Be Ceremonial

Blog

This is where we share resources, rituals, education and stories from our community to showcase how ritual and ceremony can be woven into moments and milestones across the life cycle.

Showing 1–12 of 47 articles
Warm natural-light editorial photograph of a modern, everyday office during the workday. A small team of colleagues sits in a loose circle of mismatched office chairs in a meeting room with a glass wall, laptops closed and set aside, notebooks and coffee mugs on their laps. Seen from a high angle and from behind, only shoulders, hands and torsos visible, no faces visible anywhere. On a low table in the centre of the circle: a ceramic bowl of smooth grey stones, a single candle in a glass holder, and a few folded handwritten cards. One person's hand rests gently on a colleague's shoulder. Through the glass wall, ordinary office life continues softly out of focus: desks, monitors, a whiteboard, plants, a coat on a chair. Rainy Pacific Northwest light through tall windows. Muted earthy palette of oak, linen, sage green and warm grey. Documentary style, shallow depth of field, calm, human and unstaged, not corporate stock photography. No text, no logos, no readable writing on the whiteboard or screens.

Education ·

Creating Grief-Aware Workplaces

Grief comes to work every day ~ divorce, infertility, a diagnosis, a layoff. How ritual helps workplaces make room for it before a loss.

A group of people gathering on the beach for a grief ceremony

Education ·

What Is A Humanist Ceremony?

What makes a ceremony humanist, how it differs from a secular one, and why ritual still matters when you're not religious. By celebrant Megan Sheldon.

Dreamy, atmospheric wide photograph of a secular green burial ceremony seen from a distance across a sunlit wildflower meadow. The foreground is tall golden grasses and wildflowers in sharp focus (cow parsley, yarrow, fireweed, lupins) framing the bottom of the image. Beyond them, far away in the middle distance and softly out of focus, a small, multigenerational and culturally diverse circle of family and friends — people of East Asian, South Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latin American and white backgrounds, with a range of skin tones, ages and hair textures, an elder with silver hair, a child — gathers around a simple woven willow casket covered in flowers; one figure stands slightly apart, speaking with an open hand. All the people are small in the frame and softly blurred into impressionistic shapes and colours, mostly turned away or in profile — no faces or facial features recognisable, more mood than detail. Soft muted clothing in sage, cream, rust, dusty blue, ochre and blush. Behind them, a hazy line of cedar trees and soft mountains. Warm golden-hour backlight with gentle lens flare and glowing haze, airy, luminous, peaceful. No headstones, no crosses, no religious symbols, no black clothing. Mood: light, tender, hopeful, a celebration of life held in nature. Film photography, shallow depth of field, editorial, no text.

Education ·

Celebrant or End-of-Life Doula?

A celebrant is hired for a day, a doula for a season ~ mostly. Clear definitions, typical scenarios, and where the two roles overlap.

A writing desk seen from above with handwritten pages, a fountain pen, a cup of tea and old family photographs spread out

Education ·

What Does a Celebrant Actually Cost?

An honest look at celebrant fees in Metro Vancouver ~ what the range is, what you are actually paying for, and what to ask whoever you hire.

Three beeswax candles on a weathered wooden table, each burned down to a different height, the last one still lit

Education ·

Why One Ceremony Is Rarely Enough

A birth doesn't happen in a day. Neither does a death. Why some passages ask to be marked as an arc of ceremonies rather than a single gathering.

Athletes huddled together — ritual at the heart of athletic experience

Education ·

Elevating Sport Through Ceremony

How can we elevate sport through intentional ritual and meaningful ceremony? Exploring the meaning woven through how we play, compete, and gather.

An older woman's hands resting peacefully — embracing the wisdom of aging

Education ·

Rituals To Embrace Aging

The harm of the anti-aging narrative and how we can reclaim the power of growing older through ritual and ceremony.

A grief altar with an "I miss you" bowl, surrounded by flowers and fairy lights

Education ·

End-of-Life Planning is an Act of Love

What if end of life planning could be transformed from a dreaded necessity into a meaningful act of self-care and love for those we'll leave behind?

Quiet evening light — man reflecting at the end of the day

Education ·

Why Men Need Ritual in Modern Life

Over the years, we've had so many men reach out on ways to incorporate ritual into their modern life. This is a place to start.