We found substantial power in Easter/Passover once dogma and sentimentality are knocked away. Mary Baker Eddy did what she could in her day to bring the symbolism forward (see for instance the reading from Miscellany above). Here's what came up for us.

1) The word Easter was introduced by the Venerable Bede in the eighth century and derives from the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess, Eostre, who is also associated with the dawn. The underlying energies in both Easter and Passover, while referring to real human events, proclaim the power of spring, renewal, rebirth, dawn and light; ways of seeing man's everlastingness, despite initial appearances.

2) The symbolism behind Easter eggs and rabbits is, as one might suspect, fertility and fecundity. Jesus' statement about being a corn of wheat falling into the ground and bringing forth much fruit (see John 12: 24) as well as Osiris' similar fructification, underline the theme of man's eternality and infinity.

3) The food symbolism, from consuming the Paschal lamb to partaking bead and wine, indicates the need to assimilate Truth. Jung pointed out that imitating Christ Jesus and other saviors will not do the work of individuation. We each must handle our stuff and assimilate the Christ — the Anthropos or divine man — by living it individually from within consciousness.

4) The crucifixion has been presented as a tragedy. One member reads it as an unfoldment of eternal life — note small "l"— seen fully in the Resurrection. He takes Jesus/Judas together as fulfilling the office of the Christ, working out the perfection of man. He mentioned that Leonardo used the same model for both Jesus and Judas in The Last Supper at the Milan Cathedral. Those parts ourselves which trip us up give us an opportunity to find and live the facts of being, here and now.

5) One member, new to Christian Science, wondered why we bother with the Christian aspect of it; why not just drop this and practice the Science? A trip to a local branch church, which he described as "funereal", increased his concern. In his work he has seen the joy and charisma of Elvis Presley choked by bureaucracy and reduced to dogma. Might the same thing be happening to Christian Science? No one disagreed that there's a need to strip away the paralyzing encrustations but some felt there's still value in the myths and stories associated with Judeo-Christianity. One member sees Christ Jesus and Christian Science as technical terms — one ancient , the other modern — both indicating God being man. He's not averse to finding new words if the old ones are too severely debilitated to convey proper meaning.

6) The foregoing sparked an interesting comment about the myths and happenings of the ancient world expressing the science and engineering of that age. Myths about the dismemberment and resurrection of savior gods underlay the religious conviction which brought forth the remarkable engineering feat of the Jesus' Resurrection. Perhaps a thousand years hence people, seeing through eyes guided by quantum physics which shows everyone is already everywhere, will look upon our beliefs about space and vehicles as interesting myths and miracles of our age. Should we be striving to get at what Jesus did at the Resurrection now in terms of our own best science? Is that Christian Science, which anticipated quantum physics, and is "twentieth century physics in nineteenth century language"per one member.

7) If Jesus worked out the reality of being using the tools of his day, we do it by using the tools of ours, principally scientific prayer. Resurrection could be described as divine Life lived in the flesh.

Healings were reported.

1) One member's phone and internet service went out and she was losing much business. She was angry and desperate but eventually turned to God in prayer to realize the only intercommunication is divine. Service was rapidly restored.

2) Another member fell on the street. There was considerable pain and embarrassment. He did not consciously think scientific thoughts as he fell, but a very kind gentleman of Chinese extraction came to help him up and comfort him. He saw this as an "answer"to some very intense work he'd been doing in Science on the US-China plane incident. As they parted he started repeating to himself what he recalled of the statement on page 424 of Science and Health regarding accidents being unknown to immortal Mind and how we must leave the relative sense of ourselves for the divine. By the time he reached home a few minutes later all pain and most evidence of the fall were gone.

3) Another member's sister was quite ill. They had been estranged for years and our member wanted to reach out to her; she prayed for guidance and was moved to call her and say she loved her. This brought a similar response. Subsequent conversations were very intimate and included many loving affirmations. The sister died last week and our member is grateful she was able to get this closure with her. Closure may not be the right word for what she feels, since she has a deep conviction that the sister is alive. "Death is a non-event,"said she.

4) A member who could not attend sent word of the healing of a physical problem based on bringing the truths of Christian Science appropriate to the case right into his "here and now"thought. The problem vanished, then recurred and was dismissed again.

5) Another member was brought face to face with some very old pain associated with someone he was once enamored of, the shame he felt at the time, and the possibility of re-igniting what was basically a one-way love affair. Eventually the psychic turmoil converted to physical discomfort. This convinced him to drop the relativism for the absolute and to just be Love. He didn't have to do or figure out anything. He didn't even have to "recover". The miasma faded overnight.

We will spend the next two weeks on the Homophobia Scale which one of our members worked on with members of other religious congregations. It is filed under Articles here on our site. We'll use it individually in our lives to see how much homophobia we're harboring, how much we see in others and work to dispel it wherever and whenever encountered. With a few changes of wording the scale can be used to check out our heterophobia, sexism, racism and so on.

Our next notes will be posted after the meeting of April 27th.