#Seed024: Winters and the End of Cycles

Reflections on life, death and the Eternal Return

The weight of witnessing a genocide unfold has made the simple act of writing extraordinarily taxing. I’m reading harrowing stories of doctors in Gaza amputating children to save their lives with little to no sedation. How do you find joy in life after reading stories like these? I struggle to go about my day knowing that people are suffering while also recognizing the immense priviledge I have in being able to step back, observe, and write. It truly feels that humanity’s Winter has arrived, covering the last remnants of living hearts.

In Ottawa, where I reside, snow has finally fallen reminding us of Winter’s imminence. For many, including myself, this time of year is difficult. The nights are long and the days are cold like the end of a cycle and the marching of Death. With the dread and drear of Autumn’s end, a poem penned by Seyyed Hossein Nasr assuages my despair. The last stanza of Autumn is the Spring of the Gnostics is particularly striking:

The gnostic lives in this world of change,
Aware constantly of the Return,
The Return which the origin of true life is.
He sees in Autumn's majesty, that Return for which he yearns,
Which for him is the Spring of heavenly life.
If Spring be the origin of life below,
Autumn is the Spring of eternal life.
That life for the Return to which the gnostic lives here on earth.
And so for him Autumn is the Spring of life divine,
Heralding the Return to that life that never ends.

For the gnostic, that is the knower of God, both the snow covered peaks and valleys, and Gaza’s martyrs herald the Eternal Return. In the Chapter of the Heifer of the Quran, we are given a glimpse of “that life that never ends”. “And say not of whoever is slain in the path of Allah they are dead: Rather are they alive, but you are not aware” (Quran 2:154). Anyone who passes from this world to the other in communion with the Divine is said to be slain in path of Allah. This what the gnostic perceives and what each and everyone of us is called to.

In an earlier piece I reflected on climate anxiety and the fear of death. Cycles remind of us of beginnings and ends. Even though we live in this world of change, that is the world of cycles, we know that there will come a time when we will be abruptly pulled out of this cycle. Winter is but a reflection that death is near. How are we preparing for that day? How are we making the world a better place for others? I find hope in those questions, and my prayers are that you do too.