Funeral Traditions And Ceremony
It is traditional for a Spiritist to be cremated, so that the soul of the person gone on to The Spirit World can be fully separated from any conditions in The Material World. This means it will be easier for them to develop and learn in their New Existence without Earthly worries and cares to so heavily bind them to the past. In the days of The Old Fox, The Children Of Spirit made by hand wooden gifts to cast into the funeral fire, these being shaped like coins, knives, spoons, plates, swords and shields, ox carts and sheep, so that the departed would have these things in The Next World.
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Ceremony
The day after the person's death, the procession should be carried out. The Church Speaker should lead the funeral procession followed by the body of the deceased carried by friends and relatives. After brought to the crematorium by legal means, the body is put into the furnace and the fire kindled. The Speaker says this prayer:
Speaker--"Oh Blessed Lords, Holy Fathers and Mothers, we commend to the flame this vessel that once held the soul of your beloved servant. We ask you, Oh Lords, rise up that soul in glory in your Holy Place. Let it shine like the brightest star, as an inspiration to others in their journey through their lifetime."
(Now the people who have brought wooden gifts as tradition, place them in the fire with the body. When the fire is done and the hymns sung, and the people have gone home, as instructed the funeral parlor personnel will grind the bones to powder and put them in an urn for delivery to the family. Some families had special places in their ancestral homes where the sealed urns of departed loved ones were placed. Others had family tombs in parks somewhat like cemeteries, where the ashes were placed. If a person was of exceptional fame....a leader of the church, exceptional warrior, etc., the church might request a spoonful of their ashes to be placed in one of the Temple's sacred urns. This was considered a very great honor.)