Live with unremitting alertness.

~Joseph Campbell

taking the moon into your practices brings you closer to the bone….

inquiry for today~   what is behind your dark moon?

from the moon to soul

I think it is a good idea to study death because, as Campbell says, it is “the prime condition of life.” Life and death are two sides of one coin. Together- always together- life and death complement and complete each other. If we play dumb about death, life loses its vitality and meaning. We may never fully understand death while we are alive, but that does not mean that we should fear it, or deny it, or merely tolerate it with a weary attitude. Death has so much to teach us- it is our greatest teacher.

When we study death we see how everything is dying and being reborn as something else, over and over, every day, everywhere, in all kingdoms, species, elements, and forms. Nothing is wasted, everything has its purpose, all things are connected, and therefore eternal, in the vast cycle of birth and death. When we understand this, we can let go of our crippling compulsion to hang on tight to who we think we are and to what we think we need in order to survive. We can appreciate how new life is always born out of the dark fertility of death. We can enjoy what is given with gusto, grieve what is lost with passion, and dwell with humor and faith in the vast, infinite mystery.

~Elizabeth Lesser