The ‘Ceremony of Death’ to mark the departure of ***Silo*** (6th January 1938-16th September 2010) took place last Friday, 17th September in the “Salita” (small hall) dedicated to ***”Silo’s Message”*** in the city of Mendoza, and was officiated by a Master of the Parks for Study and Reflection, La Reja, Silvia Amodeo. With this article Pressenza has included a video of the events which took place the 17th and 18th of September, where everything ended with an identical ceremony in Río Cuarto, a province of Cordoba, at the entrance to the crematorium.
In the Ceremony of Death, included in the book ***”Silo’s Message”***, it says: *“Life has ceased in this body. We must now make an effort to separate in our minds the image of this body from the image of the person we remember…*
*”This body does not hear us. This body is not the person we remember…*
*”May those of you who do not feel the presence here of another life, separate from the body, consider that although death has paralysed this body, the actions he carried out will continue to act, and their influence will never end. This chain of actions that was set in motion in life cannot be stopped by death. How profound it is to meditate on this truth, even though we may not completely comprehend the transformation of one action into another!*
*”And may those of you who do feel the presence of a separate life consider that death has only paralysed this body, that the mind has once again triumphantly freed itself, opening its way toward the Light…*
*”Whatever our views, let us not weep for this body. Rather, let us meditate on the root of our beliefs, and a gentle and silent joy will come to us…*
*”Peace in the heart, light in the understanding!”*
After the end of the ceremony, Pepe Prako, a Master of the Parks for Study and Reflection, Punta de Vacas, read a paragraph from Silo’s book ***”The Inner Look”***: *“When they spoke of a city of the gods, which the heroes of many peoples strove to reach; when they spoke of a paradise where gods and humankind lived together in transfigured original nature; when they spoke of falls and floods, great internal truth was told. Later, the redeemers brought their messages and came to us in double nature to re-establish that lost unity for which we yearned. Then, too, great inner truth was told. But when all this was spoken of but set outside the mind, it was an error or a lie. However, the fusing of the inner look with the external world forces this look to travel new paths. The heroes of this age fly through regions previously unknown toward the stars. The heroes of this age fly outward from their world and, without knowing it, they are impelled toward the internal and luminous centre.”*
Later, a Ceremony of Well-being took place, where participants united *“to feel the presence of those loved ones who, **although they are not here in our time or in our space,** are connected to us in this experience of love, peace, and warm joy…”*
The video that comes with this article, ends with a caravan of cars going towards the crematorium of the city of Río Cuarto, where loved ones, friends and Silo’s followers from all over the world, carried out the last ceremony and said goodbye singing *“Peace, Force and Joy”.*
Now the ashes will be spread, with accompanying ceremonies, across 20 Parks for Study and Reflection in different parts of America, Europe, Asia and Africa, were hundreds of Silo’s disciples and humanists will evoke their spiritual guide.
*translation by Viviane Fathimani*
