A Letter-Writing Burn Ritual for Healing

With this ritual, become an observer to your emotions surrounding loss, and release them into the universe.

Dr. Bruce Greyson Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond

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.”

Book Review: After

Having Just the Right Amount of Death Awareness

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.”

Refresh Body and Spirit With a Moon Practice

Does your New Year’s Resolution feel like a distant memory? The moon provides a monthly fresh start.

Throwing the Bones: Finding Your Future

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?

Rabbi Steve Leder on The Beauty of What Remains

After death, what remains? Rabbi Steve Leder discusses his book The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift.

Visits From a Mystical Messenger

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.

Winter Solstice Ritual and Meditation

Celebrate the coming of longer days with a winter solstice ritual.

Podcast: Dr. Lydia Dugdale on the Lost Art of Dying

Anticipating our mortality via the lost Medieval practice of ars moriendi.

Soul Companion: Journeying With Another At the End of Life

“Many therapists work to help clients create a better life—a Soul Companion works with clients to create a better death.”

Celebrating the Spiritual Meanings of Halloween

More than just candy and costumes: Halloween is a holiday that can, with a little thought, become deeply spiritual.

Questing for Ancient Ritual

A writer of historical fiction shares how she uncovered 2,000-year-old rituals that are still relevant today.

Laced With Grace

“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: Connecting With Unexpected Ancestors

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.”

Dying Without Religion: The Existential Concern

Does a nonspecific spirituality (aka spiritual but not religious) suffice to address existential qualms at death's door?

The One Minute, Icy Cold Path of Awakening

If you stay warm and dry it will take 10 minutes.

Memento Mori: A Practice for Living

Memento Mori: Remember your death. It may seem grim, but it's an ancient practice meant to invigorate your life.

The Lost Art of Dying

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.

How to Sleep Better in 15 Minutes

Try this 15-minute Norse-inspired ritual before bed for blissful sleep.

Gratitude Ritual for the New Moon

The new moon, fully inhabiting the shadow, offers a potent time for exploring gratitude for the rhythms of life.

A Prayer to Comfort Those Passing

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.

Death Is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life's End

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 Moon Meditation for Calling in What You Desire

Moon Rituals: Tending Your Internal Garden

“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.”

Book Review: Death Is But a Dream

Living a Full Circle, Aging, and Coming to Terms With Death

“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?”

Ritual Connection: 5 Daily Practices to Strengthen Your Relationship

Connecting in small and simple ways is the lifeblood of relationships. Try these practices to stay close to one you love.

A Love Spell and Ritual for Valentine’s Day

“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.”

A Ritual for Honoring the Loss of a Human or Animal Companion

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.

Reconciling Faith and Science

“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?”

A Ritual to Reclaim Dinner

Rather than thinking of dinnertime as a chore, create nightly dinner rituals to connect more with the loved ones around your table.

A Ritual to Reconnect With Your Ancestors

Try this ritual to invite connection with and guidance from your ancestors.

3 Steps to Get Your Writing Back on Track

Make your way through the season of life when writing seems impossible.

Find a Fresh Perspective Through Inversion

“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.

3 Water Rituals to Reset Your Wild Spirit

Being near or immersed in water offers the opportunity to set an intention of cleansing on all levels.

Full Moon Ritual Bath

A ritual bath for self reflection and integration of our shadow selves.

You Don’t Need to Be Brave

“Bravery is the suppression or masking of fear but sharing one’s fear makes more sense to me.”

A Ritual for the Deeper Meaning of Halloween

Connect with the wisdom of this holiday, which comes between the fall equinox and the winter solstice.

A Ritual For Welcoming Moon Season

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.

Mabon: A Ritual for the Autumn Equinox

Honor the shadow and the light with this Mabon, or Autumn Equinox, ritual.

Ending it Well: Missives from Inside the Death Wellness Movement

The death wellness movement is about facing hard choices openly and mindfully. For author Leslie Krongold, this has been a very personal exploration.

4 Crystals to Amplify the Energy of the Full Moon

These four crystals, plus a potent ritual, can help you tap into the powerful energy of the full moon.

