Re: Burial Rites and Practices
Megera
megera@mindspring.com
Sun Jun  7 22:46:30 1998
*br*Taliesin_2 wrote,*br*: Bandia dhuit! Is there any records Burial Rites and *br*: Practices? I am curious to know if there were any burial *br*: rites done specifically for  Druids. I await the many *br*: responses.*p*The history of burial rites and practices says a lot about any culture and their spiritual beliefs. Whole body internment was, in ancient times, designated for an elite few who represented the archtypes of the cultural mass; while cremation or exposure [which usualy encluded retaining the skull or personal possesions 'relicks" of the individual] was a guarentee of personal spiritual rebirth. When that "rebirth" was seen as an awakening in a higher dementional domain such as the "Summerlands" a ritual of "crossing" was usualy performed. The Irish wake is a remnant of that rite. In most "nature based" spiritualitis, sacrid ground is created by the burial of 'relicks" , those pieces and parts of the human condition that do not decompose with time, within a sacrid circle. This act in turn creates a dementional doorway to the higher realms. While the sacred circles of Celtic cultures most certainly predate the Druids, the evidance sugests  that they continued the practices of the those earlier societies. 
Burial Rites and Practices
Taliesin_2
41
Fri May 22 19:14:40 1998