we’d love to have you join us…

 death alchemy

This Death Alchemy will be exploring a question – if you found out that you were going to die, what three people would you want to talk to and why? Come prepared to discuss this.

Death Alchemy offerings explore death – its meaning, its mystery, and all the feelings surrounding it, whether it is our own death or the death of someone close to us.

One definition of alchemy is the seemingly magical and mystical process of transformation where one thing is changed into another. Think caterpillar into a butterfly or lead into gold.  An alchemical process occurs, and a new creation emerges.

Our desire with Death Alchemy is to help us alchemize our current view of death -not thinking of it as an ending of life but as a continuation of life in a different form – perhaps in a form in which we are ‘more’ alive than we have ever been. Alchemy can also happen with our thoughts and feelings around death, just as it happens with death itself, transforming our view of leaving this life for the next.

Why would you want to spend time contemplating death?

~ When we consider our death, it changes the way we live. It helps us live life more consciously and more intentionally.

~ Becoming present to the fact that we are all going to die allows us to have more agency in the way we die and what happens to our body once death has occurred. If we experience the slow death most of us will have, we can make informed decisions about treatment options and, eventually, when to choose comfort care.

~ And taking the time to ponder death can help us befriend it. It can take away some of our fear and allow us to see it as a normal part of life rather than something to run from. This can have huge implications as we consider what we would want or not want regarding end-of-life decisions.

We desire to open conversations around death and dying, here and now. Too often, these conversations occur when we are deep in the dying process and can’t express our wants and desires; what we want is unknown to our loved ones.

death cafe

 Death Café gathers people who want to talk about death over cake and coffee. Death is often a taboo topic. We want to bring it into the light. Death Café is a safe, accepting space without an agenda or a formally-led discussion. The purpose of Death Café is to bring people to a deeper awareness of their mortality so that they might be more present to their life.

Jon Underwood founded Death Café in London in 2011. The first Death café in the US was held by Lizzy Miles, near Columbus, OH, in 2012. Since then, there have been over 6000 Death Cafes held in 85 countries.

If you have any questions, please contact Deb at deb@earth-sky.com.