Death and the Shaman Part 1

Death and the Shaman

The Shaman has a kind of symbiotic relationship with death, a concept that some find less than easy to understand.
This relationship is integral to the work of the Shaman, that life and death exist together in harmony is unacceptable to some who will not venture to become comfortable with the idea of their own mortality or that of their loved ones.
Fear and dogma is the veil which obscures our understanding of this subject; curiosity is the key to overcoming the inevitability of our demise. We really are the only animals on this earth that fear death because we are the only ones to quantify it, deify it and philosophise it. We endeavour always to control it, to avoid it at all cost and to what end? We still die.
Really, we cannot have life without death– for without either there would be no existence – no ability for rebirth. The seasons change and things die, we see the cycle of life as they are born anew, not the same as before but part of the same species for plants and trees, they would be the forebears of the original – carrying the double helix to the next generation. So I suppose that we would call life and death a co-dependant relationship, the fruits of which give us the space to bring forth new life, and still allow us to honour what went before.
Anais Nin said, Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
This equating death with a permanent state of non-function is not unique; it may however be more than a little unfair. As with most things we have to realise that our experiences form our opinions of things. Those things we do not have experience of we depend on other authorities’ views to explain. Authorities that we have deemed worthy of the position; so much so that we invest in their belief and make it our own, sometimes less than wisely. This again is a matter of opinion. However, when it becomes a consensus of opinion it can jump from the realm of belief into the realm of fact. Ask any room that has a cross section of Creationists and Darwinists. Though what if they are both correct? What if it is the time frame that we humans have given that is the bone of contention and nothing else?
As Kuan Yin posits People believe that death is punishment from God rather than a natural progression, a doorway to other realities. By having such grim perspective on death, they make it a fearful and painful experience.
Belief is the key.