Issue 15 Summer 2005

Naturalizing Death
For at least the past 2,400 years Western culture has death led inevitably to denying life, and the overvaluation
been engaged in the denial of death. The first part of this of the afterlife devalued this present life.
project was to deny the spiritual reality - the death of our The medicalization of death over the last century or so
individual consciousness - and to invent an imaginary has further alienated us from the realities. Surveys show
afterlife better than this life. The second part, which that seven out of ten Americans wish to die at home. In
progressively came to dominate the death industry over the fact only one person in four achieves that wish - half die in
last century, was to mask the physical reality of death. hospitals, and 20-25% in a nursing home.
The pantheist, reverent naturalist approach reintegrates The biological process has been taken out of the hands
these two aspects of death into the context of nature. of the dying person and their loved ones, expropriated by
Originally our Western root cultures in the Near East, medical professionals. The patient is taken from home and
Greece and Israel, all had a very placed in a sterile and alien hospital
negative view of the individual environment, then subjected to
afterlife for ordinary mortals. We are taught that death is an accident, a expensive medical interventions
Although our consciousness deplorable punishment for the oldest sin. designed to prolong life and avoid
survived death, life after death But let children walk with Nature, let lawsuits. Contact between the dying
was a miserable shadowy them see the beautiful blendings and person and their loved ones may be
existence in a dusty underground. communions of death and life, constrained and rationed. Death may
Homer’s underworld is a grim their joyous inseparable unity, as taught occur among total strangers in a
landscape. There is no judgement in woods, plains and mountains and dehumanized technological jungle.
of souls, no reward for virtue, no streams, and they will learn that death is The commercialization of death
penalty for vice. The common stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life. by the funeral industry adds a final
fate of all is to become gibbering wall of alienation. The body is
John Muir, Thousand Mile Walk
shades, as insubstantial as whisked out of sight, refrigerated
dreams. Only the faintest trace in a morgue drawer, pumped full
remains of perception and intelligence. When Odysseus of toxic embalming chemicals, and then reappears coiffed,
calls up the spirits of the dead, the ghost of Achilles tells painted with cosmetics, and immaculately clothed. The
him :`If I could live on earth again, I’d rather be a serf in funeral often follows a set pattern, conducted by a funeral
the house of a landless peasant, than king of all these dead or religious professional, with extremely limited time for
men who have done with life.’ grieving. It becomes difficult for survivors to attain closure,
One by one each of these cultures, during times of acknowledgement of and reconciliation with death and loss.
mass mortality, war, disease, famine or persecution, created There is a growing groundswell to reform each of these
the idea of a desirable afterlife far superior to life before areas, to reclaim ownership of death for the dying and their
death. Once adopted, this idea offered an attractive escape loved ones, to acknowledge the physical reality of death.
in times of individual or communal troubles, but denying Nature-reverent pantheism embraces all of these aspects in

Features Regulars
Imaging the Afterlife Almanac & Calendar
What do we tell the kids?
Funerals are for the living
Elemental Death News
Green Funerals Pantheist Meetup problems
Natural Caskets Using the UU path

Editor: Paul Harrison — Copy Editor: Rene Lawrence — Printing: Blessed Bee & First Image

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Pan Magazine Spring 2005

Preserving Memory

In the times of our ancestors portraits modelled in wax were arranged, each in its own
niche, as images to accompany the funeral processions of the family; and always,
whenever someone died, every member of the family that had ever existed was present.
The pedigree, too, of the individual was traced by lines to each of the painted portraits.
Their record rooms were filled with archives and records of what each had done.

Pliny, Natural History, xxxv

a re-naturalization of dying and dying. A naturalistic afterlife

Perhaps the core of this approach is acceptance For people with a naturalistic outlook, mind and body are
of death. Pantheism sees death as a natural process one: there is no independent soul that could survive the
that is indispensable to nature and evolution. Sex and death of the body. Hence, most naturalists do not believe in
death evolved hand in hand as means of allowing faster survival of our individual consciousness after death.
adaptation to changing environments. Sex permitted greater However, many of us till harbor a need to feel that
variation, while the death of older individuals made room we will persist in some way. The desire for persistence is
for offspring that were better adapted. So in a sense death instinctive, it’s a part of the drive for survival that helps
is the price we pay for the privilege of parental and sexual us to stay alive. Naturalists must find naturalistic ways
love. of thinking about persistence. There are plenty of these
Pantheism’s stress on our unity with mature and available. If we embrace them consciously and elaborate
the wider Universe also means that we are never totally them into family traditions, they provide an “afterlife”
separate. We emerged from the whole, we are a part of the that can satisfy our survival drives without sacrificing our
whole while alive, we remain part of the whole after death. reverence for reality and evidence.
Mentally – as complex
intellectual emotional and
active social beings - we
survive in memories and
records. We are present in
the minds of all of those
who knew us, positively
where we were kind and
loving, negatively where
we fell short. The pres-
ervation of memory is
a cultural norm in some
societies – as with ances-
tor reverence in South East
and East Asian religions.
Halloween, All Saints, or
the Day of the Dead can
become times when we
communally honor and re-
member the dead.
We can transform
memory into tradition by
maintaining archives of
family records, autobi-
ographies, photographs
and other memorabilia.
There was a time when
this would have become
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 Pan Magazine Spring 2005

