The Wild Edge Of Sorrow: Rituals Of Renewal And The Sacred Work Of Grief Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in this lyrical yet practical handbook for mastering the art of grieving. Describing how Western patterns of amnesia and anesthesia affect our capacity to cope with personal and collective sorrows, Weller reveals the new vitality we may encounter when we welcome, rather than fear, the pain of loss. Through moving personal stories, poetry, and insightful reflections he leads us into the central energy of sorrow, and to the profound healing and heightened communion with each other and our planet that reside alongside it.The Wild Edge of Sorrow explains that grief has always been communal and illustrates how we need the healing touch of others, an atmosphere of compassion, and the comfort of ritual in order to fully metabolize our grief. Weller describes how we often hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in a secret mantle of shame. This causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, weighing us down and pulling us into the territory of depression and death. We have come to fear grief and feel too alone to face an encounter with the powerful energies of sorrow. Those who work with people in grief, who have experienced the loss of a loved one, who mourn the ongoing destruction of our planet, or who suffer the accumulated traumas of a lifetime will appreciate the discussion of obstacles to successful grief work such as privatized pain, lack of communal rituals, a pervasive feeling of fear, and a culturally restrictive range of emotion. Weller highlights the intimate bond between grief and gratitude, sorrow and intimacy. In addition to showing us that the greatest gifts are often hidden in the things we avoid, he offers powerful tools and rituals and a list of resources to help us transform grief into a force that allows us to live and love more fully.
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: North Atlantic Books (September 15, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1583949763
ISBN-13: 978-1583949764
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #21,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #40 in Books > Self-Help > Relationships > Love & Loss #43 in Books > Self-Help > Death & Grief > Grief & Bereavement #120 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age & Spirituality > Mental & Spiritual Healing
I am a bereaved Mom, having tragically and unexpectedly lost my 23 month old son Hunter about 4 years ago. I have read A LOT of books on grief, dying, sorrow and loss, and The Wild Edge of Sorrow is among the best of the best. Weller's language is poetic, and his offering is really quite unique. He touches on all the many ways we all carry grief, with most of our grief and sorrow deemed unacceptable or unworthy by our society...and the ramifications of these dismissals....and why we need to change....In Chapter 2 he references a retreat he held where there was a grief shrine and ritual, I was touched so deeply at my core by the description I wept and wept, for I had always hoped something like this existed - a place and a community where I could express my broken heart, wailing and weeping with wild abandon from that place inside that is drowning in sadness, but nonetheless remains mostly muffled....This man is doing amazing work! We need to honor our grief, every single one of us. Please read this book and heed its call.
Francis Weller's new book leaves me even more speechless than his first (Entering the Healing Ground). This book is truly a meditation book that reaches deep into my soul and often leaves me in tears. It is a gift to all who read it and those who do read it will see themselves in every page and in each poetic sentenceIt is clear to me that Francis Weller is playing an essential role in the larger healing of our planet. How grateful I am for his acceptance of this gift and role. In addition to the meditative and poetic writing, it just makes so much sense. As a people we have allowed fear and denial and our "need" to fit in and be like everyone else.. to fog our vision. This book lifts that fog and educates as it leads the reader to see themselves (their joy and grief) so much more clearly.I can't recommend this book enough to every person. As a bereavement counselor and a bereaved woman who recently lost my husband, I have read more books and articles on grief than I can count. This easily stands out as the very best.
The wisdom of grieving is unknown in our society. With our unending focus on moving forward, improving ourselves, and the social addiction to appearing competent and in control, we have lost the sacred role that grieving plays in weaving our world back together. Francis Weller is a brilliant and heartfelt guide in how we can enter the healing ground of sorrow so that new life can be brought into the world. At a time when we are all suffering silently under the weight of immense sorrows: our own, our family's, the sorrow of a devastated environment and destroyed cultures, Francis takes on the endeavor of teaching us how to be healers through the skill of grieving. This book will be a testament to a major shift in our consciousness that must happen if we are to survive as a species. We are not islands into ourselves. When one of us is ill we are all ill. Through the gateways of grief we find our unity once more, and we begin creating a world that embraces all life. This is soul activism. It is sacred work.
The Wild Edge of Sorrow is poetic and soulful while also pragmatic in its message. As a professional in the field of grief support, Francis Weller has left me revitalized and re-affirmed in my work and ready to offer deeper practices to support others and myself. And as a lover of soulful prose, his words have fed my soul and left me deeply touched. He offers a refreshing perspective that beckons us to re-awaken and re-engage with our soul – both our own soul and the world’s soul – through practices of grief, sorrow and joy. This book invites us to be guided back in to right relationship with ourselves, each-other and our natural environment amid a consumer-society intent on numbing out and forgetting what is important to living vital and meaningful lives. Through personal and professional accounts, therapeutic concepts and tangible exercises, this book is both a cornerstone for any helping professional and a resource for any reader to start their own sacred work through grief and self-awareness, while also extending the invitation to their wider community. A must-read for anyone heeding the call to help heal our world. I look forward to reading it again!
I first became aware of Francis Weller's writing in a magazine interview that a friend gave me. I was very impressed by his idea that life is a constant balancing of grief and gratitude, both responses often existing at the same time. Weller, a psychotherapist, is also very much interested societies structure rituals to halp us integrate grieving into our lives. This book is more concerned with the presence of rituals; the grief and gratitude balance or imbalance is mentioned but not really elaborated. It's an important book, though I was personally hoping for more discussion of the underlying existential paradox.
A work that goes deep into the essence and experience of grieving. The author clearly has experienced what he has written, and is qualified to "talk the walk". I found this book to be very helpful in moving through my own grief experience of the passing of my most dear wife.
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