Dying and the Invisible World
An Inner World Exploration
I’m old, but I’m a long way from dying. The most comforting, inviting concept I’ve found surrounding this process of death is the journeying I do in my imagination when I practice shamanism.
95% of our experience is in the unseen realms
I’ve been in touch with my inner world for years through meditation, intuition, hunches, simply knowing, but shamanism has taught me specific ways to explore the unseen world. I find it very comforting now and I know I will find it extremely comforting when I die.
For you see, I have many friends in the unseen world, the invisible realms, the parallel universes. Helping spirits that I work with in my life today, that teach me and guide me and guard me. Today. Every day. In my spiritual practice. When I begin an inner shamanic journey I go to my Sacred Garden, and there they are, waiting to guide me and answer whatever question I have chosen.
Those helping spirits and more will be in my Sacred Garden when I die, ready to show me my “next.”
Aging makes it real
When I first moved into the senior center I call home, I thought I had a really good philosophy of death. Until I watched a steady stream of this population constantly going off to die. It was then I realized that my philosophy of death needed to be more individualized, more personal, because I was closer to the actual process of dying.
So I began to search. It was when I began to perform Shamanic Journeys that I found my most reassuring path.
It would be great if there were no pain when I die, but my helping spirits can help with that.
There is no fear for me in dying because I have long been intrigued by the concept that Rumi calls “the nowhere that you came from.”
As I explore the unseen world, I see how vast it is but also how easily I travel within it. It’s a whole new adventure.
And it will continue to be.
Explore your inner life
Notice your dreams and take time to interpret them. They are metaphors. Look beyond their recognizable representation to uncover the meaning they convey.
I now have many helping sprits. They show up to offer different types of service, to take me on journeys for different purposes. But they are always there, ready to assist, to be of service, to guide my steps.
Go beyond your body suit
Whether you dream or journey or meditate, do your inner work with the intention of understanding “next”. I’m drawn to concepts like the Great Nothingness, the All That Is. The metaphor of the Web of Life is too individualistic for me; it still seems like we are individual threads in the web of life. I’m more drawn to the idea of being part of the cosmic soup, there’s no separate flavor, it’s only the blended result of the combined seasonings. I like the idea that my individual seasoning will join in the cosmic soup and blend with the total, the all that is.
Rumi says, ‘You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in one drop.” We contain that cosmic soup even as we are the drop of our individual body suits.
Can you speak of dying to others?
I can speak about and explore my own ideas of death for myself, but approaching that conversation with someone who’s facing their own death is not something I’ve done yet. I have a friend who is on oxygen, whose doctors say they have now given her all the “big guns” they have in the form of treatment. There’s no timetable for death, but the signs seem to suggest that she’s closer than she was. And yet, I do not have the conversation with her about how she views death. It is probably not my place. I can only seem to do that for myself. Perhaps it’s because she is not a close-up and personal friend with whom I regularly have philosophical conversations.
There are people I could have the conversation about dying with but not many. Not everyone is willing to even think about it. They may be afraid because no one knows what it’s like, or they may not be doing the exploratory inner work that some people do.
We each walk our own path of life – and of death. I’m exploring my “next” by exploring my inner world, the unseen part of my existence, to make the experience of dying a positive passage.
And I really like the support I’m finding there.
Deeper Song Affirmation
I do the inner work necessary to develop
a comforting concept of dying.
To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:
Another Part of Me – The Unseen World
Unleash the Power of your Sacred Garden
How Effective Is Your Spiritual Practice?
Come Out of the Protective Darkness of the Unconscious
What is the Difference betweenSpirituality and Religion?
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