Douglas Island news., 1900-04-11

For, of the soul, the body form doth tn l<e,
 For soul is form, and doth the body make. Emerson.
 This season, resting on the most beautiful of all the church traditions comes to us instinct with the living poetry of spring breezes, and opening, towering life, carrying also the higher poetry of deep, spiritual significance. The occult fact that in spring new spir- ituaI forces are awakened into activity, may account for the original placing of the Easter Festival in the early part of the year.
 In Britain, as is we'll known, the christians make their festival contin- uation of that celebrated by the Pagans in honor of Eostre, the Dawn-Goddess, to whom offerings of cakes were made. Of these our familiar "hot cross buns" are a christianized copy. The time honored "Easter Egg" is also glaringly Pagan in origin.
 From the "Anguinum" of the Druid, back to the Hiranya egg of the Puranas we can trace the egg symbol repeating itself in every ancient cosmogony- Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Hindus, Japanese, Siamese, the North and South American tribes, savages of re- mote islands even, uniting to reverence in this symbol one of the great ground facts of the universe. The seven-fold meaning of the "Easter Egg" can only be hinted at. A gleaning or two of helpful thought lies, however, in the suggestion that the egg, in all cosmogo- nies, brings forth god; Brahma, Osiris, Itah, Ra, Dionysus, are all egg born di- vinities. On this account, perhaps, the christians-especially the Greek and Latin churches-fully adopted the symbol and spiritualized it into com memoration of Eternal Life, Hope, and Resurrection. All sufficient will this festival be for us if it helps us to the realization of the fact that the resur- rection, on it's inner side, is no myth, but a divine fact in occult nature. Life eternal, though periodic in mani festation, is ever repeating itself with in appointed limits. The god in the egg is the message of Easter, both to the barren earth and the weary soul of man. Each spring renews the hidden forces of life on all the planes of being; on each human heart the Dawn goddess sheds her light. The soul may have it's Easter, though that inner festival is timed by no human calendar.
 We champion at all times the occult basis of times and seasons even when exotericalIy determined. And of this present juncture particularly, when the very heavens are proclaiming new birth for humanity, we may look for the breaking of the Son God from this egg, and strive with confidence of faith for a resurrection of all that is best and noblest in ourselves. Our chief draw back lies in not expecting and demand ing enough. The resurrection forces in man need aid from his will, co-opera- tion by heart belief and intellectual as- sent, making of "The profound obe- stance of the soul to the dim star that burns within" Not yet have we reached the stage of full and unhindered aban- donment to the inner life, which makes eternal nature an embodied harmony.
 Her peace and wondrous beauty of growth was ours once; shall be ours again. "For since by man came Death, by man came also the Resurrection from the Dead" The first, Adam, and the second, the man fallen into the tomb of matter. The man triumphant through matter-both complements of natures greatest fact. So may our Easter symbols become pregnant with spiritual meaning and a divine hope. Boldly let us go forward in a spirit of reverent expectation, knowing that the Dawn comes quickest to those whose eyes are on the East. J.H.
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