If you ask almost anyone what their biggest fear is, you’ll get some predictable answers: spiders, snakes, heights, fire. Why spiders and snakes? They’re poisonous and kill people. Why heights? You can fall and die. Fire? You can burn to death. All these different fears are a symbol for the same thing: death.

Death is ever-present in our lives, a shadow hovering over every moment of our existence. We all know it’s coming for us. It’s a fact of life. Yet many people spend their entire lives fearing death. Why is that?

If we believe there is more to life than just this earthly experience, and that our soul is bigger or separate from our egos, then what are we afraid of? Many fears are rooted in the notion that there is literally nothing after death and we’re just snuffed out and gone. Death is treated very clinically nowadays in Western culture—indeed, it is kept hidden, considered a distasteful subject and spoken of mostly in metaphors. This makes death seem very mysterious and therefore frightening. A person typically dies in a nursing home or hospice facility, rather than in their home, surrounded by staff instead of family. Their body is taken to a morgue, and the remaining family barely sees them again, if at all. The funeral home takes over. This entire process, from the illness to burial or cremation, is done by outsiders and therefore keeps us very removed from death and prevents us from understanding it. Being near someone who is dying and keeping them company while they transition is very difficult but also healing for both people involved. Accepting death, looking it right in the face and spending time with it (natural cycles of darkness), is part of being healthy and happy.

Physical death falls under the umbrella of the dark moon current because it is a journey into the unknown. It’s the ending of this life and the beginning of another.