Is It Okay to Grieve for a Pet?

A comforting prayer to use when releasing a pet from this life.

Honest Feasting: Mourning and Celebrating within Jewish Traditions

Weddings and funerals: Rabbi Rami has an honest conversation about traditions and how we honor them.

June: The Harbinger of All Things Good

How to celebrate the summer solstice and other special occasions this season.

Create an Intentional Morning Routine

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.

Moon Practice: Ritual for a Spring New Moon

Julie Peters shares her personal ritual for the new moon.

Ayurveda Inspired Rituals for Spring

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.

Moon Practice: Ritual for a Spring Full Moon

On the full moon, create a ritual that has meaning for you.

Minimalist Religion, Maximalist Faith

Contributing editor Rabbi Rami asks whether you're a maximalist or a minimalist when it comes to religion and faith.

The Equinox as Catalyst for Healing

Think of March as a second New Year with resolutions for healing and recovery in our lives.

Podcast: Loss and Laughter with Rebecca Soffer

Modern Loss co-founder Rebecca Soffer shares how she transformed personal tragedy to a needed resource for others grieving.

Powerful Practice for the Waning Moon

Use the waning moon as an opportunity for release.

Ceremony for First Year Anniversary: Reconnect

People new to mourning are often surprised at how brutal the run-up to the first anniversary of the death can be.

Meaningful Rituals for Winter Solstice

How you can create some new traditions to celebrate the winter solstice.

3 Ways to Find Light When the Holidays Feel Dark

When the holidays remind us of those that have been lost.

Winter Solstice Meditation

A winter solstice meditation can be a time for grieving, acknowledging what's been lost, and letting go.

Ceremony for First Year Milestones: Do Not Hurry

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

Do No Harm to Those You Love

In my work, I have witnessed many beautiful words of consolation and comfort gone awry.

Ceremony at Final Resting Place: Revisiting your Dead

The final resting place is where, for those who seek it, we come to sit, reflect, and share with someone who has died.

Ceremony at Commemorative Event: Do Something

Ideas for commemorative events beyond traditional funerals.

Ceremony When the Body is Removed: Leave Taking

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

Become Your Community's Ritual Maker

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.

Ceremony at Death: Do Nothing

How do you stay present in an out-of-time time?

Practices for Death and Rebirth for Scorpio Season

Honor your grief as we enter into the season of generative death and prepare for the coming season of rebirth.

5 Ways to Use Sound for Energy Clearing

Different sounds are powerful tools to clear and transform energy.

Ceremony for Dying: The Altar

Using altars to focus intention and connection in a space.

Ceremony before Death: A Living Memorial

Suggestions for Living Memorials—gatherings for a person who is present and alive before death.

How to Design a Successful Ceremony

An excerpt from The Book of Ceremony

A Full Moon Ritual for Release

The full moon offers a potent time to create rituals.

Podcast: Comforting Silence with Mirabai Bush

Mirabai Bush shares revelations about dying and living from her close relationship with Ram Dass and shares a special practice preparing for death.

Land of the Remembered: Rituals from the Heart

Creating grief rituals is as individual as the one who mourns and can help us continue to feel connected.

Music Review: Secularia

3 Simple Ways to Work Real Magic Today

Magic is a way of working with energy and vibration to create positive change according to your will.

The Commons: The Best Place to Die?

Remodeling the nicest home in town for hospice

Create A Living Ritual

How to connect through our bodies with the transcendent dimension of our lives.

The Therapeutic Value of the Five Elements

The Five Elements offer information that connects us to nature and our bodies and helps us to understand our energy and emotions.

How to Ground and Refresh With a Bathtime Ritual

Try this loving bathtime ritual on your own and receive a dose of self-love you likely need and definitely deserve.

Making Everyday Spaces Sacred Through Intuitive Ritual

Draw sacredness into your life whenever you need it with simple intentional rituals.

Letting Go of the Fear of Death

An excerpt from Grateful Exit: How to Advocate Effectively, Take Care of Yourself, and Be Present for the Death of a Loved One.

