Accompanied by music ranging from ancient chants to modern hymns, such as Brian Wren's "Dust and Ashes Touch Our Face," today is Ash Wednesday celebrated in some, but certainly not all Christian denominations. This, the first day of the Lenten season, begins with a stark ritual.
During the service, an officiant uses ashes to draw a cross on each worshipper's forehead, reciting the words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
This ritual of repentance that dates back to Genesis, but it also points to a biological truth the ancients knew in their bones: life moves in cycles. They saw that when plants and animals decayed, the soil grew rich.
But this "circle of life" has a grittier history than we often realize.
In his book "The Devil’s Element," Dan Egan reveals how 18th-century scientists discovered that phosphorus was the "limiting factor" for life.
They also discovered that bones — both animal and human — could be used as a potent fertilizer to revive exhausted soil.
Following the Battle of Waterloo, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were left in the soil. By the 1820s, a "bone-robbing" industry emerged. These remains were systematically exhumed, shipped to England, and pulverized in bone-crushing mills into a fine powder used to fertilize farm fields.
Today, that cycle is becoming more intentional. "Natural Organic Reduction" — or human composting — is now legal in several states, allowing essential minerals to become a literal gift back to the earth.
Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are part of a vast, recycling masterpiece. The minerals in our bodies came from the earth, and to the earth they will return — offering a quiet, Lenten hope that even in death, we are part of the circle of life.
