wow. i never saw the crucifixion in that light before. interesting.

i understand what you mean about buddhism helping to focus in the `here-and-now' and specifically meditation, and the power therein. just by it's nature, it is incredibly grounding.

happy easter muji. i hope you have a great one!!!

You, too!

Easter will be hard for me. Not just because I have a bad experience with Christianity, or that my family is broken up so it will just be me and my mom. But to top it off I have the anniversary of my father leaving. Found out Easter 2 years ago. And strangely, for the life of me I cant remember what I did for easter last year. We almost got to see extended family this year but my mom doesnt want to.

Im not as hostile towards Christianity as I used to be. Im starting to look at it again from a different light. Ive found a lot of good in certain earth based religions like Wicca. Though I wouldnt really say that I am anything in particular, just spiritual. A little less than a year ago, while working with some psychic type work (try not to make fun of me) I was drawn towards a particular guardian angel that makes sense and that has caused me to think about how that connection works. I usually see spirituality as a disco ball, many angles and different faces for the same thing. So Ive been interested in seeing how things translate from one religion to another.

I guess that was a bit of a tangent.

A few years ago I was dating a really abusive guy who used my refuge in nature based religions against me. It was different than the abuse Ive endured through Christianity because this was something I really felt connected to and had been a safe place for me, and in the end he made me feel so displaced and unwanted it took years for me to be comfortable looking at it as an area of my life again. But I am grateful that now that time has passed and Ive regained some of what he took from me.

Wow never thought of it that way, amazing connection to PTSD.

I am an observant jew and Passover begins tomorrow night. I am using the image of the Exodus from Egypt to help me. I am a slave in so many ways to my PTSD and depression, to all of my "baggage" from the past. At this time of year, I really want to be free from this bondage. Every time I eat matzah this week, I am going to try to think of that. I also like the image of the bad guys (abuser) being swallowed up by the sea with me safely on the other side.

I find it much easier to have Faith when I stay away from religion. I was raised in The Schism if the Isms, from paganism to atheism and everything in between, without community with any of them. When I attempt to join in a Religious community, I often feel like a virgin attempting to understand her hormonal responses by watching pornography.

But I feel my spiritual connections more intensely than I feel my human connections. My unprovable companion wants me to carry our relationship into a church - any church - but... The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Every time I have tried I keep getting lost in the rules and regulations.

Twilight Star, I hear you and so I refer to the course I mentioned that I teach yearly. The last chapter of the course I teach is on nature-based religions. The best final paper in the course this year was by a student who chose to write about wiccan spirituality. Imho, I agree that it's totally valid, and even more so as people become ecologically aware nowadays. I hope you are more supported in your faith.

HBE123, thanks for posting as one who is observant in the Judaic tradition. People forget that Easter itself is directly rooted in Passover. I like what you say about liberation from the "Pharoah", as it were, of bondage to PTSD slavery. Right on.

And thanks one and all. I've been an outcast from my family of origin since I accepted other religious and spiritual points of view. Literally. My Christian minister father actually punched me in the face after a day of raging against the fact that I went to a church that allowed gay people as members. It was after that that I came here to PTSD DS for compassionate companions with open mnds.

Hearing from you validates my acceptance of other religions & spiritualities, even at the high price I paid with my family of origin. I'll be alone this Easter, but with all of you in my heart. And that matters to me and my PTSD recovery. Thanks again.

I celebrate both the Jewish Passover and the Christian Passover of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

I like the way HBE describes some meditations, and hope this year experiences great deliverance and also tastes of the Promised Land.

I also focus on deliverance and taste the Promised Heavenly Land.

I don't want to get into memories very much. My father died just before Easter, and instead of focussing on how relieved we were and the abuse suffered, I want to focus on how God is working everything out. There are no nice family get togethers for us, but I look to God and his promise of great unity in the banquet of the future world. so I have hope in the future as I go through my 40 years of travel in the desert of this world.

That's a wonderful interpretation of the crucifixion. I never thought of it that way!

I wish I had the strength of faith that I had as a child!! But when I look back, I had a really skewered view point. Since my Mom told me I was born without a soul and God couldn't see me, I figured He was no different than any other Father. He sent His Son to suffer and die for everyone. Well, I loved my dad and he left me to my mothers sadistic ways.

I also got my pastor angry with me, when I told him, Christ really committed suicide. He could have hidden or left the area, but He did it for people He didn't even know, which makes Him even more wonderful in my heart, because He didn't have to!

So His teachings should be followed as best as we can, even those of us who, no matter what we do, can never make it to Heaven. Loving, caring, and helping each other isn't a bad way to live!

Thank you for offering up a thoughtful and helpful way of looking at the crucifixion. Happy Easter!!

Happy Eastern to everyone who celebrates it.My family celebrates it also.

I like your post, and i like " here and now" and im interested into spirituality too.

Thank you all for sharing so! mujicaptsd

aurenna, not everything everybody says about God is true, and we need to find out the Truth ourselves. In all the confusion between what this person says and what that person says we can end up either indiscriminately believing all kinds of weird things, or believing in nothing.

Your mother was wrong. I don't know how she came up with such an idea but it's not true. It's so good that you came up with the idea of doing good things even if it would not get you to heaven. We get to heaven because God loves us mercifully very very much.

We do tend to think that Father God is like our own father. My father was violent and perfectionist. Between my mom and dad I believed in a 'wrathful' God, but through the ACoA 12 Steps my understanding of God has changed, is changing,

I've gotten a few religious people angry also. Some of them are not up to challenging questions. :P And a lot of Christians make a mix of Old Testament "Justice' with new testament forgiveness, and come up with something like 'other people get justice while I get forgiveness' . lol

It's been amazing that God has been teachiing me, through the Holy Spirit and Scripture, that he loves me and wants me to be joyful, and to pass it on,, as mercy. None of us deserve it but "blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy'.

hugs

Maybe this Friday, think about how Jesus came to live with us, show us the way, die for us ALL, and rise again, opening heaven up for YOU TOO.