death walkers

I really admire people who work in hospice. That is some serious priestessing and it takes a powerful heart. When I was working in a hospice environment I cried every day. I couldn't stop all of my heart energy from draining out of me and it made me physically ill. I felt like I was getting pulled along with the patients. Scared the shit out of me. The other care-givers would just shake their heads when I would go around the patients room, looking at all of the old photos, trinkets, gifts from family, my eyes filling up with tears. I don't think they were surprised when I quit after only a few weeks.

I think of it because I am reading about this guy, Dannion Brinkley, who runs a hospice. When he is attending someone at their moment of death, he refers to himself as a midwife. That is someone who usually attends a birth. He sees it as delivering a soul into a new life. To him it is birthing. That is spoken like a true death-walker.

My friend, Kel is a death walker. Her and her family attended at their mother's death. Everyone stood around the hospital bed, and when the moment came, Kel felt such light and joy flow through her that she opened her mouth and laughed gleefully. The rest of the family thought it was so inappropriate but as a death walker, it is a completely appropriate reaction. They are not burdened by the illusion of death that we all experience.

Carrion birds, especially the crow/raven, are sacred to death walkers. That is because these beings, are "death eaters". They are considered one of the forms of Morrighan, the Celtic death Goddess. Dying Warriors would call to Her on the battlefield to carry their souls to the afterlife. Ravens would eagerly feast on the bodies left after a battle. They would "eat" death, and then fly off. People saw this as a gift, that the birds were carrying them to a new life. Now Morrighan is somewhat feared as many dark Goddesses are, but to them, She was salvation.