Hello and Happy Spring, friends!
I wanted to send this out a couple of weeks early so that you have time for some optional preparation work for our next Circle, happening on the **5th** Friday, April 30th, from 6pm - 9+pm. We will be meeting outside, under the roof of the Grant Park picnic shelter for this one. The actual location is Picnic area 5A, 100 E. Hawthorne Avenue, South Milwaukee, WI.
This Circle is going to be a little different than the ones we've had in the past, so I thought I would outline what can be expected. For this Circle, we will do a group drumming, create sacred space, and then do some journeying with the intention suggestion to work with the topic of grief. After that, we will do a grief ceremony for those that would like to stay and do that. This will be one of a few grief ceremonies I'll be facilitating over this next year, so if you can't stay later, you haven't lost your only chance to participate.
As I mentioned, we're meeting outside, in the park, at 6pm. We'll be under an open air structure/picnic shelter which has picnic tables and a concrete floor. The picnic shelter is located up on a shallow hill near the edge of the woods, and there is a large parking area at the bottom of the hill. You'll want to bring along all the warm things that will keep you comfortable. We'll be protected from possible rain, but not from the cold or wind. Bathrooms may not be readily available, but there are businesses relatively nearby, if necessary.
We'll still maintain social distancing, per the latest CDC guidelines for being outdoors. Please bring and wear your mask if you are closer than 6ft from someone you don't already have in your "bubble".
After we do some journeying, we'll spend some time talking about what it means to 'hold space'. (I'm including a link to a really lovely article that Heather Plett wrote years ago about what it means to hold space.) After that, we'll do a grief ceremony for those who would like to participate. Depending on the group's accessibility considerations and the weather, this may manifest as a fire ceremony down by the lake. If not everyone can make the walk down to the beach, then we'll do an earth ceremony in/near the woods near the pavilion. For this part of the evening, I would suggest bringing a blanket or portable chair.
My intention for this grief ceremony is to address our personal and collective grief and trauma from the past year. We've all experienced so much loss of different kinds, and I feel we should honor that through some ceremony work. Please keep in mind that, while I am a ceremonialist, I am not a professional grief counselor. However, I would like for our Circle community to have the opportunity for some kind of safe and sacred space where we can explore our grief for a bit and practice holding space for each other. This work may support professional grief work that you may already be doing with a counselor, if you have that kind of access.
In this ceremony, we will be using a small bundle to represent and acknowledge whatever/whomever it is that we have lost or that has changed (perhaps) irreparably for you. For instance, during this pandemic time, I've had three loved ones die, and none of them had a proper funeral. I am feeling unresolved grief because I feel I haven't been able to experience the traditional way to say good-bye to those people. So, this ceremony will help me feel a bit of closure about their deaths. Perhaps you are grieving the loss of a work career, or the loss of a steady income, or not being able to be social in ways you were used to. There is no greater or lesser losses when it comes to grief, so please don't hesitate to honor whatever grief that you are experiencing. During this ceremony, you are welcome to share and talk about your bundle w/the Circle, but you certainly don't have to share if you are uncomfortable with that. This ceremony work is for you, and are encouraged to do whatever it is that you feel you need to do, while the rest of the Circle holds space for you.
I want to be very clear that this ceremony is not intended to remove our grief, but rather to safely express it in a community-supported manner.
So, if you'd like to participate as fully as possible in this ceremony, I encourage you to begin *now* to create a small bundle that represents who/what you are grieving. This bundle should be something about the size of your hand, made of natural materials only (sticks, leaves, cotton yarn or fabric, etc.). You can decorate or wrap it however you like, but please keep the materials compostable. As you do this work, try to be mindful about it. Take some meditative time to think about who/what that bundle represents as you gather your materials and create your bundle.
If you feel you need to make more than one bundle, that is fine, too. This entire preparation is also part of the ceremony where you can acknowledge and work with your grief in a dedicated time/space manner. Maybe consider keeping your bundle(s) with you over the next couple of weeks leading up to the ceremony. Or perhaps keep your bundle(s) on your personal altar or in your meditative space.
I'll share my example of how I will personally prepare for this ceremony to give you some idea of what this could look like: I'm going to make four bundles, three representing the three people I've lost and one representing all those I don't know who've also died during this pandemic time. While I make the bundles for those I know, I'm going to think about the times we've shared, and also "tell them" about any regrets and/or unresolved issues that I'm still working through as part of my grieving process. I'm going to wish them well on their journeys and fill those bundles with lots of my love, as well as my pain. For the collective deaths bundle, I'm going to set the intention of deep love for each of those that have died and for their families who are suffering from their own losses, too. When I'm done creating the bundles, I'm going to keep them on my ancestor altar until the night we meet in Circle. During the night, when we do our journeywork, I'll continue my intention to work with my grief via the bundles, and maybe even journey to the people who've passed. Then, during the ceremony, I'll give the bundles to the fire (or earth) with the intention that it will provide me with more closure than I have now.
The park officially closes at 10pm, so 9:45pm will be the absolute latest we will spend together in Circle. By then, it may get pretty chilly, so please do try to dress warm if you plan to stay for the whole of it. If you don't have the means for extra clothing to keep warm, please email me, and I'll be sure to bring extra jackets or blankets for you for the evening. And, as usual, there is no cost (donations are appreciated), and folks from all traditions, shamanic or not, are welcome to attend the Circle.
I'm looking forward to seeing you in Circle in Grant Park (Picnic Area 5A) and to collectively honoring our grief through ceremony. Let's all cross our fingers for an unreasonably warm evening!
Peace,
Holly