Decomposition, Death, and Beauty: Our First Article of 2019!

Greetings Deathlings, 

It's our first article of the year! 

If you're not already a fan of AJ Hawkins' work, this piece just might take you over the edge. You're welcome. 

To fill you in on more details, here's our editor, Sarah Chavez: 

This week we’re excited to share our first piece of 2019! 

One of the goals this year is continuing to build on the foundation of our #YearOfAction while inspiring you to get more ambitious, (after all, it is the #YearOfAmbition). With this in mind we’ll be providing more practical information and tools to help you accomplish your death positive goals, big and small. I hope that by getting an idea of how the sausage is made, you’ll feel more confident about creating your own initiatives, supporting others, and helping our society form a healthier and more empowered relationship with death. 

In this first piece, we're exploring the three year process behind artist and death positive business owner AJ Hawkins’ art series, The Reclamation. The pieces are not only beautiful, they confront the viewer with their own mortality. Art that seeks to remind us of death, and prompt us to truly live fully has been around for centuries. I’m sure most of you are familiar with vanitas art, however, my favorite is a Buddhist genre known as Kyuaizu (The Nine Signs), that feature the nine stages of decomposition.  Primarily because of the woman who inspired it – Empress-Consort Tachibana no Kachiko.

The Empress wanted to use her status to spread the teachings of Buddha, but she was so beautiful:

 “that whenever she tried to teach people of Buddha and warn them of the impermanent nature of life, she found herself constantly assailed by love letters and obscene offers instead of interested students. ...When the Empress died at the age of 64...(she) requested that her body be garbed in the simplest cloth, then flung onto the streets. (so that people could see) the delicate flesh rot away, the meat of her body picked at by crows and wild dogs.” - Zack Davisson 

With this act she was able to provide a living (or in this case, decaying), example of the valuable lessons she tried to impart in life. 

We hope you enjoy Creating The Reclamation, and be sure to follow The Order on Twitter and Facebook where we’ll be posting more content related to decomposition, death, and beauty.  

Eternally Yours, 

Caitlin, Sarah, and Louise