Death & The Psychopomp:  Myth & Archetypes

A Dead Good Festival Event

Sunday 18th October
19:00 – 20:30 (BST) 

Online Lecture · £15
 

Across cultures and throughout human history, stories have emerged of mysterious figures who accompany souls through the passage between life and death.

Known as psychopomps, these “guides of souls” occupy the threshold between worlds. They appear in many forms, as  gods, deities goddesses, ancestors, animals, spirits and mythic beings  offering companionship, protection and guidance through the unknown.

In Death & The Psychopomp :  Myth & Archetypes, Tree Carr takes us on a journey into the mythic, cultural and spiritual world of these extraordinary Threshold Walkers.

From Hermes and Charon to ancestral traditions and otherworldly guides,  how different cultures have imagined the journey between life and death and what these ancient stories might still have to tell us today.

Rather than approaching death solely as an ending, this lecture invites us to consider the threshold: the space of transition, transformation and uncertainty.

This is a journey through myth, archetype, psychology and spiritual imagination, inviting us to consider what the figure of the psychopomp represents within our own lives.

ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

TREE CARR

Tree is a published author, TEDx speaker, transpersonal psychology practitioner and Death Doula whose work explores dreams, death, altered states of consciousness, creativity and psychedelic integration.

For more than three decades, Tree has worked at the intersection of mysticism, psychology, storytelling and the arts, helping people navigate the liminal spaces of dreaming, transformation and meaning-making.

She is a graduate of Alef Trust’s programme in Psychedelics, Altered States & Transpersonal Psychology, and has undertaken further study at MetaIntegral Academy in California. She holds a Crossfields Institute Diploma in The Living Well Dying Well Person-Centred Approach to Death & Dying and has studied ecology, spirituality, the paranormal, mediumship and creativity.

Tree teaches dreamwork, lucid dreaming, quantum dreaming and consciousness studies at the College of Psychic Studies in London. She has lectured and facilitated workshops for organisations and institutions including Tate Modern, the Freud Museum, the Barbican, Breaking Convention, the Psychedelic Society UK, the Royal College of Art and New York University.

She is the author of eleven publications spanning dreams, magic, death, culture, creativity and consciousness, including Dreamwork, A Spell A Day, The Witch’s Cat Tarot, Accused! The Witch Trials of Britain, Technomancy, Into the Pines and Re-Enchanting Death.

As a Death Doula, Tree provides spiritual, emotional, existential and practical support around death and dying. As a Transpersonal Dreaming Guide, she works with dreams, symbolism, lucid dreaming and ritual. She also works as a High Priestess Witch, facilitating circles, ceremonies and ritual practices.

Her work has taken her across the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA, and her writing and commentary have appeared in publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, The Sunday Times, Stylist, VICE, Grazia, ES Magazine and Sky History.

Step across the threshold.

Come curious. Come open-minded. Come ready to explore the ancient stories of those who have always stood at the boundary between worlds.

The session will be recorded, so if you can't attend live, you'll be able to catch up afterwards.

You can read our ticket terms and conditions here.