very cumbersome after only a few gen-

erations, but computers and hard drives If you live each day as if it were your
make it very easy today. last, it’s certain that one day you’ll be
right. But the odds are that on 14,999
We can preserve and pass down sig- days out of 15,000, you’ll be wrong.
nificant mementoes of our ancestors. I Figure out what that means
have a painting by my Grandmother who for your life strategy.
was an art teacher, a walking stick given
to my great grandfather when he retired of advance health directives indicating how you wish to be
from his job as a printer, a sports trophy treated if you have a terminal illness and are mentally unfit
of my father, my mother’s school prizes. to take decisions. Advanced funeral wishes specify what
We also live on in physical ways kind of ceremony you would like and how you want your
– through the genes of our children or body disposed of.
family, so often visible in similarities Home-made funerals
of appearance and character. We live on The final part of this picture of natural death is a still
through our actions and creations, which small but expanding movement for home funerals designed
continue to spread as waves through the by the deceased or their loved ones.
world, interacting with all other waves in Family members or friends act in lieu of the
complex swells and surfs. professional funeral director in washing and dressing the
Finally we persist through the atoms body. The choice of casket can be based on ecological,
and molecules that make us up. If we make sure that our economical and social needs, free of commercial pressure
bodies are disposed of in ways that allow natural recycling and persuasion. The casket may be made and decorated by
(see the article on Green Funerals) then our elements will loved ones.
be reabsorbed into new life forms, and our gaseous remains Visiting and viewing the deceased happens in a
will circle the globe on the winds. If our bodies are buried familiar environment and is free of time rationing. The
in green burial areas, then we can help to create wildlife ceremony can take place with full respect of cultural and
habitat and help to leave the earth more hospitable for other personal beliefs, honoring a life passage and a life-changing
species. event for survivors. The whole occasion creates a spirit of
Re-empowering the dying and their families community, a safe, loving place to discuss life and death
Dying at home remains most people’s ideal, but and to express grief and loss. Children can learn that death
modern life makes that more difficult: extended families is a natural part of the life cycle.
are split up, housing may often be smaller than in the past, Conventional commercial funerals often involve
more people work full time or do more than one job. All of time-rationing of funeral homes, crematoria or places of
these make care at home difficult. worship. They may involve the intrusion of unfamiliar
The hospice movement has been a very significant step professionals, inappropriate and generalized services.
towards returning power to the dying and their families. Home and self-service funerals allow for full
Terminally ill patients who enter a hospice agree that they absorption of the facts of death and the reality of loss, and
will not receive any treatment for their terminal conditions. a full process of grieving. Instead of leaving loose ends
In return the hospice provides material needs, emotional and an air of unreality and impersonality, they allow for
support, pain alleviation, and easy access for family and full grieving, full closure, full honouring of a life, and full
friends. return to emotional wholeness in acceptance of death as a
There is a growing move to encourage and support natural part of life.
dying at home, including “death midwives” who provide
care and emotional support for the dying and their loved Final Passages: http://www.finalpassages.org/
ones. Priests have
traditionally filled
this role, but
people outside of
traditional religions
have similar needs.
Another
important aspect of
re-empowering the
dying person is the
growing practice
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Pan Magazine Spring 2005

Visions of the
Afterlife
All the major world religions have imagined an
afterlife that is in some way or other superior to this
life. Some, like the Christian and Buddhist afterlives,
present an end to suffering and a promise of
incorporeal bliss. Others, like the Jewish and Moslem
versions, suggest more physical states. Mark Twain,
who complained of the straight-laced Christian
heaven, may have found the Moslem version far
more interesting.

Christianity: Spiritual Bliss

In death . . the human body decays and the soul goes to
meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified
body. The souls of all the saints and other faithful who
died after receiving Christ’s holy baptism . . have been,
are and will be in … the heavenly kingdom and celestial
paradise with Christ, conjoined to the company of the holy
angels. . . This perfect . . . communion of life and love
with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and the
blessed is called “Heaven.” Heaven is the ultimate end
and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of
supreme, definitive happiness. . This mystery of blessed
communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond
all understanding and description.
After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign
forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The
Universe itself will be renewed. . . We (do not know) the
way in which the universe will be transformed. The form
of this world, distorted by sin, is passing away, and we
are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling in which
righteousness dwells, in which happiness will fill and
surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of men.
Catholic Catechism, 997, 1023-4, 1042, 1048

Top: Adoring the Virgin Mary, Queen

of Heaven, in Gustave Dore’s version of
Dante’s Divine Comedy.
How long could you keep this up?
An hour? A day? A month? All Eternity?
Bottom: Which is more exciting? Hymning the
Trinity and Mary with the angels, or cavorting in
Bosch’s visionary and enigmatic Garden of Delights?

