Are you called to tend to those that are "stuck?" Are you called to help heal Mother Earth and those that have died upon her bosom? Maybe you are called to do the work of a Psychopomp...
Sam this sounds like a great class! And I love what you have written here as an introduction to the psychopomp. To heal the land, our ancestors, communities and our world, means to honor the dead and relearn the connection that we have to the living and all those have passed.
We make killing a right, but the dead don't have rights. We kill in wars, abuse the land, allow atrocities to happen - all to line the pockets of the rich. We have forgotten our her/history. We have forgotten how to honor the dead, especially since they are still here. Healing is needed now more than ever. If we are to survive as a planet, we need to honor ALL life, including the life that is dead.
This is my first time hearing the world psychopomp. I’ve always referred to this as death doula, but perhaps the context is a bit different. I love that you wrote about death with so much love and reverence and that you’re helping those who are here to help the souls that need it. This is powerful work!
Bless you, Tiffany - To know that you could read my words and feel the love and reverence I have for those that are dying and have died is very special. Thank you for reading beyond the words.
Death doula and psychopomp work is slightly different. While both attend to the dead, the latter is for those that have already passed and the former is a guide to support those that are dying to ensure that they are spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically supported in their dying stage.)
For me personally, since learning about psychopomp work, I feel that I am more of a midwife for the final threshold of ones life.
Tiffany, thank you for joining in this conversation. If learning about becoming a psychopomp interests you, it would be lovely to share this workshop with you.
I really loved reading this, Sam. My mother’s family ran a mediumship and healing circle. Some still do. I’ve dabbled in it, and heard others in the circle talk about the ‘rescue’ work they do, but I had never heard of the word psychopomp until this year. It’s fascinating and also really important work.
Thank you for your reply, Sam. I must confess that I found rescue work incredibly difficult. I didn’t have the emotional strength to do it. Thankfully there are people who do, and they do such important work.
Although I still occasionally join my family in mediumship and healing, I mostly work with spirit using British Traditional Witchcraft (Wicca).
It’s really lovely to hear about the work you do.
I’m sure your workshop with Jenna will bring wisdom and love to many 🫶🏼xx
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I am so glad that it resonated with you.
It is lovely to hear the healing thread that runs through your family and the work that they and you have done and still do.
"Rescue work" that is a good way to explain it...and sometimes it feels like that...rescuing spirits so that they are no longer stuck and earthbound, helping them go Home.
Yes, it is important work, and it is lovely to be able to write about it and now share more about it in this workshop Jenna and I are facilitating. Maybe you might consider joining me in this workshop?
Thank you once again for your lovely words. Lovely Blessings to you.
What an absolutely stunning post Sam, it's all there in the words and at the sentiment. How absolutely wonderful to be able to open the doorway to this calling for other people. xx
I’ve always considered myself to be one that has a different relationship with death. Though it’s saddening and full of grief for those left alive, I see it as on opportunity, a doorway, or a lease from suffering. I once thought I’d become a death doula. Though my work has led me in other directions (working to reconnect others to the land and themselves as with as listening to the ancestors). I seem to linger around the desire to work with the death those at their death door. Yet, I don’t know if that falls under the Psychopomp realm.
MacFinnian, I resonate deeply with what you have written here. Death is certainly a doorway, a threshold, a sacred portal, and in that portal is our ancestors, Mother Earth and all that has ever lived upon her. Death is a lease from suffering. Death is a threshold for freedom and when held by folk who are unafraid of that threshold spirits can go safely Home.
From my personal experience, my relationship with death and dying, has been helped by understanding the ways of a psychopomp. Some folk easily go, move from this earthly realm to wherever their higher Home is, others however, are "not ready," and even though their body has died, for their spirit still lingers...this is the role of a psychopomp...to help them gently go Home.
I feel that to hold space for the dead, is also to hold space for their spirit, and in some cases to be the messenger to say why the spirit may linger, if they choose to do so.
It would be really lovely to share this healing workshop with you, to hear your own wisdom around death and dying, the ancestors and your work with the Earth. I hope you will consider joining us.
I couldn’t agree more with what you’re writing here. When I was really young, I used to explain to people that I did not believe that the spirits that linger here are malicious or malevolent, but confused and scared, and unsure of what was happening.
Well, I’ve never assisted someone to cross the threshold either while they were in their body or in spirit form. I’ve definitely held space for them and lived community with them. Many of whom I created boundaries and deals with about our shared space.
Though I do want to get deeper into this work, and being reminded at this time, my focuses are to be laid elsewhere atm. Though October is some days away, so maybe that might shift.
