Ratatosk's Death Quotation

[Luciftias]

I noticed the following quote in Ratatosk's sig:

Death looks every man in the face. All any man can do is look back and smile.
-- Marcus Aurelius

It just made me wonder.... what if you were "journeying" (dream walking, astral/mental projection, etc...) and did encounter Death and decided to merge with him, like you would do with a healed soul fragment. What do you suppose would happen. Has anyone done this? What was the result?

Luciftias

[Ratatosk]

Ooh, interesting concept. I'll keep my eyes open for the responses on this one, for sure!

Of course, the reason I like the quote so well is that it speaks directly to the Heathen idea of courage - knowing one's Wyrd (http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/heathenry/whatwyrd.html) and facing it unflinchingly.

(Of course if it were me merging with ol' Mr Death I think he might just go right off his rocker:p)

[Naomi]

I suppose nothing would happen. I think Death is always right there inside of us, at the heart of every atom...

In a way, you can't NOT merge with him...

The grim reaper, on the other hand...well I'd just ask him out on a date...I have a feeling we'd get along fine...

[MythMath]

Would he show up for your date on his sickle...? :p

MM

[Luciftias]

I suppose nothing would happen. I think Death is always right there inside of us, at the heart of every atom...

In a way, you can't NOT merge with him...


In my understanding of occult anatomy, by early adulthood each of us has a very fragmented, one might even say "shattered" soul (the interface between body and spirit), caused by various traumas and conditioning. While these are still certainly a part of you, they exist in a state of conflict and act as though they are separate entities trying to subtly (or not so subtly) influence the organism from the shadows of the unconscious mind.

Merging with one of these soul fragments would have the effect of removing the conflict and integrating that repressed/suppressed aspect of self into full consciousness. This is basically how the "shamans" of several cultures see things, as well as modern psychotherapy and Taoist belief, if I'm not mistaken.

What I'm trying to get at is that even if Death is a part of us already, to integrate that force into full consciousness would likely still have some noticable effect on the functioning of the individual.

As a side note, I imagine that the way a person's mind translates an encounter with the force of Death would depend on their cultural baggage. For instance someone immersed in ancient Egyptian religion (especially an actual ancient Egyptian) might experience it as Anubis. Another might experience it as the modern image of the Grim Reaper, complete with skull face and dark hooded robe. The ancient Greeks often imagined Death ("Thanatos") to be a normal looking man (ie. not a skeleton) with wings, sometimes fierce and bearded and sometimes as an attractive boy. Then we also have the comic book version by Neil Gaiman, who looks like a young, attractive modern goth. The last version would be totally date-worthy in my books. :p

Luciftias

[Radiant Star]

I have seen the Grim Reaper; it was a very peaceful time and I didn't immediately connect him with a death, although that did happen soon after.

Anubis always seems like a preserver of life to me, though he does seem to be between two worlds at times.

Cannot say I have ever wanted to merge with Anubis, but the Grim Reaper has a 'pull' about him and a hypnotic kind of effect, so that might explain why someone would want to.

I think when it is my time to go, I would like to be collected by Grim and escorted to a chariot, I will ride in that with Anubis at the reigns and it will be a joyous ride.

[m1thr0s]

This just cracks me up...

http://abrahadabra.com/images/mothman01.jpg

I'm sort of partial to the MothMan take on Death these days but this is just too much...lol...:laugh: :rofl: :laugh:

I kind of feel like the extended consciousness network of Death is just about exactly as big as Life is...so it's fundamentally universal in scope. I rather think that means that if you "merge" with Death...you're dead...I don't much think it matters how you do it...

If we are talking about some sort of mind-meld...again I think we have a power discrepancy to deal with. This would be like doing a mind-meld with a black-hole to the zillionth power or something...and again...you're toast...

I have a very hard time reducing Death to some sort of comic-book character since at the level of its principle it's right up there with the Tao, man...it's really really big...

m1thr0s