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Judaism: Bodily Resurrection

`Many of those who sleep in the dust of earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as
the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the
stars for ever and ever. . . But the saints of the most High [martyrs] shall take the
kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever.’
Daniel, 12.2-3; 7.18

Islam: Gardens of Sensual Luxury

[In Eden they live in] palaces of pearls, in each of which are seventy ruby mansions,
in each of which are seventy emerald rooms, in each of which are seventy beds,
on each of which is a wife who is one of the large-eyed houris. And in every room
there are seventy tables, on each of which are seventy varieties of food. In every
house are seventy servant girls. Every morning the believer shall be given strength
enough to enjoy all of this. . . A single man in Heaven shall wed five hundred
houris, four thousand virgins, and eight thousand deflowered women, and shall
embrace each one of them for a period equal to his lifetime in the world. . . The last
man to enter Heaven, who is the least of them in degree, will be given to see all that
he owns for the distance of a hundred years’ journey, all of which is gold and silver
palaces and tents of pearl. Morning and night they shall be served with seventy
thousand gold platters, in each of which is a dish different from the others; The taste
of the last shall be as delicious as that of the first.
Al-Ghazali, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife

Buddhism: An end to suffering

There is, monks, that plane where there is neither extension nor motion, nor the
plane of infinite ether, nor that of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, neither
this world nor another, neither the moon nor the sun. Here there is no coming or
going or remaining or dying or rising, for this plane itself is called Nirvana, without
support, without continuance, without mental object – this is itself the end of
suffering.
There is, monks, an unborn, not become, not made, uncompounded, and because
there is this, an escape can be shown here for what is born, has become, is made, is
compounded.
Udana, 80-82
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Pan Magazine Spring 2005

What do we tell the kids?

Tony van der Mude asked
the Community List: I have three chil-
dren, all now
young adults, and
those atoms very softly and gently go back home. Where is
their home? Ah...now that’s another wonderful thing. Their
home is the rivers, the streams, the winds, the mountains,
My daughter Alana finding their own the sea, and the earth. So you see, when you die, all the
said she had problems way. My eldest son things that now hold You together won’t need to do that
as a fourth-grader with is in training to be job any more, because they will make You part of All the
thoughts about what a Tibetan Buddhist world. A little bit of what you are now will be the wind, a
happens after we die, monk. The other little bit will be the earth, some will be the sea, and some
two, boy and girl will be all sorts of other things.
because both her parents, twins, are, respec- You are ALREADY really part of all that, of the wind
being atheists, said what tively, an atheist and the earth and the rivers, it’s just that your skin and your
amounted to “when you and a Pantheist-in- atoms are doing such a good job of holding you together
die, you rot.” How do we the-making-if-she- that you FEEL separate from them. But you’re not, really,
satisfy that hunger for but-knew-it. in fact we are all part of them right now, and when we die,
The question we will be part of them still, but just not have the feeling
a response to death for
fell from their that we are one separate little person. And it will be very
a little one who is not lips too, at vari- wonderful. But we can’t just chose when this will happen.
spiritually weaned? ous stages of their Our atoms will know, so we can trust them to take us there,
childhood. At the to let us be part of all those things, when it is the right time
time I had no satis- to happen. So there is nothing to worry about at all.”
factory answer for them, they were all having Christianity Sue Williams
forced down their throats at school. Though I was engaged
in a personal quest for my own truth I was not sure about
anything, so I usually just answered, “I don’t know, really, A couple of weeks ago my 21 year-old daughter and I were
nobody does”. Which must have been frustrating at best for talking about religious beliefs and death. I told her that I
them. don’t believe in an afterlife, that we just go back to nature,
How I wish I had been clearer in my mind at those living on through our deeds and our family members, etc.,
times. How I wish I had been able to answer them more She was really surprised, but mostly she was sad. She
along these lines: said that seemed very depressing. In fact, when I first
“Your body is made of all sorts of things that hold it realized I didn’t believe in heaven (or hell) or an afterlife,
together, to stop it falling apart, things you can see, like I DID feel depressed. It seemed like what was the point
your skin and your hair and your nose and things that you of being here for such a brief period of time if this was all
can’t see with your eyes, things called atoms. These things there was? And what happened if you blew it and made a
called atoms are very clever little things, each of us has lots mess of this life? No hope of another chance? And what
and lots of them, we will never run out of them. about all those people that did terrible things? They just got
When you die, all these things that make up You do off free and had the same fate I had?
something wonderful. They decide to let You, who they I argued with myself over it quite a bit. She asked me
have been so busy holding together, change into hundreds those questions, too, just a couple of weeks ago, and I told
of other things, all at the same time. Isn’t that amazing? All her I now accept that I come from nature, and when I die I

