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?
I love the thought of a morchard (mortuary orchard), be it fruit, nut or any other kind of tree/perennial plant. I think ideally the plants there should not be harvested except by families of the deceased, and the rest is left for nature/ to support wildlife.