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Making Death Your Ally
Shamanic
Approaches to Death, Dying and the Afterlife
The Plains Indians say the path of the soul after death is the same as the path of the
soul in dreams. Dreaming and dreamwork are central to developing an art of dying that
works for us today.
In this challenging, high-energy workshop, we'll learn the arts of
active dreaming, shamanic journeying and compassionate communication
with the departed, deepen our personal understanding of death and
rebirth, and explore ways in which we can help others move beyond fear
and approach the last stages of life as an opportunity for new growth
and learning. Core areas of exploration include
~ Journeying to the departed for helpful and loving communication
~ Developing a personal geography of the afterlife
~ Using dreamwork and the dream transfer technique to help the dying
~ Helping the departed on their spiritual journeys
~ Going beyond our personal death to enter the mysteries of death and
rebirth, bringing greater courage and clarity to the issues of daily
life.
Having survived a series of near-death
experiences as a child in Australia, Moss's unique perspective on death has informed his
work in dreamwork, shamanic journeying and dying.
Healing Our Relationship with the
Departed
We
have entirely natural communication with the departed in our dreams, and for many dreamers
this is direct and life-changing evidence of the reality of the soul and its survival of
physical death The departed appear in our dreams either because they have not really
left, or because they come visiting, or because in dreaming we enter their realms. These
encounters offer us important opportunities for healing, closure and giving or
receiving forgiveness and guidance.
Our
departed may come as "family angels", with life-supporting counsel and
information. Or they may need help and guidance from us - because they have
unfinished business, or are lost or confused or crippled by guilt or unable to
detach from old environments and addictions. In such cases, as Yeats observed, the
living may be able to 'assist the imaginations of the dead.' Sometimes we may be called on
to provide or arrange rehab and escort services for the departed, and to develop rituals
to separate and safely contain heavy energy that has remained with the living in ways that
are unhealthy to both parties. Unfortunately. our churches, temples and mainstream
psychology offer little or no direction - or even worse, the wrong
directions - on handling these encounters. For example, in the West mainstream psychology
and religion fail to acknowledge the vital fact that more than one aspect of energy and
consciousness survives physical death, and that different aspects of soul energy and
spirit have different afterlife destinations and require different handling. Sometimes a
"second burial" may be required to relocate the heavy energy of the departed,
which can transfer physical symptoms and addictions to survivors if it remains attached.
In
this vitally important workshop, we will connect with spiritual guides and
build the deep circle energy that makes the extraordinary easy. We will seek timely and
helpful contact and interaction with the departed. We will share personal experiences and
needs and develop the skills and spiritual resources to serve as guides and
healers for the many survivors who are in urgent need of help, and for the
departed themselves.
The Ghosts of Halloween
It is the most
magical, crazy, shivery night of the year. It is a night when the doors between the worlds
swing open, when the dead walk among the living and the living move among the dead.
The last night of October is the start of Samhain, the great Celtic festival when the dead
walk among the living, the fires are extinguished and rekindled, the god and the goddess
come together in sacred union, and as the year turns from light to dark, the seeded earth
prepares to give birth again. It’s a time to honor the friendly dead, and the lordly
ones of the Sidhe, and to propitiate the restless dead and remember to send them off and
to set or re-set very clear boundaries between the living and the hungry ghosts. It’s
a time to look into the future, if you dare, because linear time is stopped when the
hollow hills are opened.
The
best Halloween stories – apart from our own ones – come from Ireland. Robert
will retell some of his favorites, thrilling and twitchy tales that bring us awake. We’ll also share ghost stories from
our own lives, and we’ll explore how the dead come calling in our dreams. We’ll
discover what our ancestors knew: that contact with the departed is entirely
natural, especially in dreams, for three reasons: because they never left, and because
they come visiting, and because in our dreams we travel into the realms where they are at
home. And we’ll remember that failing to honor our ancestors and trying to
shut out the signs of a deeper world are not the
ways to set healthy boundaries between the living and the dead.
Robert notes that he survived three near-death experiences in
childhood and has been talking to the dead all his life. |
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