Up: [[Death]] Created: 2025-11-08 Course: Death & the Soul with Jane Smith-Eivemark for OAJA #### Participants’ definitions of death - compost that nurtures something else - transition to a different state or different realm - completion of a process - vessel (body) stops working, stops suffering - a border crossing - nothingness Several people in the group, including the instructor, said that they don’t fear death, in fact actually are fine with it, except for their attachments to people they care about. #### Participants’ definitions of soul - not part of me, it’s around me, larger than me - in us, the part that never dies, but not totally contained within us - we don’t know where psyche begins and ends; something within but something much larger - essence of my true self; who I really am without pretence #### A Couple of Recommended Books - Greeting the Angels - Greg Mogenson. - What is Soul? Wolfgang Giegerich #### Summary of Jung’s article The Soul and Death We suffer from the idea that our time of life is a mere illusion we can ignore. We try so hard to reach the zenith and then make time stand still and stay there. Jung says that when we are doing this, we are ignoring nature. Natural life has, like the [[moon]], a waxing and a waning — the two parts making up one curve. The ascent is matched by the descent. Life energy strives toward a goal. We recognize goal and purpose in the ascent, the waxing part of life, but once past the midpoint, we refuse to accept that the goal of life now becomes death. Our human ways are focused on preventing suffering and pain. This is all well and good, and often necessary, but the technological pragmatism that drives our collective society makes us very one-sided when it comes to death, and when there is one-sidedness there is neurosis. Our fear of death pushes us away from the reality of death, but also from life. Jung says that living naturally is nourishing the soul, but living rationalistically keeps us ungrounded, suspended in midair, split off from our instincts. > [!Orbit] [[C. G. Jung]] > From the middle of life onward, only those who remain vitally alive are ready to die. We have to be willing to [[surrender]] to acceptance of the waxing and waning of life. Hear the call of our own descent, live as well as we can, setting things right in our life, and trusting that psychic energy will carry us forward. Psyche prepares us for our death all along the way, including in dreams.