The Radiant Coat: Myths & Stories about the Crossing Between Life and Death

by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

As an analyst working with the dying, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés has developed seminal methods to help ease the fear that can accompany the dying process. On The Radiant Coat, this bestselling author shares myths and stories first told at the bedsides of the dying to comfort them and their loved ones. For other cultures, Dr. Estés teaches, death holds no terror. It is in fact characterized as an ally, a wise and caring figure, leading departed souls through the starry night into the next day. This application of storytelling as a precious medicine for the terminally ill has attracted worldwide attention to the work of Dr. Estés. Fusing stories with useful psychological analysis, she removes the cloak of fear that surrounds the dying process. The Radiant Coat is a uniquely helpful collection of teaching stories, offered to help all listeners who seek to understand death—not as the end of life—but as another beginning.

Additional contents: Death as a companion; consciously preparing for death; the four tasks in crossing between the worlds; dreams of the dying; medical intervention; the split archetype of the doctor as both life-bringer and escort through the doorway of death. Stories include: Godfather Death, The Water Glass, The Radiant Coat, and more.

Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes.

Genres: Psychology, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Death, Spirituality, Sociology, Short Stories

2 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

An American poet, psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist who was raised in now nearly vanished oral and ethnic traditions. She is a first-generation American who grew up in a rural village, population 600, near the Great Lakes. Of Mexican mestiza and majority Magyar and minority Swabian tribal heritages, she comes from immigrant and refugee families who could not read or write, or who did so haltingly. Much of her writing is influenced by her family people who were farmers, shepherds, hopsmeisters, wheelwrights, weavers, orchardists, tailors, cabinet makers, lacemakers, knitters, and horsemen and horsewomen from the Old Countries.

Reviews

[Jinan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"To live, you must face death"

And sometimes, to truly live, you must let a part of you die.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Radiant Coat Clarissa Pinkola Estés blends a collection of stories and myths with Jungian archetypal psychological analysis to teach, in her distinctive gentle manner, that dying and death need not be feared. She says that death can be characterized as an ally, a wise and caring figure. Her aim here is to remove the cloak of fear that surrounds the dying process. She aims to comfort. So she offers insights and guidance on how to truly live in one’s dying. Clarissa Pinkola Estés frames her discussion about how to consciously prepare for death around four key tasks: the task of clear memory; the task of clear power; the task of clear seeing; the task of clear knowing. Clarissa Pinkola Estés describes and applies archetypal imagery to her own teachings with expertise and elegance. She tells tales with much charm and tenderness. She introduces and subsequently discusses the stories in The Radiant Coat with more perspicacity and pre-eminence than I have encountered elsewhere in her work. And although my own beliefs and theories don’t necessarily correspond with everything Clarissa Pinkola Estés speaks on and teaches, and although I am, on a personal level, quite sceptical about certain aspects of her spirituality, I feel immensely and deeply respectful of her. This is an excellent, most mindful and profound meditation on dying.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is worth another listen or two.

[Elena Rego · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so much of what we never do in Western Culture... the preparation and understanding of our relationship with death.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will probably revisit this book, it was really good. Too bad it exists only in audio version. The author talks lovely about what it means to die and how we have become very distant from this simple and natural complex. Many try to cheat death with severe repercussions to their soul and inner life. We live in fear of death rather than learning to embrace her gifts. I think everyone should listen to this short book about the different forms death can take.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read comprised of powerful and effective parables that will stick with me. I was a little skeptical when I heard the audiobook narrator's voice, but this is truly worth a listen, especially at a speedy 90 minutes.

[Shana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The audiobook is read by the author, which was great. Her descriptions of the traditional tales of what death is and is like illuminated my own spiritual hunches. There’s at least 1 story in this collection that also appears in Women Who Run With the Wolves.

[Aya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone who wants to overcome his/her fear of death...Beautiful stories!

[Maryann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only Estes can speak on death in a way that is Estes.