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The Grim Reaper / Angel Of Death / Personification Of Death

But wich came first: san actual being or a concept wich we gave form?
 
Your questions as all ways are delightfully tricky, who knows without having a one to one with him (which i dont mind adminting id rather not). It could well be the case he is only here because we created him but then again like all legands they are born of a simple truth. Its very much a case of the chicken and the egg syndrome.:confused:
 
let me rehash a story i've actually sent in to the mag in hopes of print, i'll try to condense as much as i can without losing any details.

When I was a child, the summer between kindergarden and first grade, I had a experience with what I know now to be the grim reaper......
My mother raised cocker spaniels for show and one night a new litter was born. For whatever reason ( I think this mother in particular had a bad track record with her puppies,smothering, etc..) my mom took them away from her after awhile and put them in a laundry basket with a blanket and heating pad.
Me being a kid and loving puppies, I wanted them nearby, so it was decided they would be in my room, the basket holding my door open..(i always slept with the door open and a night-light).

I went to sleep despite the whimpering, but at some point -I don't know when, no clock- I snapped awake.I remember the room felt weird- echoey- like my ears needed to pop. Sometimes my memory serves it was puppy yelping that woke me,but I'm not sure anymore. I did look toward the door and basket and this is what I saw.
A large, black, hooded form- semi-transparent, because I could just make out the nightlight through it- (was the translucence gauzy, or like ink in water? my memory is again unclear) with what was definately a skull in the 'hooded' area.
My first impression was that it was sitting ON the edge of the basket but it was probably crouching in front of it. It was looking in the basket and had an arm inside.
It turned directly towards me as if surprised, I think because i was already screaming for my parents in the next room.
It was gliding towards my bed and I was freaking out.
I did what any kid is trained to do and hid under my blanket. When I peered out, the face/skull was directly in mine. I don't remember anything else, I probably passed out.
The next morning I was till upset, trying to describe to my mom and asking why she hadn't come to help me? She said she had heard nothing, even next door. I had to make her believe me, so I drew a picture of the black cloak sitting on the basket with the skull face. I had the word "Daeth" and an arrow to it.
Keep in mind this was the first time I had ever drawn a skull, it had all been rainbows and puffins until this point! I hadn't yet seen any images of the grim reaper in print or television.
Sadly over the years, this cherished drawing is missing, tucked into the pages of some book for safe keeping. If I ever find it, you will see it first.
...somehow, in time I got over this night, until at a later age I saw the reaper image (in a book) and remembered. Questioning my mother about it again, she told me something she hadn't right away, that in the morning she had found two puppies dead.
newborn puppies dying overnight isn't rare.
neither is seeing things or having nightmares.
but all combined equals something I still
can't explain, and has changed my life.
 
S'interesting...usually encounters with The Grim Reaper are supposed to be comforting/tranquil type of experiences...definitely the opposite of the memory you posted. Perhaps the variation of your experience was due to your young age and general innocence at the time -- i. e. not having formed a concept of what death was at the time and yet being confronted by it in your very bedroom with the death of the young pups, whom you obviously loved. :(

Again, interesting on a number of counts -- not the least of which is that TGR usually goes out of his way to calm and reassure people who come across him...not scare them half to death.

Polterdog.
 
I've never heard of people meeting this Grim Reaper bloke outside of Terry Pratchett novels, am I missing something?

I have often heard and read about people 'meeting' someone whose job it is to escort them to the Beyond, such as dying patients whose grans and mothers come for them. In fact I've been there when such visits have been matter-of-factly described.

But not the tall geezer with the bony fizzog. :eek:
 
....the impact that the reaper had on me was terrifying at the time, to be sure. -But within months or maybe a year of it, I would lay awake wanting for it to happen again, believe it or not. I would talk out loud asking him/it to come back, or at least let me know it was real. For quite sometime I would have one sided conversations hoping it would hear me, but I never once even felt the presence again.
The image of the skull itself is just burned into my memory and subconscious. Since then, I've always held some fascination with skulls, going through periods where I collected skull toys, stickers, pictures, etc....and skulls are very prevalent in my artwork. If i'm not incorporating them into a piece, they just always seem to be the first thing I doodle.
I had even wondered for a while if I had 'beat' the reaper, or if I had been granted or pardoned some time for interrupting it's work and seeing the 'secret', my only evidence of this was that I am still alive, so, it's not a very good theory.
As common as I've read these encounters to be make me wonder if there isn't an entire race of these things- not necessarily undead, just some type of life that isn't readily percievable- that live by killing us, or by consuming what energy is left after we die. Hopefully not living off our souls or anything, but scavanging off the energy and electro-chemical residues we don't take with us when we go- or something.
....that last bit actually just came to me, so don't think I've sat around obsessing the idea...

otherwise, thanks for the comments and keep 'em coming!

here's a bit o' tattoo flash with 'my buddy' in it.. sorry so small, bulletin guidelines!
 
