#86.20 - Death Visualisation

You would think that after being exposed to image after image on the screen of violence and death we would be used to it. But our familiarity with Death is currently non-existent in the Western world. I don't know, is it our evolution away from it? The way we have kept it secret, only ever experiencing it when it breaks the skin? Who knows? Whatever it is, this denying of the Death principle is something which creates a neurosis - a deep irrational fear.

So our rites around death are staid and hackneyed. We rely on someone who knows nothing of us to bury us. When we mourn, we mourn haplessly. It is in ritual that we find solace and yet the ritual is empty, devoid of meaning.

What is Death? It is our final leaving, the last journey. The place of mystery. And why is our culture so obsessed with Death and yet so unprepared to deal with it? And when those who are prepared to work with it, to accept it are seen as pariahs. I have never EVER felt so isolated in this. The physical isolation is NOTHING compared to the isolation I feel around my own attitude to death.

Death Visualisation

I offer this up to those who have been forced to die on their own. That is obscene. I feel so sorry for all of those who have had to have been buried like they are plague victims. Especially the old people who do not deserve this. The old people who have led and lived their lives and are now being buried with the gravedigger and the priest. Or ten people who are terrified for their own lives instead of celebrating the death of the beloved. I offer this up to them.

First: the journey with Death is the final journey which we make in this life, in this body. It is the journey into the unknown but also a journey into the familiar. The journey to join the ancestors, to become one of the ancestors. To rejoin the cosmos and to make the millennial journey into the stars and then back to the Earth. Our bodies are released from the pleasures and the pain, the suffering and the sorrow, the things which may tortured us now no longer have power over us. As we return to the place we have always known.

I offer this up to you.

Come with me, I will accompany you on this final journey. Do not be afraid. Instead, rest in the strength of all our love. In the love of the bones of the Earth, the arms of the Oceans, the starry night sky which has drawn you back.

It has been a privilege to have been here. It is now a privilege to return.

Listen to the sounds, what can you hear. Your eyes are now closed. Still. Be still.

We now walk into the forest. The trees are magnificent. It is sunny day and the light shines through the leaves. It dances on the ground. There are carpets of flowers everywhere. The air is filled with the sweetness of perfume. Birdsong fills the air. We walk along a path. It is a forest you recognise even if you do not ever remember being there.

As we walk, and it seems like it is forever, we do not have to speak and yet everything you have done returns to you - cherished memories, excruciating moments, times when your life was ripped apart and the suffering too great to bear and you realise these have only ever been good. Everything which has been a burden falls away and you are lighter, you are revel in the delight. It was all small stuff you can see now... you laugh at the small stuff... you feel the joy of the Fool stepping off the edge of the cliff, just as you did when you were born. 

Except now, you feel not excitement, not even anticipation, but relief...

As we walk you see a house. It is a small house. A house made of plaster and daub, or perhaps a rude wooden home. There are windows which we can look out of. The house is dark, but its door is open. It is waiting for you. They all are.

You enter. Because of the contrast between the outside and inside, you can hardly see anything but as your eyes accustom itself to the gloom, you see that it is full of people. 

I cannot see their faces, but you recognise them immediately. You see that they are ready, they are here to welcome you back. They are the people who have passed on before you. Those who have walked with you all your life. Those who have lived on in your memory, those whom you have missed and cherished and thought of. And perhaps those whom you have never known or recalled. But they have known you and remembered you and they are now all here. They have gathered in your honour.

This is a joyful reunion. 

Someone steps forward and takes your hand. They gather around you - you are surrounded by their love, it lifts you utterly. You an enveloped by the privilege and trust. You see that you are safe now. There has been nothing to fear. This final journey, the journey to your people. You now join the ancestors. Your life and all its experiences becomes part of the warp and weft of the wisdom of the world. Your love and your sacrifices are acknowledged. 

For the last time, the Earth will be your witness. 

You are ready to say farewell, only you realise that all this time, you have actually been saying hello. 

You see me leave and you bless everyone whom you have left. You know that you are now safe. That now you will make the next great journey before you once more decide to return. 

Nothing is lost.

As I leave, I see the back wall of the house disappear. It opens out into the rest of the forest, except it isn't the forest. It is the entrance to the next step, the next stage. There, I cannot go. I can never go. But that is my destiny and I embrace it willingly. I, Death, have walked with you and it has been my privilege to do so.

Thank you.