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Communal grief rituals are about coming together as a group to be witnessed in our sorrow. By listening to others, we learn to articulate what often feels inexpressible. In this space, we aim to destigmatize grief, metabolize it, and move away from the idea that grief is pathological. This is a chance to co-regulate our nervous systems in the village and be reminded that we are not alone.

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We gather to honor our grief and make space for its many expressions. Together, we will sing, move, pray, and remember our shared humanity through ritual. Our grief tending work will also focus on healing our relationship with the Earth in this time of ecological crisis offering our tears and songs as prayers for reconnection.

Join us as we honor the sacredness of grief and gratitude through talking circles, singing, poetry, movement, sacred listening, ceremony, sharing food, and creative expression. At the heart of our time together, we will engage in a sacred ritual inspired by the work of Sobonfu Some and Malidoma Some of the Dagara people of West Africa.

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Grieving in community is an ancient way of tending to the heart. It gives us a place to reach toward each other for the strength, presence, and courage needed to feel what has long been waiting beneath the surface. In sharing space, our own voices often find shape through hearing others. What once felt unnamable begins to soften and move. Here, grief is treated as something sacred, welcomed and held. Together, we create the conditions for co-regulation, release, and the deep remembering that we belong to something larger than ourselves.

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This space is an invitation to drop into the body, into the breath, into whatever truth lives inside you. Grief may arrive as silence, trembling, song, rage, or tears. It may come as stillness, overwhelm, or a slow, quiet ache. However it shows up, it is welcome. There is room here for all of it.

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Our ritual draws from earth-based ways of knowing guided by drum and song, by the rhythms of nature, and by the unseen presence of ancestors and guides. This is a space of reconnection to soul, to the Earth, and to the ancient human practice of grieving together.

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You can listen to a 1-minute video of Sobonfu Some speak on Grief Recovery and Ritual. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtUqMwRXvhY

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The Five Gates of Grief guided by Francis Weller’s framework, the book - the wild edge of sorrow:

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The First Gate: Everything We Love, We Will Lose

The Second Gate: The Places That Have Not Known Love

The Third Gate: The Sorrows of the World

The Fourth Gate: What We Expected and Did Not Receive

The Fifth Gate: Ancestral Grief

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For more information on communal and private grief work or grief tending rituals, contact Amy Ma @ SolGratitudeVillage@gmail.com