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Podcast Page - Banner Title

Reclaiming death back into our own hands & hearts with Deathwalker Zenith Virago

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18th April 2024

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About this episode

In this episode, I speak with a pioneer in the deathcare industry, Zenith Virago.

Zenith is the founder and executive officer of the Natural Death Care Centre Charity Australia.

She is a deathwalker, a celebrant, and an educator.

Zenith has been empowering people to have healthier, healing bereavement with few or no regrets for over 30 years. Our conversation was enlightening and funny, ranging from the significance of graveyards in England, ceremonies for the LGBTQ community, how to support children through grief.

And we even managed to talk about vaginas!

Stay tuned for this enlightening episode and remember, let's break the taboo around talking about death.

We're all in this journey together, so let's not be caught dead without having these essential conversations.

Take care, Catherine x

 

Show notes

Guest Bio
Podcast Guest - Image
Zenith Virago

Founder & Executive Officer of The Natural Death Care Centre charity, Australia. 

Zenith Virago is the Founder & Executive Officer of The Natural Death Care Centre charity, Australia. 

She is a Deathwalker, a Celebrant and an educator. She has been fortunate to be at the forefront of reclaiming dying, death, body care and ceremony back into our own hands and hearts for over 30 years, having worked with dying people and their families and friends, individuals and communities to help them achieve a more holistic and beneficial approach.

Zenith speaks and teachs both nationally and internationally, and describes her work as assisting people to die well, and assisting those left behind to have a healthier healing bereavement, with no or few regrets.

As an authorised Civil Marriage Celebrant in Australia, she has married over 2,500 couples.

As a member of the LGBTQ community she is particularly delighted to be able to marry absolutely everyone at last.

Zenith is co-author of the book The Intimacy of Death and Dying, Patron of The Good Funeral Guide, UK, and the subject of the international independent documentary, Zen & the Art of Dying. Featured in the award winning documentaries TENDER and Laura’s Choice. A TEDX Byron Bay speaker and much, much more.

Zenith describes herself as a feminist, dancer, swimmer, liver of life, and proudly a previous Byron Citizen of the Year.

Summary

In this episode, we cover:

  • Zenith's journey into becoming a 'Deathwalker'
  • The importance of community in death care
  • The enlightening experience of founding the Natural Death Care Centre charity
  • The impact of generosity in the world of death care
  • Zenith's exploration of deathcare in the UK
  • The role of ceremony in complex death situations

Transcript

1
00:00:01,930 --> 00:00:06,800
Zenith: I was so incredibly impressed by
his generosity and his kindness, because

2
00:00:06,819 --> 00:00:11,279
it's very unusual for a funeral director
to tell you how to do it themselves.

3
00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:16,229
And because I never got to thank him,
because when I went back to say thank you,

4
00:00:16,230 --> 00:00:17,990
the funeral directors had disappeared.

5
00:00:18,630 --> 00:00:22,270
But I am bound by h ... Read More

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