And so it is death is indeed a fearful piece of brutality.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections Publisher: Vintage; Revised Edition edition
And so it is death is indeed a fearful piece of brutality; there is no sense pretending otherwise.
It is brutal not only as a physical event, but far more so psychically: a human being is torn away from us, and what remains is the icy stillness of death.
There no longer exists any hope of a relationship, for all the bridges have been smashed at one blow.
Those who deserve a long life are cut off in the prime of their years, and good-for-nothings live to a ripe old age.
This is a cruel reality which we have no right to sidestep.
The actual experience of the cruelty and wantonness of death can so embitter us that we conclude there is no merciful God, no justice, and no kindness.
From another point of view, however, death appears as a joyful event. In the light of eternity, it is a wedding, a Mysterium Coniunctionis.
The soul attains, as it were, its missing half, it achieves wholeness.
On Greek sarcophagi the joyous element was represented by dancing girls, on Etruscan tombs by banquets.
When the pious Cabbalist Rabbi Simon ben Jochai came to die, his friends said that he was celebrating his wedding.
To this day it is the custom in many regions to hold a picnic on the graves on All Souls’ Day.
Such customs express the feeling that death is really a festive occasion. ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections
