I am at the end of this book Abhorsen. It is the end of a trilogy that started with Sabriel and then Liriel. I checked these books out from the local library. Never heard of the author, Garth Nix. Lately I've been preoccupied with the concept of how death influences the self, so when I read that the book's heroine was necromancer with the ability to delve into death and effect change in the lived world, my interest was peaked. The books are entertaining, but I don't really know what to think. All I know that my thoughts are pondering and thinking hard about the subject. Normally I shrug off errant thoughts and move on to something else, but once my dreams incorporated the story and inserted me into the story line, I knew I would have to delve deeper.

I think most people think of death as more of as an end, rather than as a transitional state. Even devout believers in an afterlife still treat death as end.

Traditional Navajo religious thought, as I interpret it, the self is comprised of a multitude of powers. The self is many in one and at a person's death the self transitions back into the many. The self transitions back into the many parts of the cosmos.

I always wondered why Navajo traditions forbid speaking of people who have died. I think that other persons through the power of their thoughts and voice prevent a person from dissolution back into the cosmos. The composition of a person or of the self, does not carry on to an afterlife as a whole, it changes back into many other powers. As far as I know, Navajo religious tradition, does not mention or speak of an afterlife, nor does it suggest one. Which I think is an oddity when compare to other religious traditions around the world. I don't know if this makes any sense, but this is what ideas have been milling in my thoughts for awhile.

I've always had problems with the Cartesian maxim, "I think therefore, I am." I always wondered why it bugged me so much. I think some of it has to do with how Navajo religious thought influences my concept of self. "I" or the self in western thought is singular. The self in Navajo thought is also singular too, but it is composed of many others and that singularity is temporary and ends in death.

I didn't even get to talk about the book!