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 Pan Magazine Spring 2005

return to nature, just in

another form, and I find
that very comforting.
It’s like I have always
been home, I always am
home, and I always will
be home. Now instead
of filling me with fear
and sadness,the thought
of returning to nature
instead of having an
everlasting individual
soul makes me feel
peaceful and gives me a
sense of belongingness remember almost sweating with terror especially at night
that I never felt in the more traditional Christian religion of when there was nothing to distract me. I almost died of
my childhood and young adulthood. fright!
I know if I make a mistake or a mess that doesn’t We told Alex our own ideas - that when you die you
relegate me to “hell” - likewise if I act loving or kind, that make sure your body or your ashes are placed somewhere
doesn’t earn me a special seat in “heaven” either - we just where they can become part of plants and animals, so that
live our lives and pay the consequences for our choices in this way you give life to the trees and birds and squirrels
in the here and now. Bottom line: I didn’t convince her. and become part of them. That you always live on in the
Maybe someday she will come to a different realization, memories of those who know you and especially of those
or maybe she won’t. I’m glad we can talk about it, and I’m who love you. That however long or short your life you
glad she has the freedom to make her own choices. will have contributed something unique to the world that
Sharon Dobrovic you will leave behind.
But at that point this wasn’t good enough for him. He
became attracted to the idea of heaven, and began to think
When my son Alex was about seven he developed an that believing in Jesus might just get him a place there.
intense fear of death. So did I at around the same age. I Since his fear was great, and this was his way of coping, we

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Pan Magazine Spring 2005

just left well alone and did not attempt to talk him around. attached to my memory from my conception to now and
And with a year or so so he did grow out of it and reverted see its path? I’m sure if we could we would be a little
to something similar to our way. Paul Harrison freaked out, and at the same time amazed.
One day my 2.5 year old will ask me about this, and I
will keep it simple for her, as one should for a young child.

I f I were to die and find myself at the gates of heaven,

knowing that I would be “me” the individual, for eternity,
standing by God and praising him forever, I would then
“My daughter you will always be alive, today as a little
girl, tomorrow as a teenage girl and then a beautiful woman
and beyond that, perhaps as a blue bird, or a waterfall, or
know I had entered Hell. The concept of eternal life with both.” I have faith in her ability to figure things out as you
my existing conscience depresses me a great deal more than and I have. She’ll more than likely ask me how it will feel
any conceivable form of soulless death. after she has died, and my answer will be a question, how
What was really born on the day of my birth and what did it feel before you were born? Kids are attracted to the
will really die upon my death? Almost all of the cells in concept of heaven because it is simple and it is safe, so
my body have been regenerated at least twice by now in your explanation should also be simple and safe. My bet is
my 38th year. I believe only certain cells of the brain and they’ll ponder the question for their entire life.
heart stay with you your entire life. Except for these only Jay Cavanaugh
my memory maintains a constant existence between my
birth and death. If it were not for my memory, I’d probably
believe that I was born every time I awoke in the morning. For my ten year old, I used a story I read repeated by R.W.
How do I know that the skin cells I lost last year are Emmerson and some Buddhists and Taoists:
not the feathers of the eagle flying overhead, or a cup All life is like one big ocean.
of my blood wasn’t amongst the rapids of a great river? When you are born, you are a cup of that water
Every moment of our existence contains birth and death, scooped up.
and only the constant recording by my memory deceives When you die, this water is poured back in.
me to believe that life is a linear movement through time,
hence the illusion of a start and a finish. Life is not about So, “you” and “I” are really ONE, that were always
a beginning or end but about a constant dynamic change, here, and probably always be.
which happens before our eyes every moment. How cool Esteban Barturen
would it be to track down every molecule that has been

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Funerals are for the living

M y mother was a wonderful mother. In
my childhood, she was supportive and
encouraging. In my teens she allowed me a wide
and the animals there. She seemed to like the idea. I
hope she held it in her mind as she passed away.
Pantheist funerals should be the celebration of a
freedom and scope. After that we grew very far apart life, free of talk about “passing to a better place,” so
- she was very clever in a mathematical and verbal I gave a eulogy focusing enitrely on the positives of
way but lacked emotional depth. I found it difficult to her life. At the wake I got together an exhibition of
communicate with her - the things she wanted to talk photos and testimonials of her life, and put together
about seemed very superficial to me, and the things an illustrated biography which I sent to her friends. A
I wanted to talk about were too deep for her. In later couple of months later I drove up to the Lake District
life she focused on negatives rather than positives with her ashes in a green cardboard box. I took them
- especially on forty-year old hurts from a disastrous to Watendlath, and found a spot by a gushing brook,
marriage, and her acute pains from arthritis. close to a short waterfall where we picnicked in my
She called herself an agnostic but was basically childhood. There was a little sapling growing through
an atheist, with an unemotional view of death which the grass and moss, and I spread her ashes around its
she referred to as “snuffing it.” For her last five or six base. I brought back three beautiful stones from close
years, from the age of 86 or so, she actually wanted to by, one for me and one each for her grandsons Sam
die and would have accepted euthanasia if available. and Alex.

