The View From the Crow

Vol. 3,#1 - DEATH

Crow...are you "cawing" so I may know the secrets of balance within my soul! Or are you sending your "caw" just to remind me of universal laws? ⁽¹⁾

Death. The very word sends a cold chill to our bones. We recoil in horror...and fear. We personify it as the Grim Reaper. We see the worms darting in and out of the flesh. We ache forevermore over the loss of a loved one. We create images of heaven and hell in order to coerce right behavior. We kill those amongst us who do not conform, either as a warning to others who might disturb the social order, or to simply purge it of its sickness. These are but a few of the many negative ways in which we view and use death. This is the death of our society.

But there is an uncommon view of death, which is essentially positive. Oddly, these views are archaic. Grindingly slow has been the turning of the wheel, when we consider the history of humanity’s view of death. We hope to oil the wheel with this issue.

We start with an Interview of the Marquis Valaire de Gramscott, who expounds upon the causes of our fear and who suggests alternative ways we may approach the subject. Another prominent mystic, Manly Hall yields some of his ideas in: From Death to Rebirth, which is an excerpt of his book bearing the same title

The results of other ‘spiritual interviews’ are presented in the Grand Mirror of Death, in which we plunge more deeply into some of the views of the ancients and are given some sage advice. The article Plutarch of Cherone thoroughly explores one ancient line of thought. We then surge forward to find remarkable similarities between these ancient views, and results which can be imputed, but have been overlooked, by contemporary mainstream research and theory, in the article The Big Bang of Death.

The Medieval Primer exhumes a Templar of yore in ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX; we then dig up other bones of our psyche with Skeletons in the Closet, using a modern linguistic shovel. Relativity, another modern approach, is used in determining the existence of a transcendent soul in the article Spirit (part 2).

Since no serious study of death could be complete without an anchoring in the ‘ordinary and real’ experiences of those touched by death, we present two extraordinary articles entitled: Losing a Loved One and Seeking Reconciliation from Death Row; in these moving pieces, we can feel the change and emotion undergone by the authors. Apropos of A Child’s Death offers more assistance to survivors.

Finally, we view death simply, as change, in: Death: The Challenge of Change, as well as in Death and The Kingdom. And for those who wish to die to the old, we review and recommend two books which concern themselves with death and change: Feng Shui: Secrets That Change Your Life and The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

DWL

(1) Quote taken from MEDICINE CARDS by Jamie Sams and David Carson

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