Saturday 10 th May, part of the Demystifying Death Festival

This activity is open to the public and made possible by donations that pay forward.

For the morning session we’ll be in the garden; around the fire for check-ins. We’ll give our presence and attention to any and all layers of grief that arise in the day. To help us frame our scope, we’ll use the ‘Five Gates of Grief’ that Francis Weller describes in his book ‘The Wild Edge of Sorrow’ –  Francis Weller on Grief (2013) You don’t need to have read the book.

It started when I looked into my resistance to grief and felt that other emotions like anger; forgiveness I struggled with too. I discovered others did too when we sat in a ritual safe space. I learnt that our ancestor and indigenous people regularly visited grief for the health of the village and its ancestors. I read Francis Weller book and it gave me a framework and a depth to holding my grief and in setting up community spaces to hold our grief collectively. We do this as volunteers and regularly attend our grief and I judge that all who arrive in these spaces, myself included, leave feeling better for sharing and witnessing. It is like this quote from a book I recently read – “When the waters of grief are able to flow and reshape the landscape of our hearts, the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation often arises naturally from the tender space of well-grieved losses”.

I have found that anger is often the gateway emotion to grief, and under this is acceptance and forgiveness, deeper still, grief is a gateway to gratitude.

What to bring:

– Suitable clothing for being outside for two & half hours during the morning
-An object or picture that for you has connection with grief

Facilitators

Douglas Guest has over 30 years’ experience of working in the public and 3 rd  sector, and has been running men’s groups and grief tending in community events for several years. He has led on seminars and conferences in an number of fields, written national training programmes, and co-created Year of the Dad for Scottish Government.

Maeve Butler works in psychotherapies and third level education. She has been connected with the Salisbury Centre since 2012, and has been engaged with various forms of grief work since 2019, including Grief Tending in Community. Robin Botley is an experienced facilitator and Elder with the Mankind Project community in Ireland. He currently supports a small team hosting small groups at the Song House retreat centre in Falcarragh, Donegal. My soul seeks every opportunity to share and be with Grief circles.

For more information and/or to book your place, email [email protected].