Death comes for us all
As a medium, I have grown very comfortable with the fact that I will die. In fact, not to be too morbid, but the fact that one day I and all my worldly worries and burdens will just simply no longer exist, is comforting.
This can’t last forever, can it?
And no, I am not at all suicidal. I relish life. In having conversations with the dead, I have found a new perspective on life and it has fundamentally changed how I live.
My greatest fear is not at all dying. It is dying with regret. Dying after a life lived fully and many many fond memories to keep me company for eternity seems a wonderful ending.
But having hardly any memories of love, wonder, excitement, joy, and compassion? No thank you. That sounds like an actual hell.
So how can we look at death through the lens of endings and beginnings? It is really just one more transformation we undergo - nay, the final transformation - in this lifetime.
Does it bring about a sense of accomplishment? Or a sense of regret for you? Why?
Here are my thoughts, framed through the practice of tarot.
And, for those curious, when I look at a new tarot deck, one of the cards I am most drawn to is how the artist/creator of the deck has depicted death. It gives me a look into their relationship to this construct and also gets me thinking about how this person’s version of death may be similar or different from my own, and those of others.
Death is a holding pattern. A transitive state between one life and the next. It is neither past nor present, is it?
And it simultaneously holds both an ending and a beginning. A past and a future bound into one moment of potentials.
The doorway between worlds opens but briefly and your first step through it brings about an acquiescence to yet one last change.
Change is the only constant in life, they say.
Perhaps change is also the only constant in death, too.
In the image above, the subjects could both be dead, or just one. They could also be sleeping, in a state of biological arrest. Waiting for what comes next. Perhaps biologically we are arrested while spiritually we are liberated.
What will be next for you?
Are you still you?
Or are you something or someone else?
Are you free or captive to forces outside your control?
Does death frighten you? Why? or Why not?
In thinking of death, are you inspired to live differently?
Do you desire to tell others your thoughts and feelings more?
Do you seek more joy and moments of peace?
What will keep you company after you’ve made that final transformation - love or something else?
Do you fear you won’t be mourned or missed?
Do you fear you will have unfinished business?
Will you even know, if you no longer exist?
Will you be able to go peacefully, letting this all be someone else’s problem now?
Or will you haunt your favorite pair of shoes donated to the thrift store or your best friend who weeps in your absence?
Will your death be a melancholy affair, dramatic and full of lamentations of a life not lived?
Or will it be surrounded by the joys of your moments of deep connections, earthly experiences, and the embrace of loved ones?