Myth, Mystery and Spiritual Symbolism

This week: What Must You Sacrifice for Spiritual Revelation and the Understanding of the Mysteries of the Cosmos?

For millennia, humankind has been seeking meaning to life through spiritual symbolism. I think this is because our search for meaning is different and unique to each of us who are navigating life the best way we can. Dating back to the myth of Adam and Eve, the great temptation was forbidden knowledge, which was more preferred than the fear of punishment from a vengeful god. This is most likely what separates us from other living creatures navigating their existence alongside us here on the Earth plane, at least the ones who allow themselves to be known to us. We have historical evidence that humans have been searching for the meaning of life for as long as we have been able to make our mark on the walls of caves, on the sides of rocks, or in creating art of various forms to be found by future generations.

When we look to the stars for guidance, or to nature, or to repetitive numbers or feathers that appear supernaturally, we as humans have the tendency to attach meaning to seemingly random synchronistic experiences.

Recently I have been working on a book, which I hope to release later this year or early next year, which addresses the healing of religious trauma, and I have been interacting with the presence who I identify as Jesus to assist me in this endeavor. As we are entering into the time of year that is traditionally associated with his death and resurrection, I have been doing a deep dive into the mystery of the death/rebirth cycle, the mystery of his resurrection, and how that corresponds to our own life experiences and the cycles we see in nature. I am not addressing the debate over whether what we know from the ancient texts are consistent with any verifiable evidence of the actual events, and instead focusing on the symbolism and metaphors we can derive from the stories of Jesus, and how they relate to our current lives.

Last week, I shared some insights into the energies and themes that we are collectively being invited to address as we enter into March, 2025. It is my habit to look to the cards of the Tarot, as associated with the symbolism of numbers through the art and practice of numerology, as well as inspired thoughts from my Higher Guidance system, which I call ‘the Guides’ as I delve into the symbolism of various numbers and cards, with sometimes a little astrology thrown in for good measure. You can read that post here.

After I posted last week’s article, I had been meditating and communicating with Jesus about the whole death/rebirth cycle and how the story of his own demise was very similar to the Tarot card, the Hanged Man, which I had shared in last week’s post.

As I delved into the mystery and myth regarding self-sacrifice, which is what Christianity claims Jesus did in order to save mankind, I found that the myth of giving something up in order to achieve something greater is not exclusive to the story of Jesus.

It is said that Odin also completed a sort of death ritual by hanging himself upside-down from a tree, after impaling himself with a sword, for nine days, in order to achieve knowledge of the mysteries of life and to see into other worlds. This adds a whole new level and understanding of the Hanged Man card of the Tarot. On the surface, we see a person who has seemingly been hung on a tree upside down, but remains conscious and aware, even glowing from the Light inherent within his own soul emanating from his head. This only occurs when that person has given of himself or herself willingly for a greater cause.

When we are willing to sacrifice everything for something greater than ourselves, or when we are willing to release a previous belief or version of ourselves in exchange for a new, more authentic expression of our soul, there are a couple of requirements for our act to be successful: we must do so with a heart of love and forgiveness, and we must desire truth, wisdom, and enlightenment, or the achievement of our intention, more than we desire the current expression of our life. In other words, our desire for the result of our self-sacrifice must be greater than anything we currently enjoy in our life.

Many times, if not every single time, we must go through some sort of dark night of the soul, some experience which strips us bare of our life as we know it. Often enlightenment comes at the expense of the life we know, our identity as we understand it, and the truth we believe at the time.

In my twenty-something years of giving and receiving messages and healing from the world of Spirit publicly, I have observed that one of the hardest things, if not THE hardest thing we have to conquer in this life is the identity we create for ourselves over the course of our lifetime. We are essentially the person we are based on our upbringing, and the myths and programming we received from our primary community, from our ancestors, from whatever or whoever we were prior to incarnating as a human, and who we became as we grew into the person we now know as ourselves. That is a lot to unravel!

What if we cannot enjoy our life or complete our mission for being here until we are willing to sacrifice all that?

Recently I had a session with a client who is married to a person who enjoyed a bit of fame, recognition, and wealth prior to their marriage. Over the course of time, that identity no longer exists in its prior form. This person is faced with the decision of giving up that identity in order to become whatever is next for him. He struggles with releasing who he thought he was, to the detriment of his marriage.

I read a little story about Arnold Schwarzenegger and a hotel where a statue of him stands in the front of the property. During his time of wealth and fame, he was promised that he could stay in this hotel free of charge for his lifetime, but recently, he was informed that the prior arrangement no longer existed and he would need to pay for his room. His observation was that we are constantly in the process of reinventing ourselves by releasing former versions of ourselves and loving and accepting the current reality. We cannot hold onto our achievements in the past as our identity, because who we are is constantly changing and we must change and birth new versions of ourselves as the old ones become obsolete.

