A Letter-Writing Burn Ritual for Healing
With this ritual, become an observer to your emotions surrounding loss, and release them into the universe.
Rituals, ancient wisdom, and practices for conscious death and dying.
Join our ongoing adventure for a life truly worth living. Also, be entered to win a 12-month All-Access Pass to Spirituality & Health online courses - a $225 value! We will select one winner on the 1st of each month.
With this ritual, become an observer to your emotions surrounding loss, and release them into the universe.
What will you see on the precipice of death? Dr. Bruce Greyson explores what near-death experiences reveal about the afterlife in his book “After.”
How much should we think about death? What’s too little or too much? “I try to stop figuring out if I believe in life after death and get back to believing in life before death.”
Does your New Year’s Resolution feel like a distant memory? The moon provides a monthly fresh start.
What does the future hold? Consult with the ancestors about what's to come through a form of divination called bone casting. What will you learn by throwing the bones?
After death, what remains? Rabbi Steve Leder discusses his book The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift.
The symbolic meanings of animals often vary from culture to culture. Different animals and their symbolism can serve as a great comfort and reminder that you are not alone, even in grief.
Celebrate the coming of longer days with a winter solstice ritual.
Anticipating our mortality via the lost Medieval practice of ars moriendi.
“Many therapists work to help clients create a better life—a Soul Companion works with clients to create a better death.”
More than just candy and costumes: Halloween is a holiday that can, with a little thought, become deeply spiritual.
A writer of historical fiction shares how she uncovered 2,000-year-old rituals that are still relevant today.
“I realized that avoiding death, so common in American culture, would not stop it. Instead, taking the time to thoughtfully and actively participate in her transition helped me join her in that state of grace she taught me so much about.”
Devotionals serve as a grounding presence during unprecedented times. “The practice of a daily devotion connects to the idea of spiritual reflection as a way to gain clarity and peace. Daily time for devotion creates inner peace, slows us down, and allows us to connect with the divine.”
Does a nonspecific spirituality (aka spiritual but not religious) suffice to address existential qualms at death's door?
If you stay warm and dry it will take 10 minutes.
Memento Mori: Remember your death. It may seem grim, but it's an ancient practice meant to invigorate your life.
Lydia Dugdale, author of The Lost Art of Dying, on the art of dying and why we should instead face our finitude squarely—while we still can.
Try this 15-minute Norse-inspired ritual before bed for blissful sleep.
The new moon, fully inhabiting the shadow, offers a potent time for exploring gratitude for the rhythms of life.
In these heartbreaking times, being together during life's passages is often impossible. Rabbi Rami shares a prayer to bring comfort to those who are passing.
In his book Death Is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life’s End, hospice doctor Christopher Kerr offers a glimpse into what happens at the end of life. “What the dying fear most is not death but the loss of a life they can recognize as their own. Ultimately, to die well is to humanize dying from an irredeemably grim reality to an experience which may also be rich in meaning and love.”
“New moons are related to water and fertility. Metaphorically, in the dark of the new moon, we pause to consider our desires, set intentions, and think about what we might want to put our energy into as the moon waxes towards full.”
“A great believer that our cells contain the stories of our lives, I would sometimes imagine my toe-tag listing my website. The medical students or researchers using my body could then deeply understand how the map of physical scars led to my published writing on the site. Could they imagine that the bikini scar left across my pelvis after my uterus was removed, leaving me childless, was the reason I was lying there?”
Connecting in small and simple ways is the lifeblood of relationships. Try these practices to stay close to one you love.
“On Valentine’s Day, I want to focus on true love: the energy of power, desire, courage, intuition, and deep emotion. This spell invites that energy into our hearts while mindfully clearing whatever may stand in the way of that love.”
Rosemary has long signified deep friendship and lasting memories. This ritual for grief, built around rosemary, creates time and space for grieving and allows others to join and share the healing process.
“I found an email address for Philip through his publisher and wrote a long query asking him how a doctor who believes in God but also knows facts about certain diseases can honestly tell a terminal patient to have faith and believe and not give up. How can I pray for my patients when I already know how God is going to answer?”
Rather than thinking of dinnertime as a chore, create nightly dinner rituals to connect more with the loved ones around your table.
Try this ritual to invite connection with and guidance from your ancestors.
