Those of Us Who Depart From Their Bodies

This was hastily written–partially in response to the passing of a comrade very special to us–so please ignore of the any errors or stylistic flaws I am given to and try to pierce through to the essence. Because this is a first for our still-young tribe, I feel it is necessary that a certain attitude be encouraged so that in the future we know how to deal with such things in a way that both allows us to grieve and move forward with our duties without being held back by the pains of loss.

 

Those of our kind who depart from their material bodies, for whatever reason, are not to be considered “dead” or no longer among us, for the soul is eternal and is neither created nor destroyed, and to see them as somehow “gone” is to completely misunderstand the nature of the causal and the acausal. Rather than thinking that we will never see or speak to them again, we should say that they have concluded their mortal pastimes and have returned to the lotus feet of the Void Mother, Nythra, and that wherever the Void Mother is presenced, She will be accompanied by her eternal associates. She then decides whether the soul stays with her, or continues its mission throughout the Cosmos in some other body–and Her decisions one way or the other may actually be swayed through sincere, heartfelt prayers to Her combined with generous offerings. Knowing this, what need is there to mourn?

 

How then do we honor those of our kind who are no longer bound to our physical bodies? By rendering devotional service to Lady Nythra, tending to and worshipping Her chosen plant Datura, and living and thinking as if our dear comrades who have returned to the acausal are still right here with us, because they actually are. We simply remember them, knowing that they are present with us in the performance of our rites because of the many binding blood pacts they themselves have made with our current. In making offerings to the Void Mother, we may also give Her things intended as offerings to our departed comrades, asking Her to aid us in making offerings on our behalf to those of our kind who have left their material bodies. We say, “Here, please take this liquor or tobacco to such-and-such, I miss them very much”, and Her mercy toward Her chosen is so great that She obliges us.

 

This applies specifically to those who have undergone the rite of initiation and have thus made a binding blood pact with our tradition. If no blood is offered to the Covenant, to Morain, and to the Void Mother in one’s lifetime, we should know that their destination in the afterlife is not the same as ours and that there is no need to consider them as one of our kind. Those are the ones who are as good as dead, in this life and in the next.

 

This post is dedicated to our dear comrade Tamasi Das–the one and only Iranian Sensation–and in the eternal memory of our one of our dearest comrades, and certainly a very close personal friend of Tamasi, whom we shall only identify as Ivan.

 

AGIA H NYTHRA