End-of-Life University Ep. 515 Collective Grief Rituals: Honoring Ancestors and Carrying Light
Learn about the importance of community-based rituals for grief to help us heal the divisions in our society.
In this solo episode I’m sharing some my observation that our society is currently in a massive collective grief spiral, largely due to unaddressed grief from the COVID pandemic as I wrote about in a recent Substack essay. Collective community rituals are needed to help us express and alchemize this grief together. I believe we in the death-positive movement carry a responsibility to help our families, neighbors, and community-members come together in simple ways to acknowledge grief and I invite you to participate in this endeavor.
DOWNLOAD How to Create A Collective Grief Ritual
This episode includes:
- We are in a massive spiral of cultural grief
- What happens when grief is not tended
- Why community grief rituals are important
- What other cultures teach us about collective mourning and remembrance
- How to incorporate grief rituals into other types of deathwork
- Who should take up this challenge to help our society address its unexpressed grief
- Ideas for simple grief rituals and how and when to use them
“May we find ways, each in our own communities, to tend the tears of things, to honor our ancestors, and to carry light together through this dark season of grief.”
Karen Wyatt MD
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Relaunch of What Really Matters Podcast
- Sign up to be notified about Wild and Holy Kickstarter Campaign
- Check out my Substack: Soulcode – where I share essays on AI, grief, shadow work, and spiritual reflection
- View my new Patreon tier for Soul Supporters and receive extra reflections as a special bonus
- NEW Gift Guides for Caregivers, People Receiving Care, and People Who are Grieving
- Get my two newest books!! Stories from the Dark Night and The Tao of Death
- Get EOLU Podcast Merch here
- Conversations on Death with ChatGPT – Audiobook here; Print Book here
- Leave me a message by email: kwyattmd@comcast.net, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
- Support your local bookstore by buying my books on Bookshop and Indiebound: 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying and The Journey from Ego to Souloin the team at Patreon.com/eolu and receive free gifts like the “Mind if we talk about death?” mini-poster or Love Your Life sticker or coffee mug. PLUS get our regular bonuses: the monthly EOL News Update, monthly What to Watch recommendations, Behind the Scenes Bonus content, and automatic access to A Year of Reading Dangerously!
- Buy me a coffee
- Donate on Paypa