Its been a journey of late that no words can fully describe and a time that doesn’t follow a map, and I’m learning, day by day, to meet grief in new ways – to not just endure it, but to find a path through its depths. Holding the spaces for it when it comes as a quiet witness through all the raw and tangled landscape of losing loved ones.
This time has been deeply fragile and I have learnt to navigate these thresholds through the making of my earth altars. The flowers, the seeds, the waters and the winged ones have been my witness as I have sat and made endless portals to hold my loved ones through their transitions to the star realm. Holding vigil through the long starlit nights from the summer solstice to the Autumn equinox with the roses,corn,meadowsweet,
“Caution,
There is a silence.
A stillness, deep within.
An absence of patterns,
Where light and shadow blend.
Harken,
To the darkness
Of the void of the Unknown.
Hearing
Total nothingness
That thunders all alone.
Travel in the pulsing of Silent time or space.
The quiet mind brings calmness,
Infinite, eternal grace.
Born inside silence, is the will–to be.
Chaos becoming order. The holiness of life–
The unfolding of Great Mystery.”
My path of “tending the loss” has recently led me to a very dear sister
Danielle Silverwood. Her work is a powerful beacon of support for people moving through their grief.
Danielle will be opening her grief circle on the land here at my home on Dartmoor for an eight month journey. To find out more you can visit her on instagram: @griefvillage
“Through the quiet alchemy of grief, beauty is forged, reminding us that we are sacred being, bound to love. These circles offer a way to continue our relationship with those who have died, to speak their names, to tend to the love that still lives within us. Held in the embrace of nature, this circle invites us to re-wild our grief to surrender to the great rhythms of life and death.”
“Over eight months, we will gather once a month to walk together into the wild, raw, untamed landscapes of ourselves. Each ceremony will hold space for reflection, ritual and connection, conjuring the medicine of what it means to be fully human. Here, our beloved dead are not left behind; they travel with us, like seeds held gently in the fertile soil of our hearts. Come, gather. Bring your grief. Bring your love. Let us tend to the fire of our heartache, together.”
We will be tending this journey with care and weaving the spirit of the earth altars on the banks of the beautiful Teign valley with the trees as our teachers, the forest as our classroom,the river as our guide. With the Tipi to hold us and the fire to send our prayers skyward.
