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Greetings,

I wish to raise a discussion based upon the idea of the embodiment, the entity form of Death.

There are as far as I'm aware, several variations upon the idea that Death is actually an entity and thus acts as such... known by names that include Death, the Grim Reapor and of course the Angel of Death. They are also depicted in a variety of ways, and likewise their alignment is shown as either good (heavenly,) evil or neutral...

This isn't so much a question and an opinion poll or gathering of opinions and information...

Who is Death?

Akri

i'm wiccan so i have been introduced to death inbodied as the angel of death. i've heard of the grim reaper but much more of the angel of death.

I've always seen Gabriel as the Angel of Death in my mind. But I'm rather sure that it's really upto the individuals perception of death and its embodiment.

To quote: "Death: The Defeater of Empires, the Swallower of Oceans, the Thief of Years, the Ultimate Reality, the harvester of Mankind, the Assassin against Whom No lock Will Hold, the only friend of the poor and the best doctor for the mortally wounded. An anthropomoric personification. Almost the oldest creature in the universe (obviously something had to die first.....)" ... quite an introduction for a walking skeleton that wears black robes all the time. Lol



Quoted from Terry Pratchett.

STABB

I have heard many as well but common ones would be how one views death as a whole. Angel of death is spiritual and the others could be a form of hell meaning angel is good and death could be hell and its how we believe our lives had been lived through our time of the living. I hope I undertood this question and was able to feed back on it what I thought it would sound like to me.

The angel of death is who I see as death

I don;t see death as anything more than a converter,for lack of better description...
If life is energy and energy only changes forms, then death would be a logical description for the transference of one form of energy to another.

One aspect of death is a friend of mine, wrote a story in my journal about him....hope all this attention wont get him all big headed lol

I think the death is the ever working wheel of death and rebirth, wich is taking care for all the souls to reach their meant destinations and dispositions all over the universe as material beings, for wich death-rebirth cycle is the means of learning trough various life incarnations.

I am wiccan as well, but I have been raised with the three fates named Skuld, urd and verdante. The trio are Norns, Past, present and future. They lived at the roots of Yggdrasil where they spun the threads of life. They desided when it was time to die, but they also kept Yggdrasil (tree of life) alive and healthy.

They are known in greek mythology as Moirae Cloto, Lachesis and Atropos.

Since they are in control of our fate, to me, the three are the embodiment of death.

I dont think anyone really knows who death is, much as the same way that no one really knows for sure who the creator is. Thats why it's faith.

One could argue that the creator and destroyer are one and the same. It's similar to yin and yang to a certain degree. That would be the idea that I would most likely embrace.

What if there is no embodiment... if we all have an expiry date just as we have a creation date?

I dont no who death is but one day when that happens i wont beable to tell ya cause i will be dead...guess all we want intell the end inless you do make it to the other side and come back, id like to hear those stories..

Azariel to me embraces the embodiment of death. Not because of his stance in where he is placed. But because Death is a transformation. As is he if you need an embodiment of it.

I agree with the following description of death discribed by the following:

"Today, no more frightening death could be imagined than to die at the hands of a serial killer. We have mythologized such madmen to the point of godhood. Go into any bookstore; the true crime section has grown beyond belief. There are cheap paperbacks on anybody accused of the one crime we can trace to Time and Death - mass murder. He is the subject of many horror movies, appropriately dubbed "slasher" movies. Not with a gun but with a knife, the Reaper comes for us all. That thought frightens us. We cannot stop him, cannot predict his arrival. He is a seeming madman. And he is our god."

I found this information at:

http://www.elfis.net/elfol5/e5death.html

This is a very exciting question. It would be comforting to have an actual metaphorical being luring you to die; some one to whom one could acquiesce - give permission, in a sense.

For most people, I think death is a physical sensation of overwhelming tiredness, like a well-earned fatigue after any trial.

Interesting points.

I myself have a theory that Death would not have a personality as such, but would rather be a construct designed simply to maintain balance... we are born and so we must eventually all die

I believe as a entity death is a neutral host, he does not care weather some one is good or bad he is only there to show our spirits where to go after we pass from this life.

I don't see death as anything. It doesn't have a forename to me. It's just a natural occurance in our lives...

death comes to us all
i work in a place where i see it all the time and the people seem to know it is near
the smell is diferent and the room is always a little cooler
but i think and hope that this death angel is a beautiful and friendly thing because no one wants to die and if it is inevetable then i say please be pleasant

I darn near named this profile Pdsychopomp instead of FMRL...

Psychopomp is basically someone who shepherds a soul to it's final resting place...

Death is a nessesary part of cycle... but there are so many things that do not want to die when their time has ended and the new cycle has begun.

Misplaced Ideologies/Religeons/Hates/Prejudice, so many things that have reached their ends and continue to strive but that are so obviously archaic and backward... things that need to be culled.

If there were a death entity... I should think that it would focus on a few religeons, and countries and perhaps the human race as a species...

Oh... before anyone gets mad at my humour... please not that I mean death as a progression... a retirement of sorts... not a ceasing to exist as if all value = 0

The phrase I used above, "actual metaphorical being," sounds like an oxymoron. But if someone or something presented itself to me, I might question its existence/my perception, "Are you real or just a metaphor I created?"

