The Divine Feminine archetype of the Queen of Death is the gateway into the unknown.  She is the open door into what potentially could be seen as the greatest unknown of all – death.

She asks us to know deeply within ourselves what we are afraid of about the unknown, things we cannot see or mortally experience and of course death itself.  And she is very intimate in her asking of this.  Not cold, frightening or aloof as we may think, for the simple reason that death and life share a very intimate embrace.  There is no one without the other.

The Queen of Death is represented in Goddesses of the underworld such as Inanna, Persephone and Hecate.  Hecate (if we invite her to) will guide us with a lantern as we pass into death or simply choose to release and let die whatever we consciously need to do so while living.  She is unafraid to ‘go there’ – down into the place where death and rebirth live together.  She will go with us but will we choose to? That is her question to us.  Will we fully trust and release what no longer serves us?  Do we have the courage to let die what must die?  And in the process of doing so allow ourselves to be fully stripped bare?

I have this found temple with the Queen of Death absolutely revelatory.

Like many of us I am somewhat afraid of death for lots of reasons, but in being honest I think I’m more afraid of growing old and becoming unable to do the things in my life I want to do.  (That is something of course that remains to be seen and is only a figment or story in my mind right now.  And so back to the present moment.)  And I realised in thinking about my own fears of death and sharing those in our temple that so many other Priestesses shared the same thoughts and feelings.  It was very moving and not at all morbid.  It was a genuine sharing of fears around what is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest mystery of all.

And there was something so magical that our temple guide Elayne shared in this temple that hit me straight in the heart.

“If you live your life in fear of death then you are truly not living.”

So heart and gut wrenchingly true.  If we fear what is yet to come in great measure how can we truly say that we are fully alive?  How can we say our heart and soul is wide open for all that is and is to come?  How can we hold back and expect to move forward?  How can we love if we are in fear?

Drop to your knees truth.

Where am I holding out on life?  What is it that I am not trusting? What am I holding onto that needs to die?  What am I refusing to let go of? What am I gripping onto out of fear?  What is it that I cannot release into the nothingness?  These are all questions that the Queen of Death has challenged me with.

Most of all she – like the Weaver Dreamer – has helped me to see that being attached to my small stories and old wounds is nothing more than an excuse not to live fully.

My core remembrance as a Priestess is to deepen into what is truly real. Not the fear or ego mind or littleness, but the infinite power of all that is.  And all that there is and the only thing that is real is love.  Everything else is an illusion. The Queen of Death calls us to let things that need to die within and around us do so – so we can return to love.  We all live inside an illusion that we have all the time in the world to come to or return to love.  We do not.

I have now learned that death is the gateway of liberation. I and we all must let go to let more life in or face the consequences of becoming rigid, controlling, caged and untrusting.

I am trying slowly and gently to move into a way of being that allows myself to become enveloped by forces unknown to me.

And it’s scary but liberating too.  I could not have been here with this Queen at the beginning of my journey.  I would of turned and ran into any form of light I could find, refusing to face any darkness or shadow.  Now I am ready and want to find ways to invite death into my life over and over and over again.  I see my shadow and am no longer afraid.

My tears flow as I write these words that these deaths I call in are simply to be in a place of walking this earth as a woman who always invites more life to her.  Always desires to be open, let more in, radiate, pulsate, overflow with joy, purpose and love.

All through ensuring I trust myself and the Universal one that I can release and let die all that does not serve me over and over again.

I choose not to meet the Queen of Death only when it is my time to pass.

I choose to meet her now and have her walk beside me in all my remaining breaths.