The Faith said that a soul and body remained joined together as one until cremation. It was only when fire consumed the flesh that the ethereal soul was untethered from the crude earthly form. A person who had lived devoutly and without vice would release a pure soul that could ascend to the highest of the heavenly realms. If a body was not burned, the soul was left trapped, unable to ascend and in danger of becoming tainted by the body’s putrefaction.
