Ceremonies

I am available to lead customized ceremonies and/or consult with you on designing your own ritual experience.  Here are a few of the most common ceremonies I offer, though the type of ceremony is limited only by your imagination.

 

Non-Human Connections

Welcome to the Family

Adding a new member to the family is a memorable and exciting time for everyone involved.  Why not take the time to honor the beginning of the relationship with a ceremony and get things started off on the right paw or hoof?  A Welcome to the Family ceremony is a great way to channel excitement and open doors for clear communication between humans and non-humans alike. This ceremony helps the new family member to feel safe and welcome and lays the groundwork for a deep and loving relationship.

 

Grateful for Your Friendship

Whether a mammal, reptile, bird, insect, rodent or amphibian, our animal family is not only family, but also our closest friends.  They are there to share a laugh with us and also to comfort us when we are struggling.  Why not celebrate your special bond while your friend is alive and well?  A Grateful for Your Friendship ceremony is the perfect way to honor your life-long friend.

Celebrating a Life Well Lived

The loss of a dear friend can fill us with grief and a feeling of emptiness, and leave us struggling to figure out how to move forward.  Honoring the loss is an important way to bring closure in a beautiful and respectful way.  A Celebration of a Life Well Lived ceremony supports your loved one’s  peaceful transition over the Rainbow Bridge and celebrates the important place they will always hold in your heart.

 

Honoring Plants, Land, Water and Unseen Elementals

Opening up to relationship with the land you walk upon each day, can do wonders to deepen your ability to communicate with the world around you.  Whether you want to honor a river, or celebrate a tree or thank the land upon which you live, there are many ways to work with ritual and gain a deeper connection with the wild world.

Human Connections

Body Blessing or Home Funeral for Deceased

I am available in a role as a Death Midwife to provide holistic, non-medical, emotional, spiritual and practical support for the dying and their loved ones.  There is  information about full Death Midwife services I can provide here.

 

I am also available for consultations.  Let me know of your interest and goals on the contact page.  Ceremonies start at $100 and consultations are $25/30 mins. Consultations can be about sharing ideas with you so you can hold your own ceremonies or to hold space for bereavement of a human or non-human family member.  We often are programmed to think that it is not OK to mourn our pets.  I believe it is just as important to mourn our pet family members and I provide supportive space for you to mourn and talk about your process.

What is a Death Midwife?

A Death Midwife helps you reclaim the sacred transition of death and make the choices best for you.  The support I offer looks different in each circumstance and depends on the needs and desires of the dying and their loved ones.  I provide practical guidance as well as emotional and spiritual support for you and your loved ones as you near the end of your life.

Death is one of the two things we all share in common, the other being birth.  Many people do not know their options around dying and therefore do not always make the choice that is best for them.  Many cultures throughout history have regarded death as a rite of passage and crossing over a threshold, yet we have forgotten how to honor this sacred transition.  We spend our lives caring for our loved ones. Let us reclaim the continuation of this love through the process of dying.

Death is the final transition we make in this life walk and it is natural to want to make it as aligned to your lifestyle as possible.  We can talk about options for planning ceremonies such as body blessings, final wishes, body disposition, along with whether vigils, home funerals or memorial services are right for you.  I am a Certified Death Midwife.

If you would like to find out more and see if we are a good fit, please contact me.

Questions to ask yourself to see if we are a good fit:

• Do you long to know the wisdom found through consciously engaging the mysteries of the dying process?
• Is it important to continue lovingly caring for your deceased loved one as you have throughout their final days?
• Do you wish to have more control over your end-of-life experience?
• Do you desire personalized, meaningful after-death care that supports your family’s grieving? *******************************************************************************************

Drumming for Transition – a sound honoring ceremony

The drum has been used as a sacred tool for thousands of years.  It has been found in birthing temples and temples to the Gods and Goddesses of times past.  It is the sound that you heard as a heartbeat, as you were growing inside of your own mother.  It is the sound that connects you with the heartbeat of life.

There is a need for sound honorings at the times of midwifing, both into this earth walk and upon leaving this earth walk.  I offer my services to honor the sacred within the birth and death rituals of those who ask. I will hold the space for you or your loved ones from my own sacred place. I will use my tools, such as drum and voice, and other ways to mark sacred transition. There is a trust and a knowing that the rhythms of ritual will reach who they need at the space needed, especially given the sacred is outside of time. 

Please get in touch if you would like a sacred soundings at the Gates.  There is no cost for this.  A gift is welcome if it moves you.

If a loved one has already transitioned, you can still honor the sacred midwifing moment as time is not linear. Space and time is spiral and we trust in the mystery.

“We believe there are alternatives to the traditional approaches toward death and dying. We think you should know about them.”  – Angie Buchanan, Death Midwife