I've never heard of people meeting this Grim Reaper bloke outside of Terry Pratchett novels, am I missing something?
Click to expand...

escargot,

Check out the work done by Leilah Wendell called
Encounters with Death, which details personal encounters that people have had with The Grim Reaper as well as the "atmospheric" conditions conducive to meeting the angel Azrael. Taking his cue from Ms. Wendell, Mark Chorvinsky also covered the phenomenon in his short lived magazine, Strange Magazine (issue 18, pg. 6-15).

Polterdog.

P. S. I should point out that naming the entity "Azrael" is her distinction. Based on the research that she's done it seems to fit, but who knows with these things.
 
Since then, I've always held some fascination with skulls, going through periods where I collected skull toys, stickers, pictures, etc....and skulls are very prevalent in my artwork.
Click to expand...

Well, fixating on Azrael after an encounter is one of the hallmarks of a chance meeting with "him" -- but, I mean, who wouldn't after something like that, right?

I had even wondered for a while if I had 'beat' the reaper, or if I had been granted or pardoned some time for interrupting it's work and seeing the 'secret', my only evidence of this was that I am still alive, so, it's not a very good theory.
Click to expand...

Seriously, check out the work, Encounters with Death; it may provide you with some comfort as others have obviously seen what you have and come across what you did. Ms. Wendell even has a website where people discuss such experiences:

westgatenecromantic.com/
Link is dead. The MIA website can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040726075513/http://www.westgatenecromantic.com:80/

I warn you though, it is a bit "gothy" and, well, rings a bit like a "death culture" cult.

Polterdog.
 
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I've just looked at that page and will be sleeping with the light on and several protective teddies from now on.
 
found some evidence

digging around, not really looking for the drawing i had done of this event as a kid, i did find THIS.....and i have no recollection of
when or why i did it.
-it appears i was filling out some questionnaire or quiz...maybe some magazine was having a ghost story contest? maybe i did it in school?..maybe i did it for some child psychologist that i don't even remember going to?....i have no idea, but i clearly start talking about the grim reaper incident.... i must have been somwhere aged 8 to 10...this was clearly the rough draft of whatever it is, somewhere out there the final sheet is turned in.

just thought i'd show some more proof....

if this pic doesn't pop up, just follow the link..

<img src=http://djfpw.url.cjb.net/>


djfpw.url.cjb.net/
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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Travbot, I'm sorry that your encounter with the reaper was so unpleasant. I imagine that it was because of your age and the lack of knowledge about death because the reaper itself is not there to frighten anyone.

I don't know why but I somehow get the perception that perhaps s/he was in your face for the sake of causing you to sleep so you wouldn't discover the puppies and be traumatized and upset even more than before. Just a theory.

My beliefs on angels of death are rather odd to say the least and would probably be made fun of if I explained them...

Oh, and I love your megaman avatar. :p
 
Hello All,

First post, so please bear with me............

Not sure if this has been discussed before but it something that has always stayed with me since my Mum relayed her account some years back.

It centres around my dearly departed Dad who passed away during my late teens (I'm now into my thirties). He had suffered a number of mild/serious heart attacks over a period of about 4-5 years but obviously survived to tell the tale.

Now we lived in (and my mum still does!) a 1940s semi-detached with a conventional layout of front room and back room - modified by my parents to include a new single storey extension housing the kitchen and small dining area. The link between old and new was via an arch making the majority of the ground floor open plan.

The incident in question and the basis for this post occurred on the day before new years eve 1989.

My Dad had been suffering further pains during the night and so my mum got up to make them both a drink, leaving my brother and me asleep and oblivious to the night's events.

On entering the kitchen downstairs she picked up the kettle, filled it and stepped back to plug it in the wall. As she did so she caught site of a figure standing in the arch link and turned expecting either my Dad, me or my brother.

What she saw instead chilled her to the bone.

She froze looking at a figure she described (some years later and still with some emotional difficulty) a person in black with an arm up to his face clothed in some sort of cloak or cape and with a large brimmed hat enabling her only to see the person's eyes.

She turned momentarily at the click of the kettle and when she turned back the figure had gone.

Anyway we all woke up on New years day and managed to get through most of the day without incident until late in the afternoon. My brother had gone upstairs leaving my Mum and Dad and me in the back room watching TV. My Mum began to drift off to sleep on our two seater settee with my Dad next to her, who was also finding it difficult to keep his eyes open due to the previous night.

I'd say that within ten minutes of my Mum falling to sleep I looked across at my Dad who opend his eyes, looked across at me, frowned and then began to convulse as his last heart attack took his life.

It was some years later that my mum recounted the tale of the previous night and her belief that she met the Angel of Death.

Whilst I have a great interest in the spirit/guardian aspects of the paranormal I have had limited experience of the paranormal myself - though my Mum and brother have had all manner of encounters over the course of their lives.

