DEATH + LIFE
I started writing this article in October and never published it as the Intensity of the Grief and Gaza and the state of the world paralysed me…But it’s an important piece, so here it is…
The most remembered day in my life is the 7th of October - the day my mother died over 30 years ago, the same day my whole world crumbled, I was only a child.
As I zoom out and reflect on this day, given fresh new meaning now as the day when Hamas struck Israel which in turn seemingly gave them permission to kick off and continue their ongoing genocide. I am again reminded of death and how grief and sadness is affecting so many other innocent children right now.
Death- as I have learnt is a part of a life not an end to it, and the present seasons of both Autumn and Scorpio has us all reflecting on the process of letting go as the leaves start to wither losing their colour and life to eventually fall from the tree and return to ashes and compost the earth. Scorpio in Astrology is the sign most comfortable and connected with letting go, transformation and death.
So November is about Death - Halloween made popular and light though American cultural appropriation is actually a celebration of death. The day of the dead https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/celebrations/article/day-of-the-dead
as the Mexicans celebrate it is about honouring our ancestors and those who have passed away, as altars are setup and candles burnt to symbolise a soul we have known to pass.
Samhain in Paganism also celebrates death for the same reasons, to honour the dead and those transitioning as the veil (between the world of spirit and matter) is much thinner now, meaning the souls of the dead are easier to communicate with.
I know from experience over the last 3 Intense years by making time and space for rituals of Remembrance and the honouring of the dead in your life; Mystical and maybe even magical things happen when we practice bearing witness to Death and Grief.
It is wise and healthy in this process of Grieving to just bear witness to the feelings, allowing the waves to pass and also finding a support group or friend to share with does provide some healing for our hearts.
Death is the one thing we are ALL guaranteed to experience in our lives, yet its the one thing we all fear, indeed it is the ultimate fear and what all the Western world's obsession with safety and security is all about; to avoid death.
From experience of losing both my parents by the age of 30, I know how hard these thick feelings are to process.
However I also know with my mothers death especially that over time; deep sadness is transformed and transmuted into compassion and living a more meaningful, heart centred life as the Impermanence of All that is- is now seen in every moment.
As Grief is ultimately the loss of love, this is what causes our hearts to break wide open and feel like we may just be swallowed whole in the wave of sadness. But like all things in life- however huge- waves do pass and we come back to this life with a perception of reality to be more crystal clear while possessing dreamlike qualities at the same time. Having cried possibly a whole ocean of tears in my life, I can now safely say that tear ducts are our inner oceans of perceptions, we cry salty tears from our eyes to cleanse, refresh and restore our lens on life. Like a good swim in the sea, a good cry always leaves us perceiving the world a little more softer, stiller and clearer.
Unless you are disconnected from your heart, I'm sure that you too have tasted some salty tears in the last 3 weeks watching the horrors of humanity unfold LIVE before our very eyes in Gaza.
Death after death, wave after wave and tear after tear, all these innocent souls transitioning in the collective field, surrounding earth in a heavy blanket of Grief. Indeed for those like me who believe that Gaia - Mama Earth is alive - that feel and know that she too is weeping and wailing in the exact same way Mothers are grieving their dead children, lives cut short pointlessly at the hands of war criminals, dangerously disconnected from their hearts.
We know that when this killing spree ends, Humanity will never be the same. Much like how 9/11 cracked the collective heart field causing compassion and acts of kindness to spread everywhere around the globe - this will also affect the Earth’s field -known as the Shuman Resonance- once more and humans will be changed after this.
My personal current belief system resonates with the idea of re-incarnation and rebirth to complete our Soul Contracts that we came here for. Soul contracts are more about the time before your life, or in between lives. Some believe, as I do, that we have a soul family, much like a soulmate and that these people are placed in your life on purpose to teach you something you need to know and that you re-incarnate with them to fully learn and integrate the collective experience or lessons. Then you can return to the Godhead or Brahman as the Hindus believe.
Muslim believe that our lives are already written, pre-determined and if one has a particularly hard or painful life and dies or is killed they then become Martyrs and return to God also. This is their destiny and indeed is the ultimate destination for every soul, the Hereafter or Janna. “To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return’.
My heart is less heavy knowing that all those innocent Palestinian lives lost and the incredible sorrow and grief that is left behind in the survivors, is grounded in this beautiful belief system. That they are now returned to God.
Caroline Myss gives me some comfort in her Incredible Video on Humanity and our evolution or lack of it.
She refers to us being stuck on the ground floor of a 12 story building, stuck in our basic existence while the aim of our lives and souls is to evolve and grow up to the higher floors ( higher selves) and eventually the penthouse - to get a wider perception on life and the rest of us humans out and about here also trying to live, evolve and grow. When we do reach higher levels and understandings of this Incredible experience of Human life, we start to see that there is no victim and perpetrator, that from the Penthouse - or SOUL level, we chose this reality, our parents, our stories full of trials and tribulations and this very time to be on Earth here and NOW. You don’t have to look far to see the destruction, death and sense of Biblical “End of days” is upon us.. Yes this is the end of an era, the KaliYuga, this is a collective death of Humanity as we know it. Humanity has indeed lost itself in destruction, ignorance and devastation. But life is NOT static and as long as we have freedom we can make a different choice, every moment is a choice point. If we can just slow down and pay attention we will start to see the hundreds of choice points we are presented with every day that can take us down the same road or a new road of Infinite possibilities that are subtle until we choose them into existence and matter. Your choices MATTER ie they Material-ise when you focus energy on one choice over another.
Humans are the only animals that can Think about Thinking, that one fact alone places us at the top of the food chain. Humans can and do make changes all the time, the magic is in recognising how much Power that means we have. That you can choose to pack your bags NOW and go get on a plane if you so wish. That you can use you voice to say I quit this shitty job and living in survival mode or that “We stand for Life” or “We Stand with Palestine.”
Every moment in time we are presented with a choice to manifest and create something different and better or stay the same. As Humanity’s dark side is being shown more and more in these days, I ask you to choose differently, to choose Joy, Love and Peace and spread a conscious little act of this around everywhere as if EVERY action you take is like spreading seeds to build a more beautiful world. As ultimately in this reality there are only ever 2 Emotional states to choose from - LOVE or FEAR.
ALL emotions live under these 2 categories. If you want to understand more about the vibrations of each state, read the book Power VS Force or get familiar with this scale below.
Death is not the end of life but a part of it, we need to have more conversations around it and learn to be more comfortable with being around people who have suffered losses, whether it be death of a life, a home, a dream or Death of Humanity as we know it, they all incur the feelings of Grief, which ultimately opens us up to living a life of love over fear.