Make your way through the season of life when writing seems impossible.
“Inversions allow us to rebel against the routines that dictate much of our world.” Take a new look at the world around you by flipping everything upside down.
Being near or immersed in water offers the opportunity to set an intention of cleansing on all levels.
A ritual bath for self reflection and integration of our shadow selves.
“Bravery is the suppression or masking of fear but sharing one’s fear makes more sense to me.”
Connect with the wisdom of this holiday, which comes between the fall equinox and the winter solstice.
Fall is the perfect season to release that which no longer serves us. Try this moon ritual to help you let go and move on.
Honor the shadow and the light with this Mabon, or Autumn Equinox, ritual.
The death wellness movement is about facing hard choices openly and mindfully. For author Leslie Krongold, this has been a very personal exploration.
These four crystals, plus a potent ritual, can help you tap into the powerful energy of the full moon.
A comforting prayer to use when releasing a pet from this life.
Weddings and funerals: Rabbi Rami has an honest conversation about traditions and how we honor them.
How to celebrate the summer solstice and other special occasions this season.
There is a sacredness that is found in the first moments of the morning. While it may feel overwhelming to change your entire morning routine in one day, consider slowly adding components to it that will set the tone for your day.
Julie Peters shares her personal ritual for the new moon.
Instead of our working against nature to fit our own needs and desires, Ayurveda teaches that when we accept what Earth provides, we keep seasonal illnesses at bay.
On the full moon, create a ritual that has meaning for you.
Contributing editor Rabbi Rami asks whether you're a maximalist or a minimalist when it comes to religion and faith.
Think of March as a second New Year with resolutions for healing and recovery in our lives.
Modern Loss co-founder Rebecca Soffer shares how she transformed personal tragedy to a needed resource for others grieving.
Use the waning moon as an opportunity for release.
People new to mourning are often surprised at how brutal the run-up to the first anniversary of the death can be.
How you can create some new traditions to celebrate the winter solstice.
When the holidays remind us of those that have been lost.
A winter solstice meditation can be a time for grieving, acknowledging what's been lost, and letting go.
In the Presence of Death: Using ceremony to explore mindfulness in the journey of dying, death, and the years following, in this 9-part series
In my work, I have witnessed many beautiful words of consolation and comfort gone awry.
The final resting place is where, for those who seek it, we come to sit, reflect, and share with someone who has died.
Ideas for commemorative events beyond traditional funerals.
In the Presence of Death: Using ceremony to explore mindfulness in the journey of dying, death, and the years following, in this 9-part series
Humans needs to unite with like-minded and like-hearted people and organizations to actively take part in nurturing our communities and helping them grow.
Honor your grief as we enter into the season of generative death and prepare for the coming season of rebirth.
Different sounds are powerful tools to clear and transform energy.
Using altars to focus intention and connection in a space.
Suggestions for Living Memorials—gatherings for a person who is present and alive before death.
An excerpt from The Book of Ceremony
The full moon offers a potent time to create rituals.
Mirabai Bush shares revelations about dying and living from her close relationship with Ram Dass and shares a special practice preparing for death.
Creating grief rituals is as individual as the one who mourns and can help us continue to feel connected.
Magic is a way of working with energy and vibration to create positive change according to your will.
Remodeling the nicest home in town for hospice
How to connect through our bodies with the transcendent dimension of our lives.
The Five Elements offer information that connects us to nature and our bodies and helps us to understand our energy and emotions.
Try this loving bathtime ritual on your own and receive a dose of self-love you likely need and definitely deserve.
Draw sacredness into your life whenever you need it with simple intentional rituals.
An excerpt from Grateful Exit: How to Advocate Effectively, Take Care of Yourself, and Be Present for the Death of a Loved One.
An excerpt from Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness
Samuel Harrington, MD shares how you can improve your end of life.
Each unanswered call could be one more person on the edge who desperately needs his help.
Learning how to tap into the phases of the moon can be a powerful practice.
A simple and effective end of year ritual is to carve out a little time for yourself to meditate and journal.
Learning to choose loving rituals that work in your family, that are meaningful, relaxed, realistic and reasonable, is as important and as individual as each of us.
The Solstice is a time of celebration in anticipation of Light’s return and the rebirth of the Sun.