If I’m unable to join you this time around, I do hope that this opportunity comes up again in the future.
MacFinnian, I love how similar our paths have been! ❤️ Reconnecting people with the land, the elements, the ancestors and the divine feminine have been such key parts of everything I'm about too. As we've probably talked about, my guides keep telling me that we're collectively unfolding towards a more relational way of being (even if it doesn't look like it at times) and all that work we're doing is so important for ushering that in. And I’ve really come to see how psychopomp work is a natural extension of all of that. Because like you said, death is a doorway, and those of us who’ve spent time listening to land, ancestors, and the in-between often find ourselves lingering near that threshold. Whether or not you formally identify with the term, what you described absolutely carries the heart of a psychopomp. Being with the dying, tending transitions, witnessing the unseen...all of it is part of the same sacred thread. I have a feeling this path will keep circling back to you in some form. I’d love to hear more about what that call has looked like for you—it sounds like something deep and alive is moving there. And I’d truly love to have you in our class. I think it would be amazing to walk this terrain together.
I attempt not to get two weighed down by titles and labels because I feel like there’s a heaviness that doesn’t allow for as much flow. Yet I do believe in understanding what those labels empowers us because they help you understand your purpose and your gifts as well as making you feel a little bit less crazy! Like “oh there’s a word for that” that’s what I’ve been doing. I’m not as weird as I thought”though I do enjoy being weird 😉
I’ve many different callings and many different paths that I walk on this journey . Many overlap and are inner woven, but I think being psychopomp is a natural fit because of the spirituality of the queer community. Though there aren’t many teachings around the space that the queers hold, we do hold the in-between spaces. For clarification, I’m not saying that all queers are connected to the calling of psychopomp, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true.
The majority of my calling is about helping to pull threads of ancient wisdom and weave them into today’s narrative. Teaching others to shape those teachings into an updated version for our time. To help us reconnect to a world that we’ve forgotten, but has yet to forget us.
I responded this to Sam, but I will leave this here too. I’m being directed that joining at this time is not in the cards based on the focuses that I have in this state of my journey. But I’m open to that may be changing since October’s a bit away. Though if I’m unable to join this round, I do hope that an opportunity will present itself in the future.
Sam this sounds like a great class! And I love what you have written here as an introduction to the psychopomp. To heal the land, our ancestors, communities and our world, means to honor the dead and relearn the connection that we have to the living and all those have passed.
We make killing a right, but the dead don't have rights. We kill in wars, abuse the land, allow atrocities to happen - all to line the pockets of the rich. We have forgotten our her/history. We have forgotten how to honor the dead, especially since they are still here. Healing is needed now more than ever. If we are to survive as a planet, we need to honor ALL life, including the life that is dead.
This is my first time hearing the world psychopomp. I’ve always referred to this as death doula, but perhaps the context is a bit different. I love that you wrote about death with so much love and reverence and that you’re helping those who are here to help the souls that need it. This is powerful work!
Bless you, Tiffany - To know that you could read my words and feel the love and reverence I have for those that are dying and have died is very special. Thank you for reading beyond the words.
Death doula and psychopomp work is slightly different. While both attend to the dead, the latter is for those that have already passed and the former is a guide to support those that are dying to ensure that they are spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically supported in their dying stage.)
For me personally, since learning about psychopomp work, I feel that I am more of a midwife for the final threshold of ones life.
Tiffany, thank you for joining in this conversation. If learning about becoming a psychopomp interests you, it would be lovely to share this workshop with you.
I really loved reading this, Sam. My mother’s family ran a mediumship and healing circle. Some still do. I’ve dabbled in it, and heard others in the circle talk about the ‘rescue’ work they do, but I had never heard of the word psychopomp until this year. It’s fascinating and also really important work.
Thank you for your reply, Sam. I must confess that I found rescue work incredibly difficult. I didn’t have the emotional strength to do it. Thankfully there are people who do, and they do such important work.
Although I still occasionally join my family in mediumship and healing, I mostly work with spirit using British Traditional Witchcraft (Wicca).
It’s really lovely to hear about the work you do.
I’m sure your workshop with Jenna will bring wisdom and love to many 🫶🏼xx
Hi Jo,
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I am so glad that it resonated with you.
It is lovely to hear the healing thread that runs through your family and the work that they and you have done and still do.
"Rescue work" that is a good way to explain it...and sometimes it feels like that...rescuing spirits so that they are no longer stuck and earthbound, helping them go Home.
