What Remains

Human beings comprise earth's only death cult. Unique in our intellectual capabilities, we regard our dead with love, fear, sorrow, and awe. From the earthly corpse to the cosmic soul, we seek to speak with the dead, engage with them, and keep some essential part of them with us. Most of all, we hope not for their finite decay, but for its opposite: that those we love will live on after death, and that we will, too. Since the beginning of recorded history, artists, spiritualists, philosophers, and seekers of all kinds have taken the leap into the great mysteries of existence and the even greater possibilities of immortality. Fortunately for us, most of them lived to tell a tale or two. In Firbolg Publishing's second grimoire collection, we bring together an eclectic mix of fiction, poetry, essays and reflections, artwork, historical documents, and odd ephemera to explore centuries' worth of attitudes, expressions, and eccentricities regarding life, death, the afterlife, and the extraordinary spaces in between. Featuring artists both past and present, we take readers on a deep dive into the uniquely human way of exploring, experiencing, and expressing both the many blessings and profound tragedies of life, death, and what remains.