Death Passed Over

כ'ו בחשון תשס"ח

After my grandmother's passing this past Halloween morning October 31, the date Samhain is typically observed, the festival of death and renewal (of death only in the eyes of some, whereas others consider Samhain to be a festival of scholars) continued to seek out souls to remove from the physical world. While my grandmother's passing was not so unexpected at 92 years of age with failing health (it was an obvious blessing toward renewal of life for my grandmother even as it was a loss for my family), a woman's husband at work died unexpectedly the very next day, Thursday evening November 1 (may she be comforted by the kindness extended to her by our coworkers). Both she and her husband work(ed) at the facility where I work.

I went back to work on Monday, but after additional work was piled onto me, along with work associated with the end of the month close (which was completed Monday morning before it was due Wednesday), with the recent passing of my grandmother, my body developed an allergic cold/flu yesterday, Tuesday morning at work. I sneezed continuously the entire day, despite a second dose of newfangled Actifed, becoming lightheaded, feverish and physically weak. So, Tuesday afternoon, I went home early, loaded up on Robitussin nighttime multisymptom cold medicine and went to bed, where I dreamt.

I dreamt of dark lethal storm clouds passing over my locations, from east to west they were moving even as they filled the sky. At one point there was a small break in the cloud cover, but it was only for a short time, while we took care of business.

I wanted to wait out the storm on the main floor of my house (which was a house trailer at times) - for some reason I wasn't worried that it couldn't weather the storm. Nevertheless, the man with us (somehow a relative, but I'm not sure who exactly this was) convinced me that it was safer to wait underground in the basement while the dark lethal storm clouds passed over. So, we all went down and waited in the basement as the dark lethal storm clouds passed over.

I woke up - to the news of a lethal school shooting in Finland.

From CNN: YouTube Linked To Deadly School Shootings

HELSINKI, Finland (CNN) -- A video posted earlier Wednesday, by "Sturmgeist89", was titled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007." "Sturmgeist89" identified himself as Auvinen, and said he chose the name "Sturmgeist" because it means "storm spirit" in German.

At least eight people were killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a school in Finland Wednesday, according to Finnish police. The shooting appeared to have been planned out in graphic videos posted on Internet file-sharing site YouTube.

At a press conference this afternoon, police confirmed the dead numbered two girls, five boys and the school's headmistress at Jokela High in Tuusula, a quiet town around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Helsinki.

The shooter, who police named as Pekka Eric Auvinen, is in a critical condition at Toolo Hospital, Dr. Eeero Hirvensalo told CNN.

Auvinen published a manifesto online demanding war on the "weak-minded masses" and pledged to die for his cause.

YouTube appeared to have removed 89 videos linked to his account, many of them featuring Nazi imagery, shortly after the incident.

Finnish media reported someone posted a message two weeks ago on the Web site, warning of a bloodbath at the school.

The site indicated that the youth appeared to be fascinated with killing. Throughout all of this, the single word "DIE" constantly flashed across the screen. Other video clips included Nazi-war-criminal footage.

In the rambling text posted on the site, Auvinen said that he is "a cynical existentialist, anti-human humanist, anti-social social-Darwinist, realistic idealist and god-like atheist.

"I am prepared to fight and die for my cause," he wrote. "I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection."

Read the entire news article at link above.

Thank Goddess! for the cold I developed through this 11/7/2007 day, astronomical Samhain.