Tending Our Grief & Honoring the Ancestors: A Workshop

Join us for an intimate evening as we sink into Samhain season, a time of waning light and connecting with the nourishment of the dark…

Sunday, November 3rd

6-9pm 

Portland School of Astrology 

2110 NE 45th Ave. Portland 97213

*** Space is limited - register in advance! ***

Fall is a season of slowing down and turning inward, and is a perfect time to gather in community to tend to our grief and care for our hearts. 

In this workshop, co-facilitators Abigail Singer and Leighann Franson will integrate Earth-based ritual and the Work That Reconnects, a group process framework that honors our grief for the world and reconnects us to the web of life. The Work That Reconnects is a set of practices that reveals how our grief, anger and fear are all healthy responses to a world in crisis and a sign of our fierce love for the world.

Samhain, a Pagan holiday that officially begins the night of October 31st, marks the end of harvest season and the descent into the darker, colder half of the year. The veils separating our world from the worlds of spirit are considered to be at their thinnest this time of year, making Samhain and related holidays like Dia de los Muertos and All Souls Day a traditional and potent time to honor the dead and connect with the ancestors. On Samhain, we honor and grieve for those we’ve lost over the past year, as well as other loved ones who have crossed over. 

Samhain is also the Witches New Year, a time to reflect on the last year, release what we’re ready to let go of, and set intentions for the year ahead. 

Join us on Sunday, November 3rd as we walk through the Samhain gate together. Aligning ourselves with the energies of the season, we will utilize a set of practices—including ritual, writing and interactive work—to move through our grief, honor the ancestors, and step into a new year. 

We will strive to make this an inclusive, empowering and anti-oppressive space. Folks of all spiritual traditions and inclinations encouraged to participate. No previous experience necessary. All ages, genders, ethnicities and abilities are welcome. 

Accessibility: Portland School of Astrology is located at 2110 NE 45th Ave. near bus lines 12, 75 and the Hollywood Transit Center. The space has a few stairs down as you enter; bathroom is unfortunately not ADA accessible. Some essential oils are used in the space but will not be used during this workshop.

Cost: sliding scale $20-40, with a suggested contribution of $30. After covering the cost of space rental, half of all proceeds will be donated to the Indigenous Environmental Network. No one turned away for lack of funds - please get in touch if this sliding scale is a barrier for you.

*** Space is limited - registration in advance is required. ***

To register, fill out this short registration form and send $20-40 via paypal to tendingtheweb@gmail.com.

Season of Metal

Fall is the season of letting go. Of making decisions about what will be harvested, what will be cut back, what will live and what will die. All around us, leaves fall to the Earth to break apart, rot, and get composted into something new. Plants die back, sending their energy down into their roots to go underground for the winter. The sun glides lower across the sky, casting longer shadows with the precious light of the last sunny days.

Today is the Fall Equinox — when light and dark are in balance. We find ourselves at a tipping point, when the length of the day is equal to the length of the night. From here on out, the light wanes a little bit more each day as we shift into the dark half of the year: a time of rest, transformation, and connecting with mystery. This point in between light and dark is a ripe time for reflection:

What have we been cultivating during the solar-fueled growing season?

What resources can we draw on to sustain us into the winter months?

Where do we find balance?

In Chinese medicine, fall is the season of metal, an element associated with the lungs and with grief. As the days get shorter, we may feel the pull of the season turning us inward. We may also experience grief, sadness, or constriction — all metal qualities.

When we find ourselves in a place of constriction, it is important to keep moving, keep feeling. Our energy can stagnate when we don’t fully allow ourselves to be with what’s happening, to feel our feelings and give them space to move.

Right now is a great time to slow down and notice what changes the season is bringing. Fall invites us to let go of what’s holding us back or dragging us down, and make conscious choices about saying yes or saying no. It’s a time of refining, of simplifying. What is most important? What needs tending? How can we create more balance in our lives, in our relationships, in the world, in our city?

We may want to carve out more time for rest; we may gather with community to celebrate the harvest, and share the bounty with folks who have less access to resources. If we broaden our lens, balance is not just something to attain in our own lives — it’s something we move toward together. We are all constantly influencing and impacting each other, part of a vast living system seeking homeostasis. How can we, collectively, through our millions of daily acts, help move this system toward greater balance, toward restoration, toward justice?

