What is greater than time

We have come to the eight days of Easter, also known as the Easter Octave, a period during which the triumph of light over darkness is celebrated. The exact date that Easter falls on varies from year to year, for it takes place after the first full moon following the spring equinox. With the light returning after the equinox and the first full moon, the dominion of the darkness has ended, until it will slowly return after the autumn equinox.

The full moon symbolises fulfilment and revelation, the return of the sun brings hope and renewal. In the cosmic order, Easter marks the moment when life overcomes death. Although it happens again and again with each year passing, it is also an eternal moment, outside of time. The return of the light connects us to the beginning of creation, when light sprang from nothing out of the darkness and thus commenced the start of time.

Moving beyond death

In the apparent death of winter, we consciously or unconsciously nurture our hope for new life. It is this hope that carries us through winter. For our ancestors, the arrival of spring was literally a matter of life and death, while these days for most of us, the cosmic drama of life and death plays out more subtlely.

For me, winter can feel so overwhelming that my hope for new growth is a small flame flickering faintly, distant and almost invisible. It is kept alive only by the trust that even from the deepest stagnation new movement can emerge. Spring unfolds in me like an echo of the origin, that defining moment when light overcame darkness, placing me briefly outside the bounds of time.

Celebrating the undone

Because Easter falls late this year, it is a moment in time where I celebrate what is already clearly visible. Everything around us is already in full bloom and the season of hope and anticipation already feels a little distant..

I have come to appreciate the lack of exactitude in our calendars. It helps to remind me that there is never a single moment that marks the pinnacle of something, where everything is perfect and complete. With the shifting movements between sun and moon, each year is different, and time continues to build on the origin, that moment when the beautiful chaos of life burst forth from an absolute unity.

This week, I invite you to take a moment to celebrate the light and with it the origin of creation. The return of the light is a quiet yet powerful triumph, year after year, in which we connect to its countless victories since the beginning of time.