Phyllis Harrison
aged 4, 14, 25,
47 and 84

In her last months, after two falls and three months in When people die at a ripe old age, especially when
hospital and then nursing home, I knew the end was they clearly want to die, death is not so traumatic for
coming. On my very last visit I could see that she was the living. The whole process of the eulogy and the
very weak and might not last much longer. I thought placing of the ashes was a liberating therapy for the
it was important to say some last things while I still alienation that had existed between us for over forty
could. I told her of my love and gratitude. I told her years. I found that the very positive image of my
that if none of her close family were there when the childhood returned and the negative image dissolved,
time came, still she should imagine that we were I was left only with the puzzle of the difference
there in spirit, holding her hand. between the two. It was a tremendously healing
She had chosen cremation. I asked her where she experience for me and pulled back together parts of
wanted her ashes put. She said, somewhat typically: myself that were discordant. Paul Harrison
“I don’t care, chuck them in the bin.” I felt it would
help her to think in a positive way of death, so that
as she passed away she could have peaceful calming My father died almost two and a half years ago,
images as her last experience. I asked her to think of a two weeks before celebrating his 60th wedding
beautiful natural place she had loved all her life. anniversary with my mother, who lives on. I still
She entered into the spirit of the suggestion, and grieve. His funeral was Christian, in a conservative
thought of the English Lake District where she had Methodist Church in Conway, Arkansas, but there
spent many walking holidays as a young woman were elements of interest to Pantheists. A strong
full of joy and hope. She chose Watendlath, a little element was a celebration of his life, especially his
village above Derwentwater, with a pond and a rocky courageous and active fight for social and racial
stream. I suggested that she should imagine herself justice in his home area, the US South from the 30s
sinking into the earth and becoming part of the trees on. The minister said that “Tom Slinkard did what
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 Pan Magazine Spring 2005

we knew we should have done, but didn’t have the while announced recently that she too wished to have
courage to do.” From a pantheist perspective, the her ashes scattered over the Pacific. My sister called
connectedness of all life is elemental, and therefore me up and told me to go warn Dad that our aunt was
commitment to equal dignity and rights should be a coming to live with him! Connections...
cornerstone of our social and religious commitment. I Karl Slinkard
believe my father exemplified that connection, which
could be a point of connection with other faiths that
share the commitment to equality and justice. Since, I believe, my consciousness will permanently
My brother, Thomas, arranged a slide collage of cease when I die (or before when I enter a terminal
photos from his life which were shown with Benny coma, if that be my fate), what happens to my corpse
Goodman’s music playing in the background. The is no concern of mine. I won’t be waiting on the other
whole memorial service was a celebration of a life side, looking down on it with pleasure or displeasure.
well lived, and of my father’s connection to the I want my salvageable organs donated to help some
people and the life of his community. other human being. Organ donation, is a way seeing
His will indicated that he wanted his ashes to it that other humans suffer less and enjoy life
scattered in the Pacific, where he had been a sailor more. But it is not a way of somehow remaining a
during WWII, and felt an enduring connection. It little bit alive after death. A durable power of health
wasn’t until last July that we were able to get all of the care attorney and a living will are ways of seeing to
family together at the same time and on the Pacific it that I do not suffer a needlessly prolonged process
coast. The event was the sudden and unexpected of dying, or in the event I am completely unconscious
death of my brother Thomas. We held my brother’s and unable to suffer, that my financial resources
funeral in the afternoon and scattered my father’s are not being drained keeping a vegetable alive, but
ashes over the Pacific that evening, followed by rather that as much money as possible will be left to
a memorial dinner for both at a restaurant on the my heirs. Whatever form of disposal my heirs are
Berkeley marina. It was a sad time, but emphasized most comfortable with is fine with me. I won’t be
the connectedness of my father’s and his son’s life. around to experience it. Whatever is done with my
The whole affair had a profound impact on me, and corpse, the atoms that were me will persist, but they
probably most of the other members of my family. will no longer be me. Funerals are for the comfort of
An aunt who has been emotionally distraught for a the mourners, not for the dead. Walt Mandell

A Death in
Nature
There is a willow grows
aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves
in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic
garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles,
daisies, and long purples.
There, on the pendent
boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an
envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy
trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook.
Her clothes spread wide;
Millais, Death of Ophelia

And, mermaid-like, awhile

they bore her up . . .
like a creature native and
indued
Unto that element.

