One of the most fundamental cycles that we see repeating itself throughout nature, is the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Everything in our physical existence goes through this process in its own way. Galaxies, forests, mountains, birds, people, buildings (elemental, plant, animal, and human) – everything in physicality is joined together through this common process.
When there is a cycle that is so deeply fundamental to the way this realm operates, we can guarantee there’s something significant encoded within it. We can look at this physical existence as a language, and this language is in constant communication with us. When there is a common motif that is repeating itself throughout everything in existence, there is something very important being communicated. In studying the language of nature, we must notice the repeating patterns, for this language is a gateway into higher knowledge. These patterns repeat for a reason.
In my own personal journey, I came to understand the cycle of life, death, and rebirth through the symbolic language of Christianity (Catholicism, to be specific). As I grew up Catholic, there was one symbol in particular that was deeply ingrained within my young mind: the symbol of Christ being crucified on the cross.
As a young child, I remember this symbol being very grotesque and brutal. It sort of haunted me, you could say. The graphic nature of this symbol clashed with the innocence of my childhood: Christ wearing a crown of thorns, blood dripping down his body, giant stakes impaling his hands and feet, puncture wounds in his rib cage, his mouth gaping open as he took his last breaths of air, and his eyes rolled back in his head, his face contorted in pain. The image serves as a psychic trauma for one who is not yet initiated into its deeper meaning.
This symbol confused me growing up. I remember going to mass with my parents on Sundays, and the priest would be talking about all of these beautiful things – serving humanity, compassion, the forgiveness of sins, etc, and he would brilliantly interpret scripture. But as the priest spoke and prayed, behind him hung a massive depiction of a man being brutally tortured and killed. So, in my child perspective, the priest was seemingly saying one thing, and then this image was seemingly saying the exact opposite. I was being sent mixed messages.
I remember thinking to myself, in my own six-year-old sort of way:
“Are we psychotic? What if a group of extraterrestrials came down and watched us having mass? They would think we were either cannibals or savages. They would think we were engaged in human sacrifice. They would probably think that we were violent, and terribly confused.”
I remember asking my mother about the meaning of this symbol, and she said:
“Christ took on the sins of the world, and died so that they may be forgiven.”
I had absolutely no idea what this meant. I remember trying to solve this statement like a riddle:
“Do I not have to worry about my sins anymore, because Jesus already died for them? But then why do I still need to worry about going to hell? Or did everybody just go to hell before he died on the cross? And once he died people could be forgiven and go to heaven? What does this statement mean exactly? And how do I relate to it?”
Something just didn’t make sense. There was a lot of confusion, abstraction, and a tremendous lack of clarity around the meaning of this highly revered symbol. There had to be some sense to this gruesome image that was so prominent in my childhood. It wasn’t until I got much older, into my mid 20s, until the deeper archetypal richness of this symbol became revealed to me.
We can only understand symbols and concepts through the level of our own consciousness. As humanity is evolving, we have more understanding of the human psyche than we ever have before, we’re understanding our emotions in completely new ways, and we’re gathering a deeper understanding of trauma, how it works, and how it is healed.
We can take these new understandings and apply them to this sacred symbol. Some people may argue that this symbol bears no relevance to us anymore, but I believe that this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s meaning just needs to be clarified. I would say that this symbol holds more relevance for us than it ever has before, especially if we are bold enough to move beyond an outdated view of it (rooted in the projections from a less evolved phase in our evolution) and we allow ourselves to see it for what it truly represents. As we allow this symbol to be revived within us, the whole paradigm built upon our relationship with the archetype of Christ begins to take new shape. With this revival, we move into a new paradigm of what Christ represents, and we evolve our relationship with It. In this, we deepen our relationship to our own innermost expression.
The symbol of Christ on the cross is the visual declaration of the deepest function that pain serves in this physical realm.
When we can understand the inner mysteries of this symbol, then we have a much broader understanding of how this universe is orchestrated, and why everything in our lives is arranged in the way that it is. This symbol provides some of the deepest insight into how this physical universe is set up, how it is coded.
Let’s start with language. Let’s start with the phrase that riddled me as a child:
“Christ took on the sins of the world, and died so that they may be forgiven.”
