Queen of Death

I had a very powerful experience this week. I was flying home from Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, and the woman next to me was in tears. She had just received news that her 28-year old nephew had been found dead in his bed that morning. It did not appear to be suicide. They had no idea what happened. All of a sudden, he was just gone.

I am no stranger to death myself. And you probably aren’t either. I lost my Dad to lung cancer a few years ago when he was 57. He was not ready to go, and we were not ready either. We like to think we have time, but we never know when death will call us-or someone else we love. And we are never prepared when it comes.

With my father, it was a long and painful journey, and I learned a huge amount about surrender and release. Yet our Western culture does not typically embrace these things. We avoid facing death and endings all costs. And yet we cannot escape.

Halloween is the perfect time to honor these endings and transitions. It is said that on Halloween, the veil is thin between the worlds of the living and the dead. We are invited to remember our ancestors and all those who have crossed over.

It’s a time for surrender, for letting go of EVERYTHING that is no longer serving us. We may need to end a relationship that is no longer working. We may need to change a job that makes us unhappy. We may need to finally make peace with our current situation. We may need to simply open to the more fallow period of the winter.

So you are invited to surrender and let go. You are invited to look Death squarely in the eyes. Make her your bedfellow for a day.

The Queen of Death is also one of the 13 archetypes we’ll be exploring more deeply in our Soulful Women course. For details on the course, go to http://www.soulfulwomen.com