Kristoffer Hughes - As the Last Leaf Falls: A Pagans Perspective on Death, Dying & Bereavement

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

As the Last Leaf Falls 2014, 2020 by Kristoffer Hughes

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First e-book edition 2014

Revised e-book edition 2021

E-book ISBN: 9780738770000

Previously published as The Journey into Spirit , 2014

Book design and edit: Rebecca Zins
Cover design: Channon McKuhen

Interior floral illustrations from Ornamental Flowers, Buds and Leaves by V. Ruprich-Robert (Dover Publications, 2010); line illustrations on pages by Llewellyn Art Department

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Llewellyn Publications is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hughes, Kristoffer, 1971

The journey into spirit : a pagans perspective on death, dying & bereavement

/ Kristoffer Hughes.First edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-7387-4075-1

1. DeathReligious aspectsNeopaganism. 2. DeathReligious aspects

Paganism. I. Title.

BF1572.D43H84 2014

299.94dc23

2014016200

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.)

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE DEAD
WHOSE TALES LIE WITHIN

My grandmother
Margaret Beryl Roberts

My friend
Haydn Thomas Franklyn

My father
Alan John Hughes

My teacher and dearest friend
Myfanwy Davies

My sister
Rachel Ann Davies

My feline companion
Millie

A fellow Druid
Peter Dodd

You will always be remembered.

CONTENTS

: A Light in the Darkness

PART 1 The Realm of Necessity

: First Loss

: When Life Is Too Much to Bear

PART 2 The Realm of Spirit

: Unwilling to Die

: The Acceptance of Death

PART 3 The Realm of Infinity

: Seeing Through Tragedy

: Losing an Animal Companion

PART 4 Ritual and Practice

: Funeral for a Druid

: Days of the Dead

Authors Note

I n the United Kingdom, the common term for a morgue is mortuary . However, in the USA and Canada, mortuary is the common term used to describe a funeral home. For ease of reference, I have chosen to use the term morgue to describe a public facility for the examination of the dead as instructed or governed by a coroner or medical examiner.

INTRODUCTION

W hat happens to us when we die?

Death initiates the unfathomable separation of body and spirit. The vessel of experience and expressionthe human bodyis our primary point of reference; it lives, it breathes, it loves, it cries, and then suddenly it ceases to be. The force or energy that drives it leaves, and body and spirit veer in different directions. But what thenwhat happens to us at that point of separation? Where do we go?

Human beings have never ceased in their attempt to understand the function of death and the mystery it holds; it has power, and all too often it is a devastating force that shatters lives and tears at the heart. At times death comes as a friend, offering respite and release, and yet questions may still remain. Where have they gone? How can all that energy, all those memories, simply cease to exist?

In truth, they dont; nature does not waste anything. Our memories and experience of being human are not annihilated at the point of death; something remains, and yet the answers offered here may differ from what you have previously encountered. Within the Pagan traditions, the commonly held belief is that upon death we enter another world, which is perceived as a place of perpetual summer or feastinga place of rest before reentry into the world by the process of reincarnation. This book serves to challenge that theory and to offer another way of thinking about death.

But how do I know thiswho am I to sit here and type these words of comfort and offer hope to the hearts of the bereaved and the inquiring mind?

Death has been my life; I have lived in its shadow since my teenage years. It has been my constant companion, my security, and my mentor. For over twenty years I have worked as an autopsy technologist in morgues throughout the United Kingdom, serving and protecting the dead. In my spiritual life I have developed into a priest of the dead, a walker between the worlds, a psychopomp.

It is the living of a life in death that causes me to pen these words; it is living in the kingdom of the dead that has taught me so much about death. I serve the reaper of spirits, and by proxy I walk hand in hand with the dead, yet my relationship with death has been perplexing. I have learned, seen, and witnessed the effects of death and the process that occurs during that transition, but I have also been pained by it. My faithfulness to the reaper has bought me no credit and offered me no favors, for it has taken my loved ones also. I have knelt before the altar of grief and cried my heart into a red mist, and I have learned much; this is what I share with you in the pages that follow.

I must stress: I am not a medium. I do not hear the dead, and very rarely do I see echoes of them reaching from beyond the realms of life. The most adequate word to describe my abilities is clairsentient; I feel and sense images and messages, information and data that flow from the quantum machinery of spirit and soul to sink into the fluidness of my mind. I do not offer anecdotes of conversations with the dead or personal messages that are pertinent to a single individual. I share with you a knowing that comes from having lived with the dead, of being privileged to share their world and glean a deeper understanding of the process of crossing over.