Shakespeare, Hamlet

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 Pan Magazine Spring 2005

Elemental death

Like the curlew’s twilight cries

curling over the silvered bay.
four deaths draw me
To lie in earth, a heavy sleeper
in an old bed, slowly melting
like late snow in shadow.
To drift on the flow of a river flooding
seaward, then to roll with tides
and thunder with the surf.
To burn with the fierce crackling
updraught of a fire of dry leaves
roaring into bright air.
Or to be scattered on the wind,
and sail the clouds
or ride the hurricanes.
Elementally we live:
solid and soft as earth, fluid as water,
light as air, bright as fire.
Even so we pass away:
wave to the waves, breath to the breeze,
element to the elements we give.
As long as it is so -
whichever way - I won’t be sad
when it’s my time to go.
Just so the curlew’s cry
echoes and fades in the moonlight
over the curving bay.

Paul Harrison

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 Pan Magazine Spring 2005

The Natural Death movement aims

Green Burials to make our final footprint on earth

a benign one. Booming in its home
base, Britain, it is spreading to many
other countries.

Traditional funerals are damaging including a directory of low-cost according to sound ecological
to the environment and Nature. and flexible funeral companies. At principles.
They use hardwoods, chipboard that time there was only one green • Members must guarantee the
and metals, toxic glues, stains and burial site in the UK. long-term security of the graves
embalming chemicals. Cemeteries In 1994 Albery started the and the wildlife, and have a
take up increasing amounts of land. Association of Natural Burial satisfactory plan for when the site
Petrol mowers and herbicides may Grounds to help farmers and reaches its capacity.
be used to maintain the • Members accept bodies
grounds. only in environmentally
Traditional practice acceptable biodegradable
is also out of tune containers such as shrouds,
with nature-oriented cardboard or wooden
spiritualities. One aspect coffins.
of the pantheist “afterlife” • Members will not
is the recycling of our require that a funeral
elements in nature, director be used. Clients
into new life forms. will be informed that they
That recycling is made may organise the funeral
impossible when the body and service themselves,
is embalmed and encased and dig and help fill the
in caskets that do not grave subject to safety and
biodegrade. landowners with problems training requirements.
The growth of environmental of planning, reassuring local The Natural Death Centre now
awareness and nature-centered neighbours, getting funeral supplies lists 200 working or planned
spirituality is now creating and so on. natural burial sites in the United
dramatic changes in funeral The Association has a Code of Kingdom – many more than the
practices. A crucial driver of Practice that enshrines several of rest of the world put together. The
this shift has been the UK-based the key aspects of green burial: reasons for this phenomenal growth
Natural Death Centre. It was set up • Members agree to take all lie partly with the profound British
in London in 1992 by a visionary reasonable steps to conserve love for animals and nature, but the
social innovator, Nicholas Albery. local wildlife and archaeological speed is explained by the catalytic
Albery died in a road accident in sites and to manage their projects and educative effect of the NDC
2001, aged only 52, but the itself.
Centre is still providing When I die, Of these burial grounds,
inspiration and information I want to be buried no less than 115 are run by
to a growing and world- under an apple tree. local authorities, 57 are run
wide movement. I think of death as as businesses by farmers
like a leaf falling off
The NDC began its or private individuals, and
a tree.
activities in 1993 with a ten are run as charitable or
comprehensive handbook Nicholas Albery non-profit concerns. Others
(1948-2001)
on death, worldwide founder of the
are still on the drawing
funeral practices, grieving, Natural Death Centre board.
burial, and cremation, The Natural Death
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 Pan Magazine Spring 2005

