Engaging with Death

My blood reminds me of what it means to be alive, for we can only engage deeply with life if we are willing to be intimate too with death. To see death, smell it, taste it, feel it, to love it and trust it.

My blood reminds me of the literal yet mysterious life/death/life cycle that rules my womb, my body, my mind, all of me and all of life.

My blood reminds me of what it means to be a womban, creator of life, mother, nurturer, wild womban. A cyclic creature by nature, my energy ebbs and flows, comes and goes, builds and peaks then fades and dies back only to build once again and again this cycle repeats.

Much like the phases of the moon as she moves and grows from what appears to be complete darkness to a slither of light, building and building until she is large and bright and full,  lighting up what once was dark, before fading away, bit by bit, day by day as she returns to the new moon to complete darkness only to begin her journey back to full once more, a cycle of death and rebirth, of dark and light, every single month this cycle repeats.

“These are the cycles of all life, all endeavor, all the stars and planets and interests and ideas…all follow this cycle of rising, descending, and rebirth to new energy, fresh life again”- Clarissa Pinkola Estés

By knowing the Life/Death/Life cycle intimately and the different stages involved in the process of birth, life, dying and death, we may gain a better insight into where parts of our lives may be sitting in this cycle and what we can likely expect to come next, knowing and trusting that what ever energy has gone, will return to us in a new form.

As Clarissa Pinkola Estés would say “Nothing is ever lost in the psyche, rather it is recycled, re-purposed, transformed and made new again”.