Zenith Virago | Deathwalker / Educator / EO of the Natural Death Care Centre
What happens when we die?
I don’t know!!! Being with Death has taught me so very much of real value, and some very simple truths I hold dear. One is, many people are afraid to die, because they are afraid to live.
Working with Death for over 30 years, has been an invitation, an encouragement to fall in love with the Mystery, I am free falling into Joy. As I head into this limited last part of my life, I fall further and deeper.
The Mystery, Life, the Universe, whatever you choose to call it, has befriended me and taken me under its wing, like a dear friend, kindly giving me many profound experiences, most of these, just once!
Working intimately with Death and dying people, I know 99% of the thousands of people I have encountered professionally and personally, believe ‘on our death something leaves our body’.
I am lucky, I have this as a reality. It was part of my very first experience. When I was in the Morgue, with my friend Sylvia’s body, as I stroked her head, I saw her energy, her life force, her essence, leave her body, through my hand, like a vapour. In that moment, I knew it was a phenomenon, and to appreciate it fully. I didn’t realise how rare it was, and what a gift it was.
I, just like everyone, will have to wait and find out exactly what that experience feels like. I am easy with waiting, excited at the possibility. In the meantime, I live my life as fully, and richly as I can. I am in a great practise every moment of my life, to be as present as possible. Present to everything, so when I die, I don’t miss that moment, and whatever that moment brings.
Many people in the world hold religious, spiritual or scientific [faiths] and beliefs. Mine are very simple. I am fortunate to believe the concept of the separation of mind, body, ego, spirit, etc. I appreciate, we are not just our bodies, which absolutely die. We are something much more, some sort of energy, something we don’t have the capacity to imagine what that truly is. This belief sustains and nourishes me, to live well, and I trust, to die well.
What is Death?
Fortunately, when I was 36, I said a big YES to Death’s invitation, working with dying people, their dead bodies, their family and friends. I was a young maverick. It’s been such a big part of my incredible journey, becoming and then being the go-to Deathwalker or Death Person in our Byron Community for nearly half my life. I have learnt and grown so much, and I am so very grateful to all those courageous people who shared their deaths with me, so I could share their lessons with others.
Being in service to such a profound teacher, Death has polished me into someone more beautiful than I could ever have imagined becoming. I am nearly 70, an Elder in my life, and this Death work, in the last years of my rich full life. I feel Death is omni present, simply accompanying me all the time….I smile, at the thought of it coming for me.
I absolutely love my life, my friends, family and community, I love being an Elder, living and teaching from my experience, sharing my gained wisdom with so many different and diverse people each year.
It all comes down to the options, I can contract into fear or I can expand into love. It’s a simple choice.
—Zenith Virago (2025)
Editor’s note: Zenith Virago is a Deathwalker who has dedicated her life to educating people on dying, death, after-death care, and ceremony. In her work, she walks with the dying, and the bereaved through their journey, guiding, advising, and helping to make that individual journey the best it can be. She is a regular speaker on dying, death, and ceremonies that heal and assist a healthier bereavement. She is the Executive Officer and founding member of the Natural Death Care Centre in Australia, co-author of The Intimacy of Death and Dying, and the subject of the international independent documentary, Zen & the Art of Dying. Zenith is a feminist, Dyke, swimmer, and vigorously loves life.
Further information can be found at : www.zenithvirago.com/.
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