Alternative Ceremonies

I’ve heard celebrant trainers talk about the three pillars of celebrancy as funerals, weddings and namings. This strikes me as a limited view of who and what a celebrant is and can do. While it is true that many celebrants only train in those three ceremonies (or sometimes only one), what I know as fact is that there are as many types of ceremonies as there are human rites of passage and experiences. A skilled celebrant can turn their hand to any transitional path and be guardian of that threshold.

 

The reason our Diploma in Advanced Celebrancy and Ritual is the signature training course here at Heart-led Ceremonies Celebrant Training is that our would-be celebrants instinctively know that the human journey covers many paths.

Even if, at the outset, we feel like we’ll be focused on just funerals or weddings or namings, the time will come when someone asks you to do something else. A skilled celebrant will readily welcome new opportunities.

 

Here are ceremonies you might expect as a funeral celebrant:
Cremations
Burials
Eco Burials
Living funerals
This-Is-Your-Life style funeral
Interment of Ashes
Scattering of Ashes
Botanical Ash Scattering
Advanced Funeral Planning
Mandala Funerals

Here are some ceremonies you might expect as a wedding celebrant:
Weddings (traditional, alternative, religious, spiritual, humanist)
Pagan/Wiccan/Druidic/Viking Handfastings
Vow Renewals
Commitment Blessings
Civil Ceremonies

 

Here are some ceremonies you might expect as a naming celebrant:
Baby blessing
Young child or older child

Adoption
Adult
Transgender

Here is a short list of other types of rites of passage you may officiate as a Heart-led Celebrant who has a Diploma in Advanced Ceremony and Ritual.

Conscious Conception
Fertility Blessing
Menarche
Blessingway
Postpartum
New Home
Leaving a Home
Leaving Home
Graduation
Career Change

Book Launch
Healing from illness
Illness diagnosis
Amputation
Overseas travels
Opening a Little Free Library

Opening a Playground or Public Garden
New Boat
New Business e.g. bakery, sewing shop, nursery, café, graphic design
Sagesse
Leaving Jail
Leaving Rehabilitation
Recovery from Abuse
Friendship

Bankruptcy

Eviction
Finding Voice
Smallholding

Ceremonies heal, and offer hope and comfort. They mark the passage from one part of our life to the next.