Welcome to this meditation to support you when you are spending some time with what I like to think of as the death light.
That means death is with you in some way.
Maybe someone you love has died or been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Maybe you've had a near-death experience,
Pregnancy loss.
Maybe you're facing a terminal diagnosis yourself.
Maybe it's simply something you think about a lot or something that brings fear into your mind,
Even when it is nowhere near.
Obviously,
Death can be a difficult topic for some of us,
And this meditation may be a way to help think about it,
Gain a different perspective,
And maybe ease that fear a little bit.
Please be aware that we will be thinking about death as a concept or archetype in this meditation.
And if you're not in the headspace to focus in that way right now,
That's completely okay.
Feel free to come back to this whenever it does feel right for you.
In this meditation,
We will be sitting with some of the energies of death.
And consider making peace with it as a natural,
Normal part of everyday life,
Even if we don't always think about it that way.
Let's begin by getting settled,
Whatever that means to you today.
You might be seated or laying down.
You may want to move your body a little bit,
Adjust your posture.
Maybe you want to light a candle,
Take a sip of water.
Check in with your breath and see if there's anything that it needs or wants that you could offer it right now.
A sigh,
A deep breath.
A yawn.
Acknowledge the land that you are on right now.
This land that has seen so much of the cycle of life,
Death,
And rebirth over and over again.
This land,
Which is witnessing you right now,
In whatever you're going through,
Whatever you're feeling,
However,
The death light has entered into your world.
Now,
Let's acknowledge that the death light is here with you.
It's a special kind of light that shines differently when death is present than any other time.
It can reveal thoughts,
Feelings,
Fears,
Realities that most of us prefer to avoid most of the time.
This light is not bad,
It's not evil,
And it's not trying to harm you.
It's there all the time,
Actually.
It's just that right now,
It's present for you,
You can see it.
You're having a hard time looking away from it,
Maybe for whatever reason.
It's revealing things that we normally don't want to look at.
Whether you like it or not.
The death light is here.
It's shining on you.
What is this death light showing you?
What is different about life when you consider that death is here too?
How does your perspective change when you remember that everything dies?
Everything ends at some point or another.
These endings can be peaceful,
Just,
Easeful,
And necessary.
They can also be the opposite of all of those things.
Painful,
Confusing,
Unjust.
However they feel,
However these endings are.
They were always going to be here.
The how and when generally isn't up to us.
Maybe one of the reasons it's so hard for us to hold the death light.
Is because it reveals that corner of the universe where we're really not in control.
In nature,
Death is necessary for new life to begin.
A tree falls in the forest,
It dies,
And it becomes what's known as a nurse log,
A place of incredible birth,
Young life,
Bugs and fungi and tiny shoots of new trees.
When we eat,
We are consuming,
Creating death in order to nourish ourselves.
Even if we only eat plants,
The plants must die in order to become food for our bodies.
Every month,
A menstruating person's womb will bleed,
Releasing the egg from the last cycle,
In order to prepare for the possibility of a new life coming in.
If our cells don't properly die regularly,
New cells can't be formed and we can get very sick.
Death is intimately connected to life.
In many cases,
Death supports life.
Take a moment to notice how your breathing is doing talking about all this.
What are you feeling in your body?
What does it feel like to consider death in this maybe more generous way than we often do?
If you were to imagine death as a person,
A color,
A shape,
A texture.
What comes up for you.
If you could imagine this entity in your mind's eye,
What do they look like?
How does it feel to be with this entity?
That we call death.
No one really knows what happens to us when we die.
But it's well documented that the death experience often comes with beautiful images and experiences.
People who have had near-death experiences describe being shepherded to the other side by a loved one or a beloved pet who has already passed over.
They describe deep peace and well-being.
A feeling of returning home to a place where we are all connected for the good.
Many psychics believe the soul leaves the body before any kind of death trauma can be experienced,
Which saves the person from experiencing suffering.
Hospice workers report over and over again that people in the dying process will reach out to a loved one that they can see in the room.
Taking their hand,
Ready to bring them through this sacred transition from life into death.
From what these hospice workers see,
This is not scary.
It's not painful.
It's beautiful.
It's sacred.
No one knows if this is the true thinning of the veil between worlds,
Or simply a gift that our brain somehow gives us at the end.
But either way,
It is sweet,
Loving,
And comforting at the very end.
Our bodies know how to die,
Just as they know how to breathe,
To be born,
To give birth,
To heal wounds,
To digest food.
Death is a physical function that our bodies deeply understand.
They know how to move through this transition in a way that we don't need to learn or practice or think about.
We can trust our bodies to know how to die when it is our time to die.
Notice again what you're feeling in your body,
Thinking about all these things right now.
It might feel calming or grounding to think about death in these ways.
There might be some anxiety,
Fear,
Sadness,
Anger,
Maybe a burst of grief.
Whatever you're feeling right now is okay.
Feelings you are having right now are safe and normal pretty much no matter what they are.
See if you can notice these sensations in your body and simply allow them to be there.
Maybe imagine that you could breathe around these sensations.
They just are.
If you're feeling safe and comfortable enough with it.
Let's come back to that entity that you are imagining as a personification of death.
What do you feel when you observe this being in a visual form?
Could you see kindness,
Patience,
And compassion here?
Could you feel a part of yourself accepting death exactly as it is,
Knowing that that doesn't mean that it's coming for you any more quickly?
Could you feel any part of yourself simply accepting that death is there,
Exactly as it is?
Again,
Whatever is happening for you here is okay.
Even if this is really uncomfortable to sit with.
You are in a practice of tolerating the discomfort of sitting with death,
Which is with you right now,
Simply because it's with you right now.
And we don't always get to choose when that happens.
Notice if you'd like to stay here a little longer.
Maybe take a few deep breaths.
Maybe you want to open your eyes,
Look around the room,
Even move around a bit.
You are safe.
You are with life.
Acknowledge the earth again beneath you,
Easily holding life and death and the cycles between them and their inherent intimacy.
Notice the room that you're in,
The quality of the light and the air,
Your body in space.
You may or may not feel resolved in your relationship with death,
And that's okay,
But you spent some time with it today,
And that's plenty.
Thank yourself for being willing to sit with the death light which is shining on you,
Whether you chose that or not.
And if you'd like to spend a little bit more time with the thoughts and feelings and images that came up here,
Feel free to do a little journaling,
Maybe talk to someone about it,
Maybe even repeat this meditation so that you can spend a little bit more time sitting with that image and seeing how it lands for you.
Thank you for being willing to sit with me in this meditation on.
