Services For The Scattering of Ashes

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:19

The following are a variety of services that can be used in scattering the ashes.

We have come here today to scatter the ashes that are all that now remains of the body of ________________.

In a beautiful and ancient rite, we gave his/her body to the flames. Fire is the visible form of energy, which is the real stuff and true essence of all that appears in this world where we express ourselves through bodies and minds. A funeral pyre is like a candle's burning the candle's tallow disappears in the emerging form of the candle's glow. In the funeral pyre the fire of life in haste to call life forth again when life has faltered, consumed and transformed the clay that we entrusted to it, returning all that was radiant to the radiance of the Spirit that gave it form, until at last all that is left is this handful of ash and earthiness we must now commit to the earth from which it came.

These ashes were not ___________. They are merely what remains of the body s/he wore at the close of his/her sojourn here on this earth. ___________ had many bodies.

First s/he had the body of a babe, then of a girl/boy, then of a grown wom/man, and finally, this body that in the funeral pyre we have returned to the fire, to the air, to the waters of the earth and to the earth itself.

The ancients taught that there are four elements in the world and of these all that is-- everything--is composed. These four are earth, water air and fire. Modern science confirms the findings of our fathers. It divides all things into four forms; solids, liquids, gases and energy.

When you think about it, you see how true this is--we all have qualities like earth, like water, like air, like fire. There was much in ___________ that was like fire. Now all that was fire, fiery, the living fire that beat in the heart and ran in the veins, this the funeral fire has made one again with the fire that burns in the sun and stars and in every unseen, singing, dancing, fiery particle of being.

There was much in ___________ that was like air. All that was like air--airy, light and irrepressible--the fire has carried upward into the encircling air to become the breath of life for living things.

There was much in ___________ that was like water. All that was like water, watery, the fire has diffused into the skies, to be one with the watery vapors of the air, with clouds and rain--a renewing source of life for all living things. Finally, there was that in ___________ that was like earth.

Now that which was of the earth, earthy, lies here in these few ashes. These we now return to the earth, into the cradle endlessly rocking, the womb of the world from which we were all brought forth.

(SCATTER THE ASHES ............................ASK THOSE PRESENT TO PRAY SILENTLY FOR ___________ AS YOU SCATTER THE ASHES..)

Life is a process in which we are all linked. We merge and reemerge. That which was earth returns to earth. That which was air returns to air. That which was water returns to water. That which was fire returns to fire.

But we are more than earth and water, air and fire. We are Spirit. In us is the Spirit of God and that which was Spirit returns to God who gave it.

"Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:38.39)

So let us all join at this moment of leave taking in speaking aloud together, as a blessing and farewell for ___________, our Unity Prayer for Protection. ___________, The Light of God Surrounds You, The Love of God Enfolds You, The Power of God Protects You The Presence of God Watches Over You Where Ever You Are, God Is.

As a final word, you can ask all to speak the foregoing paragraph and then the minister alone can repeat;

THE TRAVELER ___________ has put on invisibility. Dear Lord, I cannot see-- But this I know, although the road ascends And passes from my sight, That there will be no night; That You will take him gently by the hand And lead him on Along the road of life that never ends, And he will find it is not death but dawn. I do not doubt that You are there as here, And You will hold him dear.

Our life did not begin with birth, It is not of the earth; And this that we call death, it is no more Than the opening and closing of a door-- And in Your house how many rooms must be Beyond this one where we rest momently. Dear Lord, I thank You for the faith that frees, The love that knows it cannot lose its own; The love that, looking through the shadows, sees That You and he and I are ever one!

Today we scatter --------'s ashes at his beloved -----.No longer bound by this world, but a part of it. No longer tied to one place, one time, but free. Every time you feel the warm sunshine on your face, Every time you hear the rain softly falling outside your window, No matter where you are, no matter how far you travel in this big, wide open world, Remember.