There is an ancient truth this life-destroying culture has forgotten: our grief and our gratitude are sisters. One cannot move without the other. Both sisters are necessary for the nurturing and honoring of Life. And yet, for so many generations, our grieving sister has been locked out of the feasting hall—exiled to the edges of our knowing, she haunts our somas as symptom, whispering to us of our wildness, keening to us in our dreams.
On Black Friday, we will gather to welcome the movement of grief through our bodies and imaginations, honoring all her textures of sorrow, rage, fear, and numbness. Friday evening can be experienced as its own journey into the territory of grief, through a somatic exploration of Francis Weller's five gates of grief and a communal ritual inspired by the Work that Reconnects. People who are new to communal explorations of grief are especially welcome to attend Friday as a self-contained event as we will be laying a groundwork for future practice. 
On Saturday afternoon, we will continue the weaving of our village, witnessing each other as we grow trust. The second day of the immersion will honor the sequential unfolding of the work, building upon the ground we created by moving deeper into soma, alchemy, imagination, and ritual. Our immersion will culminate with a grief ritual to alchemize our emotion into expressions medicinal for culture.*
*Because of the deep dive nature of Saturday, those who those who wish to come on Saturday must also attend Friday evening.
Facilitated by Shante' Sojourn Zenith + Heather Sage

ABOUT THE FACILITATORS

We express our gratitude to grief-tending elders Francis Weller, Laurence Cole, Azul Valerie Thomé and Joanna Macy for opening the portal that invited us into our own apprenticeship with Earth Grief. We honor the many threads of grief ritual woven through the indigenous and traditional cultures of this Earth, especially acknowledging the Dagara people of Burkina Faso, who sent medicine people Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé to share grief rituals with people of European lineage as an antidote to emotional numbness and ecological destruction.
SHANTE' SOJOURN ZENITH  @ www.earthpoetedgeweaver.com
Shante’ Sojourn Zenith is an Earth Poet and Edge Weaver. She recently completed an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College with a focus on ecological healing, grief-tending, embodied expression, and the poetic imagination. During her studies at Goddard, Shante’ travelled to Schumacher College in England to study deep ecology, decolonization, ritual, and myth. Shante’ has participated in grief-tending workshops led by Francis Weller and attended a grief ritual facilitation training led by Azul Valerie Thomé to learn to facilitate Grief Composting Circles. She is currently training to become a Soul-Based Coach, studying Joanna Macy's Work that Reconnects as a member of the 2019 Earth Leadership Cohort, and is continuing her studies at Goddard through an Individualized Masters program in Social Innovation and Sustainability with an Embodiment Studies Concentration.

​Shante' honors her ancestors from Romania, Ukraine, England, Germany and Sweden, and witnesses that she is living on the occupied lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples. 
HEATHER SAGE  @  www.instagram.com/aptusalchemy
​Heather Sage is an alchemist and deep adaptation guide who believes that in this time of potent planetary and humxn transformation, we are each being called to adapt—in deep and emergent ways—to radical changes. Connection to earth, eros, embodiment, and community strengthens the ground from which we evolve, and resources us through underworld journeys and the real work and art of healing. Heather’s offerings are sourced from these wells. She is a certified Functional Herbalist who weaves an ecstatic love of evolutionary astrology with the rich science and intuitive art of herbalism in her Astro-Herbal readings and medicines. Through her creative umbrella Aptus Alchemy, Heather creates medicines, rituals, and embodiment experiences to nourish and support these transformations, guided by careful listening to plants, soma, and planetary movements.

Heather honors her ancestors from Norway, Poland, Germany, and Wales, and witnesses that she is living on the occupied lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples.