"I'm not sure how or when I began my apprenticeship with sorrow.
I do know that it was my gateway back into the breathing and animate world.
It was through the dark waters of grief that I came to touch my unlived life...
There is some strange intimacy between grief and aliveness, some sacred exchange between what seems unbearable and what is most exquisitely alive.
Through this I have come to have a lasting faith in grief.
Francis Weller
Welcome
the invitation.
We were never meant to just “move on” from grief nor push it away. Rather many of us have been waiting for the more generous invitation of allowing what is to simply be there. Waiting for an invitation to find ways of moving more gracefully with grief as part of a life long relationship with it. It can be a gateway back into the richness of our soul life. It can free up old, locked down, energies and lead us back into deep aliveness and love for the world.
to a shared practice.
Grief rituals have long been a ancient pathway to restoration and connection. In the grief phobic culture we live in, grief has, in the main, been privatised. Many of us have been given the message that grief needs to be hidden, and may have been conditioned to judge ourselves for it. Being part of a regular grief practice is a way to begin to undo the damage of our cultural avoidance of endings... by embracing them.
in a global community.
Grieving alone or with one other can serve a valuable purpose, however I believe to fully heal and process grief, we need the power of group witnessing and ritual. There is a growing world wide community of people willing to meet the wild energy of grief together. By returning to this ancient practice of communal grieving we are building a new foundation together to meet the many losses of our times with our hearts open.
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About the Ritual
What Happens?
People from all around the world come together online once a month for an hour and half to share in this ritual practice. There is much to be felt, listened to and offered when we give space to our grief. In small and larger groups we engage in a mix of journaling, sharing, music, poetry, and sometimes silence. The purpose is to learn to tend to our grief more lovingly and skillfully.
What is it for?
This is a group to honour losses of all kinds whether they be personal (which could include the loss of a loved one, loss of status loss of health etc), social/political, ancestral, intergenerational, and ecological.
Many of us are affected by the overarching times we are in which is amplifying griefs of all kinds. You may not even have a name for what you are grieving just a sense of loss. All is welcome here.
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Who is for?
In the grief ritual we hold a safe, non judgemental space. As a prerequisite to attending participants need to have capacity to hold a listening space for others. Whilst the groups are therapeutic they are not designed to be used in place of therapy. It's neither a discussion group or a teaching group. Everyone in the group is an active participant in a ritual space.
No events at the moment
“It seems to me, that if we love, we grieve.
That’s the deal. That’s the pact.
Grief and love are forever intertwined.
Grief is the terrible reminder of the depths of our love and,
like love, grief is non-negotiable.
There is a vastness to grief that overwhelms our minuscule selves.
We are tiny, trembling clusters of atoms subsumed within grief’s awesome presence.
It occupies the core of our being and extends through our
fingers to the limits of the universe.
Within that whirling gyre all manner of madnesses exist;
ghosts and spirits and dream visitations,
and everything else that we, in our anguish, will into existence.
These are precious gifts that are as valid and as real
as we need them to be.
They are the spirit guides that lead us out of the darkness.”
~ Words by Nick Cave
~ Image: Nights Impossible Burden by Brian Kershisnik
Meet the Facilitators
Michael Shaw
I have a background in therapy, teaching and mindfulness. However my real self-description changed radically when the truth about the ecological and civilisational changes really landed.
I understood first hand that grief, with all of its fierce capacity to undo us, has a deeply transforming potency. It brought forth in me a new love for the world as well as a depth of purpose and aliveness that I hadn’t previously known. My documentary grew out of this. So now I'm a film maker and earth lover who sees grief, if met the right way, as a profound teacher.
Michelle Walter
I'm another human heartbroken by what is happening on the planet. Yet still deeply in love with life and nature and all her beauty and mystery.
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Having worked as a therapist for almost 30 years, I make sense of what is happening through the lens of psychology and spirituality. More recently I am taken with simply witnessing. Witnessing the beauty and majesty of nature.. witnessing the grief and pain in myself and in my fellow humans.... and witnessing all the deep possibilities that exist within each one of us when let go and let ourselves truly be here with the precious time we have left.
Heather Albrecht
I’ve worn a few hats over the last four decades, as psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher, yoga teacher, artist, community activist, bushwalker, corporate trainer, and more.
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When the many truths of the climate and ecological collapse finally made their way into my heart, I came alive in unexpected ways. I’ve come to realise this time, a time of great sorrow, is also a chance to become more fully human. For me this is supported in collective grief work, rewilding myself and falling back in love and connection with the natural world. Soul work.
