"In
the same fashion we must approach the mythic event of the resurrection
of Jesus on more than one level. We must not succumb to the easy
conclusion that the symbolism of the death and resurrection of Christ,
the dying and renewing God, is nothing more than an image of earthly
fertility and cyclical life. Because the story of the resurrection comes
from the mythic dimension of reality, it transcends in great measure
the limitations of earthly cycles and nature; there is indeed a great
deal more to it. The cyclical rise and fall of vegetation through the
cycle of the seasons, the death and resurrection of Christ, does not
have tremendous meaning as the fertility of the earth but has its deeper
and more profound meaning in the fertility and creativity of the human
spirit.
Although
many of the Gnostic scriptures abound in agricultural allegories,
particularly in the Gospel of Philip, Gnostics are not so much concerned
with the outer and ongoing cycles of death and renewal in nature but
with the inner resurrection of the human spirit, the liberation and
rising up of that immortal spark of the divine light within us. However,
this inner resurrection is not entirely restricted to the human sphere;
like the Buddhists, with their compassion for all forms of sentient
life, we, as Gnostics, also look to the liberation and gathering of the
sparks of light among all sentient beings, whatever their place on the
spiral of manifest life. Yet before we can assist in the liberation of
other forms of life, we must ourselves seek liberation and the
resurrection while in this flesh. As the Gospel of Philip states in
regard to the Resurrection, “If you do not receive it while in this
place, you will not receive it in the other place.” The inner
resurrection is the gnosis of the immortal light-spark within us, a
conscious recollection of one’s own divine heritage and immortal being."