Many fear it, many like me find it interesting. When you look at different cultures you can see how views about death and the afterlife is different, even with individual people there are many views with death. Death is something that nobody can escape and there is countless symbols for it such as of a human skull. Over the years there has been many cults to death gods and there are three who have caught my attention that highly relate to death.
There is Hades, child of Cronus and Rhea. A god who was feared to a point that people didn’t say his name and it is said to know Hades is to be dead. Hades is the eldest brother out of his siblings. When the Olympians defeated the Titans and took control, there was to be a new order that would forever determine the power structure of the gods. In Ancient Greek law there was a law that told that the eldest son should get the biggest share, but Zeus, Poseidon and Hades draw lots. Hades draws the shortest straw which gave him the power over the underworld instead of being the ruler of the universe or the seas.
The underworld is named after Hades himself and it is well known to have several sections. In Hades, there are three places one can go, the Asphodel Meadows, a place of ordinary souls are sent, the second is of Elysium, this is the resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous. There is a place where those who offended the gods go, this is the third place to be sent; Tartarus, a place so associated with the Christian Hell it gets mentioned in the New Testament in 2 Peter (2:4: “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them down into Tartarus and delivered them to be kept in chains…”). Some translations of the Bible however simply call Tartarus ‘hell’.
Santa Muerte, Saint Death, “Our Little White Girl”, is of much worship today and its cult is much condemned by the Catholic Church in Mexico. She is said to wear a white robe and of skeletal appearance, often carrying a globe and a scythe. Santa Muerte apparently has over two million worshippers who offer her incense, food, flowers, and even cigarettes and cigars. Sadly, many associate the worship of Saint Death with doing criminal work.
The god of death and the ruler of the Fifth Court of Feng-Du (realm of the dead with all of the levels of Hells), Yen-Lo-Wang, was the formerly the King of the First Court of Hell but was accused of leniency. The Jade Emperor put another King of Hell in charge of judgement while putting Yen-Lo-Wang to the Fifth Hell. Yen-Lo-Wang is however not just in charge of what goes on in the Fifth Hell (gouging and boiling), but he himself rules over the whole of Feng-Du. Interestingly, the Great Sage Equalling Heaven, Sun Wukong, wiped his name out along with names of all the other monkeys known to him in the Book of Life and Death which granted them immortality much to Yen-Lo-Wang's displeasure.
I, personally, am interested in death and it has captivated my mind for some years now, nor am I a stranger to it anymore as I have came across death time and time again through not only animal form but plant life, too.
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