I live in the US where aging is shameful, grieving is rude, and death is commodified. I don’t think this perspective should be carried over. So, how could solarpunks do things differently?

My current vision involves a lunarpunk monastery. Gone are sterile funeral homes, silent graveyards, dogma and taboo. Instead, an eclectic community of death doulas serving others through the finality. The bodies of the dead become part of an ever expanding ancestral forest. A living cemetery for the living.

Housed would be thanatologists of every flavor: bookworms, artists, health practitioners, naturalists, mystics, and more. Maintaining libraries, gardens, and temples for public use. Facilitating psychedelic rituals for those with terminal illness and the bereaved. Providing funeral rites and hospice care. Hosting moonlit festivals, discussions, and support groups.

Wearing mothlike robes. Playing chimes at sundown corresponding to the phase of the moon. But I digress…

How do you imagine death and dying in a solarpunk society? Is the great unknown in the realm of lunarpunk?

  • quercusOPEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    Exactly, yes! No stuffiness or stigma. Conversations over hot beverages in a cozy room, during batwatching picnics, or while stargazing.

    Searching Death Cafes led to articles about Coffin Clubs, people coming together to build and decorate coffins for themselves and each other. On how the first one got started:

    “I gathered some old blokes who were ex-carpenters and builders, and a group of women that would get creative, and we started it up in my garage and carport,” she says.