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| Labyrinth of the Mind |
Death
Today I am going to talk about Death, not the act itself but rather the figure of Death, or what most of us know as The Grim Reaper. It is not hard to imagine that I have always had a certain fascination with The Grim Reaper, given my dark and perhaps sometimes morbid nature, and there are many different ideas, representations and feelings attached to Death. To some he is cast a villainous figure to be feared and hated, he is seen as the taker of life, as it is right there in his name Death, and there are many examples of people attempted to try to elude death, combat death, trick death as if Death were an enemy to be defeated, though ultimately is the unavoidable, perhaps possibly postponed for a time, but then there are those that do seek to escape death altogether in quests for immortality, which still exists today though no longer is it a search for some magic artifact, or sacred fountain or spell, or wish, that will grant immortality, but it is science and medicine, and the quest to seek a cure to everything and prolong life for as long as possible. A seek to wipe out anything that could result in death, old age itself is being combated though it cannot be stopped.
I have never seen Death, The Grim Reaper in this light before, and I have always believe that he is falsely villianized and rather misunderstood. For one I do not see the role of Death, despite the name, to truly be to cause or bring about the event/act of death. Too many times I think the Grim Reaper is seen as the actual ultimate killer. But death the act itself is not an entity, it is not personifebale, it is an event, a stage of life which happens on its own accord and would happen Grim Reaper or no. Rather the Grim Reaper, Death the enitiy comes after death the event has already done its work to gather the soul. I see Death as truly representing transition. He reaps the soul after the body has already passed, not for the sake of causing the bodies passage, and guides it to insure that it does end up where it belongs and does not get lost in the process.
   The most common, image and personification of death today is the imagery of a skeletal figure in a black hooded cloak carrying a scythe, it cannot be pin pointed exactly where, when or how this particular image came to be, if it did in fact origin from one particular place, but it is easy to see the symbolism the surrounds the figure and it is not hard to imagine how that image came to be so well associated with death.
For one you have the black cloak which bear a resemblance to the robes of priests, which particularly historically it is not hard to imagine how a priest might have a strong association to death. For one they were the ones to actually oversee the process of death. They would be the ones to come and read the last rights to the dying, and then carry out the funeral ceremony, as well they could be seen as shepherds to the soul, such as the Grim Reaper is. And of course the skeletal frame of the reaper is representation of the corpse, and the scythe is a tool that was used for the reaping of the harvest and so it is the tool of the Grim Reaper who reaps and harvests our souls.
Before the Grim Reaper would come upon the scene or at least this imagery of him which is so familiar to us today there have been others whom have filled the same role which his seen as his now. Perhaps the most familiar of these is Charon the ferryman of Greek Mythology whom bore the souls of the dead safely across the River Styx.
    Perhaps one of the most interesting figures, because of the fact that they are not readily associated with death as Charon is or the Grim Reaper, and yet still bore the same burdensome task, without having to suffer such morbid, and in some cases negative associations are the Valkyrie whom have in fact been cast in a more glamorous and magnificent light. Of course the Valkyrie are the beautiful and strong women of Odin who sweep down upon winged horses to carry away the souls of those who died in battle and bare them up to Vallaha.
   Unlike with modern day representations of the Grim Reaper, and the rather bleak figure of Charon, the Valkyrie were honored, and in fact there was a certain bliss in the thought of being took by them. They were not feared but rather glorified.
Another interesting aspect is in animals that are commonly used to represent death or are viewed in being connected to death in someway, are given the power to trespass from this world into the other world. Not surpassingly many of these animals are scavengers and carrion eaters. The most popular is the Crow and or Raven, these birds have many different emotions and significance attributed to them. In some they are seen as a bad omen, where Death is seen as a villain, these birds are also recognized as being wicked but to others they are scared animals that should be honored. Coyotes and Wolves much like Ravens and Crows also have garnered mixed feelings and associations, and they too bear certain associations with death and the spirit world, like their fowl friends, they also can play the role of scavenger and carrion eater, but another interesting feat of these animals is the fact they can be both night, and day walkers, found in both light. This could by seen as symbolic of their ability to pass between both worlds as well.
   Last but not least I cannot go without speaking of the infamous Death card within a Tarot deck, and this is a subject I have touched upon before. So commonly this card is used as the universal sign in movies and on TV as bad omens, and of evil, as much like the figure of Death himself, it has been vastly mistunderstood and mistaken. The Death card is too often attriubuted to the event and act of death itself, which is false, as the Death card acutaly id a dipicition and represensation of the figure of Death, or the Grim Reaper, which is a sperate thing from the event of death. So much like The Grim Reaper, the Death card in in fact a symbol of transformation and change, not of acutal physical death. It does not predict nor cause death, but acts as a guide to help move from one phast into another, as so does the Grim Reasper.
Here are a few additional images of Death I thought were worth sharing, and each in thier own way showed a different aspect of Death
  
  3:57 PM - 2/25/2007 - post comment
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