Crossing the Veil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday was the memorial service for James Stevens. DUUF Minister Emeritus Rev. Don Fielding led the service, and we were fortunate to have him \u2013 try\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crossing the Veil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday was the memorial service for James Stevens. DUUF Minister Emeritus Rev. Don Fielding led the service, and we were fortunate to have him \u2013 try\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-27T21:53:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/TCgPEBSikFI\/AAAAAAAAAfA\/Wxg5Mjpc7u0\/s400\/James%27+funeral+-+afterward.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html\",\"name\":\"Crossing the Veil\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-27T21:53:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-06-27T21:53:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Yesterday was the memorial service for James Stevens. DUUF Minister Emeritus Rev. Don Fielding led the service, and we were fortunate to have him \u2013 try\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crossing the Veil\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Crossing the Veil","description":"Yesterday was the memorial service for James Stevens. DUUF Minister Emeritus Rev. Don Fielding led the service, and we were fortunate to have him \u2013 try","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Crossing the Veil","og_description":"Yesterday was the memorial service for James Stevens. DUUF Minister Emeritus Rev. Don Fielding led the service, and we were fortunate to have him \u2013 try","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2010-06-27T21:53:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/TCgPEBSikFI\/AAAAAAAAAfA\/Wxg5Mjpc7u0\/s400\/James%27+funeral+-+afterward.jpg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html","name":"Crossing the Veil","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-27T21:53:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-27T21:53:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"Yesterday was the memorial service for James Stevens. DUUF Minister Emeritus Rev. Don Fielding led the service, and we were fortunate to have him \u2013 try","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crossing the Veil"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":396,"date":"2010-06-27T21:53:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-27T21:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil\/"},"modified":"2010-06-27T21:53:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-27T21:53:00","slug":"crossing-the-veil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/06\/crossing-the-veil.html","title":{"rendered":"Crossing the Veil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>Yesterday was the memorial service for James Stevens. DUUF Minister Emeritus Rev. Don Fielding led the service, and we were fortunate to have him \u2013 try finding a UU minister on the weekend of General Assembly. Everyone who wasn\u2019t going to GA was going on vacation or was otherwise unavailable. We were also fortunate to have him because he did a wonderful job paying tribute to a man he never met.<\/p>\n

Our newly-expanded sanctuary was overflowing with Pagans, bikers, black powder enthusiasts, and postal workers \u2013 where else could a group like that come together but a UU church?!<\/p>\n

Today was the Crossing the Veil ritual \u2013 the Pagan funeral James had requested. Denton CUUPS was there, as well as some of the Wiccan groups brought together by James and his Summerlands stone circle. And some of James\u2019 motorcycle friends came out. Several said they\u2019d never been to a Pagan circle, but if this was how their friend wanted to be remembered, they wanted to be there for him. And so they came and stood with us in the circle in the 100 degree heat. That speaks volumes for how well James Stevens was respected and loved.<\/p>\n

I had the honor of speaking the last lines in the ritual \u2013 I\u2019ll repeat them here:<\/p>\n

Our funeral rite is ended. We will miss James, and we will remember him, and we will continue the Great Work of Life and Love. Go in peace.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"