Omnia quest

The Day of the Dead is a Mexican festivity that is well known in many countries, as a beautiful expression of our national culture. 

Every year, the second day of November, Mexico celebrates the people that is not with us anymore, the ones who have been called to “the other world“.

We commemorate the travel they did after leaving this dimension, and of course think and speculate about the life they are supposed to be living now after death.

In Mexico we call it the Mictlán, the place where people go after they leave their bodies. This is a path preceded by a river, where they meet some barkers, and the goddess of death receives them in the entrance, to help them cross the portal. This passage is described in the legend of Mictlán, but also in the legends about afterlife in many cultures; the water, the canopy or bark, the barker, a guardian in the entrance, is just one more of the big list of psyicopompic figures, like Caronte, Hermes, Hecate, in the xoloizcuintle, Cerberus and other animals that are helpers in the passing of the soul through the path or river after immediate death. I mention these details because every time I read or write about this issues, I feel admired and intrigued about: 

Why can we find such similarities in the mythology and traditions of many ancient cultures they are very similar in structure, central ideas and even in features like the water and the canopy; what makes me overthink a lot, and of course, it fascinates me. 

I would like to make a review and comparison about different myths in afterlife, but today I come to write a little about the disseminated conduct of being curious and speculative about death… Why are we always aiming to know what happens after? Why would it be important? Why do we care about whether it is nice or terrifying, peaceful or thrilling? Does it hurt? Is it an intense feeling? Or is it just a natural transition?… Why are these questions as mesmerising as frightening?.

 Here you have my personal thinking: We have two reasons for being deeply moved by the death: It will eventually happen to us all; and the persons who are gone in our family are loved and missed by us, so we get some comfort to our hearts if we understand, celebrate or at least read about what happens in the road to the “final place”.

In the way of life, we know the end is death, a normal, natural and universal thing, maybe determined by fate, or by genetics or epigenetics, but present as bellybutton for every single human being in Earth; it faces us with the hope of a new life, it brings us joy in the idea of eternal living, the possibility of non-suffering, the desire of not living in a three-dimensional environment and the question of the “grades” of our life (good-bad, high or low), in order to be happy even after, or punished ever after… all of these ideas are captivating but non possible to prove or demonstrate physically. 

What we effectively know is that everyone of us has a loved one that has passed by:  predecessors who are living the afterlife, and this illusion awakes in ourselves the need of knowing they are fine. Today, in the season of Samhain we remember this loved people that are no longer walking and speaking in this physical dimension. Our former family, friends, lovers, partners, but specially, the people that have built our roots in life; those ancestors, that lived lives that forged our fates. Tonight the veil thins, and is the occasion for calling them in; giving thanks to them, aknowledge their existence and their beliefs, their lessons and their paths. Now is the moment to pause the quickness of our daily lives, go deep into the darkness and reach to them, saying loudly and with pride: 

Dear ancestors:

I call upon you, so you can be present, giving me the supportive strength to lead my life, and to become the woman (spouse, mother, priestess, scientist or whatever you choose) I was called to be…

Honorable people before me, listen to my words; women and men in my family and lineage, make presence to hold me, to teach me and to guide me through this inter-dimensional journey called life. 

I do receive you, predecessors, to be my company in ceremonies, and to help me remember the knowledge that is inside me, and once was inside you. Please be sure I am working hand to hand with the source. I worship the feminine divinity inside me, I honor my female lineage and am very proud of every grandmother before me. I respect you as women, and I am sure you were loving daughters, mothers, wives. Your path is now mine, and I will walk with your strength and my insights, so I can make it different and transform it into a spiritual way.  I also am proud of the men in my blood line, of the children that died as kids, of the spirits that started to grow in mother’s womb and didn’t make it to incarnate.  To you all: thanks, you have my admiration, respect, and my love… Today I promise that Iwill reclaim your tradition and put it to service. 

Today I deeply honour my roots, every human that lived before being crucial for me to be brought to earth. I take them all as part of my life and of my heart, and I expect to receive their blessings and messages through the thin veil across dimensions. Today the light dims in the land, the cold is here and the spirits arrive. 

Welcome, croeso, bienvenidos ancestros, because of you I am here and I am who I am.

Blessed be your Samhain.