precious beauty of death + dying

Little Wing precious gift from Mother Earth

Whenever I commit to a new dream, Spirit begins showing me just how much that dreaming has always been close. I believe Intention brings more focus - just like the zoom lense of a camera, we begin to see the worlds within worlds around us. Now that we have begun taking enrolments for Guardians of the Threshold, a death and dying wisdom circle, I am seeing Death everywhere. And It sounds morbid but it truly isn't. Yes it is sad, there is always a loss when we face death but there is so much beauty. Death is the ultimate invitation to FEEL and she strips away our masks and armour to expose the tender heart. She makes us remember what it is to be truly human and alive.

Here is Little Wing the wing of a dear parrot who passed away on my doorstep on the day we signed the lease on a new home in the forest. For the last 12 months, this house has been my private bird sanctuary, so many feathered friends visit us here every day and owls come to keep us company at night. This ending is of course the threshold I must cross to begin again. I feel sad to leave but also excited about the new chapter awaiting. The next home is still in our beloved Sherbrooke Forest but in a house that is more open to welcoming to visitors and seekers. After year of sabbatical, I am ready to begin seeing more clients. I could not hold this work in our current home. And so this week I feel like I am in limbo - I know I am moving and yet I can't seem to make myself pack yet. it's been manifesting as a constant underlying anxiety and obsession with tiny, unimportant details. I feel exhausted and I realised yesterday it is because I have not let myself feel the grief of this change.

This is also a common experience when we lose someone we love and it can manifest in a much deeper and traumatic way when we repress our deepest grief and pain. In my family there is a long history of suicide in both my mother's and father's families. Suicide is still such a taboo subject and can be one of the hardest causes of death to talk about. In my family there is a gaping hole that is filled with silence and deep pain. This hole, this wound is a source of soul loss for many family members and instead of feeling and speaking and facing the many unanswered questions, the pain has been repressed and has manifested as deep depression. Recently, in Vision, I asked to know more about this spirit of depression that has followed my family for generations and I was shown not a horrible demon as I had expected but instead, the lost and forgotten spirits of family members who had taken their own lives and were never spoken of again. They were asking me for acknowledgement and remembrance and that is something we can all do and give. Often all Death requires is for us to be truly present.  It was this vision and the incredible healing that came after it, that pushed me to create a circle where we can finally release this unacknowledged pain, ask questions about death and dying and share our stories of loved ones no longer with us. To remember with love. We will also speak of the beauty and rebirth that occurs in this crossing of the threshold. The mystery of the afterlife and the visions and visitations that Spirit often gifts back to the living to help us to understand that there is nothing to fear.

When I need to cry and release I often head to the water and yesterday we drove to Phillip Island. It was the best gift I could give to myself - to just step away from it all and dive into the soft embrace of Mamma Ocean. As we arrived at the beach, we saw Bunjil, the wedge tailed eagle circling above and as we left the ocean we came upon a beach memorial that we hadn't noticed on the way down. The memorial was in a grove of trees and when we arrived it was being guarded by a blue tongued lizard. I was touched by this small and public altar to a beautiful young girl. It was decorated with toys and shells and was accompanied by this dedication:

'Where there is love the heart is light.
Where there is love the day is bright.
Where there is love there is quiet peace.
A tranquil place where troubles cease.
Oh blest are those who walk in love.
They also walk with god above.
Fly free Miranda you are loved.'

Whether you have healing to do around the loss of a loved one, are living with a loved one right now at the sacred threshold of dying, or want to come and heal the taboo and fear of speaking about death and the afterlife, you are welcome to join us in this wisdom circle. Together we will remember what it is to embrace the natural wisdom of the endless and eternal cycle of life.

Details of Guardians of the Threshold - Wild Wisdom of Death and Dying with Sacred Familiar and Rainbowalker.

Memorial for Miranda

letting go letting flow

thresholds

Animal Guardians - Midwifing Death

Tess guarding the Mystery and her Love

When I attended Leslene della-Madre's workshop Mothering the Dying last weekend, I was not even sure at first, why I was there. But ever since I am understanding that this sacred work is very precious and in an ancient way, already known to me. This week I was contacted by two of my closest friends who are both in the last stages of midwifing the deaths of their fathers. Neither of them had known I was attending this workshop. And so it was such a gift to be able to pass this deep wisdom of sacred passage back into the arms of the Ancient Mother - for it to be of practical and real use by families that needed it urgently.

Today I received these love-filled photos of my best friend's father Ron being guarded over in palliative care by his beloved companion, Tess. Look how she regal she is in her presence - how much she KNOWS. Paulii's parents have devoted much of their lives to being animal carers and for anyone who does this noble and courageous work, you will know how much that love it doubly returned. Thank you Paulii for sharing these beautiful moments of Wisdom in the Mystery. I am grateful that hospitals are also waking to the wisdom held by our animal guardians and respect for the bonds we share with them. Wise creatures.

Love to you and your families Paulii and Christopher for the sacred journeys you are on and to the animal companions guarding us all.  

Mothering the Dying - Dropping Into the Mystery

Monica Sjoo

Leslene della-Madre

This weekend I had the honour of taking part in Leslene della-Madre's profoundly moving workshop - Mothering the Dying: Midwifing the Final Passage. What an incredible and deep experience of Life. What a revelation to truly understand that when we embrace the sacred threshold of Death as a return to the Ancient Mother, we then truly learn to Live.

