Our symbolic death is the death of our old self and the transmutation of the fear-based serpent energy—the materialistic wingless dragon. Our symbolic death results in a re-birth and the awakening of our Feathered Serpent energy. Everything that has been accomplished in the South and the West of the Medicine Wheel has hastened and brought us to the place where we may experience the death of the old self and then the birth of our new self as the Luminous Warrior.

And it is now with our symbolic death that we are able to begin to develop a resurrection body. We must face the teeth and the claws of Mother Sister Jaguar in the Otherworld and willingly be torn asunder. This is one of the oldest patterns of shamanic initiation—to be ripped apart and then to be put back together again; a new heart and a new mind—a resurrected/regenerated spiritual body, the awakening of the divine within. This is sacrifice/suffering, death and re-birth; a primal theme that has been corrupted by the church.[1] When we put our resurrection into the hands of another, as the Christian Church preaches, we achieve easy and illusionary salvation using the language of Christianity. When we are not responsible for our own resurrection of self, we are prevented from becoming an authentic divine human being.

The resurrection/regeneration body is a Mesoamerican theme emphasizing the concept of life coming from death, highlighted by the Maya creation story, the Popol Vuh, of the Hero Twins’ journey to Xibalba (Underworld).  It is not the physical resurrection of our body after physical death. In addition, it is not the salvation of Christianity. If we have ‘eyes to see,’ nature teaches us the lesson of immortality. It’s all around us but specifically to the religion of the Maya, it was the rattlesnake that taught us to be ‘born again.’ It symbolized a material and spiritual regeneration through its tearing off of its worn-out skin to emerge as a brilliant new serpent with an added rattle.

To the Mesoamericans, there was no original sin so there was no need for the concept of grace[2] or salvation[3]. On the contrary, theirs was a belief in sanctification[4], not the Christian’s view of salvation. We can clearly see, with the arrival of the Europeans and the Roman Church, the clashing of cultures and religious belief—sanctification vs. salvation. This led to the unbridled destruction of a people and their culture; all in the name of God.

To a believer in salvation, ecstatic dancing while scantily clothed (an expression of the regeneration/resurrection body) would, heaven forbid, be deemed the work of the ‘devil.’ There is no need to become sacred in body and mind for salvation. It has already been done for you. All you need is faith and the acceptance of Jesus as your personal savior.  

Interestingly enough, what is known about the historical Jesus would lend one to believe that Jesus’ teachings and spiritual practices were truly the teachings and practices of sanctification not salvation. And I doubt that grace would have been in his belief system, as we shall see. Continued….