Remarks from a Pagan Funeral
In his quite remarkable book European Paganism: The Realities of Cult, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Ken Dowden makes the observation that all over ancient Europe, it was customary to end funerals with a dance: specifically, with a round dance, preferably performed around the grave itself.
A funeral ends with a round dance. This is profound and articulate action. Ancient Europe was a large place, much larger than it is today: a place of many peoples, many languages, and many cultures; and yet everywhere, across ethnic, linguistic, and cultural boundaries, funerals ended with a round dance.
A funeral ends with a round dance. Now why, do you think, would the ancestors have done this? Anyone?
[Field responses from people.]
The pagan religions are preeminently religions of praxis: they're about what you do. For pagans, to dance is to pray. (Reporter: Do witches pray? Witch [thinks a moment, then smiles.] We dance.) Among the Kalasha of what is now NW Pakistan, the only Indo-European-speaking people who have practiced their ancient religion continuously since antiquity, the same word—the same word—means both to dance and to pray. Consider the implications of this.
As the ancestors did, so we still so, and so we end our rite today. If you are no great dancer, fear not: our dance step today is a simple one: step, together, step, together. If you can walk, you can do this dance.
And as for you non-dancers, you also have an important role to play: we need you to sing for our dance. (You'll find the words in the program.) What we do today, we do together, as one people, singers and dancers alike.
I now invite those of you who wish to dance to come forward and form a circle.
And so we end our rite today.
And so we begin.