[Vietislav]

I'm wondering to what extent the concept of consecrated ground is for real. If consecration is by ritual and the person carrying out the ritual just rattles off the words rather than really focusing on creative visualisation, is the ritual worthless and the ground not consecrated? And even if a patch of ground has been consecrated successfully, what's the idea? If your spirit has departed and all that's left is old bones, what's consecration supposed to be for? Is the idea that because your bones are somehow protected by consecration, demons can't seize your soul? That's to say, do religions believe that it's important for human bones to be protected forever because there are black magical rites which, through using human bones, can somehow result in people's immortal souls being tampered with? If so, then presumably the consecration of ground must be intended to keep demons away rather than keeping practitioners of magic away, because a practitioner of magic could just walk into a burial ground with a spade and simply help him- or herself to as many bones as they liked, then conduct their magical rites elsewhere on unconsecrated ground. Or are bones which have been buried in consecrated ground themselves consecrated, rendering them useless in necromantic ritual anywhere in the world? If so, then presumably it follows that if you're not buried in consecrated ground, your bones can be used by necromancers as they please, willy nilly, to the eternal detriment of your soul. In short, you'd fall into the hands of the demonic realm, regardless of how virtuous a person you may have been when alive in this world. If this is indeed the case, where does this leave woodland burials?