4 reflections on symbolic death –

1. Death as indispensable to life.

In breathing there is an instant of apnea, where there is no inhalation or exhalation, in the heartbeat there is also a moment of immobility between systole and diastole… serve as symbolism of continuous opportunities, continuous points and asides where you can start again. Only he makes us cling to what we have thinking that nothing new will come… If a tree were afraid to drop its leaves, it would not be able to bloom in all its splendor every spring. It needs that moment of rest, that moment of “death” in order to be reborn.

2. Symbolic death in authentic relationships

Many times we see the person not for what he is, but for what he has been, this prevents us from appreciating the true nature of the person in front of us. When we do the exercise of perceiving from the present moment, not from the past, we can see its rebirth, which is ours. Letting your past perish, to be lost and remain only as valuable information but not as a real identity.

3. Death as Catharsis

We live a life conditioned by our identity, this includes our family, our beliefs, our work and even our hobbies. When the character we have created causes us suffering, we are so attached that, by not letting go, we dwarf ourselves until we disappear… It is important to contemplate the possibility of at any time. No one but us prevents us from restarting, starting to be another person in the same body. It’s about choosing between being dead in life or dying to start, It is a decision that each person can only make for himself.

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4. Symbolic death in mythology

In addition to the multiple references to Freud or Jung through psychoanalysis, Joseph Campbell studied how symbolic death is found in virtually all the great myths of major cultures. Greeks, Zulus, Eskimos, Irish, Germans, Egyptians, Romans, even Christians… they all have in common that they die at a certain time on their way. It is no coincidence that they all suffered a similar fate, what all these writings wanted to convey is precisely that symbolic death is an indispensable part of the as Joseph Campbell says: «The image of the belly of the whale constitutes a universal symbol of the passage through a magical threshold in which the hero, instead of conquering or reconciling himself with the power of the threshold, is swallowed by the unknown and seems to die only to end up being reborn later.”

“No creature can ascend the scale of nature without ceasing to exist.”

Ananda Coomaraswamy.

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