Worm Food

Let us now discuss that topic that few enjoy, death and what to do with our body after we shuffle off this mortal coil.

UU blogger Philocrites found an excellent article on “green” burials that brought it to mind.

“Not for Ray Karno. On a Saturday morning earlier this year, he trudged up a soggy path to the crest of a ridge overlooking Mill Valley. Below, a sun-splashed meadow melted into woods thick with eucalyptus trees. ”Beautiful,” he said. ”This is a dream come true for me.’ Upon his death, the Oakland man wants his body brought to a spot like this one, wrapped in unbleached cloth, and lowered into a grave marked by a tree or indigenous stone. No embalming, coffin, or headstone. All natural. ‘To me, the idea that I could become worm food is an honor,’ Karno said.”

Green burials like cremation has been growing in popularity lately for a variety of reasons; environmental concerns, the cost of a traditional burial, and the slow erosion of the dominance of Christian thought on Western cultures. Few people understand how much our burial methods today conform to a Christian mindset. Modern Pagans much like many Eastern faith traditions don’t have a myth of bodily resurrection, and as such no corresponding need to preserve the body with chemicals and expensive caskets until the “day of judgment”. Green burial grounds may (for now) be a favored compromise for minority faiths since the grounds are usually left unconsecrated.

“To avoid legal complications and bureaucracy, the grounds are often not consecrated, but priests can bless individual plots. Often with no headstone, the legal requirement of marking each separate grave for the burial register can be left to a shrub, tree or even an electronic chip.” – Guardian Unlimited

This leads to the question of eventually creating Pagan burial grounds. In the face of the near-complete dominance of Christian-consecrated grounds and the attending rules of such establishments it is hard for modern Pagans to arrange a burial that fits his or her world view (heck our Wiccan veterans can’t even get a pentacle on their headstones). There is at least one Pagan-run burial ground (cremated remains only) in existence but this will hardly suit the needs of our growing (and aging) population.

So as the second and third-wave modern Pagans reach retirement age and eventually death we will need to address exactly what we want done with our remains and who we want to steward our resting places. Something to ponder.

Tags: Neopaganism