Poetry from Nikki Giovanni's new book, A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter
Being prepared for the inevitable will help your loved ones left behind.
Dying is itself a time, a space, and process of surrender and transformation.
Caring is a natural expression of our humanity.
Do all people encounter the end of life in the same way?
Learn more about artist Day Schildkret's daily practice of creating morning altars here.
Sponsored Content from Celebrant Foundation & Institute
Sponsored Content from Chalice Press
Sponsored Content from The Celebrant Foundation & Institute
Get comfortable, close your eyes. And say to yourself, over and over again, I might die today. I might die today. I might die today.
Here are 108 suggestions for your own personalized 108-day mindfulness practice.
“Whatever bad things have happened to you in your life, whatever hard things you’ve gone through, you have to do three things: You have to accept it. You have to be kind to it. ... And listen to me. You have to let it be kind to you."
Sponsored Content from The Celebrant Foundation & Institute
Excerpted from Ambition Addiction: Giving Thanks on the Road to Recovery by Benajmin Shalva
Sponsored Content from the Celebrant Foundation & Institute
What if we put two geniuses in Schrödinger’s cat box?
“To say you need the afterlife to have meaning is the bleakest form of insanity.”
Sponsored Content from The Joseph Communications
Hill blends in first-hand, anonymous near death experience accounts as well as personal stories and empirical evidence.
The Ancient and Modern Practice to Free Your Soul
10 Years of Roadside Assistance
Adapted excerpt from Awake at the Bedside
Baby Boomers, never ones for rocking chairs, are increasingly looking at life’s third act as one filled with many possibilities, instead of none.
Caretaking gives this writer an opportunity to enter a new kind of sacred space – not a place of solitude, but a place of wholeness and holiness.
Creating an altar with the intention for transformation is a powerful way to keep your focus on your intentions.
Excerpted from Let’s Talk About Death: Asking the Questions that Profoundly Change the Way We Live and Die
Death cannot stop true love.
Sponsored Content from Celebrant Foundation & Institute
Move beyond sage. These seven sacred resins, including myrrh and benzoin, clear negative energy in your space.
Take an honest walk through modern day feng shui expert, Laura Benko’s daily routine.
An excerpt from The Light Between Us
Throughout history, humans have sought physical relief, emotional healing, and even spiritual renewal in water. Here are 11 water therapy practices for healing.
A dialogue on end-of-life care
A dialogue on end-of-life care
A dialogue on end-of-life care
An Interview with Allan Lokos
If you’re interested in cleansing your body, mind, aura, or just your physical space, try these 10 tips for smudging sage.
How deathbed singers infuse comfort and a sense of the sacred to the dying
Modern living causes us to overlook the obvious. Here’s how not to let that happen.
Whether they are real—and you are Irish—or not
Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler
The best-selling author reflects on facing the loss of his father, in his latest book, The Endless Practice.
“These heart-stopping moments lasted a few months. Although only given a few weeks to live, he endured incredible pain, suffering, and even hung onto the slightest bit of hope, because he wanted to see me walk across that stage to receive my diploma.”
Try one of our favorite morning rituals to set the right tone for your day.
Ask A Practitioner
As she celebrates a new life with her husband, Amy Paturel finds love and acceptance where she least expected it—in the memory of his first wife.
Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander woke from a weeklong coma claiming he’d been to a place that many believe does not exist. Now he says he’s found a way to return.
Whether they involve steaming or soaking, geothermal or heated tap water, bathing traditions worldwide offer community, cleansing, spiritual renewal—and sometimes a legend or two.
Two new memoirs examine the way we die—and reflect on how we can do it better.
In the California desert, a vipassana pioneer prepares for the next stage of her remarkable life.
Pet-loss support groups can help the healing process when we lose our most constant companions.
Approaching the final years of life with a sense of peace.
A nonbeliever seeks comfort in the ritual of the rosary.
An American journalist honors her mother with an altar during Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration.
Stretching, meditation, and gratitude make up this simple daily ritual from writer and teacher Geri Larkin.
Find the right tea to soothe yourself, body and soul.
A new field of research explores how diverse spiritual practices use the same scents, sounds, and movements to tap into our deepest selves.
Use these practices to inspire more ease and play this season