RELIGION and the politics of ancient society have always influenced and wrestled with each other in every season of the growth of human consciousness. Science is convinced that religion or instead the faculty to conceptualise our development and growth in the realm of symbolic language is ingrained in our consciousness.

There’s no collection of data that can point to the origin of our mystery systems, though it is evident that the continent of ancient Africa even before our recorded history so far, was the womb of the rituals of symbolic language that birthed the Khemetic mystery systems – Hebrew doctrine – Christianity and Islam and influenced the Classical Greco-Roman era, thus, it was not by error that the doctrine we now call Christianity found its root there. Easter embodies the epic of the death of the Christ, but even more, the concept of redemption, this is what our secular laws are based upon.

Decrees and mystery philosophies that uphold the building of the human spirit along principles that make us better people are all we have to separate us from destroying each other. We humans do not have the disciplined instincts of the animal kingdom, possibly because, when we were cast out of the sphere of Eden, they remained in its bliss; they kill when they are hungry, attack in defence of their young, and with humans, show loyalty reciprocal to our understanding of their needs.

What makes the Easter event different is that it belongs to a group of reports of saviours among nations in the ancient world, which brought hope and promise to populations with a dogma of self exploring and the examination of current creeds and customs and the upward movement of rehabilitation towards a better existence.

Though the story and existence of The New Testament is still debated because of the lack of the irrefutable documentation, especially by the Roman colonisers of ancient Jerusalem, about the trial and existence of Christ, though there are more references to the conflicts of the Zealots, the Essenes against Roman forces. But the narratives of the apostles do reach out with a philosophy of incredible revolutionary doctrine, intent on redeeming what this branch of the Hebrew people had fossilised into, of rites, rituals and creeds through their priesthood and not entirely serving to uplift their population. It was as if the Christ

(referred to as Maa Kheru –Truth speaker in the khemetic –Egyptian- religion) had come to undo the fixations on being the chosen people, with divine entitlement that possessed the Israelites in the lands they had, and still dwelt in. Regardless of the disputes about the authenticity of the New Testament, and its possible interferences, it brings to our world, the profound reasoning of terms like ‘Blessed’ that has become a form of password today, but in the scriptures used in this singular context as “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Possibly the only place in the scriptures, that the term ‘Blessed’ is used. How do we compete with “He who is without sin cast the first stone,” as a deterrent to gossip-mongering assumptions based on feelings so prevalent in our sciety. And the reference to the ‘servants and their usage of talents given by their master’ and possibly the most

profound lesson on responsibility, through understanding that “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The Gospels constitute an essential pool of knowledge that can be translated into day-to-day approaches to living without pretentions of self-righteousness, no doubt coming from influences across ages.

Our modern day relationship in many aspects is the rites and ritual traditional template that the Christ fought a battle for minds and souls against the masquerade of commerce in the temple, and in the busing language of the day called the runnings ‘Pastors, Bishops and Popes’’ of that day “a generation of vipers.” This Easter, for those citizens who will be attending Church, when you have spare time, read the scriptures as you would a novel, digest and interpret the events, not as a church reading by the pastor, but as an engagement with your own mind and spirit.
My father used to say “treat your body as a temple and the gods will bless you”. He didn’t hear his own words, but I found that relevant message years ago in a reference to defilement, and have struggled to keep the temple secure, despite a fall to temptation here and there,
I concede that the flesh is weak, now and again.

Religion is meant to be the personal awareness of knowledge, its simplicity and practice. In Guyana today an effort of redemption to return this nation to sanity and collective responsibility is intended. This is tougher to do with the gift of deception that humans have nurtured over the ages. Treachery is the moon-child of callous ambition, political abuse and lies, insane obsessions with wealth, deceit by media writers, and people with corruption and murder ingrained in their nature.

We must see Easter as a metaphor of national redemption; that “we must do unto others as we would wish them to do onto us.” Strength people, resurrection begins with you and me, learn from the experience of others. Don’t reinvent misery. Happy Easter!