 my name is Danny and welcome to esoteric moment today I have another book review fitting for October I am reviewing the pagan book of living and dying by Starhawk this is a book that I think every pagan needs on their bookshelf this is a book that I would recommend to everyone pagan or not to read well before they are ever in the midst of confronting death be that their own or someone that's close to them now life presents itself in many bizarre and unplanned ways so it's not like you can time when you might be confronted with death but I really think this is a great read that allows people to focus on an issue in a really beautiful way that our society just fears and doesn't want to confront and that is of course death for me my sister read this book when she was in high school or early college and she had a disease that didn't have a cure where death confronted her in a different way than I think most people did so when she began as a weekend and as a pagan I think this book really appealed to her I didn't read it though until my sister was later in hospice I kind of wish I had read it before I was in the midst of that experience but it was still really really powerful and wonderful and helped me so much and helped my family follow my sister's wishes when she passed this book is written by Starhawk but it actually has lots of it has a few other authors from the reclaiming collective which adds a beautiful totality to the picture and I think you really pick up on the fact that there are many different experiences and people a part of this writing process and I really appreciate that so the book starts by talking about what is death it talks about what is death in the context of a pagan viewpoint so there's a lot about reincarnation and some other viewpoints it also talks about the dying process which is really useful every death is not the same some deaths are fast and immediate and unexpected other deaths are long known about and there's lots of preparation almost too much you know after about very specific situations like AIDS children deaths violence things like that and also talks about suicide and where people have a choice in their death process and that transition and then it also talks a great deal about grief and what it means for the people who are dealing with it I love about this book is it is not just from the standpoint of those who have not died who are left behind it also talks about death from the point of view of people who were experiencing that process so you get you get the whole picture it is not meant for just one person it is meant for all of us there are two parts of this book that I think are probably the most useful things one would be all of the ritual ideas and resources there are songs with actual music there are prayers there are ritual ideas and processes kind of ideas about burial and resources on where to have a green burial or something that is more akin to a pagans perspective on death that is an invaluable resource also this book talks a great deal about the legal aspects of dying which for some reason we also don't want to talk about in a society as someone who works at a law library I can tell you that not enough people are writing wills and everyone should have a will people aren't thinking about how they want their funeral or memorial services or burial to be handled and everyone should have a plan and everyone should talk about this with their family because the state has a lot of really intense legal definitions and expectations when a person died that can come from the time limit you have from a home death you call the police or to call 911 it can come from where you can actually bury someone so for instance in Wisconsin you can't just bury your loved one in your yard or on your farm but you can spread ashes on a farm so farm has a legal definition and you know ashes has a specific definition but really we regulate where people can be buried and how they're buried in that place a lot of us have kind of vague ideas about what we think we would like for us or for our family when they die and legally there might be some roadblocks to that so reading this book will help you confront some of those issues and have resources to look up how you would overcome those obstacles this is an invaluable resource for those people who are working with midwifing death and for everyone who will confront death at some point it's written extraordinarily well and you get the viewpoints of lots of people from many different circumstances so it feels like you're getting a very large picture but heartfelt details of those situations we haven't read this book you should at any point you should read this book I think it's one that if you're investing in a few books to keep as resources I think this is one that is worth purchasing sight unseen because I think it's extraordinarily useful to reread when you're confronting death or grief I think it's extraordinarily useful to have for those situations that you don't expect and you need to help someone else through the grieving process or through ritual after death so I cannot recommend highly enough the pagan book of living and dying by Starhawk and if you haven't read it I hope you do in the comments below I would love to hear your thoughts about how we can better help our culture confront death in a healthy way I think pagans are unique position where we understand the cycles of life and death in a more holistic way and we have a lot of really interesting ways of valuing the dying process and the dead and our ancestors and I think those methods could be brought to the rest of our culture and hopefully bring a little bit more balance and I'd love to hear if you agree with me don't agree or kind of your thoughts on the whole top thanks for watching and as always may you find peace in the sacred grove once your notebook has fully dried on both the front and the back we'll start cutting the elastic cord so I measure by just loosely holding the string up over the notebook you're going to want to do it twice the length of where your holes are plus a little extra to tie