Death as Initiation: What Our Ancestors Understood That We Forgot

In the age of data, speed, and distraction, death has become something to avoid, ignore, or sanitize. We wrap it in euphemisms — “passed away,” “no longer with us,” “gone too soon.” Modern culture tends to treat death like a failure — a glitch in the system of life. But for our ancestors, death was not an end. It was an initiation.