two people we know with a great line in victim schtick, who’ve taken up permanent residence on the cross and give off more than a gentle whiff of burning martyr. It’s not just a temporary glitch either – years, decades and sometimes even whole lives can be lost at this stage.

Harking back to last week, it’s forgiveness that sets you free. The choice to liberate yourself and to move on lets you off the cross. It may not be total forgiveness, but just a choice to move beyond the story, out of perennial victim mode and into some level of acceptance can be enough to open the path into the integration phase. If you have a friend who is living through the darkness of the crucifixion phase, be gentle with them. You can never truly know the weight of another’s burden, so be gracious and be very cautious when offering advice about when it’s time to move on. Even so, be conscious that while listening to a friend’s story when they are in pain is one of the greatest gifts that you can give, you also need to know that there can come a time when the re-playing of the story is no longer helpful and you are simply enabling them to stay stuck. You can then use your intuition and discretion to find a gentle approach to help them see where they might be mired in the past.

The symbolic three days have their own unique qualities and traps. Their purpose is to allow you to integrate the experience and to find meaning within it. On some level this will manifest as a kind of retreat from the world, a turning within for healing, inspiration and spiritual sustenance. A couple of dead ends we tend to encounter are looking only outside ourselves for the solution or attacking ourselves for not finding the answer immediately. The first is all too common, particularly in health challenges. We think the answer lies in some miracle cure or healing technique, yet fail to do the inner work necessary to see how our own behaviour, emotions or mental habits affect our wellbeing. The second is endemic, partly due to low self-worth and partly due to our instantaneous consumer culture – we think everything should happen as soon as we snap our fingers, but life is by its own nature inconvenient. In the case of illness or grief, we need to learn that it will take its own sweet time to pass and that failing to accept it only makes matters worse.

Again, this period has its own use-by date. Seeking is not a permanent occupation. At some point you need to take up your bed and walk. The purpose of the entire experience is not to remain the eternal student, but to return to the world armed with your insights and to live life in a new way. Sometimes this also means accepting that you will never return with all your old powers intact. Some illnesses don’t heal, some wounds leave lasting marks. The aim is not to be exactly the same person, but a different one, with a deeper, richer appreciation of yourself and of life.

Marianne Williamson – oft-quoted in these pages and very definitely a fabulous woman – highlights the redemptive power of crisis, saying “I have heard people with critical illnesses say that their lives only really began when they were diagnosed. Why is that? Because whenever we are diagnosed with a critical illness, much of our superficial personal baggage is dropped in the first five minutes. Why do I act so arrogantly? Why am I pretending to be so tough? Why am I judging so many people? Why am I not appreciating all the love and beauty that surrounds me? Why am I avoiding the simplest and most important element of my being, the love in my heart? Dropping our illusions is healing in itself. Within each of us there is a core – our essence, our true being. Finding that essence … is the purpose of our lives, and even our most painful experiences can serve that purpose.”

All roads lead to self-knowledge, if you’re willing to see them that way. So where are you in your own life right now? Got a freshly-minted or rather shop-soiled crucifix? Trying to make sense of it all? Or getting ready to step out into the world anew? Wherever you are in your own personal three-act passion play, the fabulous thing to do is look for the gift, however scary or challenging that may seem to be. As my old favourite, the mythologist Joseph Campbell, says “The cave in which you fear to seek holds the greatest treasure.” Get busy with some inner treasure-hunting and bring a new story to life this Easter time.

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All material © 2006 Alison Porter. No article may be reproduced in full or in part without the express permission of the author. (Originally posted 17 Apr 06)