Читать книгу Soul Rescuers: A 21st century guide to the spirit world - Natalia O’Sullivan - Страница 26

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow;

I am a diamond’s glint on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain;

I am the gentle autumn’s rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush,

I am the swift uplifting rush

of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft star that shines at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there.

I did not die.

Anonymous

The ancients grieved over death and yet their belief in death as a positive transformation when the soul begins its journey to the afterlife led them to create rituals as a bridge which the soul could use to move between worlds.

As a child, Aggie Richards, a nurse and member of the Spiritualist Church, would find herself drawn to funerals, where she would see the spirit of whoever had died shimmering above the mourning guests. Sometimes she saw something which resembled an umbilical cord trailing from the spirit into the coffin; as the coffin was lowered it would slowly dissolve. She knew that no one else could see this and would always say a prayer for the spirit as it disappeared. Her vision corresponds with the spiritual belief that the souls of the dead attend their own funerals and even as the living are saying goodbye they too are preparing to take their leave.

The religious custom of reading sacred texts and prayers at funerals reminds the soul that it wishes to seek reunion with God and the European custom of keeping candles burning around the coffin light the way for the dead to the invisible realms. The clothes, food, gifts and messages which are often buried with the dead reassure the spirit through lingering memories of their earthly existence and stop them feeling lonely on their journey.

From ancient Egyptians to Buddhists and the many tribal peoples of the world, many cultures have considered the newly disembodied soul to be at great risk, not simply from external forces but also from its own fear and confusion. The living are also held to be at risk at this time.

Many rites have grown out of the fear of the ghost of the dead returning to haunt the living as the gateway of death opened from the visible to the supernatural world. The original reason why mourners, pall bearers and undertakers dressed in black was to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible in order to protect themselves from the ghost and any other spirits hovering near. Even today undertakers will take the coffin to the house of the deceased on the way to the cemetery to make sure that the soul accompanies the body, and the corpse must always be taken from the house feet first, otherwise, looking back, it will beckon one of the family to follow it into death. In Haiti the cortège will break into a run as if being chased to the cemetery. Twisting and turning through the streets, it takes the most circuitous route, trying to make the soul lose its sense of direction so that it can never find its way home again. Gypsies pile thorn bushes over the grave to prevent the soul rising out of it and in the past would always burn the possessions of the dead so that they would have nothing to return to.