Let’s start with the word “sin”. The original Hebrew word for “sin” generally meant “to fall short” or “to miss the mark.” So, spiritually speaking, a “sin” is nothing more than a misunderstanding, a misperception, an illusion. If we look at the illusions of this realm, all of the things that distort our perception of reality – our fears, our emotional wounds, and our traumas – they can all essentially be stripped down to one fundamental belief: the belief in death.
Think about your fears. When you trace every single fear that you have down to its core, you will see that they are all fundamentally rooted in the fear of death. So, when Christ took on the “sins of the world”, Christ took on the one fundamental illusion from which all other illusions stem: the belief in death. The deeper purpose of Christ’s crucifixion, was so that he could directly confront death, in order to prove its unreality. So, it was through Christ’s resurrection on the third day, where he was actually able to reveal his deepest teaching to humanity:
Death is not real.
This is a very deep teaching, and there has been a lot of confusion surrounding how this teaching directly applies to our everyday experience. This teaching has been distorted several times over. It has been completely obscured, and virtually lost due to humanity’s unreadiness to grasp the deeper wisdom of this symbol. Now, humanity is at a place in its evolution where it is ripe to integrate this symbol’s authentic meaning.
The story of Christ provides an equation, a formula, for human liberation. If we are not understanding how this teaching applies to us in a direct and obvious way, then we are missing some very vital information about how to approach our relationship with life, and how this whole physical realm is operating. So let’s explore this.
One of the protocols for “Earth school”, is to take on certain wounds and inner challenges upon coming into a body. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your childhood was, or how ascended you believe your consciousness to be, if you are in a body, then there are internal challenges that you are working with to help propel your evolution forward. These wounds and challenges are nothing to be shameful of. They are ultimately creative, and they inspire you towards your highest expression. They have a higher function, just like everything else in existence.
What our wounds actually are, is they are the unique and individualized expressions of the belief in death.
In learning how to relate to our wounds in the most loving and constructive way, we are able to confront the belief in death within ourselves. In this, we become as Christ. So, you can look at your suffering, your darkness, as the “womb of Christ.”
In addressing our pain, this does not mean that we retraumatize ourselves. It means that we create an atmosphere of safety within ourselves so that we can confront our wounds in the most loving and healthy way.
So, what this looks like, is when we find ourselves in pain, then we learn how to be with ourselves as our own best friend in the midst of our darkest hours.
We each have an inner angel, an inner expression of Christ. The qualities of Christ become integrated within our character as we develop our relationship with ourselves. As a natural byproduct of relating to ourselves as Christ, we bring our highest qualities forth into every other relationship. And it is the aspects of ourselves that are suffering the most that call this inner angel forth from within us, out of necessity for healing. Our deepest pain summons this inner angel to display the grandeur of its wings, it calls our inner Christ forth into resurrection. It is in this space of confronting our wounds, where we develop our highest qualities: courage, honor, compassion, strength, wisdom, and true understanding. It is only here, where our love becomes truly unconditional. We embody Christ upon facing the illusion of death within ourselves.
So when you are in pain, you must ask yourself:
“How loving can I possibly be with myself in this moment? What is it that I need to tell myself? What is it that I need to give myself? What are my real needs, and how do I meet them in the healthiest way possible?”
When you can be with yourself in this way, holding yourself in the highest form of reverence for everything that you are going through, while fully allowing yourself to feel everything that the experience has to offer, then the mirage of death will begin to disappear. You will find yourself crossing the threshold into greater life.
It is ironic, because these portals into greater life are coded into us (disguised as our wounds and fears), and most of humanity goes in the complete opposite direction. Most of humanity runs away, avoids, distracts, lashes out, attacks, defends, and denies. Many of us do everything that we can to run away from the very thing that will grant us the greatest freedom.
And this is why the world is the way it is.
Most of us are so terrified of facing death within ourselves, that we inflict it on the world around us, in a desperate attempt to distance ourselves from our deepest fear. And so it is in learning how to properly address our wounds, where we confront death within ourselves. This is how we come to reverse the thinking of the world.
