Part of a series of posts inspired by the South Wales Occult Conference in Cardiff on 2nd November 2024 – find the first post and index here.

Starting off with the question:

“Who here is immortal?”

Was certainly a fun move for this talk by Sorita D’Este.

A dozen or so people put their hands up, including myself and the entirety of our Star Club contingent (I’m told). If I’m honest, my first thought was:

“Which part of me are you asking?”

Because actually the answer depends, but my intuitive response was completely without doubt.

Some essential part of me, the part of me that wanted to answer the question, is immortal. Don’t ask me to explain any deeper though!

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The talk itself was actually exploring some of the ways in which people have historically sought immortality, and what it might mean.

From the possibility of becoming a god, reincarnation, eternal afterlives, and ghosts as astral immortality…

Through to the concept of physical immortality through meditation, or potions and preservatives…

Immortality has been a topic that has fascinated humans for a long time.

One form of immortality that feels the most possible to attain through our actions and choices is that of being remembered, and this feeds into the concept of the Mighty Dead – famous dead humans who seem to like interacting with the living, perhaps to continue being remembered! (Saints, heroes, ancient Kings and Queens…).

This is a form often mentioned in myth and legend, and one powerful curse is “may your name be forgotten”, suggesting that this is a really important piece for many of us. To be remembered is to live on in people’s hearts and minds in some way. In that famous epic Gilgamesh learned this lesson. His quest for immortality led to the realisation that he would live on through his deeds, the things he built, and as long as people spoke his name.

I know this doesn’t sound like the kind of immortality that most of us think of, its far from the eternal unchanging nature of the movie screen vampire, or the ever-living sorceress. But it is a truth that our bodies return to the Earth eventually. And even if reincarnation, or an eternal afterlife, are true, there is still something in the self-that-I-am-now that cannot survive that. The loss of this body, of this set of relationships and experiences, must be an ending of some kind. Being remembered as we are now is a way in which the self that we are lives on, as we are.

This connection between immortality and memory is so enduring, and fascinating to me.

In many pagan traditions, as in some queer spaces like the Trans Day of Remembrance events, we have begun saying the names of our dead so that they are remembered, so that they live on in our communities, and so that they are fed. It is an old practice, and a powerful one.

I do sometimes wonder, who will speak my name when I am gone? Do you know who might speak yours?

Sorita outlined several examples of people becoming gods, or gaining a cult following, or having their names immortalised. But one utterly delightful process of apotheosis (becoming divine) that she shared from inscriptions on gravestones was that which outlined how certain individuals who were aligned with specific deities of the Earth, Underworld, or Land, would be described as physically becoming that deity when their body was buried.

The buried body still has life, and feeds life, and becomes one with the living earth, the body of the goddess that they belong to. The main example given was Hekate. (If you know Sorita’s work that will be no surprise!)

So perhaps the physicists have one key to practical immortality – energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed. If the Platonists were right and Hekate is the Living Soul of the Earth, then when our bodies are buried the life that they are becomes part of the life of the immortal being that is Hekate.

Our memories live on, immortal in the memories of those who come after us.

Our bodies return to the body of the Divine.

Our spirits, well, I’ve dreamed enough and journeyed enough to know that our spirits may well have adventures once this life comes to an end.

So perhaps it doesn’t matter which part of me you ask… or whether you ask the religious, the storytellers, or the physicists… I really am immortal.

But… I do really quite like it here so I’m in no rush to discover what that’s like!

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Your Turn: Are you immortal? What does it mean to you? Share your story in the comments below!

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Storytelling is a wonderful way to honour those that have come before and support their immortal memory… and it is an act of magic in itself. In January 2025 I have a new book coming on Storytelling for Magic – both how to use storytelling in magic and ritual, and how to learn the bardic skills for storytelling to use in other parts of your magic… And have fun!