Enter the Healing Ground: 3-Day Grief Ritual

Friday, August 30 – Sunday, September 1, 2024 in Salt Lake City, Utah
with Erin Geesaman Rabke, Carl Rabke, Alexandre Jodun, and Holly Truhlar

You’re warmly invited to join us for a powerful weekend grief ritual; a gathering of courageous, tender-hearted people co-creating a sacred space where sorrow is welcomed and brought to our communal altar. We’ll be making beauty and birthing profound compassion, together. 

We’ll offer a generous welcome for grief and sorrow without forcing it, without anyone attempting to fix you or tell you to rise above. Let us enter a holy ground where you can let yourself fall down and weep. You can honor the weight that makes your chest, guts, jaw, and heart clench. You can let go and offer your tears to the Dreaming Earth and community. It’s a gift to know you’re not alone in this very heavy, very humbling, and very human experience of grief. Join us for a transformative weekend in a “sudden village” of grief kin.

We will gather at a private location in Salt Lake City, Utah over Labor Day Weekend.

Friday, August 30, 5:00pm-8:30pm
Saturday, August 31 10:00am-6:00pm
Sunday, September 1, 10:00am-4:00pm

The cost for the weekend workshop and ritual is $595.00 USD. This includes facilitation and venue access. This does not include lodging or meals. Participants are asked to arrange their lodging and meals after applying and being invited to register.

Space is limited to 40 participants.
This ritual is full.

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Once we review and accept your application we will send a link where you can register and thus reserve your spot. We are accepting applications on a first come first serve basis, while taking diversity into account. When payment and registration are completed, you’ll receive all you need to know, including details on the location, what to bring, and how to prepare.

Our time together will include: authentic conversation and compassionate listening ~ abundant soulful poetry and song ~ potent grounding practices to help us find deep support as we unwind and soften the bracing in our bodies ~ quiet time indoors and outside ~ the creation of two beautiful shrines and an altar ~ micro-rituals of guided writing practices that include an opportunity to share and witness in small groups ~ gentle somatic movement practices ~ and will culminate in a powerful community grief ritual.

Space is limited to 40 participants.
This ritual is full.

•••

Please know that it’s a come-as-you-are gathering with no pressure as to how you express grief or not. Grief does not show up on demand. You may weep, you may be a quiet witness to others, you may be numb, you may be full of outrage, you may be surprised. However you come, your presence is a valued thread in our community tapestry and will be met with respect and never with unsolicited advice. All that’s required is your humanity and your willingness to be present and to bear witness with compassion.

Whether you are actively grieving, tearful, outraged, numb, awkward, or full of trepidation, you are welcome just as you are. To have your grief held and witnessed in a compassionate, listening circle is a gift. To witness the grief others carry, with empathy, is a gift.  It’s no longer “MY grief.”  It’s just grief and is something each of us, all of us carry. It is the holy ground of compassion. And we are not alone. 

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We strongly encourage you to plan on arriving at least 15 minutes early to each session to park and to settle into your space in the room so we can begin each session right on time. Thank you for leaving plenty of buffer time and for supporting the whole group in making the most of our brief time together. On that note, we heartfully invite you to refrain from making any plans other than the workshop and ritual over the weekend. We strongly suggest leaving yourself time to rest and digest, including personal down-time on the Monday morning after the ritual if possible in your schedule. We predict you’ll be glad to protect a sense of spaciousness around our time together. 

On Saturday and Sunday, we will be pausing midday for a lunch break. 

We will be participating in an ancestor ritual on either Friday evening or Saturday morning. Please bring photos and/or other objects that speak to those you relate to as ancestors. This could include direct lineage ancestors, places that informed and held you in your life, and/or persons who inspired and nourished your calling. We will be asking for their support for the work we are doing as well as offering our support to those who have come before and to those yet to come. This brings us close to the timeless dimension of the sacred.

Please also plan to bring any items you’d like to include on our grief shrine on Sunday. Photos, stones, flowers, art, and any meaningful objects which either represent a thread of grief you carry or objects that support you to welcome grief – all are welcome on the shrines. We hope to make our central shrine, the ancestors’ shrine, and the grief shrine lavish with abundant beauty. 

We invite you to bring a journal and pen for our writing micro-rituals, a reusable travel mug or water bottle for liquids, and whatever you might need or want to be comfortable. The venue has chairs, cushions, backjacks, and more. We are happy to provide tissues for tears, though you may wish to bring a reusable handkerchief or two if you like. 

If you have any questions or need information on any details we’ve missed here, don’t hesitate to ask: SoulfulGriefTending@gmail.com. 

Looking forward to this sacred soul space,
Erin, Holly, Carl & Alexandre

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