Death is creeping near.
It is filling our minds, our ears, and our screens. Fear is raging, systems and structures are crumbling, much is being undone.
If you have felt depressed, heavy, confused or irritated it is a natural response.
This is our great underwater passing, this is the plunge into the dark sea. We will be born again from these sacred waters, but first, we must face our fears.
Loss, change, endings, these are all forms of death, and they all do one clear thing: they remind us that we are not in control. This terrifies us, doesn't it? To think that there are forces greater than us over which we have no power.
Death turns us all to dust — the brave, the pious, the awakened, the rich, the powerful. We are not used to such vulnerability, such impotence.
We live in a culture that worships power and control. Anything that suggests otherwise is vanquished to dark alleys and lost corners of the night.
And so we no longer talk of death, we no longer tell its stories, and the myths that teach us about the Life/Death/Life cycle are no longer shared. We have both trivialized and demonized it. We have lost its truth and with it ours. When we deny such a force, what do we have to bury of ourselves along with it?
I learned of death in the jungle. I learned of fear there too. They are born of each other.
All fear is the fear of death.
This is why close proximity to death brings up so much from the subconscious. It is happening now. It is calling out our shadows.
You would do well to sit quietly and listen. Be with your feelings. Don't deny them and don't run from them. Do not label yourself as broken or wrong. Just be present to what is happening.
In our avoidance of death, we have lost an important part of life. We have lost an intimate understanding of our natural selves.
The death cycle will take you closer to your wild parts, the ancient ones, the parts that know death well. And they will tell you more about yourself than any book or master.
What else but death can make you so fiercely aware of what truly matters?
Let it shake you from your slumber. Let it remind you that you are part of a great and grand design, something much, much bigger than you alone. Let it teach you gratitude. Let it teach you love. Let it press deeply into your heart the blessing of each breath, each embrace, each moment we are here.
It is this that death does best: It breathes life into the living.
Adapted from an article in rebellesociety.com
