Druid Funeral

[Craig]

Hi All,

Been a long time I know, but I need some advice.

A feral druid of my acquaintance has died suddenly in North Hampshire and his family want to honour his wishes and don't know how, so they turned to me (mistake, I know).

I need advice on:
1. Being buried or cremated on your own land,
2. Local Hampshire/Surrey pagan burial sites if that is not an option, and
3. Suitable celebrants who can conduct such a burial/cremation.

Cheers everyone,
Craig.

[Blackbird]

Sorry to hear about your friend.

I'm also pretty clueless!
I know you can't be cremated outside of a crematorium, as there was a bit of noise made by the Zoroastrians a few years back on the subject. (Iirc, it's important to them to be cremated outdoors in a certain way, and they were not allowed).

Regarding burials, again, I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure that you're not allowed to be buried just anywhere. There are criteria about water tables and such, so I expect that it has to be an approved burial site. I've no idea about Hampshire, but there are quite a few green/forest burial sites in Notts, so I'd be surprised if there were none down there.

I've been to one forest burial. The cemetary organised the practical stuff and then you did whatever ceremony you wished (in that case, it was Catholic) and got to choose which tree was planted on the grave.

Why not try Anne Coleman (Wiseowl) - she's quite local to that area and I'm pretty sure that she'll be well up on the legalities. She may also be able to conduct the ceremony, or know somebody else that will. (Ask Jez for her number if she's sitting across from you!)

[Heron]

Here's a link for private land burial arrangements and other related matters:

www.naturaldeath.org.uk/index.php?page=home-burial

I tried to do this some years ago for someone, but burial arrangements couldn't be made in time and he was cremated but we scattered his ashes on his land.

Blackbird's suggestion for contact sounds like a good one and there are others in that area connected with Grey Mare that she could point you to if she can't help.