Death and Dying
In traditional cultures, death was honored as part of life. The elderly were given respect and care by the younger generations, and death itself was a sacred passage to the realm of the ancestors. For those left behind, grieving was recognized as an essential part of the death process, honoring the gift of the life that was and cleansing the way for new life to come.
Modern culture has lost this ancient perspective. Fear and guilt, denial and confusion abound. This disconnection has led to alienation and tremendous suffering for those facing death as well as for those struggling to deal with the loss of loved ones. We have lost touch with the rituals and wisdom that have always sustained peoples of indigenous cultures and wisdom traditions as they moved through the various stages and cycles of life.
Prema offers community service for an organization called the Sacred Fire Community through a program known as ‘Lifeways’. The Lifeways programs serve to acknowledge and honor the important stages of life and to reconnect us with the necessary skills and rituals that are needed for us to embrace these passages with grace and acceptance. Lifeways has developed rituals, retreats, workshops, and councils that are supporting individuals and groups to return to a deeply rooted way of living that acknowledges the full circle of life, from the very beginning to the end. For more information about the Sacred Fire Community and Lifeways programs visit Sacred Fire Community.
The Death and Dying Council serves to address our sense of disconnection from Death and help us to honor it as both a natural part of life and a sacred doorway. Prema heads the Death and Dying Council which offers support and counsel for individuals facing death, as well as for their families and friends. Through one-on-one support, workshops, conference calls and special events and rituals for communities dealing with death, a safe and loving space is created to explore feelings and beliefs about death and to recognize it as a profound teacher for life. The Council also offers information about shamanic funerary rites that are available.
Click here to find out more about the Death and Dying council and other Lifeways programs.
The Peaceful Dying Project
Creating the Circumstances for a Peaceful Death
What is your relationship with death? What would you need in order to have a peaceful death?
Creating a relationship with death, and being willing to attend to the details of how you die, is a vital part of being fully engaged with life. So many of us put off attending to important aspects of this transition because we are in denial that death might come at any time. And yet a peaceful death is in the details. Just as in going on a journey, there are certain things that need to be in place in order for you to truly relax and be present, so it is with the journey of death. And knowing that these things are taken care of also allows us to be more relaxed and present in the journey of life.
What if most of the work of attending to these details was done for you? What if you had the opportunity to just show up to a class and be walked, step-by-step, through taking care of all the practical aspects of each phase of the journey of death – before, during and after?
The Sacred Fire Community (SFC) Lifeways Death and Dying council will be offering a class to support us all to delve into this with ease and to create the circumstances for a peaceful death. In order to make the class very accessible and affordable, it will be offered as a 4-part teleclass, on four consecutive Mondays beginning in January. That means you can just call in to the class from wherever you are.
In joining us for this class you will:
- Experience a safe container in which we can share and talk with others about this potent subject that we don’t normally get to explore.
- Receive a Peaceful Death Project Workbook and be walked, step-by-step, through the process of attending to all the elements and practical details that support a peaceful death – before, during and after – for you and your loved ones. This includes creating an Advanced Directive or Living Will, appointing a Health Care Power of Attorney, expressing our wishes for Funerary Rites, Funeral, Burial and Will. By the end of the class you will have a package of forms filled out and ready to take to a notary public or your lawyer for final approval.
- Find out about the Funerary Rites that are available through the SFC and how they can support and guide you or your loved ones’ soul to find its way back to its ancestral home after you die.
Dates: Jan 10th, 17th, 24th and 31th, 2011
Time: 5.30 pm Pacific, 8.30 pm Eastern for 75 minutes
Total Cost: $49 (50% of the proceeds go to the SFC)
Can’t make all the classes? Each class will be recorded and sent to you via email afterwards, so if you can’t make all four classes you won’t miss out.
For any questions contact Prema call 778 430 4284 or click here
