Ruth Barton wrote:

>You'd have to be quite technologically advanced to send it to my FIL, he
>died in 1991.  Ruth
>
>
Ruth,

Possibly not technological advanced as much as well in the way of
practice of feasts and ritual.
I have been having an increasing fascination with Tibetan long horns
which I understand are meant to make noise here, and to cross over to
the other side.
I'd like to get ahold of one, even in facsimile.
There may be something along these lines of crossing over with bagpipes,
though VI will have to educate us to that.
The following, though, from a thesis on icons regarding the cult of
saints is curiously informative as to the level of technology required.
It also says something for a sense of place and the value of structure
in place.

][<

The cult of the saints in its structure and design can be traced, not
without a reason, to the Greco-Roman  pagan funerary practices. The
idealisation of the dead appeared to be natural to men 'in Hellenistic
and Roman times' to extent that the deceased were sometimes perceived as
a local heroes or demi-gods. The sense of insecurity, provided by their
view of the remote gods, and the need for protection created another
precedent. The deceased heroes or emperors were believed to be the
protectors or patrons of the alive, being endowed with the divine
presence - the concept which was adapted and further elaborated by
Christianity. Therefore, their graves were understood to be sacred.
These beliefs were accompanied in turn by different feasts as a means of
communion with the dead, as well as worship which was offered to the
deceased.

In addition, there was a philosophical understanding from Plutarch
concerning the soul which was believed to be 'composite and consisting
of many layers'. The soul was perceived as a hierarchy of layers: 'above
the layers of which the individual is immediately conscious, there lies
a further layer, the "true" soul, that is as immeasurably superior to
the soul as we know it, as the soul itself is superior to the body'.
Each individual, or self, was perceived as a hierarchy, the peak of
which lay beneath the divine. At this level the soul required an
invisible, personal protector, 'daimon, the genius, or the guardian
angel', whose function was to protect and accompany the individual and
to whom the supplicant turned in times of crisis and distress.

2.8.2.2. Constantine era. These pagan ideas were incorporated into the
rising 'christianised' cult of martyrs throughout the fourth and  the
subsequent centuries with the coming of the Constantine whose reign gave
a new impetus for the cult of the saints. With the massive conversion of
pagan masses 'the pressure of pagan ways of  thinking and worshipping
made itself felt... in the ceremonial trappings and in the beliefs
surrounding the new cult of martyrs'. Pagan views concerning divine
forces being present in religious images and the 'localisation of the
soul at the grave in the case of the cult of relics and of the tombs of
the saints', being coincided with Christian views concerning the
holiness of the body of the martyr, resulted in the practice of
/depositio ad sanctos/. Thus, devotional practices and beliefs of the
people became foundational concerning the cult of the dead and the
martyrs in particular, before it was 'confessed by the church or even
taught by the theologians'.

Additionally, Constantine was responsible for introducing into
Christianity 'a pagan notion of the sanctity of things and places' with
the additional belief of their spiritual efficacy. The /martyria /which
were built upon the tombs of/ /venerated saints 'came to be seen as the
/loci/ where Heaven and Earth met'. Subsequently, the cult of the
martyrs was assigned with all its 'tombs of martyrs to the churches as
their property' and became accompanied after his death by liturgical
service for all those who died in faith.Thus, by the sixth century the
cult of the saints came to be perceived as the established
ecclesiastical tradition, being based, however, on historically
unreliable hagiographic legends and apocrypha.

Theology of Icons: A Protestant perspective - A Thesis submitted for the
degree of Master of Theology, by Vitalij Ivanovich Petrenko, Brunel
University

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