Centre also encourages people renewable energy sources such as advantages. The materials used are
to complete Advance Funeral natural gas are used. Increasingly biodegradable and from sustainable
Wishes and Advance Healthcare stringent emission standards sources. The sites are managed
Directives, and provides online demand more complete combustion as nature reserves and so increase
forms for these. – and much higher energy rather than decrease wildlife
The concern for sustainability consumption. At present better habitats. However, many of them
embraces the preparation of bodies local air quality is being bought at are situated in rural areas a long
and the materials used for caskets the cost of increasing greenhouse drive away, so the energy savings
and coffins. Green burial sites gas output. Because a crematorium over cremation may be eaten up in
will not accept bodies that are is not financially viable if it serves greater petrol consumption for the
embalmed, or housed in toxic or only a small niche market, it’s not funeral and for later visits.
non-degradable containers. likely that we will see thoroughly The ethos of the green burial
A small number of companies “green crematoria” for a long movement is already changing
now offer green coffins and while. conventional funeral practice.
caskets. The Natural Funeral Green burial offers many Funeral directors are increasingly
Company in the UK sells
woven bamboo coffins with
organic cotton shrouds lined
with a biodegradable plastic
derived from corn and potato
starch. They also sell the
“eco-pod” – a container
shaped like a seed pod made
from recycled paper and
natural earth minerals. Other
suppliers sell coffins made
of unfinished pine, woven
willow or recycled cardboard.
One interesting issue
is whether cremation
or green burial is more
environmentally friendly.
Conventional burial is very
environmentally damaging:
The impact of each individual
burial may be on the decline,
as there is a trend towards
re-suing graves or “stacking”
burials one on top of another.
On the other hand many
people may be unhappy with
the idea of their remains
being dug up or stacked and
those who can afford it may
prefer more expansive luxury
memorial parks.
At Brocklands Woodland Burial site in Lancashire, UK, a tree is
Cremations do not require land,
planted on each grave. No vases of flowers, statues or other artificial
but in other respects they seem to objects are allowed. “This is not a cemetery,” say the owners, “it is a
be more damaging. Mostly non- place where graves become a part of the landscape.”
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Pan Magazine Spring 2005

having to cope with clients who do

not wish embalming.
An increasing number of city
cemeteries in the UK are setting
Natural caskets
aside natural burial areas managed
in a similar way to green burial
sites. The London Borough of
Croydon emphasizes the value
of nature in improving the Conventional luxury
grieving process: “A singing bird, stained hardwood
casket with metal
a beautiful tree, or a colourful trimmings.
bedding display, are all therapeutic
and symbolic of new life.”
Older sections of cemeteries are
already wildlife resources – they
usually contain the oldest trees in Sanded pine coffin
the locality, and provide habitats from eco-coffins.com,
sourced from certified
for mammals, wildflowers, insects,
sustainable forests,
bats and birds, while old stone using no plastic, metal,
memorials offer a home for rare stains, varnishes, oils,
lichens and mosses. The wildlife or animal products. Only
value can be increased by reducing biodegradable, non-
toxic glue is used.
mowing regimes, introducing bird
and bat boxes and plant species that
attract birds and butterflies.
The movement is slowly
spreading to other countries. In Handmade willow
New Zealand the city of Wellington coffin from UK funeral
is opening the first municipally directors A. Abbot
owned green burial site outside the
UK. In the Netherlands, a 16 acre
forest at Bergerbos is attracting
custom from neighboring Germany
also. Plans are afoot in Canada,
Italy, Sweden, Poland, but still on
Bamboo coffin from
the drawing board. Friends of Nature Burial
Possibly the furthest advanced Ground, Graveyard Farm,
outside the UK is the USA, though Cheshire, UK.
there are still only a small handful
of sites including Glendale Nature
Preserve, Florida; the Ethician
Family Cemetery, San Jacinto, The Dolphin inner
Texas; the Circle of Life Eco-burial cardboard coffin for
site in Massachussetts; the Ramsey cremations, from
Creek Preserve in South Carolina Austrailian company My
Way Funerals, $30.
and Forever Fernwood, Marin The outer coffin is
County, California. simply hired, and
Natural Death Centre: re-used.
www.naturaldeath.org.uk
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 Pan Magazine Spring 2005

