30 Dec Group Grief Ritual
“Tears of Beauty: A Group Ritual for Alchemizing our Grief”
We will begin in sacred circle, setting the container with mutual agreements of respect and privacy for the sensitive nature of what we may choose to share during our time together. We will be calling upon the support of the four elements, fire, air, water, and earth & the four directions, to guide us through our time together as we travel around the Medicine Wheel.
We begin with the air element in the east as we sync our breath together, ground into harmony, & open our voices with a song or two to strengthen the sweetness of our connection with one another and the spirits of our beloved dead we are honoring through this communal ritual. I will explain the flow of our time together and we will anchor in a collective prayer for our ritual and then move into the south with the element of fire.
Here there will be an opportunity for whoever would like to share with their voice with the group the work they are here to do within this ritual container or they can write on a piece of paper what they are ready to transmute and transform around the grief they are carrying and then we will offer it to the sacred fire with some tobacco and cedar. Then we will travel to the west where we will cleanse our bodies in the healing element of water as our tears fall and we sing songs together and offer up our prayers for cleansing and healing.
Finally we will end in the north with the element of earth where we will come together to create a collective mandala as an offering of our gratitude for all that we have loved and lost as a physical representation of the beauty that comes from this deep love. We will co-create the mandala on a large piece of paper with organic materials such as seeds, grains, herbs, stones, sticks, etc and when it is complete we will take some time to reflect upon the lessons and beauty that our grief has gifted us. and have an opportunity to share some reflections and be witnessed here before we sing some more songs to anchor in our gratitude.
Then together, we will wrap up our bundle of prayers within the paper and tie it off with some string and offer it back to the elements. Finally we will close by anchoring in the frequency of Joy through the breath of Joy and come together in circle once more to close with our hands on each other’s hearts as we sing a closing song or ohm.
My highest vision, hope, and prayer is that participants will come away from this ritual container feeling lighter and more anchored in gratitude for the blessings & beauty that their grief has gifted them and possibly with inspiration to host their own version of a grief ritual within their own local communities.
Leticia Leyva will be sharing a Group Grief Ritual.