The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
How is it that we have attempted to keep grief separated from our lives and only begrudgingly acknowledge its presence at the most obvious of times, such as a funeral?
Francis Weller • The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
Like any true ritual process, we are meant to come out of the experience deeply changed.
Francis Weller • The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
“psychological moralism” places enormous pressure on us to always be improving, feeling good, and rising above our problems.2 Happiness has become the new mecca, and anything short of that often leaves us feeling that we have done something wrong or failed to live up to the acknowledged standard. This forces sorrow, pain, fear, weakness, and vulner
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Our strategies of anesthesia are equally astonishing. Entire industries have emerged to keep the senses dulled and distracted. Our need to be anesthetized is rooted in our smoldering dissatisfaction with the meager existence we have been offered by this society, itself a profound source of grief.
Francis Weller • The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
a wild alchemy of sorrow and joy, played out once again, as it always has been, in the container of sacred ritual.
Francis Weller • The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
It is our unexpressed sorrows, the congested stories of loss, that, when left unattended, block our access to the soul.
Francis Weller • The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
As with death grief where you my find yourself unble to think clearly or function or ahort term hyper motivated to distract yourselfthe same can happen if not both with sustined daily avoidnce of climate nd inequity grief
It is challenging to honor the descent in a culture that primary values the ascent.
Francis Weller • The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
mindful to share these vulnerable truths only with people you fully trust. As Goethe said, “Tell a wise person, or else keep silent.”
Francis Weller • The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
Psyche, we must remember, was shaped by and is rooted in the foundations of nature. As such, psyche also experiences times of decay and death, of stopping, regression, and being still. Much happens in these times that deepen the soul. When all we are shown is the imagery of ascent, we are left to interpret the times of descent as pathological; we f
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