In nature, we are given an abundance of evidence that the ability to do this is inherent in the cycle of evolution. Every morning the sun rises, and in the evening it sets, and in between, we live our lives, knowing that after the sun sets, it will rise again the next morning. Even on rainy days, or cloudy days, we know that the sun exists and shines even behind the clouds. We have spring, summer, fall and winter. We see that new life pops up from the ground in the spring, and seemingly dies in the fall and winter, only to be reborn again the next spring.

In numerology, we have the numbers 0 through 9, which repeat over and over again, giving us wisdom, and understanding, as we live our lives, ever repeating cycles over and over again, hopefully gaining wisdom and understanding the more we repeat a cycle, until hopefully, at some point, we can escape the cycle and not have to repeat the same lessons and cycles over and over, but instead use the wisdom we have accumulated to pass our understanding on to others.

I think the myths of Jesus and Odin, and their willingness to sacrifice themselves for something that they regarded as more important and significant than the version of themselves they were leaving behind, is a significant lesson which we all will be given an opportunity to experience at some point during our lifetime. Maybe our sacrifice will not save mankind from destruction, or maybe it will! Many men and women sacrifice their lives every day to what they consider to be a good cause, based on their belief in whatever system they are sacrificing themselves for. We cannot judge those who give up their lives on faulty programming, because, in some way, we have all done the same thing! Sometimes a dark night experience comes when we realize we have sacrificed ourselves at the altar of a flawed belief, a nonexistent or faulty version of god, or a even an outright lie. If we can pick ourselves up from this revelation, and decide to reinvent ourselves and our understanding of who we in the wake of our recognition of an illusion, then we are on our way to awakening from a sort of death experience.

Whether you are recovering from an outdated version of yourself, the loss of fame, recognition, or an understanding of yourself that no longer exists, or maybe you have lost a loved one, or had something you loved ripped away from you, or any number of other “dark night of the soul” experiences, know that the soul that exists inside and around your physical experience in this lifetime is not the end of the story! There is so much more to be unraveled and revealed. It is imperative that at some point, whether it is today or several years in the future, you release this version of who you are for a new reality.

The willingness to sacrifice something important for something that is of greater significance is inherent in life itself. If you do not value something enough to offer something of yourself in exchange for it, the acquisition of this will hold no value to you. It also seems to be true that the more you value something, the more you will be willing to sacrifice in exchange for it. In the myth of Adam and Eve, Eve was willing to risk eternal damnation and the love of her life partner for the gift of consciousness. It bears the question as to whether the god who forbade her from desiring it knew its value and also knew what she would sacrifice in exchange for it.

I am in the habit of offering gifts to the spirits of nature in both gratitude for their gifts to me, but also in gratitude for the privilege of cohabiting the Earth with them. When I ask something of them, such as good weather, or protection, or blessings, I offer them something that costs me something, and something that holds value both to me and to them. This is not because the spirits of nature are in the habit of being greedy, but as a sign of mutual respect and honoring their gifts to me.

When we expect something of value from someone just because they are spiritual or because we think it is owed to us, we are essentially devaluing that person and their gifts and we are saying that what they are offering is not worth anything to us. I am not saying that we should not offer our gifts at no charge if it feels good to us to do so, but when it becomes expected for us to do so, it loses some of its medicine for the person receiving. The amount of exchange is different based upon the benefit given and received.

The mysteries of the universe are not lying about on the top of the ground for just anyone to find. They require some digging. They require sacrifice of time and resources. We must decide what holds value for us and what we are willing to offer in exchange for it.

Sometimes the blessings of the universe come at great expense. Great revelations and moments of expanded consciousness come after a life-altering event which has ripped us apart and burned up any recognition of our lives as we know it. Sometimes the gift comes after many years of darkness. It is said that Master Usui was willing to sacrifice his life for the gift of Reiki, and it only came after 21 days of fasting and sitting atop a mountaintop waiting for death to come.

It is up to you to decide what the achievement of a spiritual goal is going to cost you. But spiritual awakenings rarely come at no cost or sacrifice of your personal convenience.

I will be exploring this theme even more in the coming weeks and even into next month, as we enter into April, where we dive deeper into the mystery and significance of the death/rebirth cycle. This theme will be prevalent throughout this month and next, and may not pass completely until next year or so.

I will also be delving into other symbols we find both in nature, in numbers, in myths and stories, and in various belief systems, which act as a sort of GPS for us, as we navigate our lives as individuated expressions of the Divine Collective Conscious.

We are all one.

Be kind to one another.

We are all doing the best we can, given the level of understanding we have remembered in this lifetime.

Thank you for your love and support of my writings and musings from the Spirit World I chat with. Here are some buttons to help share my work and support me in my endeavors to be an expression of Divine Light in my own individuated way.