Hello and welcome to Psychic Teachers. I'm your host Deb Bowen. And I'm Samantha Faye.

And we're so excited that you are joining us this week for our Easter celebration. And we're

going to be talking about some history and we're going to be talking about what hope is like

today in a weary world and how those two topics come together. So I want to begin our topic today

with a quote from Janine Di Giovanni. And she says Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope,

renewal, and new life. And so for billions of Christians around the world today, Easter Sunday,

is in fact a day of hope. It's a day of promise. It is the day God's promise to Jesus' followers

is fulfilled stating that just as Jesus was resurrected from the dead and has everlasting life,

so too do His followers. So this week we focus on the notion of hope of promises given and kept

and we'll discuss ways in which you can seek and find hope and promise in your life right now.

But first a little background and context. On March 20th here in the Northern Hemisphere on what is

called the Viral Equinox, we moved into the season of spring. This transition has been for millennia

a visible tangible process of life renewing itself. I don't know about you but I am aching to get my

fingers in the dirt and plant seeds and flowers and vegetables and herbs. I'm so excited about

doing that because when we see plants blooming and flourishing animals coming into mating season

in order to produce offspring, there is this notion of all life bursting forth around us.

And before the patriarchy such blossoming of life was attributed to the divine feminine, of course,

to Mother Earth and a plethora of goddesses. It is theorized that the word Easter

is derived from one of those goddesses of starry and ancient northern goddess of spring and fertility.

So spring has always for as long as humanity has known, been a symbol of hope and about life

renewing itself. So fast forward with me for a few thousand years. I don't know how many

thousands of years when the Abrahamic religions developed, including, of course, Judaism.

...