3. The Crowning with Thorns

“And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.” Jn 19:1-3

Imagine wearing a crown of thorns on our heads! How painful would it be? Our thoughts can be this painful especially those nagging thoughts that play over and over again in our mind when we are upset. When we experience something unpleasant we replay it like soldiers replaying their manoeuvres to prepare for battle. It is quite fitting that it should be the soldiers who plaited the crown of thorns, soldiers who are trained to act automatically without thinking. So the soldiers within us are all the automatic thoughts that cause pain to our head, and probably give us a headache.

If we are to act out of our higher self, which is what initiation is, then we must be able to bear this painful, repetitive thinking with equanimity. This process of connecting with our higher self, is, of course, about walking in the footsteps of Jesus. What was inflicted on him by all the various people will now take place within us. All the agony we have experienced in our lives brings us closer to what is higher within us. Whenever we become aware of the repetitive, unforgiving thoughts in our mind we can re-mind ourselves. We can prompt our mind that we are moving through the steps of initiation that Jesus moved through and in this way see the purpose of the pain.

When the crown of thorns is firmly placed on our head the purple robe is thrown around us. This could represent the array of emotions that accompany our thinking. This is the mocking and humiliation we begin to feel as we gain a higher insight into life’s events. Our responses to life are not always appropriate. We can easily curse someone who takes advantage of us, or impinges on our ‘space’, then afterwards as we contemplate what occurred we can feel humility for the way we acted towards the other person – even if it was just the way we thought about them. Of course we are not the king – the ruler – of our emotions when we have derogatory thoughts and feelings about others. The king represents our will which must continually be strengthened so that we can remain as peaceful as possible through this initiation process.

When we become more aware of our thinking, feeling and willing we are able to see life’s events from a higher perspective. It can be very painful to see how we acted in some situations. Through our higher self we move into a level of honesty that is not always easy to bear. For this reason we need to be very committed to the process always confirming our intention to connect to every moment of our life in a higher way. This is a personal effort; it is not for anyone else to impose their views by giving advice etc. By deeply contemplating these seven steps we will find the strength to move forward to death and resurrection.

1 Response

  1. Oh Kristina so true! Some thoughts come with mini movies and seem to be on auto-rewind and playback. Then there is the self-judging…Thank you for sharing how we transform these.

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