Welcoming the Light

RELEASE TO EXPAND

A Summer Solstice Workshop + Ritual

Wednesday, June 19th

6-9pm in se portland

Dinner provided

Summer solstice is a time of expansion, abundance, and reveling in the light of the sun. Are you ready? It may be hard to fully step into the expansiveness of summer if we’re holding onto grief, pain, unhelpful stories or other things that need releasing. This high holiday is a great time to clear out what we’re ready to let go of, and set our intentions to make the most of the solar-fueled growing season.

What is weighing on your heart?

What are you cultivating?

What are you ready to expand into?

This workshop will utilize ritual, plant allies, crafting, and the power of intention-setting to release what is no longer serving us and step into the abundance of summer! The flow for the evening will loosely follow the spiral of the Work That Reconnects, a framework for honoring and moving through our pain in order to be more grounded, connected and engaged. We will also have fun!

LOCATION: The workshop will take place at a house in Portland’s Foster-Powell neighborhood; address will be provided upon registration.

FOOD: A simple dinner will be provided with vegan, vegetarian and GF options.

ACCESSIBILITY: Weather-permitting, the workshop will take place outside. Location is accessible via bus #9. Bathrooms on site are unfortunately not ADA accessible.

COST/EXCHANGE: Sliding scale $20-30. Work-trade is available – inquire if interested!

REGISTER IN ADVANCE and save your spot by sending your payment via paypal to tendingtheweb@gmail.com. Space is limited - register soon!

Half of all proceeds will be donated to the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Grief, love and the anthropocene

In her book The Sixth Extinction, An Unnatural History, author Elizabeth Kolbert compares the time we are now living in to the Earth’s other mass extinction events. She summarizes the peer reviewed science and estimates that flora and fauna loss by the end of the 21st century will be between 20% to 50% of all living species on earth.

Notice, what happens in your body as you take in this information? What happens with your breath, your mind, your heart? We live and breathe this destruction every day, but we often avoid delving too deeply into the topic of loss because we’re focused on the day-to-day tasks in front of us, or we don’t have the mental/emotional bandwidth, or perhaps we’re afraid the weight of this loss will be too much to bear.

Grief can take many forms. We grieve for loved ones we lose — parents, partners, friends, animal companions. We might grieve for the end of a life phase, the end of a relationship, or the loss of an ability. We may grieve for a forest that’s been clearcut, for a language that’s going extinct, for victims of violence or the ocean life poisoned in an oil spill. Terms like “ecological grief” and “climate grief” point to a collective grief for everything we’re losing right now, and everything we stand to lose. We all carry a piece of this larger, shared grief for the state of the world.

In The Smell of Rain on Dust, author Martin Prechtel writes about the importance of honoring the dead and the practice of grieving as being essential to the integrity of the soul. If we love, we must also grieve — they are two sides of the same coin. To be connected with the world around us means also connecting with the pain of the world. Feeling and processing our grief for the world is a way of honoring the beings, places, cultures and ecosystems that are being lost. It’s also deeply healing, and foundational to our ability to remain engaged in the present moment. In this way, grief is revolutionary.

I’m interested in how we humans can develop our capacity to grieve, not only for people close to us but for other beings we’re connected to through the web of life — ecosystems we may or may not know personally, watersheds threatened by fracking, low-elevation coastal communities. Much is being lost, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Yet if we allow our inner responses to the state of the world to surface, if we sit with the experience and let it move through us and change us, we inevitably come out on the other side as more connected, compassionate people.

Whether consciously or not, we all feel some grief for the state of the world, for oppression, exploitation, climate change and the unraveling of our ecological fabric. When we speak this grief out loud and share our process with others, we give our grief a place to move. This works wonders for our mental, emotional and physical health. And collectively, it can help us mount an appropriate response to the crises we face.

Toward this end, I facilitate group process work that honors the grief we feel for the Earth and our fellow beings. This work is grounded in gratitude and connection. Would you like to join me? You can read more about my work here and sign up for my (very low-traffic) mailing list to be updated about future workshops and events.

My next public workshop will be Saturday, March 16th at the Eliot Center, part of the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland. Read more details and reserve your spot here.

Thanks for reading <3