Yes, it is important work, and it is lovely to be able to write about it and now share more about it in this workshop Jenna and I are facilitating. Maybe you might consider joining me in this workshop?
Thank you once again for your lovely words. Lovely Blessings to you.
What an absolutely stunning post Sam, it's all there in the words and at the sentiment. How absolutely wonderful to be able to open the doorway to this calling for other people. xx
Thank you dearest one. Thank you for your beautiful words and encouragement. x
Such beautiful words, my friend! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you, Jenna. I look forward to this workshop.... yay!
I’ve always considered myself to be one that has a different relationship with death. Though it’s saddening and full of grief for those left alive, I see it as on opportunity, a doorway, or a lease from suffering. I once thought I’d become a death doula. Though my work has led me in other directions (working to reconnect others to the land and themselves as with as listening to the ancestors). I seem to linger around the desire to work with the death those at their death door. Yet, I don’t know if that falls under the Psychopomp realm.
MacFinnian, I resonate deeply with what you have written here. Death is certainly a doorway, a threshold, a sacred portal, and in that portal is our ancestors, Mother Earth and all that has ever lived upon her. Death is a lease from suffering. Death is a threshold for freedom and when held by folk who are unafraid of that threshold spirits can go safely Home.
From my personal experience, my relationship with death and dying, has been helped by understanding the ways of a psychopomp. Some folk easily go, move from this earthly realm to wherever their higher Home is, others however, are "not ready," and even though their body has died, for their spirit still lingers...this is the role of a psychopomp...to help them gently go Home.
I feel that to hold space for the dead, is also to hold space for their spirit, and in some cases to be the messenger to say why the spirit may linger, if they choose to do so.
It would be really lovely to share this healing workshop with you, to hear your own wisdom around death and dying, the ancestors and your work with the Earth. I hope you will consider joining us.
I couldn’t agree more with what you’re writing here. When I was really young, I used to explain to people that I did not believe that the spirits that linger here are malicious or malevolent, but confused and scared, and unsure of what was happening.
Well, I’ve never assisted someone to cross the threshold either while they were in their body or in spirit form. I’ve definitely held space for them and lived community with them. Many of whom I created boundaries and deals with about our shared space.
Though I do want to get deeper into this work, and being reminded at this time, my focuses are to be laid elsewhere atm. Though October is some days away, so maybe that might shift.
If I’m unable to join you this time around, I do hope that this opportunity comes up again in the future.
MacFinnian, I love how similar our paths have been! ❤️ Reconnecting people with the land, the elements, the ancestors and the divine feminine have been such key parts of everything I'm about too. As we've probably talked about, my guides keep telling me that we're collectively unfolding towards a more relational way of being (even if it doesn't look like it at times) and all that work we're doing is so important for ushering that in. And I’ve really come to see how psychopomp work is a natural extension of all of that. Because like you said, death is a doorway, and those of us who’ve spent time listening to land, ancestors, and the in-between often find ourselves lingering near that threshold. Whether or not you formally identify with the term, what you described absolutely carries the heart of a psychopomp. Being with the dying, tending transitions, witnessing the unseen...all of it is part of the same sacred thread. I have a feeling this path will keep circling back to you in some form. I’d love to hear more about what that call has looked like for you—it sounds like something deep and alive is moving there. And I’d truly love to have you in our class. I think it would be amazing to walk this terrain together.
I attempt not to get two weighed down by titles and labels because I feel like there’s a heaviness that doesn’t allow for as much flow. Yet I do believe in understanding what those labels empowers us because they help you understand your purpose and your gifts as well as making you feel a little bit less crazy! Like “oh there’s a word for that” that’s what I’ve been doing. I’m not as weird as I thought”though I do enjoy being weird 😉
I’ve many different callings and many different paths that I walk on this journey . Many overlap and are inner woven, but I think being psychopomp is a natural fit because of the spirituality of the queer community. Though there aren’t many teachings around the space that the queers hold, we do hold the in-between spaces. For clarification, I’m not saying that all queers are connected to the calling of psychopomp, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true.
The majority of my calling is about helping to pull threads of ancient wisdom and weave them into today’s narrative. Teaching others to shape those teachings into an updated version for our time. To help us reconnect to a world that we’ve forgotten, but has yet to forget us.
I responded this to Sam, but I will leave this here too. I’m being directed that joining at this time is not in the cards based on the focuses that I have in this state of my journey. But I’m open to that may be changing since October’s a bit away. Though if I’m unable to join this round, I do hope that an opportunity will present itself in the future.