NEWS OF WORLD PANTHEISM

The many ways of getting together

The downfall Using the
of Meetup? UU path
Meetup, the web-organized One of the most promising
contacts group that leads avenues for the next few
to face-to-face meetings, years appears to be Unitarian
was the engine of Howard Universalist congregations.
Dean’s meteoric rise and was working very well for the WPM. Unitarian Universalism is a
Now it seems to be in serious trouble, and there are questions spiritual organization without a
about how useful it is going to be in helping people form local creed, that has attracted atheists, humanists, pantheists, pagans
groups. and liberal theists. The most recent large scale survey of over
Pantheist Meetup was growing very rapidly indeed early last 8,000 Unitarian Universalists in 1998 found that 46% described
year at 10 per cent per month. Increasing numbers of people were themselves as Humanists and 19% as Earth or Nature-centered.
managing to get meetups to happen and it seemed set to become The World Pantheist Movement neatly spans these two, which
our best way yet of forming local groups. between them account for two thirds of Unitarian Universalists.
Then Meetup changed its system. It shifted away from Christian, Jewish and generic theists made up only 24%
the original automated self-regulated system, where a meeting combined. There are over 1000 UU churches in the USA, within
happened as long as enough people said they were going to turn reach of most larger towns.
up. The position of “Organizer” was created, which the first The WPM has many members who also belong to UU
person to volunteer could commandeer. The organizer decided congregations, including some ministers and congregation
whether and when to have meetings. If you didn’t have an board members. We affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist
organizer, you didn’t get a Meetup. Association two years ago – for $100 a year we can now sponsor
Pantheist enrolments slowed from 50 a month to ten or less, one event each year at the annual general assembly. In 2004 at
perhaps due to the withdrawal of Meetup’s advertising with Long Beach we ran a stall. This year at Fort Worth Paul Harrison
Google for all its many topics. This slowdown seems to have gave two lectures on Using Nature as a Focus for Spirituality
affected many or most topic groups. On top of that it is now to large and enthusiastic audiences. A number of members have
harder to make a Meetup happen. From April organizers have given pantheist services. Some of them give several each year.
had to pay a monthly fee of $9 per month for the privilege. This Some have groups that meet on a regular or occasional basis.
is scheduled to go up to $19 a month - a hefty $228 per year. We will give every possible assistance to anyone who is
Organizers with large ongoing groups were able to recoup the interested in pursuing the UU avenue to local pantheist group
fees from people attending the meetups. But the high fees have formation. We now have a special section of the WPM website
created an impassable hurdle for new and small groups, as many for UU resources, flagged from our front page (top right.)
pantheist groups are. Many organizers in many topics have quit. There you will find material on how UUism and the WPM
Underlying all these shifts was the fact that Meetup never relate, how to form and run a local group in a congregation, and
found a working business model. Their first approach – making also a growing collection of UU sermons and services given
money from cafes, bookshops and other recommended venues by members, some of them complete with choices of songs
– did not produce the goods. Meetup tried to fill the gaps with a and readings. You can request copies of our color leaflets and
premium service, Meetup Plus, but that did not suffice. It’s highly print out copies of our trifold leaflet on World Pantheism and
uncertain whether their new business model will work either. Unitarian Universalism.
It’s all very sad for grassroots-driven political campaigns, We also have a yahoo group for UU pantheists, currently
and also for people like us. Alternatives are planned, like the with 90 members. This is aimed at UUs who are interested in
open-source CivicSpace, but they are not up and running forming pantheist/nature-reverence groups in UU congregations,
yet. Political campaigns are developing their own in-house as well as at pantheists who are interested in checking out
alternatives. Got ideas for us? Post them in the Community list. Unitarian Universalism with a view to local group formation
.
Do-it-yourself with the WPM
We shall continue to explore other ways of encouraging and facilitating local groups. One
approach is to use the members’ data center (http://members.pantheism.net) to search for members
with reach of you – you can search by city, zip code and area code, and you can use wildcards (eg ^91
would return all members with zips starting with 91, ^818 would return all members with phone area
code 818). You get to see their city and their email and can create an email list. Another is to use our
local WPM yahoo groups – a full list is available at http://www.pantheism.net/localgroups.htm. There
are lists for most US states, for UK/Eire, Australia and Canada. UK and Southern California pans have
successfully used their yahoogroups to organize get-togethers large and small for many years now.
15
Pan Magazine Spring 2005

Membership: Join or Renew

The World Pantheist Movement depends on the generous sup-
port of its members to sustain, improve and expand its activities
and services. If you would like to join or renew by check in US
$, please fill in the form below and mail check and form to us.
Otherwise please renew at http://members.pantheism.net/im-
dms/ or join at http://www.pantheism.net/join.htm
Please tick as applicable if this is an address change and if you
wish us to correct the database entry for you.

Name
Address 1
Address 2
City
State etc
Zip code
Country
New? Yes No
Change it? Yes I’ll do it

Direct hit: On July 4th, Comet Tempel I collides spectacularly Membership level:
with NASA’s Deep Impact probe at 23,000 miles per hour, Basic ($30) Family ($60) Low Income ($12)
throwing up a cloud of fine powdery material and leaving a
250 meter wide crater. The comet is about three miles wide Other amount
and seven miles long. When the data is analyzed, Deep
Please mail this form with your check (US $ only) to:
Impact will provide information about the composition and
formation of the early solar system. The rocket was launched World Pantheist Movement
in December last year. Photo © NASA P.O. Box 103, Webster, NY 14580, USA

Calendar & Almanac

Special Equinoxes
events & Solstices

July September
11th World Population Day 8th International Literacy Day Autumn equinox
12th Birth of Henry D. Thoreau 21st International Peace Day September 22 22;23
14th Storming of the Bastille 23rd Good Neighbor Day
20th Moon Landing Winter solstice
December 21 18;35

August October Full Moons

1st Lughnasadh/Lammas 1st International Day of
6th Bombing of Hiroshima Older Persons July 21 11:00
9th International Day 2nd Birth of Mohandas Gandhi August 19 17:53
of World’s Indigenous Peoples 4th Birth of Francis of Assisi September 18:02
12th: Peak of Perseid October 17 12:14
Meteor Shower
26th Eruption of Krakatoa All times Universal time =
Greenwich Mean Time

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