Death Rights and Rites: A Practical Guide to a Meaningful Death

by Judith Karen Fenley & Oberon Zell

Reclaim the Right to a Sacred, Sustainable Death

Exploring the spiritual and legal aspects of alternative death-ways, home funerals, and green burial Death Rights and Rites presents practical information and questions for approaching death and dying with a sense of sacred meaning. You will discover ideas for navigating the spiritual and legal issues related to home-based dying, home funerals, and alternative burial methods.

Reverend Judith Karen Fenley offers insights into approaching relevant legal frameworks with respect while assisting your loved one in ways that support the best medical care, the natural environment, and the emotional needs of the community. Explore ideas for memorial services
and ways to be open to spontaneous rituals for letting go, preparing for death, being at peace, and more.

It is possible to manifest your deepest values before, during, and after death. Death Rights and
Rites shares examples and provides support as you explore final transitions that are
environmentally conscious and spiritually meaningful.

Includes a foreword by Jerrigrace Lyons, founder of Final Passages: The Institute of Conscious
Dying, Home Funeral & Green Burial Education and an epilogue by Oberon Zell, cofounder of
the Church of All Worlds.

 

Reviews

Filled with personal stories and written with a compassionate heart, this book is a must-have
guide for navigating the tragic terrain of a loved one’s passing. In one volume, it covers not only
the spiritual aspects of this passage, but the practical and legal issues as well. A wonderful book
for a difficult subject, guiding you before, during, and after death comes near your door. Should
be in everyone’s library.

~ Anodea Judith
author of Anodea Judith’s Chakra Yoga

This is a significant and timely book, full of heartwarming stories to inspire you and ease your
fears. I learned many things that I will definitely put into practice as I prepare for my own death
and those of my loved ones. In our modern culture we have lost touch with the beauty and
sacredness of death, and the need for meaningful rituals that are aligned with human needs and
the ways of the natural world. This book shares ways we can re-gain and re-claim our rightful
ease and natural way with death.

~ Susan Campbell
author of Getting Real and Saying What’s Real

Judith Fenley has created a weaving of practical, spiritual, political, ritual, and always
compassionate wisdom for approaching the process of death. Bringing a sense of the organic and
natural unfolding of the conclusion of life in a body, she tells stories, provides resources,
encourages reflection, and always emphasizes the importance of honoring the individual needs
and desires of the loved and loving ones finding their way through death. Judith’s caring heart
and grounded presence are here in her writing as I know they must be as she tends to the needs of
family and friends whose loved one has left this life. May this book be a guide and companion to
those seeking support in choosing and following the appropriate path for themselves, their loved
ones, or for their own journey assisting others as a death guide.

~ Selene Vega
author, dancer, psychotherapist, and owner of spiritmoving.com