The Final Frost
The Keeping of the Dying · the Last Rite and the Laying-in-Cold
“Go now into the deep cold, faithful soul; the Keeper waits at the threshold. Be still, and be kept.” — the commendation of the Final Frost
The Final Frost is the rite for the dying and the dead: the anointing of the dying with frost-oil, the last Cold Communion (the Viatic Snow-bread, “bread for the road”), the commendation of the soul, and the Laying-in-Cold (burial).
For the Dying
As death nears, the Keeper:
- Hears the dying soul’s last The Confession of the Thaw.
- Anoints the brow, eyes, lips, hands, and feet with frost-oil (consecrated oil kept chilled), praying that each sense be “cooled of its last fevers.”
- Gives the Viatic Snow-bread — the final Communion, “to keep you on the white road.”
- Leads the dying and the family in the The Hoarfather’s Stilling and turns the dying soul to face north, toward the The White Horizon. The dying are encouraged to “let go the warmth” peacefully — death itself, rightly met, is the final and total The Stilling.
For the Dead — the Laying-in-Cold
Frostians never burn the dead (burning is the Thaw’s own work; see The Reforging (Resurrection Doctrine)). The body is laid up in cold — buried in frozen ground, entombed in ice-vaults, or, in the far north, given to the snow-cairns of the high places. The body is washed, wrapped in white grave-furs, the The Frostmark traced upon it a final time, and laid facing north with a small shard of clear ice on the breast (“a seed of the Reforging”). The grave is marked with the The Sixfold Star.
The Funeral Liturgy
The Cold Requiem is sung: psalms of hope (The Cold Psalter 23, 121), the reading of the Reforging (Letter to the Wintermereans 15), and the great responsory: “Though the body melt, the breath is kept; and at the Rewhitening, the cold dust shall be Reforged.” The mourners wear frost-grey.
Prayer for the Dead
Most rites then commend the soul to the The Slush for re-freezing and continue to pray for the dead (especially on the The Vigil of the Slush); the Reformed commend the soul straight to the Horizon and do not pray for the dead. See On the Keeping of the Dead (Treatise).