Jun 24 2008
The Death Lodge
A couple of days ago Moongazy lent me a copy of a handbook called The Wilderness Quest; For Vision and Self-healing by Dr Stephen Foster and Meredith Little. It’s an extraordinary little book, quite different from any “self help” or “spiritual” books I’ve flicked through before. It takes the reader, in very concrete and specific steps, through the preparation for a Vision Quest. None of the usual vagueness that one finds in most spiritual advice.
I was very moved by a section called The Death Lodge. Here it is…
Imagine you are an old man or woman of an ancient nation, feeble of body, weary of soul, ready to leave this old world behind. As your time draws nigh, you withdraw from the ordinary life of the village and go to the Death Lodge. By doing so you signify to all that your time to die has arrived. Your relatives and friends all come to visit you in the Death Lodge. This will be their last opportunity to say farewell. As you entertain them, one by one, you say what you must say, now that you are dying. Now, in the twilight of your life, you love them as you have never loved them before. The unhappiness and suffering of your former life slips away and resolves itself into bright dreams of what is to come. Fondly you remember the events, personages, teachers, symbols, myths, loves, inspirations, defeats, crises and triumphs of your days. As you reminisce, you make your final peace with the past. You give away your things. You make provision for the disposal of your body. You tie up all the loose ends.
If you can prepare yourself to quest by spending time in the metaphorical death lodge, you will be able to see more clearly that which you truly value and that which is no longer of any use to you. Dying practice will bring you closer to the recognition that death is the Great Ally, that death enhances, intensifies, and gives value to life. Shorn of the burdens of those things of your former existence that are no longer of any use to you, you will enter the threshold time with a cleaned perception, prepared to be born, prepared to find the direction you seek.
