Soul and Death

There is nothing so powerful as the death of someone close to us. Death seems to open up a sacred place where we ponder questions of meaning, and the mystery and the worth of life. Jung says “ The goal of the second half of life is death. "When death confronts us, life always seems like a downward flow or like a clock that has been wound up and whose eventual "Running down" is taken for granted. We are never more convinced of this "running down" then when a human life comes to its end before our eyes, and the question of the meaning and the worth of life never becomes more urgent or more agonizing" (Vol 8 para 796)

He reminds us that life is an energy process that is irreversible. It is a law of nature that irrefutable. There is no going back. There is only a journey towards an inevitable end, a goal. That is goal is an ending. He wrote that the natural flow of life is the nourishing soil of the soul.

The failure to acknowledge this inevitability can turn into a fear of life - neurotic resistances, depressions and other psychological distresses as if some aspect of our lives remains caught in the past and refuse to acknowledge the present and the acceptance of what is. Fear becomes our way of being. Our ego will assert its perceived dominance by trying to make life forward movement stand still. We hold on to what was and to the past and refuse to live in the present.

The celebration of a life well lived becomes the mirror of our own regrets and a confrontation with our fear of death reveals the truth about our own fear of life. We can be painfully reminded of those moments when we have shrunk from taking a risk or to participate fully in life.

At the level of the Soul, - the place of the eternal – there is no limitation of time and existence. Even while our body – the vessel which carries our life energy – breaks with the pain of disease. According to the Cheyenne medicine men, “spirit comes to earth to learn the things of the heart through touching"

It doesn’t seem the Soul is concerned with the death of the body instead dreams at an impeding death reveal images of transformation, rebirth, and journeys. For some spiritual tradition, the goal is home, a return to the after life. Jung observed that psyche is much more concerned with how we die and whether we approach the end with attitude of acceptance or resistance.

Stephen Jenkins, The Griefwalker writes that "grief is the sign of life stirring towards itself" It is an awakening of the soul wanting to have a full experience of life in death Grief calls us into a deeper experience of life

In Memoriam to John Adams Becker - 1932 - 2010 

Christina Becker is a Jungian Analyst, Alchemical Astrologer and Consultant with a private practice in Toronto, Ontario Canada. She is graduate of the C.G. Institute Zurich. Her practice purpose is to empower individuals, couples, teams and organizations on their path of transformation. Her website is www.cjbecker.com