Diary of a Heretic → Death Becomes Us
Samhain has arrived this year with mixed blessings, death has come knocking and in the space of a couple of weeks I have attended two funerals; the first one for a mother of a dear friend and this week for a beloved Uncle. On the positive side there have been two births during the month, a reminder that life and death are the two poles around which we alternate over and over again.
Perhaps the hardest of all facts to face up to in this life is that sooner or later one’s physical and mental state will eventually give way to decay, disease and death. All creation is subject to this dreaded process and everything about us is dying by degrees – disintegrating before our very eyes.
We take these revolving doorways of life for granted, but they mark the boundaries that make each life experience unique and special. Our lives unfold in stages, allowing us time to blossom into our full potential. Unfortunately we have the illusion of a gradual transition between one phase and the next, yet the course of our life is never linear. Each cycle in life creeps up on us and we look in the mirror each day not noticing the growth of wrinkles, then, as if by magic, the veil suddenly lifts and one day we face reality and are shocked. Today was my moment of truth, as I was applying my make-up on the train I suddenly realized that I was looking my age.
Truth is the only armour which can really protect us from ourselves; if we can honestly assess our lives in relation to the eternal rhythms and patterns of nature then there is no real harm, we can console ourselves that in fact we are sharing a common experience with all manifested beings.
As we now energetically and spiritually move into the colder months, we are reminded that the approaching winter is a time of dormancy; a time to reflect on the aspects of our life that no longer serve our highest good, a time to release that which holds us back from reaching our potential, and it is also a time of preparing for our next transformation. As we progress through those dark aspects of self, may we all acknowledge the voices from our shadow that lies hidden in our emotions and our soul? May we apply the alchemy of transformation by honouring our essential self and appreciating what truly is uniquely special and sacred in our lives and in our hearts.
There is no death of anything except in appearance; and so, also, there is no birth of anything except in appearance. That which passes over from essence into nature seems to be birth, and that which passes over from nature into essence seems, in like manner, to be death; though nothing really is originated, and nothing ever perishes; but only now comes into sight, and now vanishes. It appears by reason of the density of matter, and disappears by reason of the tenuity of essence; but is always the same, differing only in motion and condition. ~ Apollonius
