A chapter on the myths of death and the afterlife from around the world in honour of Samhain from my upcoming book,"Circle Of Genuine Meaning": - Mairead Ashcroft 31/10/16

Death 

"For centuries, artists produced 'memeto mori', works of art that would remind their viewers of death and usually featured a skull and hourglass.The point of these works wasn't to make people dispair but to help them use their thought of death to focus on the real priorities. Vivid reminders of mortality and the transient nature of life put our prosaic obsessions to question. When measured against the finality of death, the true insignificance of some of our worries is emphasised and we're given an opportunity to feel a little braver about what we really want to feel...." (The Book of Knowlege)

Heavenly Bodies and Empire of Death by Artist Paul Koudounaris

Is it the dread of the absence of life, the only state of being that most of us has ever known, that creates our angst around death or is it possibly the fear of the most allusive, the unknowing of what may lie ahead, that promotes the idea of life after death? Buddhist and Hindu religions believe in life after death in the form of re-incarnation. They believe that if you live a righteous life you will return, possessing a higher level of existence. This is a very basic descriptions of the philosophy of Karma. The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bardo Thodol, was brought to light in to the general population somewhere between 1326 and 1386. This Buddhist, Nyingma literature is a directional manual for those who wish to master transformation from re-birth or the Bardo in the afterlife. Christianity teaches life after death in the presence of heaven and hell. Both Christianity and Judaism recognise the body as belonging to the earth and the soul as belonging to God. Jannah is an eternal place for Muslims, possibly the Islamic concept of paradise or heaven.  Apparently, King Solomon said, “The dust will return to the ground as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:17) It would seem that the religions of the world find it necessary to provide some sort of comfort to its people with regards to the finite nature of death. Like the Vikings longing to go to Valhalla and the Egyptians wishing to be chosen by Osiris, cultures globally, sought answers to their fate after death. “Mankind everywhere, in Mexico and Iceland, in Zululand and China, makes more or less the same wild guesses in its convulsive effort to solve the riddle of existence…In very early times that idea flourished not alone among the Babylonians and Egyptians, but also among the barbaric tribes in and around Greece…These mysteries [came] down from Thrace or across the sea from Egypt and Asia Minor…They declared that for every man, no matter how poor or vicious, there was a place in heaven.”  (Lewis Browne, 1926)

According to Greek Mythology, Eos is goddess of the dawn became infatuated with the young Tithonus but experienced such distress at the thought that he was not immortal, as she was that she begged Zeus to grant her lover immortality. Myth says that Eos, “cherished him in her house and

Eos and Tithonus

nourished him with food and ambrosia”. Sadly, as happens to all human bodies and minds, Tithonus aged, becoming so depleted of physical strength, “that he could not even lift his withered limbs. Eos was unable to cure him of his miseries, but because of Zeus’s intervention she was equally unable to let him die. Finally, she laid him in a room and put to the shining doors. There he babbles endlessly, and no more has strength such as once he had in his supple limbs.” (Atul Gawande, 2014) Among traditional Indigenous Australians beliefs there seems to be no such thing as a natural death. All deaths may be considered to be the result of evil spirits or spells, usually influenced by an enemy. “A dying person may whisper the name of the person they think caused their death. If the identity of the guilty person is not known, a "magic man" will watch for a sign, such as an animal burrow leading from the grave showing the direction of the home of the guilty party. This may take years but the identity is always eventually discovered. The elders of the clan or tribe of the deceased then hold a meeting to decide a suitable punishment. A Kurdaitcha may or may not be arranged to avenge them. The practice of Kurdaitcha had died out completely in Southern Australia by the 20th century although it was still carried out infrequently in the North. The practice, in regard to bone pointing by itself, does continue into modern times albeit very rarely.” (Baldwin Spencer & F.J. Gillen, 2010)

Even as a child I have always been somewhat in wonder of death and what it might be like to exist without the life force that keeps us animated as we know each other in daily life. I have often been drawn to the macabre elements that exist in the experience of being human and have at times been tagged with the “weird” label which I am quite ok with. I have been known in the past, to wander cemeteries and been fascinated by stories that I have conjured up in my own mind about what the diseased person’s life may have been like. Of course I was only able to make limited assumptions and guesses with the often small amount of information shared on their tomb stones. But as the old quote by Mark Twain says, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” As a Catholic child who was also born into Celtic traditions of songs and sometimes bizarre and wonderful legends, I was often excited at the time of all souls and all saints day, celebrated on the 31^st October and the 1^st November every year. I loved the thought of ancestors being free to roam the earth at will and looked forward to a time when I would have this experience. Yes, I suppose maybe I am little weird!                         

Wiccan Wheel of the Year

              Festivals such as the Feast of the Dead and All Hallows Eve were celebrated in Celtic, pagan countries as Samhain (pronounced sul-win). The tradition encouraged the community to leave food offerings on altars and doorsteps for the "wandering dead" on the 31^st October. In the Middle Ages, many Christians held a folk belief that All Hallows' Eve was the "night where the veil between the material world and the afterlife was at its most transparent.” (Devros, Isabelle 2014) It is believed that at this time, ancestor spirits may enter homes, thoughts and bodies and beds to merge the worlds

of life and death. Treats such as food and drink are left for the ancestors to appease them and thank them for their contribution  Marketing campaigns and modern media have led some to believe that Halloween is an American festival but celebrations of the living dead are honoured in many parts of the world. Chinese celebrate the ‘Hungry Ghost Festival’ in mid-July, in the Philippines the period from 31^st October through 2^nd November is the feast of ‘Pangangaluluwâ’, Romania celebrates ‘St. Andrew's Eve’ on the two days where ghosts are said to be about, also on the cusp of October and November. Many of the times of the festivals honouring the dead are at the end of Autumn and entering into Winter when the protection of the ancestors may be helpful in enabling the community to manage the cold hard death of winter. According to Burns, Halloween is "thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands" (Robert Chambers, 1954) The Ancient Egyptian Wag Festival took place in early August which was a single event, Festival of the Dead, lasting up to 3 days and like examples include the Peruvians, the Pacific Islanders, the people of the Tonga Islands, the ancient Persians, ancient Romans, and the northern nations of Europe, tending to the needs of the spirits of ancestors past was paramount to the good fortune of the community. “In Japanese Buddhist custom the festival honouring the deceased spirits of one's ancestors is known as the Bon Festival and is held in July or August.” (Yanagita 2015)

I hope you enjoyed this little intro to my knowledge on some of the global myths around death and the afterlife.

My book " The Circle of Genuine Meaning", will hopefully be ready to purchase mid 2018 depending on the happenings of life. I am still in the editing stage so I apologies for any spelling and grammar mistakes but I hope you connect to the energy. 

References:

-Atul Gawande,2014, Being Mortal: Medicine & What  Matters in the End

-Baldwin Spencer & F.J. Gillen, 2010, Native Tribes of  Central Australia, Cambridge University Press, Pg.476 – 477 

-Devros Isabelle, 2014, Little monsters play on All  Hallows Eve,10-31

-Lewis Browne, 1926, This Believing World, Pg. 96-99

-The Book of Knowledge, Memento Mori, Self- Knowledge: Chapter 4, thebookoflife.org

-Robert Chambers, 1954, The Life and Works of Robert Burns, Volume 1

-Yanagita 2015. When" is Obon. Spiritual                                                                                                  Dance in  Midsummer Night                                                                                 

Live your Bliss

Mairead