Fwd: COMMUNITY GRIEF RITUAL – Tending to our Sorrow - May 7th - All Day Workshop!
PLACE for Sustainable Living
Tending to our Sorrow
DATE: May 7, 2016
TIME: 10:00am to 6:00pm
(Arrive 15 minutes early!)
COST: $100-150 Sliding Scale
"PLACE": 1121 64th St, Oakland, CA 94608
FOOD: A light meal will be provided. Tea and water on site
REGISTER HERE – PLEASE INCLUDE THIS NOTE IN THE "PURPOSE" FIELD: "PLACE"
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ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Everyone feels grief, but not everyone has been supported in understanding it's true purpose and power. In our modern Western culture grief has gotten a bad rap. Many of us were raised to swallow our tears, or we were told that it's weak to have grief, or that we're too emotional. When we suppress this natural function within us, we create energy blocks which in turn create health imbalances. Emotions are energy in motion. They are supposed to move and flow through us like a river. It is an internal human balancing mechanism; a renewing and cleansing process.
Community grief rituals support us in accessing our sometimes hard to reach emotions. They give us a focus (the grief altar) and a container (skilled facilitators) within which to safely relax our hearts. They also validate us in whatever we're feeling, whether it's personal or global, grief, anger or numbness.
There is a reason why grief exists and if we allow these waters to flow inside of us, we will learn a great deal about rejuvenation, emotional intelligence, forgiveness, compassion and peace.
BRING
• Bring any snacks you need to supplement.
• Flowers
• Photos of Ancestors
• Candles: Unscented in glass holder: Red, Blue, White, Yellow, Green
• Fabric to decorate altars: Black, Blue, Red, Yellow, White, Green
• Wear: Comfortable layered clothing.
• Water bottle
• Thermos Mug with lid
• Warm hat, socks, scarf
• Journal w/pen
Facilitators: Maria Owl Gutierrez and Mike Shea
ABOUT MARIA OWL
From Maria Owl, author of the forthcoming book The Weight of the World: Women and the Work of Grief-tending: I
know that in order to stay sane, I must feel my grief - my personal
grief and my grief for the world. This grief is so huge, that it would
swallow me alive if I didn't consciously acknowledge it and tend to it.
Feel the fear and rather than avoiding or rejecting it, walking right
into it - thereby transforming it into embodied wisdom. MORE
ABOUT MIKE SHEA
Mike is an initiated man through the Men of Spirit Program of Wisdom Bridge in Sonoma County which was led by Francis Weller .
In 2001 he was part of a Ritual Village training with Francis and his
wife Judith. For the past 15 plus years he has experienced his own
healing and transformation through ritual and longs to bring these gifts
to other people. MORE