The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

In the "Gods, Goddesses and Mythology" section I asked this very same question.  Now, I'm asking the same question without the deities in it.

So, what is Death - or death - to you?

As far as what happens after, I don't know or care.  I suppose I'll see when I get there...or won't (the more likely scenario, to my mind).  I personally believe that biological entities simply end.  No part of my consciousness or "me-ness" will outlive me.  But again, I won't know until it's done.

Brina

End of the individual is my view as well, evidence suggests nothing else. I call it the Afterdeath, as opposed to the Afterlife. My atoms will be liberated to spread throughout the universe and seed new stars and planets for the rest of eternity. Not a bad deal.

My atoms will be liberated to spread throughout the universe and seed new stars and planets for the rest of eternity. Not a bad deal.

Back to the eternal cycle. *nod*

In the "Gods, Goddesses and Mythology" section I asked this very same question.  Now, I'm asking the same question without the deities in it.

So, what is Death - or death - to you?

 
Death is the unbreakable promise, the fairest, most reliable, most honest thing in the universe.  It shows up for everyone and everything, binds everything that is into a common family, and is the place where everyone, no matter what, no exceptions, is welcome.  Nothing grows or lives or happens without it, and it is the fundamental engine of evolution, the clearest marker of time, and the most powerful enforcer of sharing there is.  Death reminds us that we are subject to rules and processes, that we are unavoidably part of a system greater than ourselves, and ensures that we give back all that we are, eventually, to the rest of the world.  Death makes a fiction of independence and a mockery of arrogance.  It is, without prejudice, factual beyond any argument.

Understanding the ultimate trustworthiness of death is how I came to be good at life, and it served as my first picture pointing to anything in the world being fair, or predictable, or all-inclusive, so it has served as my pointer to grace, love, and all sorts of things other people come to first.  In a world full of amorphousness and chaos, death, more than any other thing, can be counted on.  I don't really know how to leave divinity out of it.

That is, while I have a great deal of compassion for the pain of the living who have to endure the loss of the dead, I am a big, big fan of death.

*necromancer mic drop*

I don't know how I failed to mention what a gorgeous post that is.  Because it is.

Brina

 
Sometimes I get kind of piously worked up.  You should've seen the Day of the Dead service I led a year and a half ago.
...maybe I should share some of that here, actually, some of the theology might be of service to some people.  There was an image of the skull as a seed planted in the soil of the flesh, and the skeleton as roots reaching down, and eventually it blooms...

Seconded!

 
I keep thinking of that thread from, what, a few months ago?  About the terrible dangers of necromancy and how wicked death magic will sap out your soul and wither you away to an evil lich-critter?  And then I think about what embracing Death has actually done inside me, and all I can do is laugh, and it's even a joyful laugh.  Embracing my mortality has given me such relief, and beauty, and comfort, and patience, and compassion.  It's demanded a lot of me, too, but seriously.  We waste so much of our short lives worrying away about the one thing we can be sure of.  I'd rather love it, learn from it, and be among the living while I have the chance.

I think the nature of the universe is cyclical, so if there is a spiritual component to living things, I think it will be recycled. I don't know if spirits go through the cycles of life individually, or if it's more of a "drop returning to the ocean" kind of thing.

In my opinion spirits continue into post-mortal infinity and this is very simple, pragmatic mechanism. We all mark our presences in the world, we have our friends and descendants, some of us can be remembered by a wider group of people by e.g. entering the cards of history (do you remember "Exegi Monumentum aere perennius", a stunning pagan interpretation of immortality). And this is how spirits survive, though dead bodies (these beautiful part of nature) decompose to become one with the earth's crust.

To me, death is fear. It's uncertainty, and a whisper of a conclusion that I fear more than anything else: Nothingness. I don't want to stop existing, and no amount of 'but you won't be able to tell' is going to change that. To me, the worst Hell would be better than simply 'poofing' as if I never existed.

To me, it strips the meaning from life. Nothing matters, and nothing will ever matter. I'm not asking for full on reincarnation, I just want -something-, even if I don't remember this life.

And yet I follow Yinepu. Oh, the irony.

 
Well, let's see where you follow Him to.