Fierce Grace

An excerpt from Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness

A Good Death with Samuel Harrington, MD

Samuel Harrington, MD shares how you can improve your end of life.

Film Review: The Departure

Each unanswered call could be one more person on the edge who desperately needs his help.

The Power of the Moon

Learning how to tap into the phases of the moon can be a powerful practice.

End of Year Ritual: 7 Questions to Ask Yourself

A simple and effective end of year ritual is to carve out a little time for yourself to meditate and journal.

The Heart Within the Holidays

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.

A Creative Contemplative Offering for Solstice

The Solstice is a time of celebration in anticipation of Light’s return and the rebirth of the Sun.

Poetry: Heritage (For Walter Leonard)

Poetry from Nikki Giovanni's new book, A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter

3 Ways to Make Friends with Time

Access vast reservoirs of hidden time.

Why a Will is Important for You and Your Loved Ones

Being prepared for the inevitable will help your loved ones left behind.

Dying is a Sacred Act

Dying is itself a time, a space, and process of surrender and transformation.

Simple Human Kindness

Caring is a natural expression of our humanity.

​Exploring Near-Death Experiences

Do all people encounter the end of life in the same way?

Morning Altars by Artist Day Schildkret

Learn more about artist Day Schildkret's daily practice of creating morning altars here.

Book Review: Resilient Grieving

How to Connect to the Rhythm of Rest

Planting for the Future

Sponsored Content from Celebrant Foundation & Institute

Book Review: Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life

Creative Spiritual Practices for Your Family this Lent

Sponsored Content from Chalice Press

Healing with Trees: Cultivating Patience and Presence

Sponsored Content from The Celebrant Foundation & Institute

How to Get Really Good at Dying

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.

108 Day Mindfulness Practice

Here are 108 suggestions for your own personalized 108-day mindfulness practice.

Let It Be Kind To You

“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."

Solstice: The Wheel of Life

Sponsored Content from The Celebrant Foundation & Institute

Gratitude: An Act of Truth Telling

Excerpted from Ambition Addiction: Giving Thanks on the Road to Recovery by Benajmin Shalva

Book Review: The Grace in Living

Rites of Autumn Equinox

Sponsored Content from the Celebrant Foundation & Institute

The New Physics of Immortality

What if we put two geniuses in Schrödinger’s cat box?

Losing the “God Talk” in Grief Groups

“To say you need the afterlife to have meaning is the bleakest form of insanity.”

Meeting with our Loved-Ones in Sleep

Sponsored Content from The Joseph Communications

Book Review: Psychology and the Near Death Experience

Hill blends in first-hand, anonymous near death experience accounts as well as personal stories and empirical evidence.

Unleavening

The Ancient and Modern Practice to Free Your Soul

Celebrations: Rabbi Rami Shapiro

10 Years of Roadside Assistance

Book Review: Awake at the Bedside

Creating Your Dharma Vision Through Contemplation

Adapted excerpt from Awake at the Bedside

Drinking in the Joy

An excerpt from Randi Ragan’s book A Year of Living Mindfully: Seasonal Practices to Nourish Body, Mind, and Spirit

Dying as a Spiritual Practice: An Interview with BJ Miller

Aging With Consciousness

Baby Boomers, never ones for rocking chairs, are increasingly looking at life’s third act as one filled with many possibilities, instead of none.

Music Review: Into the Silence

Letting Go of Solitude

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.

Building Altars For Personal Transformation

Creating an altar with the intention for transformation is a powerful way to keep your focus on your intentions.

Let’s Talk About Death

Excerpted from Let’s Talk About Death: Asking the Questions that Profoundly Change the Way We Live and Die

Bond Between Spouses Stronger Than Death

Death cannot stop true love.

Book Review: When Breath Becomes Air

Sustenance Rituals to Replenish the Well

Sponsored Content from Celebrant Foundation & Institute

7 Sacred Resins to Burn for Clearing Negative Energy

Move beyond sage. These seven sacred resins, including myrrh and benzoin, clear negative energy in your space.

My Practice: A Feng Shui Expert’s Daily Routine for Wellness

Take an honest walk through modern day feng shui expert, Laura Benko’s daily routine.

