Journal of John Winchester (Supernatural)

November 2

Mary has been dead for seven years. Psychopomp. Term for god or entity responsible for guiding souls to the afterlife. In Greece, Hermes. In Norse myth, the Valkyries. In Egypt, Anubis. Voodoo traditions, going back to their African roots, offer the Ghede. Irish, Ankou. In most shamanic traditions, the shaman is a sort of psychopomp both at the beginning of life and at the end. He or she was present at birth to usher the child into the world, and present at death to see the soul on its journey.Medieval legends of the scythe-bearing Grim Reaper perhaps connected to practice in in some parts of Europe where by the dead were stabbed or buried with sickles.The  real reapers are purely psychic entities with power over time and perception.They can change the way a human sees his surroundings, and change their own appearance, usually to ease the transition from life into death. The reaper’s true form is hard to pin down, but most accounts suggest that the natural way for a living person to see a reaper is as a wraith-like figure wearing tattered winding sheets or burial cloth. Black dogs are also psychopomps sometimes. Buried in the foundations of churches to guard and protect the gates between here and the afterlife.