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Brighton community grief tending - February newsletter

Welcome to my newly formatted newsletter. As a storyteller by day, committed to seeding more regenerative stories, I felt it time to share my ongoing research. into the sacred art of grieving. I hope some part of it touches you, as it has me.

As well as the ritual in March, we have the Centre for Ecotherapy booked for a day long workshop on Saturday 2 May. More details to come in next month's newsletter.

With love and gratitude,

Gail

Next community grief tending ritual - 21 March 2020 

We're at the Brighthelm Centre on Saturday 21 March from 1 - 5pm.

The invitation
As a culture we’re grief illiterate, living in a state of amnesia and anaesthesia, with unexpressed sorrow often showing up as anxiety, depression and addiction. When we deny grief, we compress the depth of our emotional experience, and our ability to live with the forces of life and death.

Together we acknowledge that sorrow is a communal cup that we all drink from, breaking down the walls between us. When we welcome and witness grief, we metabolise our sorrow, finding that the central energy of sorrow, is a vital life force. Grieving opens us to the depth of loving.
 
The ritual space provides a container for touching, witnessing and releasing what we carry, to cleanse our congested hearts, leaving us with a new sense of vitality. Communal grieving is a practice of loving life together. 
 
The ritual
The ritual is 4 hours, where we move in and out of our grief in 4 stages:

  • stirring our grief with movement and talking exercises
  • expressing our grief at the grief altar, supported by the community around us
  • integration time with song and touch
  • sharing of wha we harvested fo ourselves and our fellow grievers.

Suggested exchange
The suggested exchange for the half-day ritual is £27.

There are some sliding scale spots available. So please get in touch if you feel you need to be there and that exchange is prohibitive. We don’t want to exclude anyone that is called.
 
Booking
Booking and payment is advance is essential as we are limited to 22 spaces. So we have enough space for everyone who wants to spend time at the grief altar.

Please email me - gail@bigseeds.co.uk - to get the booking instructions, or if you have any questions.

Find the March community grief tending ritual event on Facebook.

 

Watch - Freddie the leaf

Watch this beautiful animation based on the story by Leo Buscaglia of a leaf named Freddie, and how he and his companion leaves change with the seasons, and finally fall to the ground, illustrating the delicate balance between life and death.
Listen - Songs for the Dead

As a Scot, I've been researching ancient traditions keening in Scotland and Ireland. Taken from The Keening Wake:

"Keening was a vocal ritual artform, performed at the wake or graveside in mourning of the dead. Keens are said to have contained raw unearthly emotion, spontaneous word, repeated motifs, crying and elements of song."

In this podcast - Songs for the Dead - on BBC iPlayer, broadcaster Marie-Louise Muir sets out to ask what's been lost with the passing of the keeners. She speaks to Dr Deirdre Ni Chonghaile, who thinks our society has become far less tolerant of extravagant displays of grief.
Dance - Grief by Eithne Ní Uallacháin

This beautiful lament starts off in Gaelic and weaves in Gaelic. The rising and failing melody encourages my body to move gently with the rivers of grief. 
Copyright © 2020 Big Seeds, All rights reserved.


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