Author, Beyerl, began this book in 1985 as he realised that in that era there were not many alternative approaches for a modern ritual for the dead. Creating a beautiful and moving ritual for the Dead for his own Wiccan Church, his own near-death brushes led him on a thirty year research project to understand how our contemporary attitudes and practices have been shaped by historical events and end up both changed and yet much the same. Fascinating, engaging, this is a book that merits a wide readership.