Forgiveness from the Other Side

An excerpt from The Light Between Us

Seven Keys to a Good Death

11 Ways to Raise Your Vibration With Water

Throughout history, humans have sought physical relief, emotional healing, and even spiritual renewal in water. Here are 11 water therapy practices for healing.

Book Review: Death Makes Life Possible

5 Questions for Diane Meier

A dialogue on end-of-life care

5 Questions for Koshin Paley Ellison

A dialogue on end-of-life care

5 Questions for Katy Butler

A dialogue on end-of-life care

What Good is Meditation in a Plane Crash?

An Interview with Allan Lokos

How to Cleanse Energy by Burning Sage

If you’re interested in cleansing your body, mind, aura, or just your physical space, try these 10 tips for smudging sage.

To Die with a Song in My Heart

How deathbed singers infuse comfort and a sense of the sacred to the dying

How Do You Want to Die?

Sponsored Content from The New York Open Center

Film Review: A Will For The Woods

The Joy of Spring

Modern living causes us to overlook the obvious. Here’s how not to let that happen.

Connecting with Your Irish Ancestors

Whether they are real—and you are Irish—or not

Weave a Culture of Belonging

Rabbi Rami: "I Find Myself Wishing My Dad Would Die?"

Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler

Book Review: Being Mortal

The Significance of End-of-Life Dreams and Visions

Music Review: Ritual

Book Review: The Grace in Aging

Mark Nepo: Open Your Heart

The best-selling author reflects on facing the loss of his father, in his latest book, The Endless Practice.

The Breath of Life and Death

“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.”

Fresh Start

Try one of our favorite morning rituals to set the right tone for your day.

So what’s it really like to be a Death Midwife?

Ask A Practitioner

The Accidental In-Law

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.

The Stairway to Heaven May Be Sound

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.

Water Rituals Around the World

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.

Create Your Own Tea Ritual

A Grandfather Glimpses Life—and Death—Through Young Eyes

A Good Death

Two new memoirs examine the way we die—and reflect on how we can do it better.

91-Year-Old Meditation Master Ruth Denison

In the California desert, a vipassana pioneer prepares for the next stage of her remarkable life.

Support for the Bereaved Animal Lover

Pet-loss support groups can help the healing process when we lose our most constant companions.

Reb Zalman: The December Years

Approaching the final years of life with a sense of peace.

The Venerable Bead

A nonbeliever seeks comfort in the ritual of the rosary.

Joy in Her Bones

An American journalist honors her mother with an altar during Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration.

4 Steps to Transform Your Morning

Stretching, meditation, and gratitude make up this simple daily ritual from writer and teacher Geri Larkin.

Find the Right Tea to Soothe Body and Soul

Find the right tea to soothe yourself, body and soul.

Happier Endings

The Power of Group Devotion, 100 Million Strong

Right to Die: Does Facing Death Set Us Free from Suffering?

Holding up the Mirror: Rituals for Self-Reflection

3 Ways to Celebrate Your Canine Companions

Circle of Strength: A Ritual for Times of Change

Rituals to Restore & Refresh the Spirit

Ritual Science

A new field of research explores how diverse spiritual practices use the same scents, sounds, and movements to tap into our deepest selves.

Honoring Everyday Transitions: "Do, Be"

Turning to the Morning: Sunset Rituals

Keening: The Power of a Really Good Celtic Cry

Gifts of the Spirit

Going Out Green

Remembering Our Roots

The Great Symphony of Life

Paranormal

Bringing Food: Making a Gift of Comfort More Meaningful

Enjoy Every Sandwich

Memory Walk: An Everyday Ritual to Connect to Nature

A Ritual to Honor Water

Ten Thousand Joys & Ten Thousand Sorrows

Practicing Death

12 Rituals to Reopen Your Life

The Chant at This Sacred Ritual Is Cheers

Honoring Our Ancestors: They are Closer than We Think

Deepen Your Practice: A Neighborhood Pilgrimage

Celebrating Winter: Retreat and Renew

Use these practices to inspire more ease and play this season

The Holy Family

Ritual: Go Inward with the New Moon