The gift that Leslene gave to me was the reminder of permission to 'drop it'. We spend so much of our life trying to fix or heal difficult issues and relationships. In fact I feel we spend most of our time obsessing about what we feel is 'wrong' and trying to make it 'right'. When truly all we have is this moment and to be present in it's mystery is all that is required from us. And so I gladly embraced 'dropping it' and in that moment embraced so much more of my life energy and space. Creating sacred space around Death also teaches us to create the same sacred and clear water around ourselves in our daily living. We cannot be all things to all people. We are here to honour our spirits and live its full expression. And this expression is felt so deeply when we drop into the mystery of presence. When we give up all need to 'know' we are in the presence of something far deeper and sustaining: belief and faith. And what we believe and have faith in, is totally our own choosing - no need to give any explanation.

My heartfelt thanks to you Leslene for bringing this celebration of return to our wise women's ways as we reclaim our belief in our ourselves and our innate and sovereign ability to mother the dying. It is such intense and deep work - not fearful as we have been taught to feel about death but a process of facing and then dropping our deepest fears to discover the bliss and joy that awaits when we do. I regained such a strong trust in the regenerative powers of nature, the cosmos and my own spirit.  And an enormous thank you to The School of Shamanic Midwifery for bringing Leslene to Australia and for the endless work you do to create pathways or memory back to the Women's Mysteries. 

I am still in the fathomless depth of this experience and so when I have few words I create with encaustic. Encaustic is an artform that requires you to drop out of the mind and into the heart - hot beeswax cannot be controlled or tamed, merely held in a space of deep trust in the process. So similar I now understand to what is required from us when we create and hold sacred space for the Soul as it journeys through the threshold of Death into the arms of the Ancient Mother again. I urge those of you called to understand more of the sacred practice of holding space for the dying to seek out Leslene's work and her book, 'Midwifing Death'. We are all remembering that there is no need to ever fear, Mother Earth is a constant source of love in the endless dance of Birth - Death - Rebirth. 

Midwifing Death - Leslene della-Madre

Iain Whittaker, Psychopomp

2013 is the year of Reclaiming - reclaiming our bodies, our birth rites, our wisdom and our own authority. And so I am very happy to see that the amazing women of the School of Shamanic Midwifery are hosting the Australian tour of Leslene della-Madre, author of Midwifing Death. Isn't it time that we reclaimed the sacred threshold of death for our loved ones and for ourselves?

Leslene is author, poet, grandmother, shamanic spiritual midwife and initiate of several shamanic healing traditions including Native American. After many years of groundbreaking work as a spiritual midwife, Leslene realised that the same skills and wisdom called on at birthing could be used to assist the dying.

 

"Midwifery is usually associated with birth and babies. After training in spiritual midwifery, giving birth to two daughters, mothering foster children and becoming a crone, I have observed that the same skills needed for attending birth can be brought to the bedside of the dying.  I also learned that a lifetime of knowledge and wisdom carried in the wombs and hearts of women can be very healing for the dying—and that these skills are what I refer to as “mothering skills”. They are based in compassion, empathy, beauty, humility and openness to “knowing”—an animal wisdom kind of knowing. 

Life and death are not opposites. Death is integral to the whole/holiness of the sacred web of all that is. In this experiential workshop with slides, movement, trance, song and sacred theater and whatever arises in spontaneity/gaiety we will explore a way of viewing death that actually comes from the realm of our pre-patriarchal ancestors. Very little is known or taught about how our early ancestors lived, and in this space together we will learn from them and bring forward a much needed shamanic integration about life and death for body mind and spirit. We will also learn what it means to “midwife” death in our current time and how to transform fear about death into pure love."  Leslene della-Madre

In our shamanic practice with The Swan Blessing we sit with clients as they witness their own deaths in past lives and very often they see the moment of the soul's transition from that life back into the spirit world. This moment is so gentle, full of wonder and beauty. Through this work, I have lost so much of my own fear of death, something I feel we have been taught by a society that, particularly in the western world, still regards death as taboo. We do not want to face death. We can barely talk about it and yet, of course, it is inevitable. I believe the wisdom that Leslene is bringing to share with us in Australia is vital. Imagine the lives we will live when we no longer fear death. What deep well of ancestral wisdom is awaiting return? What sacred rites and songs are still being held in the marrow of our bones? If we can step through our own threshold of fear we may remember a time long ago when we could embrace the sacred event of death as an initiation of the soul back into the spiritual realm.

You may find yourself called to this work and wisdom without even knowing why. I would simply say to you: return. Return to your knowing of life without fear of death. Perhaps you may have someone in your family and life who is approaching this sacred threshold. Or you may even be feeling a calling back into an ancient practice of caring for the dying that you had not previously understood. In this time of reclaiming we are remembering so many roles of honour and sacred service that have been suppressed for a long, long time. I believe that when work like this presents itself, it will call you. I will be attending the Melbourne workshop and I hope to see you there.

Midwifing Death - Leslene della-Madre Workshops in Australia:

Blue Mountains NSW: Fri 12-14th April 2013
Brisbane QLD: Fri 19-21st April 2013
Melbourne VIC: Fri 26-28th April 2013 

 For full workshop and ticket information, please go HERE.