Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...

Book II: Rites & Rituals 159
and wishes for the Fates to weave, Kay lifts two chalices in her hands, pouring water back and
forth between them, symbolizing the flow between her manifested art and creativity. She speaks
her commitment to herself as an elder, and to the aspects of Cronehood she will celebrate. Lifting
the full chalice to her lips, Kay drinks in her commitments, making the magick a part of her
internally. She then punctuates the magick externally by lighting the eighth candle, symbolizing
the manifestation of creativity in her next stage of life. As another
chant begins, Kay gives thanks for the many gifts of her life.
180. Crone and Sage
Crone and sage,
Crone and Sage
Wisdom is a gift of age.
Sage and crone
Sage and crone
Wisdom’s gift shall be our own.
—Author unknown
V. Rites of Death & Rebirth
By Oberon
“Last Rites” are generally conducted for someone on their deathbed to prepare them for
their final journey from this life into the next one. This is all very well if the person is dying
predictably, as at the end of a long illness, and there is time to make all the necessary
arrangements. But very often people die unexpectedly, and there will have been no opportunity
to prepare them, or their family and friends. Even so, it is appropriate to conduct a final
rite of passing to facilitate their transition to the “unknown country.” Many departed spirits
seem bewildered, not realizing that they have actually died. Rather than moving on, their
ghosts hover about the places and people they knew in life. They are held as much by the
emotional anguish, love, grief, and guilt of those left behind as by their own unfinished
business. So a magickal sense of closure is needed when someone dies—to liberate their
spirit, as well as the spirits of all who loved them.
Rites of passing include a laying-out of the body—bathing them, brushing their hair,
making them up, and dressing them in their funerary finest. These proceedings have traditionally
been conducted by women. Fresh flowers may be arranged around the body or even
covering it like a blanket. And as they lie in state, friends may come to pay their last respects.
Their favorite songs should be sung or played—especially those they may have said they’d
have liked played at their funeral.
There are many funerary customs in different cultures for disposal of the body. Simple
burial has been the most common from the dawn of time, often involving little more then
laying the body in a deep hole, filling in the hole, and setting up a marker of some sort upon
the grave. The body may be placed in a coffin, and grave gifts may be interred as offerings.
Important figures such as royalty were generally entombed in crypts or mausoleums, which
could be astonishingly elaborate—think of King Tut’s tomb! Mummification was an important
practice in many cultures (as embalming still is today) in an attempt to preserve the
semblance of life. Parsis, Incas, and some North American tribes exposed their dead in high
places to be consumed by vultures—returning later to collect the bones. Today, cremation is
becoming increasingly popular, as it leaves ashes that may later be kept in an urn, scattered in
some favorite place, or even shot into space!
Any of these customs and practices are to be conducted in a ritual manner.
My personal favorite—which I would choose for my own disposition—is the old Celtic