Rachel Alexander's Blog, page 230
April 6, 2019
fun funeral facts
embalming, the process of chemically preserving a corpse, is typically not required by law. unless you need to transport the body long-distance or postpone the burial, it’s 100% a vanity thing.
a body still rots in air-tight conditions. so “protective” or “sealed” caskets are basically a scam, and anything fancy like metal is a waste of money.
want a beautiful casket for a viewing, but think burning or burying an expensive piece of hardwood is a waste of money and trees? rentals exist.
you don’t need a coffin for cremation. the minimum requirement is that the body be in a “cremation container,” which is a simple cardboard box.
home funerals are an option. you don’t need to hand the body over to a funeral home, and you can keep their involvement to a minimum.
natural burial sites exist. you can have your unembalmed body straight up thrown in the dirt to be tree food, if you want.
there are a lot of funeral homes
that will prey on your ignorance and vulnerability in order to get as much
money out of you as possible. they may imply optional certain services are legally
mandatory, steer you away from cheaper options, charge
additional costs for what’s supposed to be all-inclusive services, etc.
one
person’s death is another person’s profit. know your rights, do your research,
and apply the same scrutiny you would to any other business.
It is super easy to donate your body to science.
therkalexander:I swear I should title my whole series “No One Listens to Hecate and Everyone Regrets...
I swear I should title my whole series “No One Listens to Hecate and Everyone Regrets It Later”
Hey Rachel! Are you doing the director's cut thing still? If so, can you the scene with Aidon, Hecate, and Nyx in the garden in RoM? Right before Aidon and Persephone make up? Thank you so very much!
OK! Here we go…
I really wanted to have Hecate have a moment to shine instead of waltzing on screen to be effusive and mysterious and then disappear the next. I also wanted to introduce Nyx in a big way and hint that there is a lot of prophecy at work and a line of succession and esoteric knowledge that has been passed along since Mother Chaos created the Universe.
This was her last day as the Maiden. She stood taller, nearly flowered. Hecate could feel the impending shift to the Woman as surely as she had for a hundred aeons. She walked through the garden in her white peplos, her adolescent feet padding over the earth. She sensed the bursts of colorful blossoms at the garden’s edge before she could even see them, felt the warmth of breathing life radiating from the six trees. They had taken a little less than a moon’s cycle to bloom, their flowers vibrant red against the rich green leaves. Their brilliance stood like a beacon against the pallid grays and midnight-darkened evergreen of the Underworld.
"Hecate thinned her lips. “The serpent smiling through a cloak of blue feathers is still a..."
“I don’t trust her either, but she is trying to befriend me, and the last thing we need is to make an enemy of her. Besides,” Persephone said, reaching for a stylus. “If she is sincere, we could affect meaningful change in the world above. Wouldn’t you prefer that to mortal women being treated as little more than chattel, or your followers being stoned or exiled?”
- The Good Counselor, Chapter 9
