Home Funerals, Green Burials
An introduction to home death care through our experiences at Earthaven
Online
Saturday, November 2, 1 – 4 pm
Since 2015, our community has experienced the losses of eight beloved community members. These deaths rocked our world and initiated us into taking more responsibility for this stage of life. Some deaths were unexpected and some were after a long illness. Regardless of the nature of the death, we, as a village rose to the occasion of tending this final passage into the mystery beyond our human form.
When this initiation was thrust upon us, we leaned on the experience of our mentors. We learned to grieve together from Sobonfu Somé, now an ancestor herself. We learned to care for the dying together, as well as prepare bodies and conduct home funerals and home burials from Caroline and Ruth with the Center for End of Life Transitions (CEOLT). With each death and through years of formal death care training with CEOLT, we created beautiful, reverent, and sacred life-death honoring spaces of healing, transformation, and transition.
We are now starting to share what we’ve experienced in our village, as well as our stories, lessons-learned, and ideas of how we can be seed-crystals for others looking to feel empowered to care for and honor their dead from their homes, with their family and friends.
In this workshop, we will share an introduction to home funerals and home burials, including a virtual visit to our village burial ground. This is also a space for you to ask questions and know your options around death care and after-death care.
Program
Saturday, November 2, 1 – 4 pm
In this three-hour session, we’ll:
- View a virtual tour our village grave yard
- Share stories of what’s involved in holding a vigil and home funeral and how each one has been different and unique to the beloved dead and the needs of their family
- Discuss our rights for disposition of body after death and home burials
- Share how to begin conversations about death with your family and friends
- View photos of some of the home funerals at Earthaven
Space will be respectful of all faiths and spiritual beliefs. One of Earthaven’s operating assumptions, which will be exhibited and honored in this tour and introductory session to home funerals and home burials, is that there is no one way to do something. The session will explore all this in an embodied, relational, reverent, and welcoming way.
Cost
This program is offered by donation because we want this information to be widely accessible to any and all who are wanting to reclaim their birthrights… to die as they wish and tend to their beloved dead with honor and respect.
Historically, the tuition for the in-person version of this workshop has been $45-65. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Registration
To register, click this link.
Instructor
In-person Programs Director, Faculty Throughout the last two decades, NikiAnne has been immersed in community and in service to a wide range of educational endeavors focused on nature connection, personal empowerment, and community resilience. No matter what she’s teaching, NikiAnne is always on the same mission: to raise awareness of our whole selves – gifts, passions, blind spots, shadows – and help those whole selves find and fill niches in their communities.
NikiAnne Feinberg