"Hoof and horn hoof and horn, all that dies shall be reborn. Corn and grain, corn and grain, all that falls shall rise again." Pagan chant

"A Crus Salus" (From the Cross, Salvation) Motto on Brough coat of arms.

Although I'm a Pagan, the image of Christ on the cross is still evocative and reminds me of many things like natures cycles or "heroic resignation", not just death and guilt. It is so much more than a man-god dieing for sins, though for most people that is its essential message. From the moment we are concieved we are destined to die. It is as if we are all on a cross waiting to die because, essentially, the act of living necessitates death.

In the cross is the limitation of the world, each end can represent an element; earth, water, air and fire or to put it scientifically solid, liquid, gas and energy. Our forms cannot exist in any other way, scientifically speaking. We are 'hung' if you like on this body of solid, liquid, gas and energy. Though we have to ask what is it that hangs on the body? Some would say the soul, the thing that contains the inner experience, thoughts, feelings, memory, personality etc

I don't believe in a personal survival after death. My soul has the same laws and limitations as the body so when my body dies my soul dies or at least disintegrates. The body and soul are both limitations for something else to be 'hung' on and are both subject to the same laws of the growth and decay of life as it changes.

Consciousness then, the centre of experience hangs on body and soul. I do believe that there is something more to consciousness than being a product of chemical reactions within the brain. I believe it has something more primordial and eternal to it. When we die our consciousness, the I AM without this or that, the Here and Now without there and then returns to a 'sea' of consciouness. This is our source, God where all things are condensed from into a form and finally dissolve back into.

Going back to Jesus on the cross who is said to be God incarnate, in this case consciousness incarnate, we have a symbol where human and divine meet. Human being the horizontal line and the Divine being the verticle line. It is as though our divinity hangs on the cross of our humanity.

Now as a Pagan, the most important part of its symbolism is the image of life and death it conveys. It can most definately be related to both the agricultural and sexual aspects of fertility. First of all it reminds me of a wheat stalk that carries ripe seeds. The stalk has died, it is no longer needed but in its place it leave's seeds that carry it's life essense. These are shed into fertile soil. This also has phallic connotations The penis stands tall and erect, carries it's seed, then as it reaches its climax, drops the seed in 'dark moist soil' and relaxes. It's job done, it retains its former more docile form. Ejaculation has been termed the 'little death' in some cultures for they believe that when you lose sperm you lose life-force and come nearer to death.

Here's another image that connects death and sex. A Samhain, a time to contemplate death and the ancestors, there is reproduction happening. Animals like sheep and deer reproduce. Stags are ready to mate, they've grown their antlers to fight off competitors and attract mates. At this time when the world goes into winter, leaves die and fall and some animals become dormant. When this season where stags and hind mate is over, the stags antlers fall off. Again the image of something tall and strong meets it climax and falls or 'dies'. So here, symbolically at least, the connection between death and sex is shown.

Once again going back to Jesus, his rabbinic career found its climax in the crucifixion. There's build up as he tours round teaching. Then he was prosecuted for what he'd been teaching so he was crucified for it. Here is the climax of his teachings, what his teachings brought him. But as with all things in Nature that wasn't the end. His corpse was laid to rest in a tomb, or a womb if you like, where after a time he resurected. And so the seed arises after it's been planted and the sperm too arises after a fashion.

Sacrifice
Life is sacrifice.
Death of soil, life of grass.
Death of grass, life of grazer.
Death of grazer, life of hunter.
Death of hunter, life of soil.
Thus balance is sustainedCircles go round,
Life is sacrifice.

I sacrifice my time and gain space,
I sacrifice my space and gain time.
My sacrifice a trade.
Sacrifice the currency of life.

I offer up my life,
I sacrifice it to the world.
All that is me is disseminated,
Shared throughout the vital flows of earth,
Rivers of ecological merging and diverging.
I am not lost
Though my form is gone,
My essential unity found,
Illusory isolation banished forever
And I live on,
Sacrificed.
Copyright © 2005 by Adam Brough