Psychopomp

Quick meaning: Psychopomp is a noun meaning (religion) A spirit, deity, person, etc., who guides the souls of the dead to the afterlife.

Meaning

(religion) A spirit, deity, person, etc., who guides the souls of the dead to the afterlife.

Example Sentences

For most of us, Dr Wilder Penrose was our amiable Prospero, the psychopomp who steered our darkest dreams towards the daylight.

It is generally assumed that the sun goddess functions in the Shapash hymn as psychopomp, transporter of the dead to and from their netherly abode.

This is an allusion to Hermes as the guide of souls, the psychopomp; an important element of Hermes' nature that receives only this scant mention in the Hymn. To understand Hermes as psychopomp we must get to the root of the Hermes of life and death.

These intermediaries take various forms: the psychopomps of the Neo platonists, the angelic beings of ritual magic, the spirit guides of theosophy, the aliens of modern Ufologists, and the neopagan gods which are a feature of late twentieth-century alternative thought.

Word Forms

• psychopomps

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include psyche, manes, eudaemon, agathodaemon, witchspirit, aspect.

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