DEATH as GRADUATION

    The physician has just told her she has two weeks to live. People may assume she will display anger, perhaps terror, perhaps despair. But many of us in the Craft envy her and wish her well. For in the Craft, knowing so surely that reincarnation is a rational, orderly sequence of learning and of increasing wisdom, we can feel only happiness for those who are judged complete, those who leave the rest of us behind to continue our learning and our assignments. What a joyous day it is when the spirit is allowed to lay aside the worn-out body and rise weightless to join those who wait on the other side.
    Should she cut short the last few days and commit a deliberate suicide? No. Suicide is equivalent to playing hooky; it will inevitably result in another lifetime in another body. She would have to learn all over again how to tie her shoes, how to blow her nose, how to discipline the untidy human emotions. She accepts serenely the fact that her time of discomfort is finite now. However unwelcome it is, the discomfort is the means to her desired end: Graduation.
   The assignments of this lifetime are completed, and those who guide our path have approved her work. She is cleared to go on.
   Soon, soon she will be reunited with friends whom she has missed keenly during her separation from them. Soon she will talk freely with the Guides, gaining understanding of all she learned through the sorrows, the pain, the discomfort, the plain hard work she experienced in the body. Those who witness her transition may feel sorrow; it is only natural to do so. Their sorrow is for themselves, for the vacancy she leaves behind, for the silence when they used to hear her voice. Their happiness is for her who will depart for the place she longs to be. When they weep, they know their tears represent healing. They reflect on the little verse first written in German:

Just as a leaf falls from the bough,
so goes a life from out the world.
The birds cease not their singing.

   As usual, we invite your comments. We are not trying to offend anyone or scorn their tradition, so please be constructive. Our hope is that we all may arrive at a shared understanding of what we are doing. If you know a better way and can articulate the reasons behind it, please share that better way with the community.

Blessed be. Gavin and Yvonne