Metaphysical Thoughts on Heath Ledger’s Death

Ó 2008 By Kirby Robinson

The world witnessed a reinforcement of the often-used phrase, “the good die young” with the loss of Australian actor Heath Ledger on January 22, 2008. This blog has not been written to judge the man for the choices he made in his personal life, but to focus on one of the films that he starred in back in 2003.

“The Order” also known as “The Sin Eater” was the story of the battle between good and evil via a confrontation between Heath’s character, Alex Bernier, the last priest in the ancient lineage of Carolingian priests, who have been trained in dealing with ghosts and demons, and a sin eater, William Eden, for his soul.

What is a sin eater? A person who is a spiritual healer who takes on all the sins that a dying person has accumulated over his/her lifetime, bringing that person to a state of purity free from any sin. The history of sin eating is a murky one and full of contradictions, dead ends, and secrets. The Roman Catholic Church didn’t strongly advocate sin eaters for political and spiritual reasons, because:

1. The sin eaters were loaded down with the sins they were carrying.
2. Priests were supposed to administer Last Rites to the dying.

To perform his (or her) sin eating duties and save the soul from going to hell or wandering the earth as a ghost, the sin eater’s ritual consists of eating bread from the chest of the sinner’s body, directly over the heart, and may also eat salt or drink water or ale. In some cases, the meal is passed over the body of the dying person. A prayer usually accompanies the ritual.

The origins of sin eating have been around for centuries and the English, Welsh, Dutch, Bavarian and Balkan cultures all cite evidence of sin eaters living within their countries.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the term Bodhicitta is derived from the Sanskrit terms Bodhi= Enlightened being, Citta=Mind. The person who is on the path of becoming a Bodhisattva genuinely wishes to attain Buddhahood (Enlightenment) to benefit not only him or herself, but all other sentient beings in all realms of existence, which would naturally include those suffering in the human, animal, hungry ghost, and hell realms.

Often when we view movies on the subject of other aspects of popular culture or personal self-conduct, we think that since it is not real, it’s just pretend, just acting, and it carries no consequences, (karma, the law of cause and effect). The same thing goes for us, for those of us who aren’t actors, if we should joke around about making a deal with the devil to get what we want, to the anger of speaking the words “damn you” to someone who cuts us off in traffic. If an actor is playing the role of a priest who confronts and battles evil, imagine what the results might be.

The history of cursed movies such as: Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, Superman, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, and The Crow and their resultant string of tragedies and casualties serve as examples of what happens when doors are opened for actors that should remain closed. Apparently Mr. Ledger must have been battling some personal demon through his drug abuse. It’s possible there might have been a few unholy entities drawn to him through his role in “The Order.” Ironically, when we first meet Heath’s character, the young priest is living and practicing in New York City. And where did Heath Ledger die…?

Just a little metaphysical musing …

R.I.P Heathcliff Andrew Ledger, 4/4/79 – 1/22/08.