There are very few people who can sit at the threshold of life and death with the kind of steadiness that both calms the room and delivers the truth. Zenith Virago is one of them. For more than three decades, Zenith has served as a deathwalker, celebrant, educator, and spiritual elder, walking alongside individuals, families, and communities through some of life’s most tender, raw, and sacred passages. Her path into this work was not gentle. It was a baptism of fire, forged in the heart of the AIDS epidemic, where death did not arrive politely or occasionally, but relentlessly, personally, and with profound urgency. In many ways, death itself initiated her, shaped her, and polished her into the elder and wise woman she is today. Zenith is the co-author of The Intimacy of Death and Dying, the subject of the documentary Zen & the Art of Dying, and a beloved guide to many who are learning how to meet mortality with honesty, courage, and compassion. In this episode, we speak about the importance of learning to hold the midpoint, to stay calm and steady in the presence of intensity, both personally and professionally. Zenith shares how, culturally, we’ve been conditioned into fight, flight, or freeze when faced with death and crisis, and how over time we’ve underestimated our own capacity to function and to meet and respond in these moments. Through medicalisation, control and avoidance, we’ve slowly handed away skills that humans have carried for millennia: the ability to sit, to stay, to tend, and to accompany one another through dying. We talk about ritual, language, community, children and grief and what it means to bring death back into the village, not as something to fear, but as something to meet with presence, reverence, leadership and heart. This episode includes themes of death, dying, grief, and end-of-life care. Please listen in a way that feels supportive for you, and take care of your heart. I hope you enjoy listening to Zen as much as I did. Links & Resources 💛 Griefline Free, confidential grief support 📞 1300 845 745 (8 am to 8 pm AEST, 7 days) 🌐 griefline.org.au 💙 Lifeline 24 hour crisis support 📞 13 11 14 🌐 lifeline.org.au 🌿 Zenith Virago – Official Website https://www.zenithvirago.com/ 📚 The Intimacy of Death and Dying https://www.naturaldeathcarecentre.org/a-book-about-dying/ 🎥 Zen & the Art of Dying https://zenandtheartofdying.com/ 🌱 Natural Death Care Centre https://www.naturaldeathcarecentre.org 💡 Deathwalker Training (Online & In-Person) https://www.zenithvirago.com/deathwalker-training This podcast is hosted by Baci Hillyer. For more about Baci & Dedicate, visit my website: https://www.deadicate.com/ Talk to LWELL here: lwell.ai Join the Deadicate community → deadicate.com/newsletter Please support the podcast by leaving a rating and review! Recorded and Produced by Michael Burrows (https://www.michaelburrowsmusic.com/) Edited by Granger Lock @ Brand Music (https://brandmusic.com.au/)
