Roots of Your Craft - Day 29
What role does the archetype of death play in magic to you, if any? Why or why not?
So far, I’ve honestly not given death much thought in my craft. My perceptions of death are heavily coloured by my love of Discworld - I view Death as a rather benevolent being who’s just got a job to do, like everyone else. Oh, and who loves cats!
As a process, I suppose I view it as the ol’ cliche - death is a part of life. It’s very sad to lose someone you love, of course (over the past year I’ve lost one of my aunts and my grandfather, who I was very close with), but it is inevitable. In both cases of loss I’ve experienced recently, the sadness was tinged with relief - both members of my family had been suffering from degenerative illnesses that made their quality of life almost non-existent. I’m glad that they are now released from that suffering.
I suppose the death of my grandfather was involved in my calling to witchcraft. In the week before his death, I began smelling a smoky, peaty whiskey kind of aroma around 9pm each evening. The only fires burning in my village would maybe have been barbecues (though unlikely still at 9pm), and they have an altogether different smell. Then, one night, I woke up at 2am. Usually if I wake up in the night I just roll over and go back to sleep. This time I felt the need to check the time. A couple of days later, my dad called. He said that on the night I’d woken up, my grandfather had died. He’d been taken to hospital at 9pm after a stroke, and pronounced dead at 2am. That kinda freaked me out, but it was also oddly comforting - despite the COVID restrictions, I felt like I got to say goodbye in some way. It’s the only time I’ve ever had an experience like that, so it’s left quite the impression on me!
I know I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent here, but I suppose the point I’m trying to make is that if I ever end up performing spells where death is involved somehow, it won’t be as a dark force, as something to be feared. And I can’t imagine it will ever be something I call upon to enact the death of someone or something. But rather as a being to be respected for the job they do, as a force that releases people from suffering, a necessary part of the world we live in.