A letter from Narinder about what it’s like to mentor the holistic death care workers in the Nine Keys apprenticeship.
Dear friends,
I say, many times, to the apprentices during the course of our nine months together, “You must continue to trust the calling that brought you to this work in the first place.” Sometimes I’ll say it like, “Surrender that to your calling.” or “Trust your calling. It will do amazing things for you.”
So, I practice what I teach.
In 2018, after years of serving people in Atlanta as a spiritual guide and death midwife, I heard the calling to “midwife death workers.” Do you think I jumped on that calling with full gusto and confidence? Heck no! I did what a lot of new holistic death care workers do, I doubted the calling and I questioned my capacities to answer it, but I couldn’t ignore it.
and…
I LOVE teaching, I have been teaching in some capacity for almost twenty-five years, but I didn’t think I was qualified to teach other people about how to be a death worker. However, that calling continually pulled on my sleeve. I called my mentor, Donna Belk, who was vacationing in Guatemala at the time, to tell her about the calling I received. I was shocked that she wasn’t surprised by my news. With her blessing I began to write the training material for the Nine Keys apprenticeship.
I have walked with dozens of holistic death workers now as they have unfurled/ blossomed/come-upon their unique death care practice.
I can tell you some things I have learned along the way:
There are no two death workers alike.
Some people come into the apprenticeship with no plans to be a death worker, but then they end up blossoming into entrepreneurs. Some people come into the apprenticeship with a plan and end up finding out that their calling has an idea of its own!
Some people in death midwifery apprenticeships are really challenged by being uplifted and praised and guided.
I do it anyway.To keep friction out of the equation, I learned to encourage myself and apprentices to stick to the plan.
Nine Keys is definitely not a series of hoops to jump through. I learned that some people may be looking for that. NIne Keys is a spiritual journey, because death midwifery is a spiritual journey. Nine Keys offers a lot of practical and grounded teachings to support that.
Each apprentice is so very unique, and I am glad I get to help them one-on-one. I keep Nine Keys limited to small groups for this reason.
I am humbled, sometimes to tears, by the brilliance of the people I get to call my apprentices. I am grateful every day for this calling.
Goddess works in mysterious ways! I can’t explain the magic that happens in Nine Keys, but I’ve learned that it does happen. I love when apprentices lean into the mystery and trust me when I say, “Trust your calling. It will do amazing things for you.”
Nine Keys will be one of the best things I got to do with my life.
Bless us all.
with care,
Narinder Bazen