We get spooked in the woods, especially in the dark. On Halloween, stories say, the dismal specter of Death, the Grim Reaper, might be lurking around any tree.

Black Death

The apparition we know as the grim reaper originated during the fourteenth century. As the bubonic plague claimed the lives of about 1/3 of the population of Europe, the image of death became prevalent in the art of the late 1300s.

The skeletal form of the dead draped in the black funerary robes of the medieval clergy. He carried a farmer’s scythe to reap the souls of the recently departed.

Angel of Death

I added a weird little word to my vocabulary, Psychopomp, a Greek word meaning guide of souls. Almost every religion has an entity responsible for escorting the deceased to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge but to guide.

Remember Dicken’s “Ghost of Christmas Yet to come”? His business was to show Scrooge the world after his death. To guide the miser to make a change and leave a better world when he is gone.

Ferryman of the Dead

Clash of the Titans (the 1981 version) cemented my image of Charon, the Ferryman. The minion of Hades whose job, for a price, was to transport the dead across the river Acheron. I always thought it was the river Styx, but apparently, Styx is the main river separating the land of the living from the dead.

In most historic art, Charon is depicted as a normal-looking human. Ray Harryhausen’s artistry has firmly established the reaper as the indelible likeness of Charon the Ferryman.

The fourth Seal

“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”- Revelations, 6:8 (King James Version)

The book of Revelation is the prophecy of end times. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse let loose upon the world. Sometimes it seems like we’ve been living in end times since the beginning of time.

Death in the Woods

Today is the traditional beginning of the old Christian season of Allhallotide. A time to remember the dead. But in modern secular times, we’re more interested in scaring ourselves with specters of death

Humans are evolved from tree dwelling forest animals. We’re essentially prey. We have a natural fear of the forest, especially at night. Creepy shadows prowl behind trees. Low light and long shadows exaggerate the threat.

in the end

Keep safe, and have fun scaring yourself this Halloween!