I do not belive that death is a force or an entity. This is not final destination. LOL.

Death is just a passage into our next life.

For some reason, Crows also remind me/represent death for me. There's just something when I see them that triggers that link to cemetaries and death.

I'm not sure if I believe that death has an embodiment at all. More like a creature is given the job of gathering the souls of the dead. Or the ability to kill with just a touch.

Death is only one facet of the Universal Source that Wiccans and other Pagans pray or perform rituals to. They pray to other deity facets in line with their desires.

thank you forthis post. i think i my be a pdsychomp in trainning. i had an innitiation this week and in the meditation the Egyption God Anubus was there. He is responsible for portecting the soul on its journey to the next life. i think there is an entity that comes to cross the soul over. i don't like it when i imagine him looking in my direction because it always seems to coinside with a death of some relative. it is a strage thing. i usually say a prayer just in case but my imagination does get the better of me.

Death isn't a who, but more of a what.

There are many names of course; Grim Reaper, Death, Uriel...but all in all Death is a force of Nature. Everything living dies. That is a constant. There are no exceptions.

Despite what people wish to believe, vampires are immortal not invulnerable. Immortality means you will not age. But you can surely die. If a being existed that could not in fact be killed by any means, then the Nine Worlds would be rocked and the balance shattered.

Everything must die. It is inevitable.

"The Allfather wove us all into the pattern a long time ago. Your fate is fixed. Go hide in a hole if you'd like, you won't live one instant longer. Fear profits man nothing."

quote from 13th Warrior

death... I like the ideea of speaking about death as a being... in this way we can understand each other when speaking about it:)

One view I have mused on myself.

Who is a death? Societal consciousness channelled through an impartial being.

If death were an entity it would be soulless and without personality...much like my ex wife. Oh...but I'm not bitter :P

I don't think of death so much as an entity as I do as a natural progression. Everything dies...flowers, bees, dogs, etc. If death were an entity, he would be one seriously busy assed dude.

Or dudette.

I really don't see death as an actual conscious entity....more just an invisible mass of energy, with no actual shape.

I personally don't see it as an imbodiment. Death is the one that helps in the transference between this life to the next. That is all he is there for like a helping hand so to speak.

Death is what comes to you at the end of your lifespan. ;D Smart-arse-remark.

Seriously, death has been embodied as many things. From the angel of death to a giant black dog.

Adding ... death could also be the doorway to a new life or world... thing.

sopposedly its an angel i guess that takes u 2 hell or heaven. well based on christian belief.

Im not sure of a name, but I believe that our times of death is set at the moment of birth. I think it's pre decided. I hear reaper a lot, like that song that I hate, lol.

In Mexico they have the tradition of El Jinete de la Muerte, Rider of Death, a Mexican Charro, riding his horse, coming for the soul of those that are about to die.
Death is seen as something normal, not to be feared, sometimes evil ones try to interfere with El Jinete, he takes care of them by shooting them,

I myself do not see it as a embodiment. I don't see it as a person or being. For each person they have their own preseption of what death is to them based on what their religious beliefs are. I believe in reincarnation when death arrives it is the dying of the body, as the body is just a host to the soul and when time has elapsed the body the soul moves on.

Maybe death doesn't have one true form, what if it appears to someone in the form that they have always percieved death to be in? Like if someone had always thought death would appear as the Grim reaper (a skeleton, carrying a scythe, and in black robes) then death would appear to that individual as the grim reaper.

A very good point as I stated everyone has their own view on what death is to them if they percieve it as The Angel of death or the Grim Reaper that is what they believe it to be then, there for that is what they see.

Well ... that would be rather odd ... seeing Barney as death.

I do not see one thing as the embodiment of death. I believe it is a grand design of sorts. Birth and Death. I am one that thinks that Death is actually a new beginning rathering than an ending.

Distortion, if your post was in response to mine about death appearing to someone as they have always thought it would look like, my question is why would someone think of death as barney? I mean death is somthing that is feared or either highly respected, any usually people take it more seriously than that...

I was being serious. Some people are afraid of things such as him and therefore might think of death as being something of the like.

Yeah I guess I think of that because I had the more traditional appearances of death in mind when I made my other post, such as the grim reaper or the angel of death.

Fair enough.

When I responded I had a Ghost Busters movie thing in my head. lol

LOL Distortion.. when I did that I had one South Park episode in my head...

I kinda like the "Billy and Mandy" idea of death. The grim reaper with a bob marly accent

There are many levels of life which we can't see and know and yet which certainly exist. There is a larger world, vast enough to include immortality. Our spiritual natures belongs to this larger world...If death is apparently an outward fact, then, the angel of death is real as we are. And when time come, we just go with him, as haapy as we can be.

I have heard of many, but I believe the Angel of Death is death

i have always found the energy of death quite welcoming and i find that every society asociates death with a symbolic image and who knows it is possible that this personage that represents death is real but for the most part i think it is a tool to help others understand.

markus666 -

If there are many levels of death we 'don't know' how do we know they exist?

I think that only the flesh may die at death and that your etheric body goes where ever you want it to

Theshining -

I'd have to disagree with the 'everywhere' part.