The look on my mum's face when she recounts this tale from time to time convinces me that something like this exists.

Does anyone have a similar experience?
 
This is a sad tale, it must have been very difficult for you.

The skeptic in me (it's a lot more outgoing than the believer) suggests that your mum conjured the image in her mind. Either it was a hallucination or a tulpa, if you believe in those, and what she saw was the product of a sleepless night spent worrying. It could also have been hypnagogic, but the way you told it made it sound like she'd been awake for a while, so that seems unlikely.
Perhaps she'd had a preminition and that was her minds way of dealing with it.

Not to say I don't believe, but I like to try out the obvious explanations first.
 
The recently deceased Mark Chorvinsky of Strange Magazine collected tales of this sort and gave a talk at the Fortean Times Uncon and there was also an article in Strange Mag at one time.

Gordon
 
SanMarco3, I find this very interesting. I have always read about and been told of forerunners and things like that, but I have never known of anyone who may have seen an actual "angel of death".

My very belated condolences, but what an astounding story!

PS...welcome to the board!
 
San Marco3, I would be interested to know where about in the world you come from. The thing is that Death in the UK and the US is usually depicted with a hood, whereas on the mainland [I can only speak about Germany myself] he is wearing a large brimmed hat.

My mum used to see people dressed in black before her grand dad died and again when her nan died.
For some reason I can't imagine that a person from lets say China for example would see anything dressed in black at all as it just doesn't feature in their mythology. However I think they would see something else. Would be interesting to know the images of Death throughout the world. Maybe someone here from Asia can shed some light on this?

Anyway, it could be that some people are more perceptive of pending occurances and their brain might make them "see" the appropriate figure/creature etc.
 
There is an intersting collection of encounters with Azrael, the angel of death, at Azrael
 
San Marco3, I would be interested to know where about in the world you come from. The thing is that Death in the UK and the US is usually depicted with a hood, whereas on the mainland [I can only speak about Germany myself] he is wearing a large brimmed hat
Click to expand...

Off at a slight tangent, Odin who was among other things a god of the dead, wore a broad-brimmed hat when he went about in the world of men. I wonder if that's where the image of death with broad brimmed hat arose in Germany?

(Although Odin only had one eye)
 
My uncle asked my aunt who the person was standing in his room and dressed in all black. He saw this person on and off for 2 days, before he died.
 
Thanks Redhead 666 and everyone else in fact!!

Fao Dingo667 - I'm from Manchester and that is where the incident occurred.

The two `stand-out' facts that my mum always refers to are the fact that she could only see it's eyes (because of the position of it's arm) and the large brimmed hat (usually followed by her making a circular motion in the air with both hands).
 
Sanmarco3, I've had a similar experance but with the death of an animal. When I was 15 (Gulp, 16 years ago now.. :? ) I had a rat called Tarzan (He used to swing across the top bars of his cage.) whom I adored and he me. You know those type of bonds you can get with animals? Anyways, Tarzan had been taken ill, the first time in his life. His cage was in my bedroom opposite the end of my bed and across the window. I remember waking in my sleep and seeing a very robust man, but quite short in semi profile. He was like a lightish shadow. Funnily enough he reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock in apperance! I was quite startled as you can imagine but somehow fell back to sleep.
Sadly Tarzan passed away the next day. I often wondered if the man was waiting to take Tarzan with him (And this is where I sound really nuts!!) and if Tarzan knew him from a previous life or something?
Incidently, I burried him in the back garden. It was a sunny day and my neighbours radio was blaring out from their garden and (Oh god, this is cringe worthy, the things I admit for the sake of Forteena! :oops: ) Jenifer Rush's 'The Power Of Love' was playing. Many times after that if I got upset or was thinking of him I'd turn the radio on and hear that song, or someone elses radio would be playing it! It was loooonnnnggg since gone from the charts so I chose to think he was sending a message to me. ??

'K, now I'm embarrassed and will go and hide. :lol:
 
I had a not entirely dis-similar experience.

I arrived at my parents house just in time to see the ambulance crew pack up and leave after my father had a fatal heart attack. Being young and foolish I coped with the matter by standing outside and having a smoke. I was therefore in a prime position to watch the attending crew wheel out my father in a body bag.

Following that rather sad cortege was a shadowy shape, roughly man sized, which had the appearance of a robed figure.

Given my emotional state at the time (and the fact that there was a fair amount of cigarette smoke in the air) I have always treated this experience with some scepticism, but I thought I'd post it here since the circumstances to the OP (and our ages at the time) are similar.
 
akaWiintermoon said:
'K, now I'm embarrassed and will go and hide. :lol:
Click to expand...

Ah, no need to be embarrassed, Wiintermoon. If more people showed this kind of tenderness toward animals the world would be a better place.
 
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