Christmas and Easter in the Initiatic Tradition

The festivals of Christmas and Easter, celebrated every year throughout Christendom to commemorate the birth and resurrection of Jesus, are part of an ancient esoteric tradition pre-dating the Christian era. The fact that they coincide with the winter solstice and the spring equinox is evidence of their cosmic significance. From this we learn that human beings, who also belong to cosmic reality, are intimately associated with the processes of gestation, birth and blossoming that take place in nature. Christmas and Easter – the second birth and the resurrection – are really two different ways of celebrating the regeneration of human beings and their birth into the spiritual world.