Spirituality is ultimately about learning how to entrain to the mind of God – learning how to perceive through the eyes of the Creator. This being the case, if God knows no death, and if God dwells in eternity, then how do we suppose God perceives the cycle of life, death, and rebirth?
All God sees, is life moving into greater life. It’s our human dilemma, where we think we actually lose something upon moving into greater life. This is ultimately what pain is trying to help us come to terms with.
The deepest function that pain serves, is to liberate you from the greatest fear that you have ever known.
Earlier I had stated that the story of Christ maps out a formula for liberation. Upon using the word “liberation”, I want to be as clear and direct as possible in how I am using this word.
When speaking of “liberation”, I am using it in reference to the cycle of death and rebirth – the “karmic wheel” that mystics have referred to for thousands of years. In order to free oneself from this cycle, one must learn how to change their relationship with death. This whole realm is built upon the intention that soul will eventually come to meet this achievement. Once we come into an unconditionally loving and empowered relationship with death, then death has nothing more to teach us.
This pattern can be clearly witnessed in trauma and reenactment. A trauma repeats itself through reenactment until one can learn how to change their relationship with the trauma. Once one has come into an empowered relationship with regards to the trauma, then the trauma has nothing more to teach them. The cycle of trauma, and the cycle of death and rebirth, operate in the exact same way. This is because they are one and the same, and they operate under the exact same algorithm.
Like I mentioned earlier, it is important to notice the patterns that we see repeating themselves throughout this physical universe. They are codes. They are formulas. It is language. And in understanding what this language means, then we know how to orient our relationship to life in a way that allows us true liberation.
I would like to acknowledge the source of where this information is coming from. Much of the information that I receive and present comes to me via dreamtime. For years, I have had ongoing communication with the angelic realm through my dreams, where angels (or guides) often relay information to me about myself, about other people, and about the nature of spiritual development.
There was one dream that I had in particular, where this angel appeared to me with a book in his hands. The angel had these glowing crystalline blue eyes that I will never forget. The clarity in his gaze served as a window into the world of beauty from which he came. The book he was holding was rather large, and looked very old, emanating a depth of holiness that touched an ancient knowing within me. As the angel opened this book, there was a primordial language artfully written across the pages. It looked like it could have been Sanskrit, or something. Next to the text, there were beautiful images of these beings that were illuminated. They looked like masters of some kind. As this angel showed me this book, he emphasized the images of these “masters”, and he said:
“Those that are bound to death, cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
And then he repeated the statement.
The beautiful and penetrating eyes of the angel, the illuminated images of these “masters”, and the phrase which the angel repeated – the whole experience of this dream has been gestating within me, awaiting its proper expression, so that it may somehow cross the bridge into my outer reality. It has been waiting to be be extended, for the message in this dream was not meant to stop at the confines of my personal inner experience. It was a message for humanity.
The confusion of my childhood relationship with Christianity, the journey of trying to find God in the depth of my darkness, and the esoteric dimensions of my dream life – they all converge and resolve in this one statement:
The deepest function that pain serves, is to liberate us from the illusion of death.
Pain is a liberating force, when seen in its highest expression. When we develop a relationship with pain where we clearly see its higher purpose, then we can actively relate to it in the most creative and unconditionally loving way. It is the relationship we cultivate with pain, that ultimately determines our level of mastery in this realm. Most importantly, it is our relationship with pain that determines the depth and quality of our love.
When we confront our pain in a loving way, we come to face the illusion of death. When we face the illusion of death within ourselves, then we no longer try to distance ourselves from it by projecting it outward. In this, we relinquish the subconscious desire to enact death upon the world around us, and we put an end to the cycle of trauma. Undergoing this process allows us to be an effective vehicle for the Divine to reveal itself in the physical world, for we are the instruments through which God is made manifest in this universe.
As human beings, it our highest function, to reveal the beauty and love of God through the uniqueness of our expression. It is in this function, where all of humanity is forever joined, and where every being is celebrated and honored for the uniqueness that they are.
It is through facing death, where we prove its unreality.
It is through facing death, where we cross the threshold into greater life.
And it is through this process, where we reveal ourselves as the radiant light of Christ.
