I had a very powerful experience this week. I was flying home from Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, and the woman next to me was in tears. She had just received news that her 28-year old nephew had been found dead in his bed that morning. It did not appear to be suicide. They had no idea what happened. All of a sudden, he was just gone.
I am no stranger to death myself. And you probably aren’t either. I lost my Dad to lung cancer a few years ago when he was 57. He was not ready to go, and we were not ready either. We like to think we have time, but we never know when death will call us-or someone else we love. And we are never prepared when it comes.
With my father, it was a long and painful journey, and I learned a huge amount about surrender and release. Yet our Western culture does not typically embrace these things. We avoid facing death and endings all costs. And yet we cannot escape.
Halloween is the perfect time to honor these endings and transitions. It is said that on Halloween, the veil is thin between the worlds of the living and the dead. We are invited to remember our ancestors and all those who have crossed over.
It’s a time for surrender, for letting go of EVERYTHING that is no longer serving us. We may need to end a relationship that is no longer working. We may need to change a job that makes us unhappy. We may need to finally make peace with our current situation. We may need to simply open to the more fallow period of the winter.
So you are invited to surrender and let go. You are invited to look Death squarely in the eyes. Make her your bedfellow for a day.
The Queen of Death is also one of the 13 archetypes we’ll be exploring more deeply in our Soulful Women course. For details on the course, go to http://www.soulfulwomen.com
Devaa Haley Mitchell is a spiritual guide, public speaker and musician, offering Soulful Women programs and devotional music to support the awakening of our planet. Rooted her deep desire to “democratize access” to some of the most stimulating women alive today, she founded and hosts the Inspiring Women Summit. This virtual gathering has grown to 55,000 participants from more than 160 countries. [www.inspiringwomensummit.com]
Devaa also founded and co-leads the Soulful Women Wisdom School, along with Elayne Doughty, offering deeply experiential and highly transformative programs for hundreds of women each year. She is considered a true pioneer in translating the ancient mysteries into a very modern and accessible context. Devaa also serves as the Chief Transformation Officer at the Shift Network, Inc., which she launched with her husband, Stephen Dinan.
For the past 20 years Devaa has studied and experienced many systems of personal growth and spiritual development. She is finishing her doctoral work and will receive her D-Min in 2012, after being ordained an interfaith minister by the Chaplaincy Institute in 2005. In addition, Devaa received a BA in Anthropology with Honors and an MA in International Development from Stanford University. In her former life, Devaa was the founding Executive Director of the Full Circle Fund, dedicated to building a new generation of civic leaders. Full Circle uses the “venture philanthropy model,”–identifying great nonprofit organizations and serving them with financial grants as well as hands-on help in key areas and access to to networks that can accelerate organizations to the next level.
In addition, Devaa worked as an Associate Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group where she offered management advice to Fortune 500 Companies.She also served as the Director of Member Engagement at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. She also worked as an Associate Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group where she offered management advice to Fortune 500 Companies. In addition, Devaa was awarded a fellowship from the Fulbright Foundation and was also one of 26 contributors to a book called Radical Spirit, which focuses on Gen-X spiritual perspectives.
A core part of Devaa’s path includes sacred music. She recently launched her first CD, Sacred Alchemy, an album with a transformational purpose– to reawaken and liberate the many dimensions of the sacred feminine. Each song has a specific feel or texture to it evoking the archetypal energies of different Goddesses from the world’s spiritual traditions. For example the song “Tara” explores the softer yin aspects of compassion, “Saraswati” reveals the playful and creative energies of the muse, “Shekinah” offers the wisdom of the Crone, and “Aphrodite” expresses the sensual pleasures of life.