Today is the the first anniversary of my father’s passing. In honor of him, I dedicate this post.
Few of us look forward to the death of a loved one. In fact, most of us try not to think about death at all and are surprised when it comes. Death is a fact of life – the golden ticket we get the moment we are conceived. Death is inevitable and a transition that ancient cultures had rites and rituals for.
It is time to bring back the sacred rituals of death and to educate people to personally take part in these rituals with loved ones. I call this, Priestessing Death.
I was fortunate to priestess my father’s death last year. Today, April 5th, marks the one year date of his passing. In honor of my father, I am sharing 3 Keys to Priestessing Death so that you can show up for death and share this profound birth into the spirit world with your loved one as an act of power.
Three Keys to Priestessing Death
Key #1: Embody the Eternal
I believe we are eternal souls on an eternal timeline. When we shift our focus onto the eternal timeline, we see birth, life and death as chapters in a book that goes on forever. When we embody this eternal viewpoint, we hold a frequency for the dying that helps them to tune into seeing themselves as continuing on.
For instance, the three days before a soul dies are the unravelling times. The soul begins its unweaving process from the body and the person is much more spiritually aware. At this time my father started talking about his body being worn out and wanting a new one. He said he’d like to be a ‘bouncing baby’ again on a new mother’s lap. It pleased me to hear this.
Dad was already dreaming into his re-birth and I supported this. I said things like, “this body has been good to you” and “won’t it be nice to have a brand new body.” I followed his lead in speaking about being new and reborn. My father was not a religious man and had never shared with me any belief about reincarnation or the spirit world, yet at this time it gave him much comfort to dream into a new beginning.
Embody the eternal and support your transitioning loved one in their connection to loved ones that have passed, angels and the eternal nature of the soul.
Key #2: Create Safe, Sacred Space
One of the key elements to making the dying comfortable is creating safe, sacred space. If the space is chaotic and if there are many people struggling with the transition, the soul will be conflicted and stressed.
The circumstances of the final days will be varied. It may be at home, in hospice, in a hospital or a quick accident. We cannot fully know what it will be, yet, whomever is there for the death, you can do things to create a sacred space for the transition. Playing their favorite music, keeping the body comfortable, keeping family present all can give the person the comfort to work out their process.
My father was in the hospital for his final 5 days. I did not know these were his final days until THE final day. It was only me until the final hours when I called my brother and he arrived for the final decisions and the passing. During those 5 days, I was Dad’s only advocate to communicate with nurses and hospital staff that were busy to the hilt and did not give my father the kind of personal care I felt he deserved. It really hurt me when dad said that it was scary in the hospital at night. I felt like he was a little boy and I wanted to protect him.
The hospital days were difficult for me as I had to ask for things for him and I also had to protect him from unnecessary intrusions and mistakes. I felt I should have been there the entire time and slept over, we really didn’t know he was going to go.
Dad fought for a couple days before his body failed and this was hard for me to take. I could not make him comfortable and he pleaded with me to get him out of there. I had to remove myself from the room to stop his pleading.
The nurses had strapped Dad into the bed and his wrists were black and blue from his struggle to free himself. He was a prisoner and he hated it. He was no man to be strapped to a bed! He wanted me to get him out, but he was too sick to leave. The only way out was death. We came to this realization together. His body was simply shutting down, his breath becoming more and more difficult and it was leaving him no matter what we would do…
It was difficult for me to watch this once strong and capable man that is my father weak, struggling, pleading. I prayed, I surrounded him with light, but I knew he had to go.
There was nothing I could do but feel his struggle and pain within me. This was the most difficult time as I had to get big enough to house these feelings and see the bigger picture that he was probably dying right now and how to navigate this with him.
When we knew it was his time, I made sure we had no interruptions, I protected the space from intrusions, we made him comfortable with morphine, and I started the Angel Songs…
Key #3: Call in Angelic Support
The birth of a soul back into the spirit world is a very important event. It is important that the soul feel comfortable, protected and connected. Sometimes, loved ones from the other side have already come to make the connection and welcome the soul. Other times, it will not happen until the moments of death. I train my priestesses to call in the angels and the helping spirit guides to welcome, guide and protect the new arrival. For this, there are Angelic Invocations and singing the angel songs.
The Angel Songs started coming to me 25 years ago as simple frequency tones that I would vocalize. About 7 years ago, I consciously realized they were connected to the Angelic realms and about 4 years ago, they became specific songs that made the connection of the individual soul to the Angelic family. So, the Angels Songs are sung to bring the attention of the angels to the soul and the soul to the angels. I sing these songs to souls in ceremony, in healings, prepare the soul for death, and at wakes and funerals.
The sweetest time between my father and I was when I softly sang the Angel Songs into his ear. I got real close so I could sing softly. He leaned his head toward me and I could feel him reverently listening. I sang of “blue skies and sunny days… of running through green, grassy fields, feeling the joy of freedom, taking in deep breaths of fresh air” (my dad died from complications of emphysema and pneumonia). I felt peace overtake him as I called in the Archangels: Uriel, Raphael, Michael and Gabriel to be present and “lend their power and protection” to my father.
The tables turned and I felt like my father was the little babe and I was the protective and supportive parent. And as I my brother flanked my father’s left and I my father’s right, with Dad’s brother, Jack, on speaker phone, my father took his last breath.
“Go dad, Go!” I said, cheering him on. “We love you!”
I watched my father’s spirit move up and out the top of his head. I felt so incredibly grateful that I was able to be with him in a powerful way and that he did not have to do this alone. I feel that every beloved deserves this kind of death. I told him out loud, “Thank you for being my father! I love you forever, Dad!”
Learning To Priestess Death
My role is to initiate priestesses that show up as women of power for life’s important moments: Birth, life, sex, celebration, healing, illness and death.
I made it my life’s mission to travel the country and the world apprenticing various masters and wisdom lineages in order to receive the rites and initiations to bring back the sacred.
May you walk in beauty!
ElizaBeth, Temple Holder and Initiator on The Priestess Path