Learn the powerful lessons that come from a long career of service to others at the end of life.
My guest Zenith Virago is a respected pioneer and acknowledged expert in the fields of holistic death and dying. With over 20 years of experience she provides comfort, information and guidance to assist people through the natural and the sacred, the inner and outer journeying as they come to the transition at the end of life. She is the subject of the documentary film “Zen and the Art of Dying” and the co-author of the book The Intimacy of Death and Dying. Zen shares the lessons she has learned over the years from life and death and what it means to be a “Deathwalker.” Learn more at the website:
www.naturaldeathcarecentre.org
This episode includes:
- How Zen first became interested in working with dying and death
- What has changed in death care over the past few decades since she began her work
- Why each death worker must do their own work in coming to terms with mortality
- The importance of being able to sit with the mystery of death and not knowing how to fix things
- Why every death has an “equation” that is unique and needs to be understood
- How sadness can become grief or joy and both are acceptable reactions to death
- The one question to ask each person on their deathbed
- Dying as an “inside job” and tools for preparing for it
- Why dying well is one of the greatest gifts you can give your loved ones
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Register for the online workshop: Surviving the Aftermath of Suicide (September 9 – 1-3 pm Pacific)
- Documentary: Zen and the Art of Dying
- TEDx Byron talk: Disrupting Death: A Guide to Dying Well
- Upcoming Deathwalker trainings
- Book: The Intimacy of Death and Dying
- Sign up for the 2021 online reading group A Year of Reading Dangerously at this link
- Support your local bookstore by buying my books on Bookshop and Indiebound: 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying and The Journey from Ego to Soul
- Subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Stitcher Radio
- Check out the Series I’ve recorded in the past here
- Join the team at Patreon.com/eolu and get access to the EOLU mug: “Mind if we talk about death?” (only Patrons can purchase it). PLUS get our new bonuses: the monthly EOL News Update, movie reviews from 2 Doctors and a Movie, and automatic access to A Year of Reading Dangerously!
If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu, especially my newest supporters Elaine MacDonald and Bruce Wadd! Your contributions make all the difference.
