Grief-Speak: 4-Week Grief Circle on Family & Ancestry

“This is the grief we carry in our bodies from sorrows experienced by our ancestors. . . . Tending this undigested grief of our ancestors not only frees us to live our own lives but also eases ancestral suffering in the other world.” - Francis Weller

Grief-speak ~ an experiential journey exploring the tender terrain of familial and ancestral grief. 

No matter where we come from, we all carry various experiences of our family and ancestry within our bones. Each and every one of us has inherited both blessings and burdens from our lineages. However, for most of us who live in dominant Western cultures around the world, there is a common experience of feeling severed from our cultural roots and ancestors. This, in itself, is a profound grief that, when left unexplored and untended, diminishes our capacity to live life with a strong sense of aliveness, connection, and cosmological understanding of our rightful place within our lives and the world at large. This heavily impacts our relationships in detrimental ways, as well as the health of future generations, often repeating the suffering of those who came before us in unintended ways. As Winston Churchill once wrote, "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” In this way, feeling, acknowledging, and expressing our grief in an attuned and warm-hearted communal space can be a profound way to transform suffering and embody our understanding of the past, present, and future - shaping new pathways for liberation. 

Thus, the practice of grieving is necessary now: not just for our own sake, but for the healing and wholeness of our lineages, and the soul of the world. Our courage to enter into the waters of untended grief and loss, and engage with humble hearts, has the power to bring meaningful change to our lives and to those we love most. 

 

We invite you to remember grief back into the fabric of your existence. We welcome you to enter into a sacred conversation with sorrow and loss, a dialogue that is deeper than words, that can unfold in its own timing and pace - expressed in its own authentic way. If you are feeling called to enter the holy terrain of grief, this container will provide you with the ground to turn toward what matters most. 

In this offering, we will facilitate a healing space to contain the layers of the grief and loss that you're carrying around your family and your ancestral roots, and we will offer sacred witnessing of your process, compassionately holding your particular way of becoming intimate with grief.

During this gathering, we will come together as a community of grief-tenders, and we will create ritual space for the grief we are carrying from our ancestral lineages, including the sorrow of our family-of-origin systems. As facilitators, we will lay the ground for your grief to emerge as it is, without needing to be changed. We will hold space for grief to be metabolized, individually and as a group, in whatever ways are authentic to the moment.  

Each week we will be exploring a different theme to support the unfolding and expression of your grief, and this will entail a soulful discussion on the topic, embodied practices, experiential and intimate group work, and support for integration and elaboration in the space in between classes.

You can anticipate embodiment and soulful practices, poetry and story, writing exercises, movement and creative expression, ancestral altar/shrine work, offerings practices, plant-bath prescriptions, music and sound, sharing circles and partner connection, and silence - all held within a ceremonial container.

WHEN: 

• Session 1 (Saturday, February 3rd, 2024) - Heart - Opening to Grief & Loss
• Session 2 (Saturday, February 10th, 2024) - Bones - Exploring Familial Grief & Loss
• Session 3 (Saturday, February 17th, 2024) - Roots - Expanding on Ancestral Grief & Loss
• Session 4 (Saturday, March 2nd, 2024) - Remembering - Practicing Gratitude & Closing

All of our gatherings will be held from 5PM-7:30PM (Peru / Eastern Timezone) / 2PM-4:30PM (Pacific Timezone). If you're joining us from a different location around the globe, here is a timezone converter to convert Cuzco, Peru time to your local time: click here to access. 

Due to the nature of this offering, this gathering is best experienced live, and thus we encourage you to register if you anticipate that you can participate in all 4 x gatherings (unless in case of emergency, of course). If this is not possible and you would still like to join, the sessions will be recorded. 

YOUR INVESTMENT: 

Full price: USD$270 

This is a BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ aware space and we welcome folks from diverse life experiences, cultural backgrounds, ethnic origins, sexual preferences, and gender identifications. If you come from a marginalized background or are financially underprivileged, and are committed to engaging in this deep work but cannot afford the full price, we have a discounted rate available upon request (please email contact@ahealingbridge.com). 

Note: All prices are non-refundable (with exceptions). 

Disclaimer: As we are engaging in emergent ritual and ceremonial work, the content for this offering may change or be adapted depending on the circumstances and needs of the group container. We appreciate your understanding and openness to move with the process of this container. 

YOUR FACILITATORS: 

Alyona and Alexandre are a married couple and they are the co-founders of A Healing Bridge. They are passionate about facilitating the sacred work of grief together and are humbled and heartened to grow this global community of grief-tenders. For more information on their body of work, please visit their bios (here for Alyona, and here for Alexandre).